BLEND-IT

The mutual problem or theme that this 3 years partnership is based on is the glue that has put together all teams from 6 countries.
How can we help our students learn how to learn? Why education is not attractive for our students?
These are the main questions of today teachers all over the world. Learning to learn involves the promotion of teamwork, synthesis of information and the development of one’s opinion.
We must help our students to learn and thus promoting cognitive and personal development.
Through this project we will prepare teaching strategies that include motivating, meaningful, collaborative and applicable to real world activities, taking into account the personal characteristics of each student. We will be guiding students in the construction of knowledge regulating learning, promoting and evaluating their progress.
Over the next three years, a group of teachers from partner institutions will be trained and they will train others also. At the end of training, they will be able to apply their own educational proposals into the virtual space that we intend to develop, in Moodle. We intend to improve their teaching practice, this way. Since the quality of teaching is a strategic priority of any institution, it is essential for us to assess the impact of Blended learning in the teaching-learning system that is being practiced in our institutions.
A blended learning approach that combines perfectly face-to-face learning and online activities will be used in order to enhance students’ learning.
Students will be challenged to view the same content from a broader perspective.
Through no-synchronized online interactions, students will practice classroom activities.
We aim at proving that students that learn in blended learning environments achieve at higher levels than students that learn only from face-to-face learning situations, because as we know students learn differently, and schools, trainers and teachers must adapt their classes in order to produce the academically successful of their learners. The main benefit is that students can work on their courses anytime and anywhere there is an Internet connection, they do not have to be insides the school, to make their tasks.
The demand for training and professional support grows continuously in educational sector, and all of them seek different type of institutions for training.
Through this project we intend to evaluate this way of teaching and learning and them transform our results into an open course applicable to all training activities carried out through the use of virtual classrooms. This course will be provided by the staff from institutions participating in the project, both online and face to face. A virtual open course for Etwinning participants the teachers are qualified to change their role in the direction of facilitators and moderators of a learning process will be supported by e-learning tools.
Some of the activities are planned to be performed individually, while others are meant to be performed by the entire group. The activities are varied, some of those that will be implemented in this project are:
1. Creating a webpage of this project that shall have following components:
• Forum: this is very important, since it is where we will have debates on different issues.
• Glossary: this one allows participant teachers and staff to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary of terms needed for a good understanding and an effective communication.
• Repertoire of learning objects
• Description of blended learning scenarios in the context of typical schools
• Sample lesson plans using blended learning.
• Guidelines for creating a BL-lesson plan and methods, strategies and activities to use
2. Coordinating with project managers from BLEND-IT project to track down the performance of the tasks in order to detect possible mismatches in defining strategies, using the tools, training courses, etc.
3. Analyze and draw conclusions.
4. Dissemination of results.
5. Exchange of ideas with members of the project as to adjust different strategies according to the results of performed research.
6. Designing interviews, questionnaires and observation tools, used to collect information on different activities and to detect strengths and weaknesses in the results, according to the proposed objectives.
7. Compare the current state of knowledge of teachers and staff regarding the skills necessary to incorporate tools and strategies for using the system Moodle with the knowledge they have had before the project.
8. Hold meetings with teachers, managers, students etc to share results and experiences.
9. It is scheduled also conducting training courses and bibliographic inquiry, to consolidate knowledge in instructional uses of educational multimedia and design applications and using Moodle.
10. Finally, the obtained results will be evaluated to draw conclusions and make recommendations on the teaching learning system based on virtual space.