Flash Mind Erasmus Project

Project Title

Flash Mind

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

The latest results of the PISA report (2015) show that more than one in five European students are underperforming in reading, science and mathematics and are not equipped with the basic skills necessary to integrate socially properly and take up many valuable jobs in our current economy.
Motivation and commitment are at the heart of the learning mechanism. However, abstract subjects such as science, mathematics or grammar suffer deeply from a “bad reputation” among young people: they appear too difficult or too abstract.

It is therefore essential to foster student engagement and motivation by offering innovative ways to present and work on these subjects in the school system, where written culture still predominates in these teachings. The power of the image in the learning and memorization process is no longer to be demonstrated. Combining with other communication channels such as audio is even more effective.

In addition, the question of predominantly visual pedagogical tools in a school curriculum makes sense in relation to the number of pupils with difficulties in accessing written contents, such as pupils suffering from DYS disorders (between 10% and 12%). Without adequate support, this obstacle most often leads to discouragement and academic failure.

At school, differentiated pedagogy very quickly shows its limits and can become a real headache for the teacher. But today, new technologies make it possible to offer new perspectives to the field of education by allowing the creation of tailor-made and innovative educational paths, promoting adaptive learning and memory anchoring.

That’s how we created Flash Mind. Flash Mind’s objective is to make it possible for teachers to create learning paths adapted to the profile of their students with interactive contents, combining communication channels for a truly inclusive pedagogy.

Flash Mind targets primarily teachers and students aged 8 to 16, which is the age group where the acquisition of these skills is crucial to consider a university curriculum.

Teachers will have the possibility to configure an existing course model in relation to a student’s or group of students’ profile (level/age, duration, pedagogical objectives…) and monitor progress.
For pupils with DYS disorders, they will be able to choose a suitable layout (adapted font, larger font size and line spacing…).

Teachers will be also able to duplicate and modify the contents and settings of an existing model learning path or create a learning path from scratch. To do this, series of interactive modules will be developed:
• the management of the student profile
• the configuration of interactive course modules (interactive videos, animated slideshows, sequential images, infographics…)
• the creation and configuration of flash cards associated with the course for training sessions

In autonomy situation, students will have the possibility to set up their own learning path according their profile and will have the opportunity to create their own series of flashcards to practice.

At the end of the project, 60 model learning paths will be proposed in reading, mathematics and sciences with a library of over 3,000 flashcards.
In addition, 20 practice sheets will be written to support teachers with recommendations for adapting lessons in a visual and interactive way or good practices for adapting content for students with learning disabilities.
The Flash Mind project white paper will also be produced to explain the project’s approach, highlight its results in order to ensure the best possible transferability of the resources created outside the partnership.

As it will be a collaborative platform, Flash Mind is designed to function independently at the end of the project. All the resources will be available in each language of the partnership as well as in English.

Our objectives are to improve:
• professors’ skills in creating interactive digital courses with a strong visual component
• the pedagogical follow-up of students with difficulties or learning disabilities
• students’ achievement in basic skills and their integration in school curriculum
• exchange of good practices between teachers thanks to the collaborative approach of the platform

Flash Mind gathers 6 European partners from 5 countries, balanced between organisations focused on technological innovation for education (Edulog and Les Apprimeurs), experts focused on pedagogical tools and methods for pupils with SLD (Logopsycom) and organisations in linked with the target groups (schools and educational networks) at local, national and European levels (EELI, Euphoria and UPIT).

By creating a set of innovative digital training curriculum, we intend to contribute to promote innovative pedagogical methods and to stick to the objective of reducing under 15% of low achievers in basic skills by 2020.

Project Website

https://www.flashmind.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 278310 Eur

Project Coordinator

EDULOG & Country: FR

Project Partners

• European Education & Learning Institute
• Associazione Euphoria
• SCS LogoPsyCom
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITESTI
• Les Apprimeurs