Innovative ICT-based training approach to reshape school education and training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovative ICT-based training approach to reshape school education and training

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: Pedagogy and didactics; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT
EU schools play a vital role for creating inclusive and resilient societies as they are the starting point for professional development of young people and play important part in the lifelong learning process. However, they face a number of common challenges:
+high share of students underperform in general school subjects. According to the latest OECD PISA survey and Education and Training Monitor 2018 the share of underperforming school students (15 years old) in science is 20.6% and in maths-22.2% meaning that 1 in 5 students in the EU has insufficient proficiency in these subjects which is serious lag compared to the ET 2020 target of less than 15 % of 15 years olds to be under-skilled in these subjects.

+increased skills gap arising from the advent of new technologies. According to the Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture(COM(2017)673) 90% of the jobs in the future will require at least some level of digital skills and at the same time many young people lack adequate digital skills. Even though the use of digital technologies for social activities and mobile internet access has significantly increased in the recent years, the use of digital technologies for educational purposes lags behind. Only ¼ of EU school students are taught by digitally confident educators which questions the ability of educating systems to ensure the necessary skills supply for the jobs of the future.

The rapid digitalisation of all areas of life impasses the need of re-shaping educational processes with regards to nurturing new skills and key competences in learners. Among the key factors contributing to aligning education with these challenges are:
+improving the quality of teaching/teachers
+ Introducing ICT for teaching purposes

AIMS & OBJECTIVES
sCOOL-IT main goal is to create an innovative ICT challenge-based training approach aimed at supporting educators in the process of conveying knowledge, promoting the development of key competences (digital, science, mathematical, etc.) among their students with regards to boosting their performance in these fields and enhancing their digital skills.
The specific objectives of the project are:
+promoting high school students’ digital skills through application of challenge-based digital training approach in general school subjects
+equipping secondary school teachers with innovative ICT challenge-based training materials to enrich their pedagogic approach
+creating prerequisites for educators to create own innovative challenge-based teaching resources through the use of ICT

TARGET GROUPS
sCOOL-IT addresses the needs of the following target groups:
+Secondary school teachers & headmasters
+Secondary school students

INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS
The project employs life-cycle methodology, which implies a sequence of activities for planning, executing and disseminating the project results. In the lifetime of the project, the following intellectual outputs will be developed:
O1. sCOOL-IT Web Adventure Portal
O2. sCOOL-IT Comprehensive training programme
O3. sCOOL-IT Web Adventure Development Toolkit

TRANSNATIONAL DIMESION
The sCOOL-IT IOs will be developed under EU cooperation between schools, training center and consulting and IT companies from 5 EU countries. They will be freely available in 6 languages, and because of their nature (web tool/methodologies/guidelines) may serve as a basis for further development and adaptation to various contexts. Hence an unlimited number of school teachers, headmasters, educators across Europe can apply and benefit from the project results, creating conditions for improving young students’ performance in general school subjects and boosting key competencies to better prepare them for the 21st century challenges.

IMPACT
Secondary schools which adopt the sCOOL-IT training approach will strengthened their images as modern educational institutions open to the application of innovative teaching methods with regards to ensuring high-quality educational service for their students. Students engaged in learning by WebQuests in these schools will be more devoted and motivated in the learning process in general school subjects which will lead to improved performance. Teachers in schools utilising the sCOOL-IT approach will increase their confidence in applying constructivist teaching methodologies and using ICT for teaching purposes which will result in desire to further enrich their pedagogic approach with new teaching and assessment methods and thus multiplying the project impact. The cumulative impact of the aforementioned will be expressed by boosting the educational service offered by secondary schools applying the sCOOL-IT challenge based approach.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 249567 Eur

Project Coordinator

National Vocational Secondary School of Computer Technologies and Systems & Country: BG

Project Partners

• Vereniging Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs
• FONDAZIONE HALLGARTEN-FRANCHETTI CENTRO STUDI VILLA MONTESCA
• Agrupamento de Escolas José Estevão
• PCX COMPUTERS & INFORMATION SYSTEMS LTD
• EUROPEAN CENTER FOR QUALITY OOD