Smart phones for smarter students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Smart phones for smarter students

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

“Smart phones for smarter students” was a European project in which five partners from Austria, Germany, Portugal, Romania and Spain participated. The project focused on the development of the didactic and methodical techniques concerning the use of personal devices such as smart phones at school. Another important issue was the promotion of gender and social equality. So we paid attention to include students of all genders and additionally we supported students from economically disadvantaged social groups. Further important aspects were the improvements of English language skills.

Main objectives were:
– Promoting dialogue, respect, participation, knowledge and decisions taken among countries in the European Union
– Greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethic, linguistic and cultural diversity
– Striving for an appropriate, safe and responsible use of technical devices on the internet.
– Learning to work together and to share information with other educational institutions
– Developing collaborative learning strategies and entrepreneurship among students and teachers
– Increasing competence in English as a common language in the European Union
– Increasing the level of digital competence

Most participating schools had been experienced in terms of European projects except Romania that took part for the first time. What all participatig countries had in common was the need to continue developing values represented by the European Union in a multicultural context, paying special attention to the mutual exchange of experience and information on the internet.
The platform “Twinspace” provided by e-Twinning was essential in order to develop common activities and share the results of our project. Furthermore it was the base of the development of one of our most important results: a planned app providing easier access to Twinspace. The reason for developing such an app was the wish and necessity to use chatrooms, e-mails and forums, as well as providing a collaborative space in which the results made in the development in the project could be made accessible to all the schools involved.
The students directly involved in the project were from 14-16 years old. They took part in the students exchanges, which helped them to understand different cultural values and habits in families and the school they visited.
The expected results involved some development in the education of ICT especially under the aspect of the European movement of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). All the students had their own mobile phones and in our project they learned how to use it in smart, profitable and appropriate ways in their school career. Another important issue concerning BYOD is to provide schools with less financial means with the possiblity to give their students the chance to compete in the field of ICT.
The students involved took profit from the opportunities of using English as a vehicle for communication in realistic settings outside the ordinary classroom. They were highly motivated due to the chance the project gave them to keep in touch with young people from different countries.
As for the teachers, they had the opportunity of establishing professional networks and sharing ideas, experience and know-how with teachers from other educational systems.
The dissemination of the project results had a long-lasting impact upon the partners since the educational materials have been open and accesible to other students and teachers.

Project Website

http://Smart.eLearningCluster.at

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119560,93 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Winsen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Colegiul National “Mihai Eminescu”
• BG/BRG Feldkirch
• INSTITUTO DE EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA PLAYA DE ARINAGA
• Escola Básica e Secundária de Machico