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Author: Chara Pilidou

YouthASD Commemorates World Autism Day

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Project News.

YouthASD, in cooperation with CARDET, has just released a newsletter highlighting the activities and events organized across Europe to commemorate World Autism Day. The partners, from Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Denmark, and Greece, have joined forces for YouthASD Erasmus+ project to raise awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and promote the inclusion of individuals with ASD in the workforce and society as a whole.

We wish to highlight that autism is not a linear condition, but rather a diverse spectrum, each individual with ASD is unique, possessing their own capacities, needs, and interests. Therefore, personalized and specialized support tailored to different stages of their life cycle is necessary to promote their social participation.

To better address this, one of the principal objectives of the 2023 ASD campaign is to draw attention to the variability of the autism spectrum, alongside promotion of social recognition and the sense of belonging to the group. Check out the newsletter to learn more about YouthASD’s efforts or visit the website to stay up to date with the upcoming events. 

Training and Equipping Young Accessibility Ambassadors for the European Projects

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

The main motive behind Way2Go has been to encourage youth to participate in different projects Europe-wide by equipping them with online and networking tools that will help them feel prepared for participation and confidence in their talents and knowledge.

Way2Go also aims at equipping youth workers and other stakeholders with necessary skills through training camps to prepare them for self-assessment before engaging youth with disabilities and/or disadvantaged backgrounds in their activities.

The main deliverables of WAY 2 GO project are:

  • online platform and app,
  • skilled and trained Youth Accessibility Ambassadors, and

 functional network of project seekers of mixed abilities and open, accessible, and inclusive organisations to partner up and secure fully accessible Erasmus and ESC projects

Building Resilience and Mindfulness in Youth

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

BENEFIT is a project focusing on empowering youth workers and young individuals to build resilience and strengthen their mental health, improve their well-being and support their inclusion in the labour market and society.

BENEFIT puts forward a comprehensive plan to empower youth workers and youth on mental wellbeing and further youth employability. Following a participatory approach it will develop and make available catered tools for youth to identify and overcome mental strains that derive from challenges in the labour market as well as resources to educate and empower youth workers to offer mental-health informed support. All its work will be available via an interactive eLearning environment.

The main results of the BENEFIT project will be:

-A Toolkit on Mental Wellbeing for Youth

-A Training Package for Youth Workers on Mental Health Informed Youth work

-An Interactive eLearning Environment

-At least 100 Youth will participate in trainings and workshops of the project

-At least 250 Youth workers will participate in trainings and info events of the project

-5 Information and Dissemination events

-More than 10,000 youth workers and youth will be engaged via its work and actions

Empower Refugee Women through XR supported Language learning

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

In many EU countries, linguistic education is limited and generally designed to let refugees reach only a basic level of language knowledge. As a consequence, more appropriate materials and methods are needed. Textbooks and lessons should be built on refugees’ needs and daily life in order to provide immediate and useful help to their daily needs.

For example, language lessons should provide basic lexical knowledge, covering issues such as the asylum procedure, documents, medical needs, job seeking, etc. (Bianco & Cobo, 2019). The importance of education relies on recognizing their qualifications and their overcoming of language barriers, increases the potential of refugees to contribute to the socio-economic progress of the receiving country and thus avoid marginalization (Marcu, 2018).

The project aims at involving a second target group which is represented by women with fewer opportunities. Women with fewer opportunities may be women with low skills as well as women that face discrimination and fewer opportunities in a professional and educational world based on their age, sexual orientation, abilities, skills, educational background, professional background, family background etc.

Volumetric 3D Teachers in Educational Reality

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

Vol3DEdu aims to enhance the purposeful use of eXtended Reality (XR) digital technologies in education for teaching, learning, assessment and engagement.

This includes the development of Volumetric 3D educational teaching content, advance digital pedagogy and expertise in the use of digital tools for teachers, including accessible and assistive technologies and the creation and innovative use of 3D digital education content in current practices.

Equally, it includes developing the XR digital skills and competences for teachers in EU and beyond. Particular attention will be given to the free accessibility of toolkits and use from teachers by underrepresented regions. The created digital content will contribute to the objectives of the “Opening up Education” initiative, designed to boost innovation and digital skills in schools and universities to facilitate Open Learning Environments (opportunities to innovate for teachers and learners) and Open Educational Resources (OER: opportunities to use open knowledge for better quality and access).

Furthermore, the project will support multilingualism within the educational content production, which is a forefront aspiration for diversity and inclusion. The tools available will enhance internationalisation of XR Education for teachers’ training as they cater for the growing use of digital learning, flexible learning pathways, 3D environment creativity in line with educational practices needs and objectives.

The Volumetric digital content inclusion follows the digital needs of generation Z students, which has evolved in higher speed than the digital competences of the educators.

The COVID-19 crisis shed light on the importance of digital education for the digital transformation that Europe needs and Vol3DEdu will enable the transformations and change at teacher level leading to digitally improved XR approaches.

EduChampions | Fostering edupreneurship to embrace learners’ diversity

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

The EduChampions project aims at nourishing edupreneurship and championing innovative, active, learner-centred pedagogy practices leveraged by a meanigful use of digital resources for learning, thus creating conditions to effectively address learners’ diversity and foster inclusive and equitable approaches in educational settings. The project recalls the crucial role of educators in driving and sustaining innovation and flexibility of opportunities in the VET ecosystem and beyond.

To accomplish these goals, EduChampions partners will create an inspirational interactive board of edupreneurs stories, a learning path for educators and edupreneurs on pedagogy, technology, and edupreneurship, and a set of five online learning stations on an online open-access hub to enable flexible learning paths for those willing-to-be edupreneurs and champions for inclusive, equitable, and diversity-responsive practices in education.

Promoting Astronomy in primary and secondary education

Written by Chara Pilidou on . Posted in Project News.

The ARISTARCHUS project aims to promote Astronomy in primary and secondary education and engage learners in interdisciplinary and inclusive activities under STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). Building on the Human Orrery, an embodied learning tool, learners will explore fundamental laws of physics and mathematics concepts in an attractive and meaningful way.

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