Through dad’s work, we are helping with a major research project in Europe called ITEC, which stands for Interactive Technologies for an Engaging Classroom.
Over 15 national Ministries of Education are involved and several Universities. Up to 1000 schools across Europe will eventually be part of the research over the next three and half years, trying out new ways to use technology in teaching and learning.
At the Dragontree, we have been helping by suggesting and testing out some ideas as part of this exciting project. As a ‘live project’ Matthew has used a range of techniques with technology to create a skills centric tutorial for ITEC project partners about using GPS data with Interactive Whiteboards. He even composed some special music for the video. This was to help teachers understand how they could go about using ubiquitous digital technology in lessons based on using the outdoor environment.
http://itec.eun.org has more information about the research.
The big idea of the ITEC project is “Scenarios”. I suspect many of our home educating followers will see the links with their activities and may want to try them out themselves. Many of the scenarios involve things like recognising non-formal learning activities and a focus on student centered learning and problem solving skills.
You can see examples of some of the first ITEC scenarios here: http://itec.eun.org/web/guest/scenario-library More will be added in later parts of the project.
Here is Matthew’s video. If you have GPS device or GPS enabled SmartPhone you could do similar things using a PC and Google Earth. This relates to a scenario called “A breath of fresh air”
