eMysteries – Newsletter 3
Month: May 2021
Intergenerational mentoring and learning in the workplace
With increasingnumbers of employed people with jobs at risk due to advances in technology or demand for new skillsets and approximately 7 out of 10 EU workers requiring at least moderate digital skills to do their job (Cedefop), the digitalisation of jobs and tasks is an emerging trend. This means that training adults for acquiring core skills needed to succeed in their careers is vital for their future employability. The EU Commission communicated an inclusion and diversity strategy in 2017 promoting the inclusion of older staff to equal work opportunities as younger staff.
The LearnGenproject’s focus is to combat segregation, discrimination, and social exclusion of marginalised workers. It supports older workers (aged 50+) as well as young workers (18-30 years) to develop necessary core skills to teach and learn from each other, making them less vulnerable to professional challenges. The main project outcomes include an Intergenerational Learning Curriculum, a Training Package for employees trained to become Mentors and an eLearning Platform and OERs available to the general public. LearnGen also supports SME managers, HR Managers and Trainers to design, implement and monitor effective inclusive policies and practices. The project is expected to bring about deeper understanding at organisational and transnational level, on combating ageism and social exclusion.
CTApp: Teaching Students Computational Thinking Through a Mobile Application
Computational Thinking as a fundamental competency that all literate citizens should develop through compulsory education, to complement the three other core skills, that is, reading, writing, and mathematics. Computational Thinking (CT) is a thought process (or a human thinking skill) that uses analytic and algorithmic approaches to formulate,analyse and solve problems.
In recent years, Computational Thinking (CT) have also been promoted by most educational stakeholders as a skill that is as fundamental for all as numeracy and literacy and is considered a universal competence,which should be added to every child’s analytical ability as a vital ingredient of their school learning.
In this context, the CTApp project aims to develop create a mobile game that encourages young people to acquire computational thinking skills.
In particular,the project has three objectives:
- A State of the Art on Serious Gaming & Computational Thinking.
- The Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Mobile Serious Game in Computational Thinking (CTApp).
Teacher Training Courses & Materials development on using the CTApp mobile game (e.g., handbooks &instructive videos).
Modelling a European Cross-curricular Study Programme for Upper Secondary Schools
DEEDS aim to contributing to the construction of the European Education Area through the development of a model of European exchange and study programme among general upper secondary schools.
DEEDS has the following objectives:
- To develop and test a joint transnational curriculum/programme among the involved schools.
- To identify a set of common assessment and certification methods tailored to the acquired competences and skills.
To build organisational capacity in upper secondary schools through the identification and the solution of administrative/management problems pertaining long term transnational mobility of pupils.
Promoting global citizenship education in schools
We are all living in an interconnected and interdependent world; technological advances have surpassed distance allowing the instant transfer of information, images, experiences from one corner of the globe to the other. Issues such as migration and climate change dictate actions that transcend the narrow nation-state boundaries and pose challenges that cannot be addressed unilaterally. As the devastating COVID-19 pandemic spreads it comes to manifest in bleak colours the fluidity of national frontiers and the inalienable bond of humans against a common threat.
As defined by UNESCO, Global citizenship refers to a sense of belonging to a broader community and a common humanity. It emphasizes political, economic, social, and cultural interdependency and interconnectedness between the local, national and the global. Despite its importance, global citizenship education is in its nascent phase and currently it is not introduced in schools. Moreover, the ever-increasing peoples’ movement calls for teachers to be well versed in working in multicultural environments, support students from culturally diverse backgrounds, and instil respect for cultural diversity and human rights. Teachers lack the initial training or CPD resources to integrate global citizenship issues in their teaching. This project aims to address the evident gap in the provision of global citizenship education in secondary schools and to support teachers to promote and integrate global citizenship in their teaching.
POLITEIA is an Erasmus+ project that aims to address the gap in the provision of global citizenship education in secondary schools and to support teachers to promote and integrate global citizenship in their teaching.
The project seeks to build an innovative, tailored training course addressed to teachers to allow them to confidently bring global citizenship issues in the classroom, integrate its themes and values in the citizenship course or across curricula, and ignite students’ interest in global citizenship.
OVERCOME – Positive career guidance for low skilled adults
Although Europe has been recovering from the high unemployment of the recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns that were implemented have had a significant impact on local and global economies. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that more than 25 million jobs will be lost in the coming months, as a result of the outbreak. Current data show that by the end of 2019 the unemployed in EU-28 were 15,475 million. At the same time, low-skilled adults have limited labour market prospects compared to other individuals with more qualifications (OECD, 2019), with unemployment having a huge psychological impact on them.
OVERCOME is an Erasmus+ project that aims to enhance low-skilled adults’ competencies and support their inclusion in the labour market and society, by reinforcing their employability skills as well as their psychological capacities. To achieve this, it will build the skills of career counsellors and adult educators to better support low-skilled adults; it will build the psychological capital of low-skilled adults and develop resources with quality material, curricula, toolkits, and OERs to build the competencies of low skilled-adults and their educators.
Collating digital narratives to raise awareness of the rich cultural heritage of African Nations
Stories shape the way we see the world, but we can never rely on a single story.
The African Diaspora has reached most corners of the world, but despite how far Africans have travelled, their histories and stories have not been assimilated into the narratives of European societies and are not included in European teachings. This is problematic, because the stories we are told shape the way we see the world, and no single story can capture the richness of a continent as varied and vast as Africa.
SingleStory aims to bring the gift of griots, West African historians or storytellers, into the 2020s to promote African stories through the medium of digital storytelling. This will provide local schools, adult education centres, and communities in our respective countries with a unique perspective that can only be fostered by learning the stories of Africa.
Together for Sustainable School
Together for Sustainable School aims to raise awareness amongyoung peopleand empower them to actively join the fight against climate change by integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into school curricula and local community projects.
To achieve it, the project will create a methodology on SDG for schools, develop teachers’ competences, and assess the new methodology. In addition, the project will work with young people directly, encouraging them to become ambassadors of sustainability. More specifically, an international youth camp will bring together young people from Lithuania, Germany, and Cyprus, who will in turn be called to organise local projects on climate in each country.
Empowering girls in STEAM through robotics and coding
The RoboGirls project focuses on building the capacity of teacher educators to organise and implement innovative hands-on STEAM activities and events (such as lesson plans, workshops, thematic school days) with the use of robotics and coding. The projects will aim to narrow the gender gap in digital technologies by empowering, encouraging and actively engaging girls to take on an active role in the STEAM fields in the digital age.
By applying robotics and coding in school curricula, the project will empower girls and boost their self-esteem and enhance their confidence in relation to the use and capabilities they think they have towards digital technologies, making them consider following a relevant career in the future and be active in the future of the digital sector.
To achieve that, RoboGirls consortium will develop innovative pedagogical material, dynamic resources, gamified tools, and organise and implement a series of blended learning trainings, events and implementations for teachers and students.
STEM education platform
The SAPPHIRE project aspires to develop a STEM education platform to provide open educational resources to young people, teachers, educators, and youth workers. It will accommodate teaching material such as lesson plans, digital toolkits, training courses and self-learning sections including learning and self-assessment tools.
Its main objective is to empower learner’s creativity and entrepreneurial skills by generating inspiring workspaces, increasing key competences, organising educational and social events, and providing personalised services to support their development. It will be used for knowledge building and sharing, aiming to help young people understand and study STEM related topics. The STEM education platform will create opportunities for European cross-border collaboration.
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