Digital Learning Across Boundaries – Developing Changemakers

Topic(s) addressed

Technology and digital literacy were in the focus centre of the project.  It also touched upon innovation, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship. All of those topics were explored through playful learning.

Target group(s)

University lecturers, students and school teachers, along with their school pupils, across five European countries were of particular interest to the project’s designers.

Methodologies

The key topics were tackled through digital learning including virtual reality and AI technologies in order to blend physical and digital environments and thus provide powerful opportunities for international cooperation. That ensued creating international teams for planning pedagogical strategies and organising three international days in the school to develop and test ideas.

Innovation environment

Social innovation activities brought about the dissolving of intercultural boundaries setting the participants on a good way to become agents of positive world change. To deal with three ‘learning across boundaries’ challenges, local cultural consultants were involved. The challenges were physical, relating to attaining new skills, personal - which were about learning through performance and public speaking and finally environmental which took the students outside traditional classrooms utilising unusual, inspiring locations.

Teachers’ role

The project activities were aimed at establishing a community of teaching professionals who would share their experiences learning together and enriching each other’s understanding of the project topics and the world around them.

Impact and output

The project had an impact in an international context through the rich learning resources provided by the intellectual outputs and via the co-creation of new knowledge in the field of technology-supported social innovation education, afforded by the international online community of practice.
 
Some of the outputs included an open OER website, three eTwinning project kits, three open online courses based on innovative digital technologies, a series of TED-style talks pitching collaborative projects and prototype solutions, a framework for supporting international collaboration days with digital technologies and a toolkit for developing changemakers in initial teacher training. More information on DLAB2 – Digital Learning Across Boundaries: developing changemakers (northampton.ac.uk)

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