Crossroads with the future: digital technology and education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Crossroads with the future: digital technology and education

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The importance of new technologies for educational practices is unquestionable, let alone the educational benefits of its application. Considerable amounts of digital tools are offered, presented and tested in schools every year. However, teachers and students have seldom the opportunity to reflect over the effectiveness and learning impact of these tools. Moreover, the time-frame between presentation-implementation-new presentations-new implementations is often so short that one has not enough time to evaluate the pedagogical and didactic convenience of a given tool. Thus, teachers and pupils can easily find themselves as mere passive receivers: end-users. Together with the constant and vast stream of digital solutions that teachers and pupils are exposed to, little or none pedagogical and didactic reflection follows. Furthermore, scholars researching digital tools for educational purposes often mention the insufficient pedagogical background and test ground of the different digital tools to be applied in education (Jelstad 2015 quoting Professor Magnus H. Sandberg: “Technology and teaching”, Utdanning nr. 17, October 16th, 2015: Oslo). “Crossroads with the future: digital technology and education” is an international project which has had as its main goal to deepen the expertise and knowledge of integrating new technologies to existing educational practices. The project aimed to exchange practices for the implementation of new technologies in education. Hence, it intented to generate an arena where schools, teachers and pupils could apply new technologies in a critical and reflective way. The project was formed by a partnership of five European upper secondary schools (Belgium, England, Iceland, Norway and Spain) which are currently embarked in a full scale implementation of digital tools to their educational practices. Specific working areas were defined for the partners in the project. Heilig-Harthandelsinstituut Waregem, Belgium, guided the partner schools into the exploration of “gamification” as a learning and teaching tool. Experience, expertise, and a thriving developer environment determined the solvent background of this choice. Sykkylven vgs, from Norway, introduced Kikora, a multilingual learning platform for Mathematics. In addition to this, the school contributed with expertise on the pedagogical background of the most used digital tools for education. Close links to external partners such as the Norwegian Maritim Competence Center strengthened the synergies generated by the project even further. San Fermín Ikastola, from Navarra, Spain, shared its experience and knowledge utilizing digital tools for the teaching of core subjects like Language and Social Sciences. This Navarran school is currently part of a vanguard attempt (the EKI project) for the replacement of all traditional learning tools with digital ones. In addition the this program San Fermín Ikastola managed to integrate succesfully the University of Navarra in Pamplona to several activities. The St. Margarets school Bushey in England and Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti, in Iceland, introduced free/open software solutions to the partner schools. Both institutes are in the middle of a full scale digitalization program and it will contribute with expertise in managing and implementing the necessary changes for it. “Crossroads with the future” has been a three year, full time, project targeting pupils of 15-18 years old and their teachers. Many of the project activities took place during the transnational school visits. However, the project was conceived to be a part of the normal academic year as well, ensuring a constant flow of outcomes through the whole project. In other words, the project was integrated as a significant part of the schools’ main study plan. In order to maximize the synergies generated by the school partnership, several external partners were included to the project. The external partners of this project are sound developers and stakeholders within the field of digital technology and education. Moreover, in order to further strengthen and widen the insights of the theme, senior academic researchers and research programs were integrated to several activities like seminars and workshops. Acknowledging the needs and challenges of our time, the methodology of the project was based on an entrepreneurial approach. This way of thinking was taken into consideration when designing activities, defining concrete goals, and evaluating its corresponding outcomes. Thus, goals and outcomes of this project deemed the needs of a target group, whereas a clear strategy to communicate and evaluate its impact was defined. Furthermore, the project had a strong focus on transverse skills and aimed to cover and incorporate several school subjects to all activities and outcomes.To conclude, this project sought to open up an arena where five European schools would have the opportunity to meet, discuss, and reflect over the didactical appli

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 101624 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sykkylven videregaende skule & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Heilig-Harthandelsinstituut Waregem
• SAN FERMIN IKASTOLA
• Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti
• St Margaret’s School Bushey