Month: December 2020

Project Summary:

Immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality and digital games offer a wide range of possibilities for educational use. A main reason for their limited uptake in education this far, is the mono-disciplinary education in fields that would need to collaborate to deliver widely usable immersive educational solution: game design, computer Science, teacher education.  Currently, these fields have only little connection to each other. However, truly useful and widely usable immersive educational solutions can only be created by combining educational, technological, and design-oriented perspectives in order to conceptualise and develop good solutions. ImTech4Ed aims at creating interdisciplinary and international collaboration among students, educators, and researchers from the respective disciplines in order to:  (i) deliver creative and valuable prototypes for immersive educational solutions; (ii) strengthen interdisciplinary thinking and approaches across students from various disciplines; (iii) strengthen interdisciplinary and international cooperation; (iv) evaluate prototypes in real teaching situations at connected schools; (v) establish a network of connected/interested partners. The project will develop methodological guidelines together with a set of immersive educational prototypes evaluated in educational practice. These will be accompanied by supporting authoring tools, a teacher professional development course, and concrete STEAM-oriented educational scenarios.

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ /KA2, Strategic Partnerships for Higher education (Ref. #: 2020-1-DE01-KA203-005679)

Project duration: November 2020 – October 2023

Project Website: https://imtech4ed.eu/

Project Summary:

FemSTEAM Mysteries is based on the values of gender equality and non-discrimination between men and women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), creativity and innovative entrepreneurship. Through the adoption of an innovative approach that integrates STEM and Arts, and combines Role-Model and Game-based methodology with a mystery story-telling digital game (escape room) that engages teenagers (age 12-15), FemSTEAM Mysteries aims to: (i) bring out the significant role of women in STEAM; (ii) fight stereotypes of students and teachers; (iii) inspire young girls through role-model game-based STEAM pedagogy to follow STEAM careers; (iv) enhance acquisition of key skills and competences for STEAM studies and careers of all students (boys and girls); (v) enhance teachers’ skills in dealing with gender equality in STEAM.

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ /KA2, Strategic Partnerships for School Education (Ref. #: 2020-1-CY01-KA201-066058)

Project duration: November 2020 – October 2022

Project Website: tba

Project Summary:

The AUGMENTED ASSESSMENT PROJECT aims to address the gap that exists in assessing newly arrived migrant students’ prior knowledge in the fields of Science and Mathematics, by utilising augmented reality for assessment. This will be achieved by developing and piloting an innovative augmented toolkit in the form of an online library and a training course for teachers that will equip them with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge for assessing newly arrived migrant students’ prior knowledge.

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ / KA3, Support for Policy Reform – Social Inclusion and Common Values (Ref. #: 621517-EPP-1-2020-1-EL-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN)

Project duration: November 2020 – October 2022

Project Website:  tba

Project Summary:

In line with the strategic framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET 2020), the main objective of EDUTECH is to exploit recent technological advances for improving the quality and efficiency of higher education teaching and learning, and for reducing the existing skill shortages and skill mismatch in the EU workforce. Specifically, the project focuses on using emerging technologies (e.g. augmented reality, mixed reality, artificial intelligence) in order to promote interactivity, accessibility, and relevancy of learning, and to better prepare students for their future complex life and work environments.

Project partners will design innovative educational activities based on novel methodologies (extended reality, gamification, online and blended learning, learning analytics) aimed at enhancing higher education students’ learning experiences, and at equipping them with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills required to cope with the demands of the rapidly changing digital era. Additionally, partners will create interactive knowledge capsules based on these methodologies to be used by any interested stakeholder, thus allowing knowledge to flow within, but also beyond higher education settings. The knowledge capsules will provide, in a practical, dynamic, and highly interactive way, testimonies on how new technologies can be utilized to foster enhanced learning experiences in a specific subject.

Funding Organization: European Commission – KA2, Strategic Partnerships for Higher education (Ref. #: 2019-1-ES01-KA203-065558 (ES))

Project duration: September 2019 – February 2022

Project Website: https://www.edutechproject.eu/

Project Summary: ReadTwinning aims to address the ongoing need for effective strategies and tools to promote reading among young people, bridging school activities with personal interests and fostering social connections across students of different classes, schools, cultures and countries. The need for a strong, active and methodologically innovative commitment by European schools in promoting a love for reading among young people is confirmed by all available data on reading literacy. One in five 15 year-olds in the EU is a low achiever in reading. Reading performance has not improved in recent years and the EU is lagging behind its 2020 target to have less than 15 % of low achievers. Children from migrant backgrounds or from disadvantaged households are less likely to be able to read well at school and less motivated to reading than their classmates. This has the potential to be devastating for their future lives. ReadTwinning will address these urgent needs by developing and testing an innovative approach, which combines standards-based teaching practices with creative and collaborative use of emerging technologies, and aims to motivate 9-15 year old students to read more and enjoy more the experience of reading and, in turn, improve literacy.

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ / KA2, Strategic Partnerships for School Education (Ref. #: 2019-1-IT02-KA201-063241)

Project duration: November 2019 – May 2022

Project Website: https://readtwinning.eu/

Project Summary:

Run between 1st January 2014 and 31st December 2016, the European Network for Technology Enhanced Learning in an Inclusive Society (ENTELIS) project gave birth to a Consortium of 10 partners – nine from across the European Union and one from the United States. The aim of this newly born network was to empower older persons and persons with disabilities to participate in the digital society by providing them with digital literacy and making assistive technologies more easily accessible. The ultimate goal of the Consortium was to enable persons with disabilities to be more competitive on the job market and to receive high-quality education.

Building on the outcomes of the ENTELIS and IE+ projects, the ENTELIS+ project aims at developing and implementing innovative methods and practices to foster inclusive education and promote common values, as well as enhancing the digital skills and competences of digitally excluded groups, particularly persons with disabilities of all ages, through strategic public and private partnerships. ENTELIS+ aims at having an impact on three levels:

1. Raising awareness about the importance of accessibility as an enabler for inclusive learning and teaching.
2. Developing the digital skills of persons with disabilities and older persons so that they can participate in the digital society.
3. Enhancing the capacity of the key actors in charge of the design and implementation of facilitating frameworks.

Funding Organization: Erasmus+/KA3, Social inclusion and common values: the contribution in the field of education, training and youth (Ref. #: 612194-EPP-1-2019-1-BE-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN)

Project duration: January 2020-December 2021

Project Website:  https://entelisplus.entelis.net/

Project Summary:

The aim of FA-ST is to provide opportunities of empowerment and personal development to girls and young women (aged 18-30) affected by socioeconomic barriers (migrants background, weak family support, early school leavers), and inspire them to start a business in the STEM sector. The project will achieve this by: (i) identifying new engaging ways to present STEM to women; (ii) preparing and testing a non-formal learning program to support young women in increasing their skills and creating STEM start-ups; (iii) developing a platform to be used for displaying talents & business ideas; (iv) offering an innovative approach for YOUTH services , with the possibility for certification and skills assessment at EU level; (v) disseminating ongoing and fina outcomes; (vi) creating a strong and varied support network; and (vii) offering clearer information on how companies can support youth activities and contributing to better local services.

Funding Organization: KA2, Strategic Partnerships for Youth (Ref. #: 2019-2-CY02-KA205-001594)

Project duration: October 2019 – September 2021

Project Website: https://www.fasterasmus.com/en/

Project Summary

Project BE-COM and implements innovative practices in Higher Education targeting both instructors and students. Both groups indicate the need to modernize teaching methods and improve digital and communication skills. Digital competence is one of the eight key competencies in the lifelong learning process necessary for full participation in an increasingly digital life society. In response to the indicated needs, the project’s main objective is to strengthen the cooperation between 5 partners’ institutions in the area of teaching communication skills as well as to increase their internationalization through working out and disseminating new educational tools and exchanging good practices.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• Promotion of the idea of the use of ICTs and open educational resources in higher education
• Enhancing the quality and relevance of students’ knowledge from 4 European universities taking part in testing and evaluation
• Equipping academic instructors from 4 partner universities with modern didactic tools for students, responding to the needs of the modern labour market

EUC, as a partner, will play an important role in enhancing the quality and relevance of users’ knowledge and skills and in this way improving the quality of higher education. EUC will also be part of the deployment of a Digital toolbox for both an effective AND secure communication in the era of web 2.0.

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ / KA2, Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education (Ref. #: 2019-1-PL01-KA203-065691)

Project duration: October 2019 – December 2021

Project Website: http://becomproject.eu/

Project Summary:

The ENREAC-HEI project aims to develop and test a set of MOOC courses on Research skills and Open Science practices, addressed to Higher Education students to increase their skills and competences in research management, open science techniques, collaboration and teamwork.

The main objectives of the project are to:

• Increase the knowledge on current Open Science Practices and Research skills of the project participants
• Enlarge the partners’ training offer in the area
• Foster HEI’s capacity for collaboration with other institutions
• Boost the usability – relevance – adequacy – sustainability of the program by engaging and sharing ownership with relevant actors, experts and stakeholders at local and regional level

Main Outputs of the project:

1. eLearning course on Essential Researchers’ Skills: development of project management skills, budget, team and data management, IT skills, networking, time management, communication and presentation.
2. eLearning course on Open Science Skills: a comprehensive approach to “Open Science-related elements for Researchers”.
3. Trainers’ Training Manual: a manual for trainers on how to implement and deliver the program.
4. eLearning Platform: a digital space to support the learning process (e-learning material and assessment tools).

Funding Organization: European Commission –Erasmus+ / KA2, Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education (Ref. #: 2018-1-CY01-KA203-046879)

Project duration: October 2018 – January 2021

Project Website: https://www.enreachei-project.eu/