Partners Comenius Project

[cristina fuertes]

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

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