The Academy is a platform where you can learn about innovation in the school and classroom through online professional development courses for teachers in primary and secondary schools.
“Every kid has an interest. Sometimes he doesn’t know what it is, sometimes he can’t articulate it. But every kid has an interest and that is a fundamental belief. It is not only about helping that kid identifying the interest but progress through that interest, become more advanced”, Diana Rhoten, Director, Digital Media and Learning Program, Social Science Research Council.Students are learning not only at school, but also in a variety of so-called non-formal and informal learning settings outside of school. Such individual learning interests could for instance include for a young person to learn a new skill like playing a guitar through youtube videos. Learning takes place when something is happening that captures the young person’s interest. “It is something that can influence you, something that brings out emotions and allows yourself to find answers to certain questions.”In this course, you will learn:what formal, non-formal and informal learning ishow to empower your students to learn in these different settings also by creating more synergieshow to use personalizing and collaborative learning as teaching approaches to empower your students in their own learning Why should we care about our students’ learning experiences in non-formal and informal settings? Here are several good reasons, and probably you can still think of others yourself.The learning taking place in non-formal and informal learning settings can be powerful as these settings force the practical value of learning.Non-formal education focuses on the process, the emotion that it brings out in you and how you are learning.Non-formal and informal learning settings can unlock students’ creative potential.Enabling students to create links between the learning in different learning settings can empower them to become the drivers of their own learning and making their learning more enjoyable and fruitful.Students that can integrate informal learning experiences (own interests) into their formal learning in the classroom will be more motivated to learn in class.Likewise, students learning 21st century skills such as learning to learn and collaborating with others can also use these new skills in informal learning settings outside of school.
The Digitally Competent Teachers for Creative Digital Students MOOC will help participants to reflect upon their digital competence for lifelong learning and to get familiar with digital technology for teaching and learning, by exploring different tools and strategies. Teachers will gain knowledge on European frameworks for digital competence and discover how to boost digital competence through European projects such as Code Week, eTwinning, or SELFIE. Teachers will also explore strategies and tools for remote teaching, digital assessment, and classroom management.The overall objective of the course is for teachers to learn how to effectively integrate technology in the classroom and ultimately reach the students to empower them to be creators of technology, rather than being only consumers.While the content of the course will be in English, national moderators in the following languages will support participants with lower levels of English: Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Swedish and Portuguese.
The European Union is committed to replacing the use of animals in science, and we need young scientists to help us achieve that goal.This real-world challenge is ideal for developing critical thinking skills, and giving context to your classes on ethics, biology, statistics, philosophy or civic studies. Finding alternatives to animal testing is not only about animal welfare; it is also the way develop the sustainable and ‘good’ science of the future.Many medicinal and toxic compounds are tested on animals before they are declared safe for human use, animals are also used in basic and applied research. But this can be costly, it can cause suffering to animals, and the results do not always to translate successfully to humans. In this course you will explore the new technologies that could make scientific tests completely animal-free in the future.You can explore the principles of the 3R's relating to animals used for scientific purposes. The 3R's stand for: Replacement; to replace animals with other methods, wherever possible. Reduction; to use fewer animals in research. Refinement; to minimise discomfort in lab animals through better housing, handling and pain relief. The MOOC will take you through these principles, and many examples on how to address them in the classroom. You will discover new ways to develop your students' critical thinking and debating skills, develop their data literacy, and enhance their understanding of science.
The MENTEP project developed TET-SAT, a new online tool for teachers to self-assess their technology-enhanced teaching, thanks to the participation of more than 7000 teachers from 10 countries to the project. Would you like to be among the first teachers in Europe to try out this new tool – and actively contribute to improving it? This MOOC offers the possibility to test the new tool and to take advantage of concrete guidance and the possibility of exchanging teaching ideas and examples online with other teachers across Europe.
Join us on this exciting course covering the hugely important topic of developing digital skills in our classrooms. Digital skills are already an essential requirement for young people to succeed in an increasingly digitized society. Not only are these skills demanded for an increasing number of jobs, they also are a requirement and a right of citizens, if they are to be functional in today’s society. Schools and teachers therefore need support to work with their students to develop a wide range of digital skills that ensure young people leaving school have the skills required by the labour market and by an increasingly digitized society. The course therefore aims to guide teachers in how to develop a range of digital skills and to introduce them to the tools and resources that are available to them. At the end of the course, teachers should be able to design lessons that focus on a range of digital skills, make use of innovative tools to assist their own and the students’ work in this area. The course is organized around thematic areas of digital skills that are relevant at all levels of primary and secondary schooling. In 6 modules it explores the definition and role of digital skills generally and then looks at specific skill areas and how to address them in the classroom. The focus of these modules is on how pedagogically the skill area can be addressed and what tools there are available to help the teachers and students.At the end of the course participants are required to prepare a final lesson project which can be submitted as part of the eSkills for Jobs Awards competition. The course is part of the eSkills 4 Jobs campaign by the European Commission where you can also find additional resources about the topi
This course invites policymakers, school heads and teachers to discuss the results of the MENTEP policy experimentation. More than 7000 teachers in 11 countries participated in the field trials that aimed at testing the impact of TET-SAT, a newly developed online tool for teachers to self-assess their technology-enhanced teaching. Thanks to the eager participation of the randomly selected teachers, MENTEP is one of the biggest experimentations in education across Europe.This course gives you an exclusive opportunity to be among the first ones in Europe to:get access to TET-SAT, a concrete tool that helps teachers to reflect on their own technology-enhanced teachinglearn about the MENTEP research results: how teachers evaluated the TET-SAT toolget detailed insights into how to run a policy experimentation with teachersget concrete examples of how you can test TET-SAT in your own country, region, city or school
Do you want to find out how games can enhance traditional teaching and learning and would like to include games elements in your classroom? This MOOC for teachers will examine the opportunities but also challenges offered by integrating games into our teaching and learning and will provide practical examples of gaming tools and activities to use in your daily teaching practice. We will be learning through a mix of video, interactive activities and discussions as well as sharing of resources.Join us in the Games in Schools 2019 MOOC to explore game-based learning in schools! This updated version of the course takes into account new resources, research, and developments in the area of game-based learning.The course is presented by Ollie Bray, who has received numerous awards for his work in the field of technology enhanced learning. After working as a teacher and headmaster in Scotland for several years, he currently holds the position of Global Director: Connecting Play and Education at the LEGO Foundation.
Research evidence shows that if leadership is based on a vision that can be shared by all staff, parents and stakeholders, it also plays a crucial role for school development and innovation. Therefore, we no longer believe that a school principal or a small group of formal school leaders can serve as the instructional leaders, nor carry the burden for an entire school community. Improving students’ learning is not possible without the interaction of teachers, parents, and pupils. Successful, engaging and empowering school leadership, which motivates and includes formal and non-formal leaders is key to bringing the change we want to see in our school.The Learning Leadership for Change: Shared Leadership in Your School course aims to foster school leadership and effective networking. The course will provide you with an opportunity to gain knowledge on the multiple aspects of shared leadership, in theory, and bring it to action, while at the same time learning from other schools practices on the topic and exchange good practices with others.During the course, we will be reflecting, discussing and sharing on the topics above. Furthermore, you will also have the opportunity to find a community of like-minded professionals who can support each other in improving their classroom practices. We will be using a variety of online tools and social media outlets to communicate with each other and to engage in a number of peer review activities, as part of the course.Join us in the Facebook group or share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #L2CMOOC.
The internet in general and social media in particular play an increasingly important role for the ways in which we socialise, we acquire information and learn. These new media require specific types of literacy from their users in order for them to take full advantage of the opportunities these digital environments offer, and to fully grasp the consequences of their behaviour online, while steering clear of any potential risks.Schools have always played a crucial part in preparing their students for the future, and in our digital society, being social media literate is a prerequisite for young people to become active and informed citizens.This MOOC will support your school in helping their students to take full advantage of the opportunities of social media in a safe and ethical way, by creating your own school strategy. Through a thorough introduction to the topic of social media literacy and the concept of strategic planning, you will then be able to tackle the social media issues most relevant to your school community.
The Future Classroom Scenarios course aims to introduce teachers, headteachers and ICT coordinators in schools to concepts, tools, and exchanges about the future classroom. The course is designed in response to the increasing challenges faced by educators around the world to accommodate the rising importance of technology in education and the impact this has on teaching and learning.The course covers six modules which introduce you to key concepts like 21st century skills and allow you to exchange with your peers about your own experiences of trying out new activities and technologies in the classroom. During the course we will also reflect and discuss the role of technology tools in the future classroom and your current teaching and learning environments. A number of tools are introduced which help the process of innovation in the school and classroom but are equally useful for your everyday teaching practices.The course is run by teachers for teachers and most of the learning will happen collaboratively so you will be asked to actively participate and share your thoughts and ideas with the other course members. We will be using a variety of tools that allow a collaborative learning process.You will also be asked to test some of the ideas and activities presented on the course in your classrooms, providing feedback about successes and challenges and helping each other in evaluating your ideas and activities.At the end of the course you will receive an electronic certificate of participation.Follow announcements on the course via Twitter #FCScourse
This course is intended for teachers and other educational professionals interested in competence-based education. The course aims to provide you with a thorough introduction to the topic, as well as make you aware of the issues and challenges related to making competence-based education a reality in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers will be given concrete tips on how to implement project-based learning, a particularly suitable method for delivering competence-based education, as well as on how to assess this type of collaborative learning.Module 1 will provide you with an introduction to the topic, looking at the importance and definition of competences as well as international frameworks; how competences are understood, expressed and implemented in various countries across Europe; and the main teaching and assessment methods associated to this approach.Module 2 will look at practical ways in which teachers can use project-based learning techniques in the classroom and beyond to develop their pupils’ competences across a variety of subjects and skills. Inspiring examples from across Europe will be provided, and possible solutions to challenges explored. There will be a special focus on how to best develop students' collaborative problem-solving skills within project-based learning.Finally, Module 3 will help you understand the assessment methods which are most suitable to competence-based approaches to learning, and will provide you with concrete advice on how to implement these various methods and in which contexts. An Irish case study will provide participants with an inspiring example of how Ireland introduced competence-based assessment in Mathematics. This module will also give participants the opportunity to learn more about assessing an important transversal skill explored in module 2 - collaborative problem solving.This course has been designed to improve your competences, so that you can in turn develop those of the young people you teach, work with or on behalf of.The material within this course has mainly been developed on the basis of the work produced by KeyCoNet - the European Policy Network on Key Competences in School Education, managed by European Schoolnet, and funded by the European Commission.You can follow us and share your ideas about the course on Twitter, using #21skillscourse. You can also join in on the discussion via our LinkedIn group on key competences in school education.We look forward to welcoming you to the course, and we hope you are as excited as we are aboutstarting this learning journey together.
This course will provide primary and secondary school teachers with ideas, free training material and resources to help them bring coding and computational thinking into the classroom with already made lessons plans. Besides, teachers will learn what is Code Week and how to participate in this initiative, that during 2019 engaged 4.2 million people in Europe and beyond. At the end of the MOOC, participants will have to organise an activity with their students or colleagues and register it in the Code Week map. After reporting the activity, participants will also get a certificate validated by the European Commission for their participation and engagement in the initiative.
Annoyed of students being distracted by their mobile phones? Tired of seeing students falling asleep after a night of gaming? Let's turn our students from passive consumers of technology into active producers of technology. Let's get them to develop apps, design games and start their own websites.Technology is everywhere, if we like it or not. And nearly all future jobs require us to understand it. To respond to this, governments are including computing in national curricula, as a subject taught at all ages but also as part of other subjects. This means the responsibility is on to us, the teachers, because we need to teach it. In the UK already every primary school teacher has to teach computing concepts and in many other countries more and more of us will be required to teach computing or at least integrate computing concepts, ideas and processes into the teacher of our subjects. So let's get ready for this.If you are a Computer Science teacher who needs new ideas, tools or resources on how to teach your subject. If you are an Art teacher who suddenly has to talk about website design, user experience and user interfaces in your subject. If you are a Biology teacher who has to teach your students how to programme sensors taking important measurements in an experiment. This MOOC is here to help you. We will be exploring the ideas, concepts, processes and skills that are important in computing and then introduce you to the tools, resources and lesson activities that can help you teach these concepts and processes in the classroom.The course is designed as an introductory course, for you to use as a starting point to explore some of the ideas and tools further. It is relevant to secondary teachers from all subjects and all levels of experience. A basic amount of knowledge on operating computers and other technology devices is expected but you don't need prior knowledge of computing. The course lasts for six weeks and requires around 2 hours of work per week. The course has been designed by teachers for teachers and will feature interviews, presentations, and activities from teachers, professors, students and computing professionals.Enrol in the course and join the discussion on our social media channels via the Facebook group and Twitter using #CScourse
AI is becoming more and more pervasive in our lives, yet little about it is taught in schools. This is why we decided to develop this new open online course (MOOC) ‘AI Basics for Schools’, that guides teachers to explore the potential and limitations of AI, and discover how AI may enable them to implement new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom. ‘AI Basics for Schools’ provides teachers with an opportunity to gain basic understanding about AI and how to integrate AI resources into their teaching with the aim to enhance student learning experience.Through this three-module course, participants will explore the basic elements of AI, learn how to define AI, look at the ways AI is already used in our everyday lives and explore the opportunities and challenges of AI for teaching and learning. They will explore resources to support students’ learning and at the same time enable them to creatively use AI to help others and to solve problems. They will discover AI-related activities that can easily be implemented in different learning environments: fully online, hybrid/blended and a physically distanced classroom. They will finally examine ethical issues behind artificial intelligence and learn how to help their students unlock the potential of AI.
Join us on this 5 week journey of exploration into the world of tablets in schools.Tablets with their simple interface, portability, speed, affordability and their variety of apps are quickly moving into schools across Europe and a growing number of teachers are experimenting with tablets or are interested in doing so.However, most of us are faced with the same questions: What rules do I need to set for the use of tablets in class? How do I deal with related administrative and technical issues? How can tablets support innovative approaches such as personalized or collaborative learning? This course does not only provide guidance on these topics but also provides a forum for you to exchange with your peers on these questions.The course aims to inspire to use tablets to foster innovative teaching and learning. In four modules it provides a general introduction to the use of tablets in schools (Module 1) and then discusses how tablets can support new learning approaches such as content creation, collaborative learning, personalized learning and the flipped classroom model (Modules 2, 3, 4).While the course will be in English, it will be supported by national course ambassadors who can provide support in your national language throughout the course. Please note that unfortunately there is not an ambassador for every EU country available. Take a look at their profiles further below to see if there is an ambassador for your country (click on their picture to see their profile). The course will be followed-up with a briefing for policy makers from national Ministries of Education where your views and ideas shared on this course will be presented. The course will therefore be a great opportunity to provide feedback to policy makers on the kind of support teachers need to successfully integrate tablets in their teaching.Successful completion of the course will be certified using digital badges and a digital certificate.Enroll now and help us spread the news by tweeting #tabletscourse and joining our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/CreativeClassrooomsLab/