Three schools from three different countries take part on the strategic partnership “Recording Our Europe”:
21st century student’s profile shows diverse features. Some are traditional and dividing such as the cultural, economic or family
situation; others are new, unifying, drawn from the globalized context the students belong to, thanks to the use ICT, having a direct
effect on the development of acquiring basic competences, upon which the linguistic competence on foreign languages stands out
in order to face nowadays challenges, as young and adult people belonging to a labor market becoming more international. Early
school dropout rates are shown to be high in many EU countries, something that makes us think that our education system is not
responding properly to this new type of student.
Accounting for the characteristics and difficulties above, our project is to respond, through methodological development, research
and innovation, to the students’ needs to increase their competences and also to prevent early school dropout. This entails a change of paradigm which affects the education system itself and all its elements, including the families’ role in formative processes regarding the students, in order to address all the challenges we are presented in a precise way.
Thus, these will be our general objectives:
The achievement of these goals has been developed in the school context, through the accomplishment of the following activities:
Among our results:
IMPACT
The impact we wanted to reach, can be described at different levels.
- IES Puerto del Rosario, from the town Puerto del Rosario, in the island of Fuerteventura, Canary islands, Spain, coordinating institution.
- Leopold-Hoesch Berufskolleg, from the city of Dortmund, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Partner institution.
- Kotkan-Haminan seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä (EKAMI), from the city of Kotka in Finland. Partner institution.
21st century student’s profile shows diverse features. Some are traditional and dividing such as the cultural, economic or family
situation; others are new, unifying, drawn from the globalized context the students belong to, thanks to the use ICT, having a direct
effect on the development of acquiring basic competences, upon which the linguistic competence on foreign languages stands out
in order to face nowadays challenges, as young and adult people belonging to a labor market becoming more international. Early
school dropout rates are shown to be high in many EU countries, something that makes us think that our education system is not
responding properly to this new type of student.
Accounting for the characteristics and difficulties above, our project is to respond, through methodological development, research
and innovation, to the students’ needs to increase their competences and also to prevent early school dropout. This entails a change of paradigm which affects the education system itself and all its elements, including the families’ role in formative processes regarding the students, in order to address all the challenges we are presented in a precise way.
Thus, these will be our general objectives:
- To improve teachers' skills on ICT tools and assessment processes and their use in the classroom.
- To enhance students' motivation towards the learning of foreign languages, as well as their european awareness.
- To bring families to school life through their participation in some project activities and result dissemination.
The achievement of these goals has been developed in the school context, through the accomplishment of the following activities:
- International work teams of students, about relevant topics for the European youngsters: Sustainability, employability and social media; using video as a communication platform for their findings, and their dissemination for teaching , i.e. as a start point for discussion.
- Learning and reflection process for the teachers about the educational use of video, publishing their conclusions in the form of a Best Practice Guide for the use of video at school.
Among our results:
- Workshops on video creation, and edition. Workshops took place on every partner school, with teachers, students and families as target audience. This workshops enabled the audience to be familiar with recording devices, and to record and edit videos with a certain quality. We held a Joint Staff Training Event in Kotka, where we discussed about the methodological uses of video creation.
- Paperwork investigations about Sustainability, Social Media and Employability chances. Students from every international work group investigated and reflected on the proposed issues.
- Videos produced by students with the conclusions of their work. Students communicated the results of their reflections using video format. Each international work group planned, recorded and edited their own videos, using the knowledge gained during the project.
- Closing Festival. At the final meeting in Fuerteventura, we organised a video festival, where all the projects’ productions were presented. We also invited other teachers and students in our schools, and other schools in our area. Other stakeholders at school such as families, association of parents, and public institutions of the Island, such as Island government, City council, Teacher Training Center, European Educational Programs Office in Canaries (OPEEC), were also invited to attend the festival.
- Teachers’ guide for implementation of the proposed methodology in the project. Teachers from the different schools worked on the present guide, to share with other teachers and schools the experiences gained in the project about using video creation as a teaching tool, and using technology as a tool to achieve the 21st. Century skills (communication, critical thinking, collaboration, citizenship, creativity...). This guide was also be presented to the interested audience within the dissemination activities of the project.
IMPACT
The impact we wanted to reach, can be described at different levels.
- Higher students’ motivation towards the foreign language learning. Students had the chance to travel to other countries, where the foreign languages they learn are spoken. This was very motivating for them. They were able to check that their language skills have a practical use, and that they can communicate with others using them.
- Increased use of video teaching and ICTs by teachers of partner schools. Our aim was to promote ICT skills among teachers in our schools, and the implementation of new teaching methods to enhance the motivation of students. We offered workshops and produced this teachers’ guide to support them.
- Increased involvement of families. We agreed that the improved role of families at school have an important effect in students’ development . We strongly believe that school, students and families must build up a team with the common goal of increasing the motivation of students. That’s why we worked to enroll students’ families in many of the project activities, as a way to let them be aware of their childrens ‘ improvements and to actively cooperate to achieve the project goals.
- Improvement of the European awareness of students / teachers at the partner schools. Students and teachers from the partner schools had the chance to learn about society, culture, educational systems and way of life in the different partner countries. Moreover they investigated collaboratively with the students from all participating schools about important topics concerning the whole Europe. This knowledge and the possibility to meet them during the project activities enhanced the awareness of living in a common space, with a common future, in which they have a big role to play.
- Creation of a school network. The partner schools intend to keep working together beyond the end of this project, in other Erasmus+ projects, or in eTwinning partnerships.
- Availability of this Best Practice Guide for the educational community in general.