PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS Erasmus Project

Project Title

PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The primeTECH project Promoting Technology Enhanced Teaching in Primary Schools addresses the need identified at the European level for improving teaching skills by increasing digital competence and the use of ICTs. Pupils tend to be more inclined to use ICTs than teachers, and increasing teachers’ skills to incorporate the use of ICTs in their teaching methods can consequently animate pupils for their school career. According to statistical data available at the EU level, many teachers wish to learn about ICTs for teaching and dedicate significant private time to pursue this aim.

primeTECH aims at providing a unified training program for primary school teachers which fulfils the following requirements:
.) To develop training materials and an appealing learning platform for primary school teachers which contain substantial information useful for the handling of ICTs in the teaching context both at basic and advances levels
.) To implement a mechanism which allows teachers to identify their starting point for the training based on their previous experience and skills
.) To concentrate access to the many sources already available for teachers and convey criteria to teachers how to select what is most appropriate for them
.) To support teachers to find their own way to include ICTs progressively in their teaching activities and to evaluate their own progress
.) To provide a structure of automatized assessments and tests that allows teachers to document and certify their skills and knowledge in a comprehensible way; and
.) To offer easily accessible training tools for teachers in their mother tongues, especially in those languages where little information on ICTs is available.

The primeTECH consortium consists of six partners:
.) A&A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd: this private institution in Nicosia is accredited by the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture as an educational and vocational centre specialised in the field of ICTs
.) Biedriba Eurofortis is a Czech-Latvia non-governmental organization based in Riga dedicated to training and personal and professional competency development in the area of education
.) edEUcation ltd is a consultancy based in Richmond, UK, working with schools, youth groups and training organizations in order to improve schools and teaching activities
.) National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” in Athens is the largest multidisciplinary research centre in Greece and specialised in the field of informatics and telecommunication as well as other sciences with experiences and competency in the areas of developing e-services and e-tools
.) Scoala Primara EuroEd: this school in Iaşi, Romania, promotes a European dimension of education and encourages multiculturalism and multilingualism
.) the Institut für Didaktik der Demokratie (IDD) at the Leibniz University of Hannover is specialised in civic education in formal and non-formal educational settings and coordinating this project
A consortium partners participate in a variety of EU funded projects dedicated to improving teaching and learning processes.

Based on their analysis of already existing relevant reports about the use of ICTs in schools and the needs for ICT training activities for primary school teachers in the involved countries (IO1), the primeTECH project partners collected data among teachers in order to identify their specific needs with regard to ICT trainings (IO2). Based on the analysis of these results, the consortium structured the required content in five modules with three levels of difficulties each. These modules are: Safety and Internet Security, Information and Data Literacy, Communication and Collaboration, Digital Content Creation and Problem Solving in Pedagogy. The consortium then developed a procedure for the assessment of the ICT skills of the trainees (IO3), training materials (IO5), an e-platform programmed specifically for the target group (IO4), a system of testing and a corresponding granting of Mochila compatible electronic badges and certificates (IO3), and instructions with case studies for the implementation of ICT trainings for teachers in different settings (IO6).
The study materials on the platform as well as the assessment procedures and tests have been translated into the languages of the partners of the consortium. They have also been adapted to the national context when appropriate.
Training sessions with teachers and multipliers as well as a series of activities to spread the platform have taken place in all the partner countries. The feedback obtained was overall positive, and teachers felt inspired to increase the use of ICTs in their teaching activities .
The primeTECH platform can be reached at http://primetech.iit.demokritos.gr/ and will be online for five years. Any person interested in broadening her or his knowledge about ICTs for educational purposes can register for free and engage in an interesting voyage through the courses.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 162406,78 Eur

Project Coordinator

GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER & Country: DE

Project Partners

• NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “DEMOKRITOS”
• BIEDRIBA EUROFORTIS
• Scoala Primara EuroEd
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• edEUcation ltd