• Active online learning
• Online group work
• Recording professional development through evidence of competences and qualification online.

After research on user requirements (WP1) and course piloting (WP4) we were aware of issues that are the most critical elements for VET teachers: collaboration, practice, and competences. The workshops were designed in reference to evet2edu e-course and based on its key elements: the concept of e-tivities, social learning and evidence-based learning.

We had in mind the blended context as VET teachers meet with learners at schools on regular basis. Therefore, the challenge for us was to prepare the workshop in such a form that would be the most usefull for our audience. During workshops we worked with active methods. The focus was put on designing engaging and authentic activities enhanced by ICT. We tried to stress that an online activity can be a small exercise which is possible to be accopplished by mixing face-to-face learning and online tools. Such approach we offered in Active online learning and Online group work. In both workshops we based on Gilly Salmon’s concept of e-tivity.

Teachers in small groups were brainstorming and disussing ideas for an activity enhanced by ICT. After that they worked out the idea in more details to finish the session with final outcome – designed activity. Groups exchanged their work and we discussed it all together collecting feedback on a flipchart.

In each group teachers developed their learning designs for students from VET schools, for instance activities required group work: a public park/playground planning, SWOT analysis of productional process; and individual activities: preparation of menu for vegetarian; developing mindmap with 7 new wonders of the world.

During the third path Recording professional development through evidence of competences and qualification online teachers were asked to identify their competences and map them with evidence. They produced digital evidence and built a draft of their e-portfolio.

We also proposed simple online tools that support individual learners’ work and collaboration among students. Padlet occured to be the most favourable tool in each workshops’ group.

It is very simple online board, easy to set up (without reqistering and logging into). As a consequence of its simplicity, Padlet is very flexible technology and can be used in every kind of activity that we can imagine. For instance, we used it to organise information around the workshops (schedule, agenda, deadlines, futher steps, links to reference materials, etc). Our teachers from Active online learning and Online group work wrote Padlet into their learning designs as learning environments where their students were expected to work/colaborate.

What is more Padlet was also used during the third workshop path Recording professional development through evidence of competences and qualification online where teachers built their e-portfolio and were amazed by its easiness and a range of possibilities in the same time.

We also decided to provide videoconference for teachers to give them a chance to experience this form of online activity. We met two times to talk about their projects and show them tool for online meeting.

From evaluation we know that all 3 workshops were ranked as very effective and engaging. We hope that Polish VET teachers have gained basic designing skills and knowledge where to dig deeper in the field of technology-enhanced learning.

We wrote a short summary after the meeting earlier before, but now it is the time for refreshing our memories from efficient cooperation, engaging discussions and social activities. Again thanks to Norwegian colleagues from HIST we can share with you short video from that memorable meeting.

To paraphrase Agnieszka, we would like to say from our heart “big THANK YOU” to teachers from Obrotna Technicna Skola. “We felt at home”

Both resources are downloadable from evet2edu repository in 9 languages: English, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Spanish, Italian and Norwegian. The original course was also open on Moodle platform where all localised versions are accessible as OER and can be browsed with no registration/login.

For more details, visit evet2edu repository.

The idea of such a meeting had emerged during one of our videoconference in module 8. First the suggestion was to organise a closing video meeting to celebrate the success end of the course, but then one teacher asked why not to meet in real? And so it was.

It didn’t take much time to set the poll with dates of the meeting and after a while we already knew who was coming and when we were going to see each other. 6 teachers declared to take part in the meeting and all they arrived.

We spent 4 hours chatting and discussing in a friendly atmosfere. We were keen on teachers’ feelings and reflection after the course and they were very interested in our future plans in e-learning. We told them about evet2edu workshops not-scheduled yet but planned initially on June. We also asked teachers about courses they may need to address well our course offer.

This was definitely our first face-to-face meeting, but hopefully not the last one! We all declared to keep in touch and inform each other about VET related initiatives, projects and other events. So we all stay tuned

Polish learners had already created 21 videos gathered in playlist within the official eVET2EDU channel. The plan is to create different playlists for each partners’ country with videos from Module 5. So more will come.

From the previous blog post you  already know the magnificent promotional video from Online EDUCA Berlin 2013 which was created by our Norwegian colleagues from HIST. This is another thing that can be found on evet2edu YouTube channel. If you are interested how we were working during 3rd meeting in Palermo or would like to see how Spanish team conducted the videoconference in Module 3, you will find recording from these events on YouTube as well. YouTube here we come!

Have a nice watching

Our working space, and future learning environment is based on Moodle. On Moodle eVET2EDU 9 courses will be available for piloting and in future as open courses under Creative Commons BY licence.

We have decided to add to our course three new modules:

1. e-portfolio – this module will be horizontal one. We are going to incorporate e-portfolio process as a framework for the whole course. By this we mean evidence-based approach to design each module.
2. designing and developing resources (focus on tools for development video/audio resourses, cartoons, infographics, posters, graphs, tools for publishing resources)
3. re-using exisiting resources (focus on Open Educational Resources, Creative Commons, repositories and tools for searching and re-using resources)

The main foucs of the meeting is the online course adaptation (Workpackage 3) and structuring the final reaport from our interviews and desk research on best practices (Workpackage 1). The first day is going to be very active. We have tight agenda and plan to discuss project target group, summarise and conclude research on VET training needs with the scope of the course. This will lead us to identification of the missing parts of the course based on results from WP1. What we assume to bring about is a map with draft structure of the adapted online course. We will take our time to discuss also a course framework: duration, mode, time scope, innovative ideas that can be incorported into the course like as: technologies, badges, ECTS, openness.

During the second day we are going to work together on definition of objectives and results of the missing modules, conceptual framework and methodology (models, approaches) and detail drafting one exemplary module as well. We are going to think also about testing plan (Workpackage 4) which is about conducting pilot courses in each partner country. Finally issues regarding to quality and dissemination means will be analysed and planned ahead.

Next news directly from the meeting place with some extra photos  Nos vemos!