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Digital Tools For Teaching

How to engage learners’ attention more effectively in an online environment? And what short exercises and creative activities can educators use?

To help teachers and trainers better answer these questions and give them practical exercises they can directly apply to their daily work, we have developed a series of methodological materials on how to more effectively maintain good group dynamics in an online environment, as well as a database of 18 energizing exercises to ensure the same high level of engagement and involvement in an online environment as in face-to-face classrooms and training rooms.

The materials have been developed within the project “T4T – Digital Tools For Teaching” (2021-1-ES01-KA220-ADU-000033654) and are available on its website – https://digitaltools4teaching.eu (also in Bulgarian).

What does the material include?

  1. Guidelines on how to better create effective group dynamics in an online learning environment, including 6 modules;
  2. A resource library with a total of 65 useful materials and best practices on how to support effective group interaction in an online learning environment;
  3. Practical exercises to enhance group dynamics in an online learning environment – a total of 18 energizing, warm-up and wrap-up materials and training closing activities covering 6 topics;
  4. Recordings of 6 webinars on how the developed exercises can be put into practice.

All materials are free and completely open access and are presented in convenient and easy-to-navigate interactive formats and databases https://digitaltools4teaching.eu/results

The project “T4T – Digital Tools For Teaching” (2021-1-ES01-KA220-ADU-000033654) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

For more information, you can contact the Bulgarian partner – Creative and Training Studio “ARTIED” – artied.studio@gmail.com (Mariana Petrova – Project Manager)

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Mobilities for Staff and Students are still going on

The ENNE Project Accreditation for KA1 Mobility is still going on and Italian teachers and students went abroad.

In May and June, thanks to ENNE, 7 teachers:

They did their Job-Shadowing experience at:

In May and June, thanks to ENNE, 8 Students at:

They spent one month in Belgium, at All Digital organisation.

In May and June, thanks to ENNE, 10 Students at:

They spent one month in Spain, at Innetica Mundus Association.

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K TOUR Project, meeting in Portugal

3 day of full work for partners involved in K TOUR – A Key for sustainable and accessible tourism – the latest meeting was held in Portugal from 27th February to 3rd of March 2023 at Escola Profissional de Campanhã.

The survey has been almost completed. Each school conducted it in the most suitable way according to the students’ needs: some of the students went to talk directly to the hotel managers, to improve their interaction abilities. In Italy, they started with computer data analysis, since we also wanted to develop their technological skills more.

A second important point has been the creation of a website and of the database. We decided that the website can also be a place where to share information on sustainable and accessible hints, so it will have a “news” section, besides the others.

We planned how to organize the data base and defined the criteria to be included: a company may not have all the criteria we suggested in the questionnaire, but some of them are more important and sufficient to be considered eco-sustainable and/or accessible.

We also decided on the project logo and slogan, so that the project will have a homogeneous layout.

The project – Small-scale partnerships in vocational education and training – was born after the ENNE Blended Course held in Italy in December 2021 and it involves the following partners:

The K-TOUR project will allow networking with local institutions, tourism companies and other institutions European vocational training institutions. This will be a great opportunity to share our good practices and to be in contact with other tourism networks.

This project enables the creation of a knowledge network that offers multiple learning opportunities and new opportunities for the school, the student, the teacher and the curriculum. The teacher becomes a manager of cross-cultural learning.

 

   

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The Maker Schools project

The MAKER SCHOOLS project (Enhancing Student Creativity and STEM Engagement by Integrating 3D Design and Programming into Secondary School Learning) is a recent initiative to make students more interested in and better prepared for STEM studies and career in areas relevant to Industry 4.0. The project has developed several learning modules that could be used by teachers to design their own training, as well as by students who want to learn on their own:

3D Printing Technologies, Materials and Software Applications – introduces the basics of 3D printing

Designing 3D Models in Fusion 360 – provides step-by-step tutorials and sample hands-on exercises for designing 3D models in the classroom, specifically by using Fusion 360. It introduces the key features of Fusion 360 and guides the learners in working with sketches, using Fusion 360 commands, and creating 3D models.

Using Python to Enable Creative Explorations of 3D Models – guides the learners in developing simple games, while also learning to use Python in the process.

Using Python for Procedural 3D Content Generation for 3D Printing – focuses on procedural 3D content generation using a special Python library on top of the OpenSCAD 3D modelling language. By following the guidelines, the learners can create 3D designs of a chessboard with all its pieces, develop a simple mini 3D game of chess and practice using OpenSCAD for animating moves on the chessboard.

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Upgrade2europe project

Support for the education providers, small and medium-sized companies and organizations (SMEs and SMOs) in developing and implementing their own Europeanisation strategies and intensifying their activities across Europe.

The aim of upgrade2europe project is to support SMEs, SMOs and educational actors on their path towards international success. This is not something that can be achieved in a blink of an eye, but requires careful strategic planning, and consciously taken steps on this amazing journey.

The upgrade2europe team has been working hard to develop tools and materials that will be supporting you to achieve your international goals the best possible way.

In our Newsletter 2 we are happy to tell you all of the accomplishments we are so proud of! To read it and stay updated about the project you can take a look at the u2e Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/upgrade2europe

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Training on electric vehicles in Belgium

On 6 February 2023, a group of 7 teachers from different EU countries started the training in Mechelen (BE).

It takes 5 days and focuses on the basic electrical principles and working safely on an electrical vehicle. In the end the teachers will go home with a certificate that states they are qualified to switch off the power on an electric vehicle. 

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Catalan students develop marketing material for Diagnose Car

This school year 22 Catalan students from Institut de Logística de Barcelona work in little groups to create materials for the VET project Diagnose Car (Connectief). The assignment and follow-up goes through online meetings. In order to continue Diagnose Car the organisation is looking for financial partners. The Catalan students are creating a marketing strategy and materials to do so. The best design will be chosen in spring by Connectief, Diagnose Car and a Marketing Specialist. The chosen creation will be used in future initiatives. 

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Erasmus ambassadors at the High School Casanova, based in Naples

On December 20th, 2022, the high school Alfonso Casanova hosted international Erasmus ambassadors (Croatia, Spain, Germany Belgium, Italy, and referents of the National Agency Indire Erasmus+ BELGIUM) within the project PEACE – PARTECIPATION ERASMUS ALUMNI for CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. The event involved pupils from ten classes of the institute in order to disseminate, motivate, present and discuss the importance of Erasmus actions to bring European populations closer together and strengthen the internationalisation processes of schools. On this occasion, a dissemination event was organised for the Ka229 projects that our institute is carrying out from 2020/21 and the partnership with EGInA srl in the Eda ‘n’ Eda and Enne projects.

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Successful for the Blended Course organised in Italy

During the week of December 12-16, 2022, took place in Foligno (Italy) a course on project writing in preparation for the Key Action 2 calls of the Erasmus+ programme, organised by EGInA.

 The 12 participants, from Belgium, Greece, Malta, and Italy, came from different backgrounds (education experts, university researchers, digital experts, social activists, and urban planning experts) but had in common a great desire to develop their own project, starting with ideas developed within their respective professional experience. Indeed, the course promoted by EGInA, allowed them to develop these ideas during hands-on workshop sessions, as well as provide detailed theoretical insights into the calls considered and design techniques.


The course is structured in a blended format, in which there are two online introductory classes, a week of intensive face-to-face work that includes theoretical part and hands-on workshops on drafting real projects, and an additional online follow-up phase to evaluate and support project development.

The topics covered by the course ranged from understanding the Erasmus+ programme, contextualized within the policies of the European Commission and sustainable development plans, to the attention in depth of the call prerequisites and effective writing techniques. The hands-on workshop sessions are designed to enable participants to engage with idea development at all stages of a project:

  • determining priorities;
  • identifying objectives;
  • identifying activities, results and outcomes.

The ideas that emerged from the participants, given the heterogeneity of the group, ranged across a number of topics, including: innovation in school and VET education with the introduction of student- centered methodologies; well-being at the workplace; creating farmer networks against climate change; combating gender-based violence; and using digital media for teaching STEAM.

During the course, participants were also able to enrich their overview in the area of Erasmus+ projects by
attending presentations of several projects carried out (or recently completed) by EGInA, including:

This allowed participants to see in practice how the objectives and outcomes described in the project design phase are translated into real partnership activities and results that can be scaled up internationally or locally. It also allowed direct interaction with experienced project managers from different sectors.
Course participants gave enthusiastic feedback on their achievements and improvement of personal skills
in project writing.

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The upgrade2europe project national testing

The upgrade2europe project (ref. no: 2020-1-DE02-KA202-007626) is a strategic partnership between 8 EU organizations – emcra GmbH (Germany), Cyprus Project Management Society (Cyprus), European Center for Quality Ltd. (Bulgaria), PRISM Impresa Sociale s.r.l. (Italy), EU-Fundraising Association e. V. (Germany), Chamber of Commerce and Industry Csongrád County (Hungary), and Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). The project intends to provide educational actors, SMEs and SMOs with the necessary materials to develop and implement their own Europeanisation strategies, thus intensifying their activities in Europe across national borders.

The project will provide various training materials and tools, including:

  • Process Model;
  • EQF curriculum;
  • Handbook;
  • Teaching and Learning Videos;
  • Digital Self-Assessment Tool;
  • E-mail course.

On the 17th of October started the testing phase of the upgrade2europe project that continued for 8 weeks. The participants of the testing were from ECQ team (in-house testing) as well as, from other organisations and associations (external testing). All participants explored the beta versions of the u2e products with the aim of gathering feedback and discussing suggestions for improvements. During the testing were presented the Process Model, Video materials, Handbook tools, Email course, and Self-assessment tool. Testers were asked to evaluate the applicability, relevance, transferability of all the resources and tools to their learning paths. The received back will be analysed and used as a basis for further improvement and of the project products and materials.

For more information about the project visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/upgrade2europe