Dear all,
I would like to contact with teachers working in secondary or high distance school in order to work in a future Comenius Project.

I work in the IOC Institut Obert of Catalonia, a new project of the Ministry of Education in Catalonia (Spain).
http://www.xtec.net/ioc/cindex1024.htm

Some thematic ideas for the project are:

Using ICT in vocational education, possibilities and challenges
ICT based Teaching Learning Processes
Changes in distance learning: Tools and skills
Standards for computer-based learning materials

If you are interested in share this project, please contact with me:
Cristina Fuertes
cfuertes@xtec.cat

I am interested in joining a project like this.

We (Dartford technology College) are currently applying for vocational school status and would therefore be very interested in this sort of project

I work at university-level in Sweden, where I specialise in distance education, as well as in the application of ICT in the teaching-learning process.

If an institution like ours is eligible, then I'm interested in taking part too.

Dear David,
I should ask the National Agency if it is possible you share a Comenius Project.
I hope to ask this next week.
Thanks for your message.

Cristina Fuertes

Dear all,
This morning I was in the National Agency in Catalonia and they told me that I need more partners, because both of you are from the same country. Today, two teachers, one from Portugal and another form Italy have written to me with interested in the project.
In the case of Sweden, the told me that it is necessary to involve a Secondary school in the project, besides a University.
As I told you I am thinking in a Comenius school development school without students mobilities because in my case is difficult to involve my students, most of them work full time.

Do you know the e-twinning platform?
What do you think it is the best way to start talking about the project, this forum or it could be better another place?
Well, sorry for my mistakes in English.

Best regards,
Cristina Fuertes
cfuertes@xtec.cat




Dear all,

I think this is an excellent place to start discussing the project. If you send me the names of the 2 other interested parties I will set them up usernames on this forum and we can start discussing in earnest.

Let me know what kind of secondary school participation you're interested in, and I'm sure we'll find someone.

One potential partner which immediately springs to mind is a sixth-form college just down the road from my office called Calmare International School. They are a 'private' school, but in Sweden that means receiving the same grant per pupil as all the other schools, but having their own management. They make a big thing about vocational training, the use of ICT and language teaching (German, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese, as well as English). They have a very well-developed system of vocational training, where pupils are assigned to specific people in various local companies for part of their course.

If they were interested, it'd be quite convenient for us, since they're so close.

Dear David,
sorry for my delay, but we had a long weekend last week.
I suppose if Calmare Internacional School is interested in participate in the project, it could be possible. I don't know if there is problem with private schools in Comenius project, but I can ask to my National Agency.
I don't have experience in Comenius project I don't know all the conditions for shools and teachers.
Regards,
Cristina

Let them know that 'private' in the Swedish context doesn't mean quite the same as it does in other systems. None of the 'private' schools in Sweden is a fee-paying school. Instead they get nearly the same state grant per pupil as the local authority schools, but are run independently of the local authority school system.

Let me know what you come up with. If you want me to approach Calmare International School, it'd also be good if you could send me a document describing what you see the project as being all about. Posting it here, and sending it to me directly (my e-mail address is at the bottom of this post) would be a good idea - just in case this forum messes up the formatting in some way, but allowing other readers to see what you've got in mind.

BTW, Swedish schools break up at the end of next week and resume on 9th January.

There are other state vocational schools in Kalmar which could also be interested.

Dear all,

Sorry for no writing before, but I have been very busy after Christmas holidays.
In relation with the project, I had a meeting with my principal and also the National Agency and it seems that both of them are very interested in promote our school as coordinator of a central action in the new context of European projects.
So, if the project is a central action it is no problem that a university participates as partner.
The idea of the project seems to be a bit clear and possibly it could be about the role of teachers and students using e-learning with a pedagogical approach. I hope to finish the draft of the project next week.

With the draft I have to present the names of the partners and institutions because it could have a preparatory visit very early.
If some of you are interested please contact with me and tell me some of your ideas about the roles of teachers and students using e-learning and your profile.

Cristina Fuertes
cfuertes@xtec.cat

Since we were last in contact we've heard that our Norwegian contacts have just been awarded about €45,000 for 2007 to create a learning environment in the virtual reality world, Second Life (http://secondlife.com). We'll probably have something up and running in April or May.

Part of this project is research and evaluation and this could be something to add to your EU application.

Dear David,
as I said you, I have wrote a bit more about the project. I dont know how to make an attachment in this forum. This is the letter in order to find more partners and some ideas.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in connection with European Projects, European Cooperation on School Education. I am music teacher working in a distance secondary school in Barcelona, IOC Institut Obert de Catalunya, a new project of the Ministry of Education of Catalonia.

Before talking about the aim of the project, we would like to introduce our school. The IOC ( IES Obert de Catalunya) comes out of three existing initiatives on distance learning managed from the Ministry of Education of Catalonia: The ICESD Institut Català d’Ensenyament Secundari a Distància. (Compulsory and high school distance learning) Palau de Mar (adult distance learning) and The FP oberta (vocational distance learning).
Nowadays, The IOC counts with more than 5000 students and 70 teaching staff. The basic outline of the education and activities of the IOC are:
1) Ruled formation
a. Compulsory education
I. Graduate of secondary education (1st and 2on cycle): 2800 students
b. Non compulsory education
I. High school: 1700 students
II. Vocational education (Half and superior degree): 1000 students
2) Non ruled formation
a. Courses of preparation exams to access vocational education: 1050 students
I. CFGM (Half Vocational Education)
II. CFGS (Superior Vocational Education)

As a new project, the IOC has began to work with the idea of integrating all kinds of learning into a single institution in order to optimize resources, standardize criteria, and systematize processes of distance learning. Moreover, this project will also promote the offer of new formative activities and new learning demanded by our society as non rule formation.

For this reason, the Ministry of Education of Catalonia wants to promote the institutional positioning of the IOC in the territory, to turn it into a institution of reference which arrives to anybody who wants to learn anywhere anytime.
The IOC as a new organization does not want to develop the idea of creating a teaching institution identical to traditional education and turn it into online format. The IOC is a new and singular e-learning project approach available for supporting the improvement of teaching and learning and also increasing access, quality and equity in education in all forms and at all levels.

So the IOC’s core business is the personal educational project of the student. All the organizational process works in order to gain this cycle process. The cycle of value of the student is the essence process of the IOC. In this model, interactive training materials and resources are clearly important, but, communication and interaction between teachers and students is the key of the project changing the pedagogical process and rules of teachers and students. Teachers are the motivators and permanent tutors of learning process and students work in a collaborative environment.

For all this reasons, the aim of this project is to work with other schools and institutions about the rules of teachers and students in e-learning in a practical vision.
Goals:
• Build a collaborative community of e-learning schools and institutions
• Provide a definition of e-learning in secondary, upper secondary and vocational school in Europe
• Describe the most important differences against traditional teaching modalities.
• Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning in educational context.
• Define didactic skills and useful strategies of teaching and learning in a collaborative e-learning platform.
• Analyse the role of teachers and students using synchronic and asynchronic communication tools.
• Study how contents and e-activities should be presented.
• Define good practises of e-learning.

Activities:
• Use e-twinning as platform of communication.
• Prepare a survey or questionnaire filled by teachers and students using e-learning
• Make a dictionary of common expressions connected to e-learning.
• Write an e-book of good practises of e-learning
• Put all the results into a common website

Working language:
English
End products:
The main end product could be a training course of the European Community
Coordinator:
IOC – IES Obert de Catalunya

I'd be grateful if you could comment this project with professionals of your country interested in this kind of project. Thank you in advance for your help in this matter. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I hope you will spread my information and I look forward to meeting European partners.

Yours faithfully,

Cristina Fuertes
cfuertes@xtec.cat

Dear Cristina,

I'll certainly spread the word.

One of the contacts who comes to mind immediately is one of our hourly-paid teachers who lives in Valladolid and has been working as an Internet tutor on the side for us for nearly 10 years now. Jon (Clark) is trying to set up distance courses in Castilla y Leon, and might well have some interesting insights.

Another contact could be one of my colleagues who teaches music. One of our most popular music courses is a course in playing the guitar which is entirely on-line (together with plenty of photos and sound files we've produced ourselves). We've got about 6 on-line music courses as the moment.

I'll also get in touch with Calmare International School to see if they're interested in the project.

Yours,

David

I am still interested in taking part in this project. I have been involved in distance learning on the web since September, 1997.

Dear all,
as I told you I had a meeting with my principal, I wants that our project will be a central action, so we have a new meeting next week with our National Agency in order to clarify the founds and other interesting details.
I hope to tell you good news in a few days.

Regards,

Cristina Fuertes
cfuertes@xtec.cat