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European Innovative Teaching Award
Project

WEB 2.0 Education Technologies

School: Dr. İlhami Tankut Anadolu Lises

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Topic(s) addressed

The project aimed to increase student motivation, increase the attractiveness of lessons, and turn schools into a place of discovery and entertainment by spreading innovative education technologies into every field and training process. By capitalising on student interest in technology, the project increased their passion for lessons and enabled them to explore various types of intelligence. The project aimed to encourage students to view education and training not as a process, but instead as an unlimited and pleasant journey. Also, given the ways in which information technologies today are able to cross borders, we believe that our teachers, who are responsible for the education of tomorrow’s scientists, teachers, doctors, and engineers, should be qualified to meet all EU standards, be capable of using innovative approaches in education, and be further equipped to educate internationally qualified students. By providing teachers and students with information and equipment that are in accordance with EU criteria, the project contributes to the adaptation of the education system across all European Community countries. The project was carried out with 4 partners, all of which shared similar aspirations, goals, conditions, and student age range. Through its use of innovative education technologies, the project aimed to increase student interest in research, help them improve their study and learning process, encourage them to receive critique in a constructive manner, and enhance their self-confidence via success and positive feedback. As information technologies become more commonly used across areas such as work, health, science, and social life among others, there is an impetus for their dissemination in education. Given that students primarily use information technologies for games and Internet-based communication, and less for education, the project set out to understand how education-training activities benefit from being improved as technology continues to take giant steps forward. The target of channelling innovative information technologies towards education has therefore become the primary motive of our projects.

Target groups

The project’s target group consisted of EU schools that wish to use innovative education technologies, share their experiences, and contribute to academic education. Project participants cooperated in the dissemination of innovative education technologies, as well as in the sharing of results and experiences. Primarily, target groups were made up of teenage learners (secondary school students) and their teachers, with teachers creating “educational e-contents” for their lessons. Many schools today continue to use traditional methods and approaches that focus on “Logical and Verbal” intelligence; however, students have various degrees of ability when it comes to learning, problem solving, communication, and intelligence. We believe that such traditional methods should be left behind in favour of educating individuals in an age of technology, which requires the production of methods that address the “Digital, Verbal, Visual, Musical, Physical, Social, Internal, and Natural” aspects of intelligence – including the use of novel practices. In the project’s mobilities and activities, we have aimed to provide access to every kind of intelligence – such as “Verbal” intelligence, which learns by listening, reading, writing, and speaking; “Digital” intelligence, for those who enjoy drawing graphs, schemas, and figures; “Visual” intelligence, which converts information into perceptible and visual presentations; “Physical” intelligence, an approach to enhanced learning through active participation and movement; “Social” intelligence, which derives its pleasure from group engagements; as well as “Musical,” “Internal,” and “Natural” intelligence. In total, approximately 160 teachers and students from Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy participated in the project’s mobility activities.

Methodologies

The school has a tradition of using technology in its educational processes, starting with the ITEC project, which saw teachers and students being shifted away from what were classical methods to the use of Web 2.0 tools, in order to increase student motivation, their desire to study, and their overall participation rates. The ‘WET’ project further complemented previously implemented work in different ways through the addition of features such as colours, vision, animations, vocalisations, games, smart story books, cartoons, visual effects, photo-video slides, coding, and evaluation tools in the form of quizzes and survey tools – all of which transport students into the world of technology. These digital technologies were applied across a variety of school lessons, with collaborations carried out with teachers from different disciplines through the use of various Web 2.0 tools that are suitable for multidisciplinary purposes. Furthermore, the “WET” project ensured increased active use of the Internet within the classroom setting, which made practices more interesting and instructive, yet still entertaining, creative, and open to student contribution; moreover, the project also provided school teachers with a new vision and novel competences. We discovered that although students were willing and skilful on the use of technology, their technology habits kept them from enhancing their own successes and improving their basic skills (such as critical and creative thinking, searching, questioning, problem solving, use of information technologies, and in group work). As such, the school educated its students through the use of innovative education technologies that included Web 2.0 tools such as Cram, StudyStack, Quizlet (to produce animated e-cards and games), Photopeach, Pho.to, Zoobe, Myidol (to produce animated photos), Prezi, Emaze, Slideshare, Sway, Genial.ly (to prepare presentations), Kizoa, Fantashow, Powtoon, Animoto, (to prepare video-slides), Goanimate, Storybird, Storyjumper, (to prepare animated stories), Voki, Blabberize (to give characters and avatars voices), Jigsaw (to make puzzles), Kahoot, Quiz.biz, Quizlet, Flipquiz (to make online quizzes), Issuu, Joomag, (to prepare e-books/e-magazines), Glogster, Popplet, Padlet, ThingLink (to prepare digital wallpapers, posters, and notes), Story Jumper (to make flip books), Comic Creator, Writecomics (to develop cartoons), Quizlet, Kahoot, Quizizz, Actionbound , Cram (to teach by means of gaming), Scratch, Code.org (programming and coding), Blendspace, Educreations (to develop contents), Mindmeister, Popplet, (to make mind maps), Survey Monkey, Dotstorming (to create forms and surveys), Edmodo (to create e-classes), Quiver, Aurasma , (Augmented Reality tools), QR Code Generator and Reader (QR code tools), Tagul, Getloupe (clouds of swords and pictures), Bitmoji, AutoRap (mobile games and applications), Learning Designer (to develop lesson plans), and several other tools. In total, 3 transnational meetings and 4 mobilities had been organised with a total of 160 participants. During TPMs, project partners discussed the project’s route, budget, mobilities planning, and tasks, with post-mobility activities consisting of an evaluation of the mobility (by country) and the preparation of a report on the pros and cons of the mobility and its processes. The project’s webpage was regularly updated with data, news, pictures, photos, videos, and reports, and all of the project’s final products were simultaneously exhibited across all partner schools. Lastly, both CDs and DVDs were prepared, with an e-book and e-brochure detailing the project’s development process published.  

Environments

The project addressed various actors whose primary tasks were grounded on education and training, and it was launched with the notion that learning should not only be limited to the classroom, but that it should be made possible across all aspects of life, with content prepared to suit every time and setting. Parents’ meetings were organised in halls where they were provided with information on the project, during which the project coordinator informed them of the project’s development and results. This allowed parents to observe their child’s improvement while also learning about the school’s projects. Technologies are used across a wide range of settings – from baking a cake, to completing an assignment, to navigation. In line with our mission and perspective on enhancing the use of different technologies and tools (especially in designing classrooms of the future), we believe that our project will draw greater attention to e-learning, with a host of outputs that may be used by others. In addition to participating in the mobilities, all partner schools were completely involved in the project’s activities and tasks throughout its duration. Assistance was provided by the local municipality, the Provincial Directorate of National Education, and the Provincial Directorate of Tourism (in preparation for mobilities especially with regard to hosting). The project’s website (the heart of the project) was developed by Turkey, in addition to its e-book and brochure. Italy composed the project’s theme song, Greece was responsible for the logo, and Bulgaria prepared plays on European values such as honour, freedom, diversity, democracy, and gender equality, as well as a video. All of the project’s partners searched, presented, and applied Web 2.0 tools for different aims and lessons as transnational groups in mobilities, with each partner having recorded their studies in the classroom environment.

Teachers

The project’s methodology allowed for direct contact with individuals and is a reflection of the project’s success in reaching its objectives and anticipated results. By means of our project, both teachers and students of partner schools were able to discover and implement innovative education technologies, with the results shared among them. Furthermore, the project allowed teachers to reach out to today’s youth through the use of technology. Teachers also had the opportunity to learn and apply (in and out of the classroom environment) a number of different Web tools and strategies that aimed to improve various types of intelligence – the results of which were shared among regional peers through informative meetings and seminars. Both students and teachers were given the opportunity of presenting and exhibiting their work with peers from different EU countries.  Furthermore, individuals who are interested in the school’s project and in education training now have the chance to learn and implement innovative education technologies.

Impact

Students were better able to familiarise themselves with new information technologies, achieve greater self-confidence, and enjoy growth in their studies and social skill set. Furthermore, they were introduced to the virtually limitless world of knowledge and technology, and learnt how to utilise the power of information technologies in their education journey. Students improved their skills in math, science, digital literacy, and coding through innovative Web 2.0 tools, and were now able to resolve learning issues and increase their motivation levels. Our project also enhanced youths with linguistic qualifications and digital abilities. Teacher competence in digital literacy was also improved through the use of Web 2.0 tools. The project’s outputs consisted of the website, flipbooks (e-books) detailing the project’s processes, a survey, a brochure, a poster, the logo, and sample lessons and class applications that use Web 2.0 tools https://web2educationtechnologies.weebly.com/outputs--dissemination--evaluation.html. Additionally, the "WET" project aimed to deliver on a number of outputs, including learning about school life, culture, social, and the religious customs of other European countries; emphasising peace and cooperation among cultures; improving ICT use among students and teachers for communication purposes; encouraging friendship, cooperation, and understanding amongst teachers and students of participating schools; and increasing student motivation to learn other languages. During the project, youths had the opportunity to meet other participants and respect diversity, which enhanced intercultural tolerance and cooperation towards meeting common targets. As the WET project’s activities were largely student centred, students became more active as they were carrying out activities and using Web 2.0 tools, which increased their motivation, self-confidence, willingness to attend school, and most importantly a broad understanding that they are important members of the school community. Students, by participating in peer-to-peer exchange activities, ensured the dissemination of the project’s practices. When parents noticed such positive improvements, their support for their kids increased, and they also shared their personal experiences with other parents – resulting in the dissemination of the project’s results among other families. The school management actively supported the integration of the project’s acquisitions and that of the European educational system into its curricula. This resulted in an increase in the quality and efficiency of the educational process, data, teaching materials, and samples provided in the project’s website – all of which are open to interested users and widely applicable. Examples of good practice on teaching approaches and techniques were also added to the local patrimony (facilitating integration with the European agenda). Participating institutions sourced the best teaching instruments and solutions towards resolving school problems, increased the quality of the school’s education processes, discovered new approaches to school management, and raised their prestige within the local community through their participation in an international project, thus serving as a successful model for other local institutions. Teachers were able to active participate in intercultural and multicultural education, improved their learning skills, identified and compared European and national values, and improved their motivations for the learning of different languages. Teachers also increased the attractiveness of the learning process, developed different teaching methods and teaching materials, and facilitated their own personal growth by interacting with teachers from other European countries. Furthermore, they improved teaching competences relating to the use of new technologies, which were innovatively applied to the school’s curricula through teamwork and interactive participation. Each partner institution announced and introduced the project to their respective schools, and to teachers in the region, district, city, country, and the broader European Union community, who may be directly or indirectly interested in education and training. All partner schools displayed the ‘WET’ project’s activities, applications, and outcomes on a school display board for the benefit of students, teachers, and visitors. Also, a number of information meetings were organised for students, parents, and the school staff, with invitations sent to other schools and teachers, all of whom were then informed via presentations about the project and its results following its two-year process. Products created by partner schools were exhibited and shared in each country, and partner schools’ websites were used to display the project’s activities and events. All of the project’s pictures and documents were shared on the project web blog, Facebook group, and school website, with its outcomes and products published in local and regional newspapers and TVs. The project’s activities were presented at pedagogical meetings, as well as local and national teacher and school meetings. Annually, a short documentary on the European Union is prepared and displayed at each partner school through the use of Web 2.0 tools on May 9 to commemorate Europe Day: https://web2educationtechnologies.weebly.com/european-day-celebration.html. To mark Erasmus Day 2019, we presented, exhibited, and introduced our project at Akdeniz University, Turkey; we also presented the project and its practices at an international symposium known as UPUES (International “from Project to Application” Education Symposium), organised by Necmettin Erbakan University, for which an academic paper was written for publication in 2 academic magazines.

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Project category
Secondary education
Project year
2021

Stakeholders

Participants

51 Secondary School "Elisaveta Bagryana"

Address
Bulgaria

5th Geniko Lykeio Karditsas

Address
Greece

Istituto di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore E. Fermi

Address
Italy