reAct methodological design

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

GUIDELINES The methodological design for the reAct project

Deliverable 2

Dissemination level: public

Grant contract nº 511709-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP

May 2011

In partnership with

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

reAct Project – Methodological Approach Guidelines 2

reAct – reactivating teachers and learners

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH GUIDELINES

Valencia-SPAIN

This manual was edited the 31th of May 2011.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

If you have any question regarding this book or the Project from which it originated:

Tel. 0034-961323470 ext.18 - Fax 0034-961324269 [email protected]

Project : reAct – reactivating teachers and learners Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 Project Number 511709-LLP-1-2010-1ES-KA3-KA3MP Project web site: www.reactproject.eu Project Coordination: Amparo Ferrando(ES) with the support of Celia Ruíz(ES). Participants: Kiriakos Dimitrious(GR), Elmo de Angelis(IT), Elvira Reitshammer(AT), Till Mayrhofer(AT), Pieter de Vries(NL), Thieme Hennis(NL), Anabela Luis(PT). Oficial address: SERVEF- Avda. Navarro Reverter 2 – 46004 Valencia (Spain)

Contact address: CSF-CRNFP - C/Ferrol s/n Polígono Industrial Fuente del Jarro – 46988 Paterna

(Spain)

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 WP2 Objectives ................................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Organization of this document .......................................................................................... 7

2 Pedagogical Framework .............................................................................................................. 8 2.1 General Learning Theories ............................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 The Social Nature of Learning .............................................................................. 9 2.1.2 Learning, Understanding, and Control ................................................................ 10 2.1.3 Connectivism, the Role of Technology ................................................................ 10 2.1.4 Networked Learning and Learning in Communities ............................................. 11

3 Collaboration .............................................................................................................................. 13 3.1 Elements of Collaborative Learning ............................................................................... 13 3.1.1 The Teacher's Role in Collaborative Learning .................................................... 14 3.1.2 The Role of Technology in Collaborative Learning ............................................. 14

3.2 Learning and Motivation ................................................................................................. 14 3.3 Creativity in Education .................................................................................................... 15 3.3.1 Promoting Creativity in the Classroom ............................................................... 16 3.3.2 Play and Creativity .............................................................................................. 17

3.4 Characteristics of Effective Learning Environments ....................................................... 17 3.5 What Does this Mean in Practical Terms ........................................................................ 18 3.5.1 reAct Teachers to Adopt a Learner Centered Approach ..................................... 19 3.5.2 Fostering Motivation ........................................................................................... 19 3.5.3 Group Oriented Activities .................................................................................... 19 3.5.4 Using Technology ............................................................................................... 19 3.5.5 Professional Development of Teachers .............................................................. 20

4 Experiences from other Projects ................................................................................................ 21 4.1 UrWay.nl Experiences .................................................................................................... 21 4.1.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 22 4.1.2 Coaches and Organization ................................................................................. 22

4.2 The Hole-in-the-wall Project ........................................................................................... 23 4.2.1 The potential of self-organized learning .............................................................. 23 4.2.2 Limits of Self-organizing Learning ...................................................................... 24

4.3 The Knowmads Initiative ................................................................................................ 24 4.3.1 Organization and Program .................................................................................. 24 4.3.2 Methodologies .................................................................................................... 25 4.3.3 Pedagogical Principles ....................................................................................... 25 4.3.4 Peer-Assessment & Reflection ........................................................................... 26 4.3.5 Client-Assessment .............................................................................................. 26 4.3.6 Autonomy ............................................................................................................ 26 4.3.7 International ........................................................................................................ 26 4.3.8 Co-create/Collaborate ......................................................................................... 26

4.4 Findings from Workpackage 1 ........................................................................................ 27 4.5 What Does this Mean in Practical Terms ........................................................................ 29 4.5.1 Trust as a Basic Value ........................................................................................ 29 4.5.2 Blending Communication Channels .................................................................... 29 4.5.3 Flexibility in Pedagogical and Organizational Design ......................................... 29

5 Implementations in Local Contexts ............................................................................................ 30


5.1 The Austrian Pilot 1 ........................................................................................................ 30 5.1.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 30 5.1.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 31 5.1.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 31 5.1.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project .............................................................. 31 5.1.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools ......................................................... 31

5.2 The Greek Pilot 1 ........................................................................................................... 32 5.2.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 32 5.2.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 32 5.2.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 32 5.2.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project .............................................................. 33 5.2.5 Preliminary Choice for Specific Activities and Tools ........................................... 33 5.2.6 Issues to be Decided .......................................................................................... 33

5.3 The Italian Pilot ............................................................................................................... 33 5.3.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 33 5.3.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 34 5.3.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 34 5.3.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project .............................................................. 34 5.3.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools ......................................................... 35

5.4 The Spanish Pilot 1 ........................................................................................................ 35 5.4.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 35 5.4.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 35 5.4.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 36 5.4.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project .............................................................. 37

5.5 The Portuguese Pilot 1 ................................................................................................... 38 5.5.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 38 5.5.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 38 5.5.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 38 5.5.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project .............................................................. 38 5.5.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools ......................................................... 39 5.5.6 Issues to be Decided .......................................................................................... 39

5.6 The Dutch Pilot 1 ............................................................................................................ 39 5.6.1 Target Group ....................................................................................................... 39 5.6.2 Teachers Involved ............................................................................................... 39 5.6.3 Course Details .................................................................................................... 40 5.6.4 Pedagogy: related to the reAct Project ............................................................... 40 5.6.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools ......................................................... 40 5.6.6 Issues to be Decided .......................................................................................... 41

6 The reAct Methodological Design .............................................................................................. 42 6.1 The Seven Design Principles ......................................................................................... 42 6.2 Organizational Strategy .................................................................................................. 43 6.2.1 Assumptions ....................................................................................................... 43

6.3 Some Examples of Specific Activities ............................................................................. 44 6.3.1 Activities Fostering Independence in the Learning Process ............................... 44 6.3.2 Specific Activity: Profiling .................................................................................... 46 6.3.3 Specific Activity: Online games ........................................................................... 47 6.3.4 Research & Learning .......................................................................................... 50 6.3.5 The Creative Tool Studio .................................................................................... 51

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7 Research Activities ..................................................................................................................... 56 7.1 Partner Involvement ....................................................................................................... 56


1 Introduction The fundamental goal of the reAct Project is to pilot and experiment radical changes in pedagogical approaches of non-formal education. It aims at reducing the number of dropouts through leveraging motivation and agency of learners. Instead of the curriculum being the major factor for instructional teaching, the reAct project aims at improving the students’ capacity to learn, including both cognitive and affective aspects. The students’ motivation and ownership of his/her learning will be the main driver for organizing teaching practices that should lead to better learning results, higher efficacy, and higher return on investment. This document constitutes the reAct Work Package 2 deliverable. It describes a common educational view and agreement on how to execute the planned pilots, leaving room to both local conditions and circumstances of each partner institution, and a shared interest in innovative teaching and learning approaches using ICT, meanwhile addressing the project’s goals. The document has been authored in collaboration with all partners, and led by Delft University of Technology and SERVEF.

1.1 WP2 Objectives Work package 2 focuses on the design of the methodological approach using the data from the profiling work package. It constitutes of the following tasks: Overall Approach: in this task the overall approach will be defined, this will include the overall structure and general methodological considerations, support guidelines for collaboration and creative activities, and guidelines relating to activities and support for the development of metacognitive and critical thinking skills. Design of Activities: all partners will take part. Every partner will develop a specific set of activities corresponding to the different stages of the approach (see WP4). The guidelines of the methodological design aim at providing suggestions for the educational background to be implemented and suggestions for specific activities to be undertaken during the pilot 1. Both the overall pedagogical approach and the specific activities will be revised after the pilots 1 for evaluation and revision and adjustments of activities in the pilot 2. Work package 2 is linked with work package 3, which constitutes of the collection and description of tools to support the methodological design. The objective of WP3 is to provide a range of tools learners and teachers can use in the approach according to their needs rather than imposing an institutional environment on them. The idea is that they can integrate the tools provided into their personal learning environments (understood as the range of people, resources, spaces and sources they use to learn). Because it is difficult to develop these two work packages independently, this document will also contain suggestions for tools to support the defined activities. This document is the result of contributions by all partners involved, and has been coordinated by Delft University of Technology and SERVEF. The document includes a review of educational literature that concerns different theories and views on learning, motivation, creativity, and collaboration. In addition to literature findings, the document reflects partners’

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experiences in projects such as the Urway Project (NL), and the results from the national surveys from Work Package 1. Implementation of any strategy or methodological design becomes more effective when it fits to local contexts, issues, and values. Therefore all partners describe their local context for pilot 1 within a fixed format. We took these descriptions as input for the methodological design presented in Chapter 4. Finally, we propose a list of possible activities to be conducted by each partner.

1.2 Organization of this document This document consists of two major parts. The first part (chapters 2-4) describes the pedagogical framework, which will underpin the actions of the reAct partners during the pilots. It includes also the outcomes of the interviews with all partners focusing on the local ambitions, circumstances, and restrictions related to the execution of the pilots. From these theoretical and practical issues, consequences will be drawn with respect to the approach and strategy to be taken for the pilots in the various countries. The second part (chapter 5) describes suggestions for a strategy including concrete specific activities that will help teachers and students to work in an innovative way. These activities have been subject to discussion among the reAct partners, are specific enough to provide guidance to those who will implement them, and generic enough to be adapted to local context.


2 Pedagogical Framework This chapter provides a literature analysis addressing general learning theories, and with special emphasis on motivation and learning in the Internet age. It offers an overview of underpinning theoretical backgrounds that will help reAct partners to take a shared view on why we are willing to change teaching practices for the target groups we deal with. From the literature overview implications will be drawn for the methodological design that is aimed at promoting innovative learning in the reAct Project.

2.1 General Learning Theories Although a variety of learning theories have been developed over time, three major schools can be discerned. The earliest of these was behaviorism, which arose in the early 20th century. In the fifties and sixties cognitivism and social constructivism took root. Below these learning theories are explained shortly : • Behaviorism is about automating certain actions due to repetition and external stimuli.

Learning from a behaviorist standpoint revolves around practicing and training until automatic execution without thinking takes over. Examples of behaviorist learning are repeating math tables, applying mechanical formulae, hitting a ball, driving a car, or even training in a flight simulator. Behaviorism explains learning without referring to mental processes. It refers in general to low-level learning experiments focusing largely on reflexes by ‘drill and practice’ and ‘instructional cues’.

• Cognitivism considers the human mind an input-output system for information. From a cognitivist standpoint, if learners can apply certain rules, concepts and knowledge, e.g. of procedural steps in different scenarios, than the transfer of such knowledge has occurred. Cognitivists focus on the mental processes of learning, while behaviorists consider thinking a part of behavior.

• Constructivism is based on the premises that a learner actively constructs his or her own understanding through reflection on individual experiences. Knowledge is not transferred from one individual to another, but the learner constructs his own mental models based on hypotheses and experiences.

The illustration below shows development of learning theories in the 20th century. These three approaches are acknowledged as the three traditional strands in pedagogy. The following paragraphs will elaborate on more recent developments.

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Figure 1 – Traditional strands in learning and pedagogy

2.1.1 The Social Nature of Learning Constructivist educational theory focuses on concept development and deep understanding, rather than behaviors or skills, as the goals of instruction (Amory & Seagram, n d). Personal development and deep understanding happens through the construction of meaning by the learner self, not through transmission from one person (the teacher) to another (the learner). The fundamental principle of constructivism is that learners actively construct knowledge through interactions with their environment (Hout-Wolters, Simons, & Volet, 2000; Rieber, 1996). Therefore learners are viewed as constructing their own knowledge of the world. For effective learning, knowledge should be uniquely constructed by people through play, exploration and social discourse with others. Learning objectives presented in constructivist learning environments should be firmly embedded in context, and should, at least in some way, represent every day life situations. Learners should also accept responsibility for their

Behaviourism (from 1920) • Learning happens when a correct response is shown following a specific environmental stimulus • Learning is detected by observing a person or animal over time • Emphasis is on observable and measurable behaviour • Learner’s mind is a black box; what happens inside is unknown • Emphasis is on relationships between environment and behaviour • Instruction makes use of effects and reinforcers for learning behaviour • Instruction is based on change of behaviour for better purpose • Cues are triggers to change behaviour and its conditions are arranged.

Cognitivism (from 1940) • Learning is the change of a knowledge state of the mind • Knowledge acquisition is a mental activity which is encoded and structured internally by the learner

• Learner is viewed as an active participant in the learning process • Emphasis is on learning bodies of knowledge • Emphasis on structuring, organising and sequencing information to facilitate optimal processing • Focus is on learners’ memory Examines the mental structure and processes related to learning • Learning is viewed as an active process that can be influenced by the learner

Constructivism (from 1970) • Learners builds personal construct based on experiences and interactions • Knowledge is embedded in the applied context (authentic tasks in meaningful realistic settings) • Creating new and situation specific understandings by binding knowledge from multiple sources onto the task

• Assumption that many ways (multiple perspectives) of structuring may be followed • Assumption that the learner’s meaning is unique rather than an existing object on itself


own learning and be self-motivated to explore different knowledge domains. (Amory & Seagram, n d) The central point of social-constructivism is an individual's making meaning of knowledge within a social context (Vygotsky & M. Cole, 1978). Learning as a social practice is well established and dialogue is one of the corner stones of social constructivism. This makes online communities such potentially effective places for learning. The interactions in online communities is being maintained through a sense of community and social capital through information flow, altruism, reciprocity, collective action, identities, and solidarity to support the development of democracy (Ackerman et al., 2004; Bouman et al., 2007; Kollock, 1999; McLure-Wasko & Faraj, 2005). These are central elements that need attention in an online social learning context.

2.1.2 Learning, Understanding, and Control Historically, education has focused more on memory than understanding. An emphasis on understanding leads to one of the primary characteristics of current theories of learning: its focus on the processes of knowing (Piaget & Cook, 1952; Vygotsky & M. Cole, 1978). Humans are viewed as goal-directed agents who actively seek information. They enter a learning process with a range of prior knowledge, skills, beliefs, and concepts that significantly influence what they notice about the environment and how they organize and interpret it (Lave, 1988; Lave & E. Wenger, 1991). This, clearly, can have both positive and negative consequences for the learning process and their abilities to remember, reason, solve problems, and acquire new knowledge. Effective learning environments, effective support systems for learning, and effective teachers therefore take into account the background of a learner. New developments in the science of learning also emphasize the importance of helping people take control of their own learning. Since understanding is viewed as important, people must learn to recognize when they understand and when they need more information. Effective learning environment therefore focus on sense-making, self-assessment, and reflection on what worked and what needs improving (Paris & Winograd, 2003; Siemens, 2005; G Stahl, 2003; Gerry Stahl, Koschmann, & Suthers, 1999).

2.1.3 Connectivism, the Role of Technology Widely adopted learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, and combinations of them, do not sufficiently explain the effect of technology in our lives and learning activities. George Siemens and Stephen Downes have attempted to explain learning in a digital age by combining and enhancing different learning views, and developed Connectivism (Downes, 2005; Siemens, 2005; 2006). An important distinction from social constructivism is the emphasis on the fact that knowledge does not need to be internalized and emphasizes that learning also happens outside a person’s mind. Siemens argues that in the Information Age the learning process concerns activities such as synthesizing and recognizing patterns, meaning making, and forming connections between specialized communities. Know-how and know-what is supplemented with know-where as the understanding of where to find the knowledge needed. Connectivism addresses learning outside the person, knowledge stored in databases or other electronic information holders accessible through the Internet. It describes a form of knowledge and a pedagogy based on

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the idea that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections and that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. This implies a pedagogy that seeks to describe 'successful' networks, as identified by their properties, such as diversity, autonomy, openness, and connectivity; and seeks to describe the practices that lead to such networks, both in the individual and in society (Downes, 2005). Connectivism extends the notion of learning as a personal, internal change (Illeris, 2004) to a network change: Non-human elements act as actors in the network and the medium itself is part of wider networks. To be able to work in a network, an individual must be able to outsource tasks, must be able to keep track of connected resources, must be able to value information, context and sources, and must be able to cooperate with others (Siemens 2006).

2.1.4 Networked Learning and Learning in Communities Learning is becoming a lifelong, self-directed and collaborative effort, in which one engages with people and finds resources online. There is a need for pedagogies that adopt a more inductive, collective pedagogy that takes advantage of the collaborative and participative spirit of our era and the potential of the Internet to connect people, link information sources, and support creativity. Rather than individual learning based on competition and hierarchy, we propose a more networked model of learning, because it allows learning from peers, and stimulates cooperation, partnering, and mediation (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009). Networked learning focuses on interconnectedness between people and between people and resources (M. de Laat & Lally, 2003; M. de Laat, 2006; Veldhuis-Diermanse, Biemans, Mulder, & Mahdizadeh, 2006; Vries, 2008). Technology is used to integrate delivery of knowledge with interaction, communication and application (Jones & Steeples, 2001). The concept of Communities of Practice (Etienne Wenger, 2000) is integrated in Networked Learning, because learning practices and social practices are interconnected, the learning practices emerge from participants rather than be imposed by facilitators, learners are involved in concrete practical actions together, learning is not designed, rather designed for, variation in levels of expertise can expand the group’s learning, networked learning needs to support visits to “otherness” (Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkarainen, 2004). Wenger (2009) identifies four components for social participation in learning: Meaning: a way of talking about an individual’s ability to experience life and the world as meaningful. Practice: a way of talking about shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain individuals in a mutual engagement in action. Community: a way of talking about the social configurations in which an individual’s enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and its participation is recognizable as competence. Identity: a way of talking about how learning changes an individual and creates a personal history, or learning biography (Diepstraten 2006), in the social and societal situations. In communities, learning means moving from the peripheral (lurking, being introduced into processes, people, etc) into the center (sharing expertise, making decisions). Peripheral participants do not accumulate knowledge and skills but are introduced in processes, routines, networks, relevant issues, and approaches within the community. “The individual


learner is not gaining a discrete body of abstract knowledge which (s)he will then transport and reapply in later contexts. (…) There is no necessary implication that a learner acquires mental representations that remain fixed thereafter, not that the ‘lesson’ taught consists itself in a set of abstract representations” (Allert, 2004). Paavola, Lipponen and Hakkarainen explain the “knowledge-creation” metaphor of learning as follows; “Learning is seen as analogous to processes of inquiry, especially to innovative processes of inquiry where something new is created and the initial knowledge is either substantially enriched or significantly transformed during the process” (Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkarainen, 2004). Hence, learning goes beyond the information given. Since traditional models of distance learning have not inspired researchers and teachers to develop innovative pedagogical practices, current research and development work in the field has turned towards creating multi-faceted pedagogical practices, utilizing ICT, that can support learners in their efforts to engage in deeper-level learning and interaction (G Stahl, 2003). Allert argues that in modern knowledge societies, there is a need for scenarios that focus on collaborative processes of creating innovative knowledge (Allert, 2004). This type of learning comprises of open, ill-structured problem solving processes, focuses on communication and collaboration. Processes of knowledge construction and shared meaning making occur increasingly in virtual environments, such as games, online communities and forums. Stahl refers to learning as shared meaning making, which is not understood as a psychological process which takes place in individuals' minds but as an "essentially social activity that is conducted jointly - collaboratively -- by a community, rather than by individuals who happen to be co-located". Meaning is not transferred from one thinker to another, but is constructed.

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3 Collaboration Collaborative learning involves the participation of two or more individuals in the search for information, the exploration or other activities of many different kinds aimed at achieving a better understanding or shared understanding of a concept, problem or situation. Collaborative learning refers to learning that takes place during work in formal or informal groups. The goal of collaborative learning is to induce participants to the construction of knowledge through exploration, discussion, negotiation and debate (Hsu, 2002). The teacher's role is to guide and facilitator this process of communication and exploration of knowledge. In collaborative learning situations the contribution to the group is not competitive. It involves a positive interdependency, the achievement of an outcome is more important than individual contributions.

3.1 Elements of Collaborative Learning The elements of collaborative or cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson) have been widely adopted in teaching practice mainly in e-learning and are appropriate for the methodology proposed in the reAct project: Positive Interdependence: members of a group seek a common goal and share resources and information. Promotion of interaction: group members help each other to work efficiently and effectively by the individual contribution of each member. Individual responsibility: each group member is responsible for their individual contribution and the way that fees contribute to the learning of all Skills and job skills group: each member must communicate, support others, and resolve conflicts constructively with other member Positive interaction: every one must maintain a good cooperative relationship with others and be willing to give and receive feedback and constructive criticism on their contributions (Johnson & Johnson, 1986; Waggoner, 1992). Participants in the collaborative learning process are considered as ‘nodes’ where each becomes a participant in the construction of their own knowledge in interaction with materials and peers, rather than passive consumers of information. The success of collaborative learning using the Internet depends on several factors (Brufee, 1987; Scagnoli & Stephens, 2005):

1. Proper selection of applications that facilitate communication and collaboration, 2. The use of such applications in activities that motivate collaborative learning 3. The teacher's role in encouraging participation and creating the conditions and climate to establish a learning community.


3.1.1 The Teacher's Role in Collaborative Learning The teacher’s role in collaborative learning environments, albeit offline or online, is one of encouraging participation and creating conditions for collaboration. In fact, he/she has a critical role to play in the learning process of students as he/she is the motivator and inspirator of the students learning activities. In addition, the teacher has to be familiar with technology as online learning environments tend to become an integral part of the teaching practice. How do we create conditions to encourage collaborative learning? Here are some suggestions to do so. Ensure that the environment is democratic, non-hostile, non-competitive and encourages respect for the views and opinions of others (Sheridan 1989), encouraging constructive debate. It is important that participants feel free to share ideas and experiences in pursuit of creating shared learning. Teachers should be flexible, and able to adapt to: Changing topics for discussion or debate. Often, the class has interests in tangential issues not central to the topic of discussion. Group formation. Allow groups to meet through a topic of interest and not force them to participate in one or another group. Activities led by students facilitate collaborative learning that, by reducing dependence on the teacher , allow students to trust their own abilities to explore and develop knowledge. Manage expectations and objectives of the program to be developed Plan for the many collaborative learning situations that will take place in class, ensure that the time allotted will be appropriate, establish and communicate clear goals, provide clear instructions, and be ready to answer questions or assist with or in conflict situations (MacGregor 1990).

3.1.2 The Role of Technology in Collaborative Learning The role of technology is key to the development of activities that generate and encourage collaborative learning. Marsh & Keter (2005) suggest that adaptations in technology due to the need to provide spaces for the socialization are particularly important in this case as collaborative learning is often based on social constructivist tenets. Familiarity with Internet use and knowledge of applications that facilitate communication, research and dissemination of information on the Internet are key to effective design activities that promote collaborative learning. Therefore, the teacher should be familiar with the different technological and methodological potentials that will allow them to facilitate the development of their students' creativity, collaboration and give them a sense of their ownership of the knowledge and skills they are learning.

3.2 Learning and Motivation When an individual is motivated, it means he is “moved to do something (Ryan and Deci 2000b).” Ryan and Deci (2000) distinguish between two forms of being motivated: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsically motivated people do something because of the inherent satisfaction they get from the activity. Extrinsically motivated people do something because of external incentives, rewards or pressures. "Extrinsic motivation thus contrasts with intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value (Ryan and Deci 2000)." The Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) by Ryan and Deci (2000) lists three innate psychological needs (competence,

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autonomy, and a sense of relatedness), which when satisfied lead to increased intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself. Lepper argues that intrinsic motivational orientation may have significant instructional benefits (Lepper 1988). Malone (1981) has argued that the following characteristics are common to all intrinsically motivating learning environments: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. Malone and Lepper later added ‘control’ to the list of characteristics (Malone and Lepper 1987; Lepper 1988). Traditional education is mainly based on extrinsic motivation. External incentives are tests, assessments, the final exams, the curriculum, and the subsequent favors of getting a certificate that opens possibilities for new studies or jobs. Although the final goals of secondary education provide good opportunities for life, it is difficult for some students to keep this long-term advantage in mind all the way through the years they have to attend school. In addition, there are many instances in school life where the relation to the final goal of secondary education is lost and students have to learn instrumentally content that is hardly useful for school success. Unfortunately, schools stick to the curriculum that is mandatory and the exercises coming along with that do not always suit students interests today. As a consequence, students get disconnected from the educational system. Teachers are considered irrelevant, which is even worse than being hated. Of course, school as an institution is not the only factor for students to drop out. Students dropping out appear to have also other problems most of the time. Psychological characteristics and social circumstances may play an important role as well. But whatever the causes for dropping out, for those students it is even more important that learning should become an activity they are motivated for. It might be clear that for those students sticking to the compulsory curriculum is apparently not the way to go. Instead, as motivation is key for those drop-out students, their interests should become the major issue for choosing content and configuring appropriate learning arrangements. Their interests will help them to reconsider learning as relevant and joyful. Experiences as described in the Urway Project have shown that such a pedagogy of following the students’ interests will foster self-esteem and will help students to make a restart in learning and participation on the labour market.

3.3 Creativity in Education Creativity involves a response or an idea that is novel or at the very least statistically infrequent. But novelty or originality of thought or action, while a necessary aspect of creativity is not sufficient. It must also be purposeful, serve to solve a problem, fit a situation, or accomplish some recognizable goal. And thirdly, true creativeness involves sustaining of the original insight, an evaluation and elaboration of it, a developing of it to the full. Creativity, from this point of view, is a process extended in time and characterized by originality, adaptiveness, and realization (Mckinnon, 1962). Creativity can involve processes and outcomes that are unique to the learner him/herself, or truly unique outcomes (Shallcross 1981). Instilling creativity in the classroom is a crucial factor in developing a person's mind. The best classrooms are those where the students have no inhibitions and are free to form their own ideas based on practical experience and theoretical knowledge, and this can only be achieved through a methodical disregard for conventions. The responsibility of ensuring the development and promotion of creativity in the classroom lies firmly in the teachers hands,


and this is an aspect of education that must not be ignored. Rather than teaching students how to 'borrow' information from open sources, the teacher should encourage students to own ideas that are created within their own head. The whole point of education and motivation in the classroom is to enable a person to think for herself with the pool of knowledge at her disposal, rather than a mechanical feeding down of unnecessary and irrelevant information. Encouraging creativity in the classroom is a skill not all teachers possess, and only the ones who have this trait are the ones who are fondly remembered by the students in the future. Moreover, teachers who actively do this are the ones who prepare their students for future success in the best possible manner. Teachers have to set examples for their students, so creativity in the classroom is something that must emanate from the teacher herself at the very beginning. Classrooms are supposed to be fun learning centers, where the most important quality required is freedom of expression. By encouraging creativity in the classroom, a teacher is ensuring that the student has the ability to analyze a problem and think for herself, and is not swayed by orthodox and conventional rules. By promoting free speech, the students are more capable of expressing their thoughts and views regarding any anomalies. This will ultimately prove fruitful in the person's life, as they will use the concept of free thought and speech to take steps into new areas. If a person is encouraged to be creative from a young age, she will carry this quality with her all her life, and this quality will enable her to succeed in the ruthless corporate world as and when she is ready to step into it.

3.3.1 Promoting Creativity in the Classroom How can a teacher promote and develop cooperative learning in the classroom? It all depends on the mindset and the principles of the teacher, and the techniques that he or she is willing to apply to achieve this purpose. Below, some ways of promoting creativity in the classroom that can be adapted for each teacher and each classroom. Encourage owning and creating ideas, and discourage borrowing and stealing answers. The idea is to teach students the importance of assembling their own thoughts and ideas, even if they are imperfect. Always assign grades with some productive feedback about what to do in order to improve bad grades. Never undermine a child for lack of effort, because if she is getting bad grades it is solely your fault and responsibility. Instead of demonstrating something to the children, have them practice it individually. A child will never learn the right way of doing something without doing it the wrong way first. When a problem arises, it should be defined and analyzed before a structured solution is offered for it. This is a far better way of doing things than simply explaining an example. Discourage conformity and challenge the child to think for herself. Do not praise neatness and tidiness too much as this restricts the child from truly expressing herself. Instead of making suggestions yourself, ask open questions. Let the flow of the interaction determine the course of action to be taken. You will be amazed at how often the end results of this process coincides with the very suggestions you had in mind. Lastly, teach the student to follow their own minds rather than copying the answers from other places. Originality and uniqueness is far more valuable than a blatant duplicate of

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someone else's work. There are plenty of exercises and techniques that lay down the procedures one should adhere to in order to develop creativity in the classroom. These tools can be found in books, over the Internet or it can simply be acquired by experience. A teacher is merely a facilitator for the student, and this role must be understood in its entirety. Students will only develop their best qualities if there is enough creativity in the classroom, and if freedom of thought and speech are encouraged and rewarded with a compliment. Having a creative classroom means that the teacher takes risks on a daily basis and encourages his/her students to do the same.

3.3.2 Play and Creativity Central to both play and creativity is divergent thinking. Both cognitive and affective processes in play have been related to divergent thinking in children. In a longitudinal study, quality of fantasy and imagination in play predicted divergent thinking over time. Divergent thinking itself was relatively stable over time. An important question is whether play can facilitate creativity. Play has been found to facilitate insight ability and divergent thinking. Studies have also shown that children can be taught to improve their play skills.

3.4 Characteristics of Effective Learning Environments

Four perspectives on the design of learning environments—the degree to which they are student centred, knowledge centred, assessment centred, and community centred—are important for the development of these environments. A focus on the degree to which environments are learner centred is consistent with the strong body of evidence suggesting that learners' use their current knowledge to construct new knowledge and that what they know and believe at the moment affects how they interpret new information. Sometimes learners' current knowledge supports new learning, sometimes it hampers learning: effective instruction begins with what learners bring to the setting; this includes cultural practices and beliefs as well as knowledge of academic content. Learner-centred environments attempt to help students make connections between their previous knowledge and their current academic tasks. Parents are especially good at helping their children make connections. Teachers have a harder time because they do not share the life experiences of each of their students. Nevertheless, there are ways to systematically become familiar with each student's special interests and strengths. Effective environments must also be knowledge centred. It is not sufficient only to attempt to teach general problem solving and thinking skills; the ability to think and solve problems requires well-organized knowledge that is accessible in appropriate contexts. An emphasis on being knowledge centred raises a number of questions, such as the degree to which instruction begins with students' current knowledge and skills, rather than simply presents new facts about the subject matter. While young students are capable of grasping more complex concepts than was believed previously, those concepts must be presented in ways that are developmentally appropriate. A knowledge-centred perspective on learning environments also highlights the importance of thinking about designs for curricula. To what extent do they help students learn with understanding versus promote the acquisition of


disconnected sets of facts and skills? Curricula that emphasize an excessively broad range of subjects run the risk of developing disconnected rather than connected knowledge; they fit well with the idea of a curriculum as being a well-worn path in a road. An alternative metaphor for curriculum is to help students develop interconnected pathways within a discipline so that they "learn their away around in it" and not lose sight of where they are. Issues of assessment also represent an important perspective for viewing the design of learning environments. Feedback is fundamental to learning, but opportunities to receive it are often scarce in classrooms. Students may receive grades on tests and essays, but these are summative assessments that occur at the end of projects; also needed are formative assessments that provide students opportunities to revise and hence improve the quality of their thinking and learning. Assessments must reflect the learning goals that define various environments. If the goal is to enhance understanding, it is not sufficient to provide assessments that focus primarily on memory for facts and formulas. Many instructors have changed their approach to teaching after seeing how their students failed to understand seemingly obvious (to the expert) ideas. The fourth perspective on learning environments involves the degree to which they promote a sense of community. Ideally, students, teachers, and other interested participants share norms that value learning and high standards. Norms such as these increase people's opportunities to interact, receive feedback, and learn. There are several aspects of community, including the community of the classroom, the school, and the connections between the school and the larger community, including the home. The importance of connected communities becomes clear when one examines the relatively small amount of time spent in school compared to other settings. Activities in homes, community centres, and after-school clubs can have important effects on students' academic achievement. Finally, there need to be alignment among the four perspectives of learning environments. They all have the potential to overlap and mutually influence one another. Issues of alignment appear to be very important for accelerating learning both within and outside of schools. Good teachers are learner centred in the sense that teachers build on the knowledge students bring to the learning situation. They are knowledge centred in the sense that the teachers attempt to help students develop an organized understanding of important concepts in each discipline. They are assessment centred in the sense that the teachers attempt to make students' thinking visible so that ideas can be discussed and clarified, such as having students (1) present their arguments in debates, (2) discuss their solutions to problems at a qualitative level, and (3) make predictions about various phenomena. They are community centred in the sense that the teachers establish classroom norms that learning with understanding is valued and students feel free to explore what they do not understand.

3.5 What Does this Mean in Practical Terms In order to keep things practical we might draw the following suggestions for the teaching and learning methods to be implemented in the reAct Project.

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3.5.1 reAct Teachers to Adopt a Learner Centered Approach The pedagogical approach in the reAct Project should take a learner centred approach in which teachers will facilitate students to learn, instead of providing content as prescribed by the curriculum. This means that content will not be top priority, but students will. Content will be negotiated with students. Their interests should be taken seriously, although the teacher will present his arguments in this negotiations. The results should be acceptable for both.

3.5.2 Fostering Motivation As motiviation is a key factor for drop out students, teachers will provide learning opportunities that suit students’ interest, even if these do not seem to have any relationship with the original goals of the course. In particular, this applies in the beginning of the pilots, where students will have to rediscover that learning might be interesting. If students cannot be motivated in the pilots, their learning attitudes will not change over time and longstanding results will not occur. It mig take some time to get students motivated, experiences showing a period between two and four months. However, trust is here the best advisor, and teachers should show their trust to the students and support them rather than sending body language that shows mistrust.

3.5.3 Group Oriented Activities Learning can be described as the process of manipulating data and information to give meaning by communication with others (Veen, 2008). Using this definition, collaborative learning is another way of organizing learning in which students learn by externalizing knowledge among each other and construct new knowledge. Collaborative learning can be organized by harvesting and suggesting issues, challenges or problems to be solved by groups of e.g. four students. These groups will come up with ideas that might differ, and they will have to value all suggestions for the solution to be found. Discussion on these suggestions will help them to think flexibly and foster their divergent thinking skills. By working on a self-chosen goal, they will have to become creative to consider a diversity of choices. They will have to make choices, and making choices collaboratively, will also foster their social skills. Teachers could use here a Problem Based Learning strategy (see Specific Activity Research and Learning, below). which is a 7 steps strategy how to go forward to implement PBL in the classroom. PBL is a very structured procedure for classroom management, it is easy to understand, although this does not say that it is easy to use. Teachers will act as the guide on the side, being a resource person. And still they will keep the process going by indicating to students that the next phase of the procedure is approaching.

3.5.4 Using Technology Technology appear to bring added value for learning through extended and easy access to (a) resources, (b) information retrieval tools (c) sharing knowledge (d) communication tools, and (e) designing or creating multimedia content. Technology enhances and changes learning by the fact that it introduces a new form of knowledge and a pedagogy based on the idea that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections and that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. Tools supporting learning activities will be widely adopted and used by the reAct teachers. They will be supported by the reAct team members in accessing resources such as http://epedagogy.risbo.org/lab/dd/index.php


providing concrete answers to questions on how to implement technologies in the teaching practice.

3.5.5 Professional Development of Teachers The professional development of teachers will be an integral part of the methodological design. Teachers do not change their pedagogy overnight, of course. This is why training of teachers in the reAct project should be a continuous activity along the project duration. This has to be planned and coordinated in a distributed way supported by the project coordinator. The issue will be discussed in depth during the project meeting in June 23-24th in Greece. The main question here will be how the consortium can create a community in which teachers can find valuable resources, can communicate and participate in webinars, and can share their experiences. The consortium might provide an online environment and a clear program of activities along the project duration.

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4 Experiences from other Projects This chapter describes other projects from which the reAct partners can draw lessons how to design and implement their approaches.

4.1 UrWay.nl Experiences UrWay.nl is an online learning facility for youths of schooling age (secondary education), who are demonstrably failing within the regular school system. The UrWay.nl program aims at getting school dropouts to enjoy learning again. The starting point of UrWay.nl is that all children want to learn, but that not every child fits within the regular education system. Instead of ‘pushing’ knowledge towards the school dropouts, the UrWay.nl concept invites them (seduces them) to explore their own interests and expand their own capacities. By letting go of the ‘obligation to achieve’, participants experience the relaxedness and freedom to explore and develop their own qualities, at their own pace. This allows them to regain confidence in their own capacities, and provides a basis for further growth and development. UrWay.nl’s success is based on the following principles:

• UrWay.nl is always available • UrWay.nl approaches everything positively. • UrWay.nl aims at what participants can do well. • UrWay.nl works with coaches with relevant (educational) backgrounds. • UrWay.nl provides relaxedness and safety.

No pressure The starting point of UrWay.nl is that all children want to learn, but that not every child fits within the regular education system. UrWay.nl assumes that all children have an intrinsic motivation to learn, that has been damaged over time. To transform the suspicion of learning into a trust of learning, positive feedback is used. UrWay.nl offers a failure-free environment that doesn’t revolve around correcting errors, but focuses on appreciating the achievements of participants: experiencing success gives you wings. UrWay.nl is free of pressure to perform. Self-guidance is an important component of UrWay.nl: participants determine for themselves what they learn, because learning from your own talents and passions is highly motivating. UrWay.nl trusts on the abilities of the participants that they know what they want to learn, that they can take responsibility for their learning, and also effectuate their learning. Everybody is unique, making each learning route personal and thus custom. The use of ICT UrWay.nl uses a learning arrangement that heavily depends on ICT. Without the use of ICT, the UrWay.nl approach is not possible. In a virtual environment things are possible, that aren’t possible in a physical environment. A virtual community creates distance to other participants and coaches, but feels comfortable and safe at the same time.


UrWay.nl uses a closed online community and learning environment, that is available 24/7. It can be reached by any computer with an internet connection. This learning environment (FirstClass) forms the central hub of the UrWay.nl concept. All participants in the UrWay.nl project are given a PC, a printer, a webcam and a broadband internet connection. Interesting results Teenagers want to learn. Unexpectedly the participants came up with their own educational desires right of the block, and were intrinsically motivated. • The participant’s social skills increase; they become more open and approachable. • Their self-esteem and self-image increase. • The teenagers are more ‘manageable’ at home, due to the absence of school-related

stress. • The participants become more aware of their own future; they start to think about what

kind of life they want for themselves.

4.1.1 Target Group UrWay.nl is targeted at generally vulnerable youths that have become dislodged or discouraged within the current education system and for whom other solutions have failed. UrWay.nl offers a safe, failure-free, online learning environment and community. Online coaches from all around the Netherlands work together with a regional support organization that houses close to the youths themselves. Through the interaction between coach and participant, a custom learning route is gradually developed, that fits with the personal interests (and thus the intrinsic motivation) of a participant. Participants construct their own portfolio’s to show which competences and skills they have developed during their time in UrWay.nl. For teenagers that apply to UrWay.nl, regular education is not an option, either due to personal circumstances, or due to circumstances in the teenager’s direct environment (e.g. teen moms, chronic illness). UrWay.nl targets school dropouts that:

• Have not attended school in a long time. • Have structural problems with no chance of immediate return to school or work. • Have the commitment of at least one parent or caretaker, and stability in the home

environment. • Are between the age of 15 to 17.

4.1.2 Coaches and Organization Coaches at UrWay.nl are educational professionals, who are certified teachers in a subject matter and who have additional training in coaching. They provide individual guidance and provide the participants with assignments based on the participant’s interests. For this they use email and chat; they work from home (or some other place), but in any case they will never meet the participants personally. This is intended; coaches have some degree of anonymity which in online communication actually lowers the threshold for personal contact between participant and coach. Coaches try to find the interests of the participants, and use those to suggest opportunities for ‘research’ and learning, to explore opportunities, and to challenge the participants.

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UrWay.nl is organized into a National Team that focuses on coordinating activities, and a Local Team – the regional support organization that that houses close to the participant’s home region(s). At the regional level, the Local team accompanies a maximum of sixty participants and ten coaches. Every coach guides about six participants. The Local Team is managed by the National Team that oversees finance and HRM. The Local Team tries to build a relationship with the participants and their family, in order to be both accessible and approachable during (family) crises, but also to celebrate participant’s personal successes. The Local Team hotline is available 24/7. The Local Team review the weekly reports of the coaches to filter any important events or happenings.

4.2 The Hole-in-the-wall Project In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other. In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India and globally, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge.

4.2.1 The potential of self-organized learning The ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ experiments gave credence to the belief that given the facilities, groups of children in such settings could learn to use computers and access and benefit from Internet resources on their own. Further investigations into such self-organising learning systems (Mitra and Rana, 2001, Mitra, 2003; Mitra et al., 2005) confirmed that within a few months, given free and public access to computers and the Internet, irrespective of who or where they are or what language they spoke, children could: 1. Become computer literate on their own, that is to say, learn to use computers and the

Internet for most of the tasks carried out by lay users; 2. Teach themselves sufficient English to use email, chat and search engines; 3. Learn to search the Internet for answers to their questions; 4. Improve their English pronunciation on their own (Mitra, Tooley, Inamdar & Dixon, 2003); 5. Improve their mathematics and science scores in school (Inamdar, 2006; Nicaud, Bittar,

Chaachoua, Inamdar & Maffei, 2004); 6. Answer examination questions several years before they might normally be expected to

be capable of doing so; 7. Develop their social interaction skills and value systems and 8. Form independent opinions and detect indoctrination. The quality of education declines with remoteness and disadvantage (Mitra, Dangwal & Thadani, 2008). There are many places in the world, and especially in the developing world, where geographical, economic, social, political, religious and other factors limit the provision


of good primary and secondary schools and good teachers will be unable or unwilling to go. If the possibilities and limits of self-organising learning without and with mediators can be evidenced and understood, children in such areas can gain enormous benefits. To establish the case for this, we needed to develop some research questions that could be answered in different educational environments and which would yield convincing evidence.

4.2.2 Limits of Self-organizing Learning What and how much can children learn without subject teachers? In an attempt to find a limit to self organized learning, Mitra & Dangwal (2011) explored the capacity of 10–14 year old Tamil-speaking children in a remote Indian village (Kalikuppam ) to learn basic molecular biology, initially on their own with a Hole-in-the-Wall public computer facility, and later with the help of a mediator without knowledge of this subject. They compared these learning outcomes with those of similarly-aged children at a nearby average-below average performing state government school who were not fluent in English but were taught this subject and another group of children at a high-performing private school in New Delhi who were fluent in English and had been taught this subject by qualified teachers. They found that the village children who only had access to computers and Internet-based resources in the Hole-in-the-Wall learning stations achieved test scores comparable with those at the local state school and, with the support of the mediator, equal to their peers in the privileged private urban school. In the study, it was shown that given unsupervised access to a computer with Internet-based instructional material the children were quite capable of organizing themselves into self-learning groups and, without supervision and instruction, achieving the same levels as their peers in a nearby state government school but not those of similarly aged children in an affluent, urban school. So self-organized learning has its limits. In unsupervised environments such as the Hole-in-the-Wall, different children do what they like doing and therefore tend to excel in their particular areas of interest. But what this study shows is that if pupils such as those in the village of Kalikuppam are then provided with a friendly mediator who provides supervision but exercises minimal intervention (encouraging rather than teaching), these issues are less likely to be a problem.

4.3 The Knowmads Initiative Knowmads is a small, low-budget school in Amsterdam for social entrepreneurs operating outside the regular education system. It is a business school where education students create their own education, and where learning happens by doing projects collaboratively in a real context. The institution operates in a network of companies and individuals, who support the program with challenges, projects, people, and methodologies.

4.3.1 Organization and Program The core program (methods and tools) of Knowmads is taught using a core group of (about 10) teachers who are paid €400 per day or less. Some of the teachers only come once or twice, and others come more often, if necessary. The unique approach of Knowmads has attracted many organizations and people who offer their services (workshops, lectures, methodologies, etc.). This is of course very positive: Knowmads have no difficulties filling up

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the curriculum. On the other hand, it takes considerable amount of time to filter out the good offers. It is also difficult to know on beforehand what the quality will be. Teachers must step outside their own comfort zone and ask questions and share problems they face. Consistency, congruence, and perseverance are essential in bringing the message across. Once or twice a month, interesting people (such as Seth Godin or Itay Talgam) give a lecture that is disconnect from the program. The lecture can be about anything (i.e. conflicts, marketing, Nietzsche & Buddhism) and is aimed to inspire and initiate thinking. Lecturers are invited by staff, students, or some even come by themselves.

4.3.2 Methodologies Several methodologies are used in the program, including, Startup Wheel, e-marketing, green marketing, self-esteem (Matthew McKay), Art of Hosting, Appreciative Inquiry, Scenario Learning, ‘Deep democracy, etc. Whatever is needed in the context of the project or education, the methods and tools are searched for and used. The partner projects more or less guide the curriculum, which is established with the students themselves. The essential methodology is the school’s pedagogy itself: becoming a social entrepreneur (or intra-preneur) by being one.

4.3.3 Pedagogical Principles Each of the new students is asked 4 questions at the beginning that guide the program:

• In what kind of world do we live? • In what kind of world do you want to live? • Who am I and what do I want to bring into this world? • How do I identify and market my ideas and myself?

Knowmads adopts the principles of autonomy, motivation, collaboration, diversity, and entrepreneurship in a social setting. Their program is guided by the four questions and structured around a number of topics: (i) Entrepreneurship and New Business Design (ii) Social Innovation and Sustainability, (iii) Marketing & Creativity, (iv) (Personal) Leadership, (v) (International) Project Design, (vi) Process Design. There is a reason that entrepreneurship is on the first place. Learning by doing is an essential element of the school. “Doing” does not mean doing a case study or some fictional project, but creating something that will be used and being part of a real-life (sometimes international) project. The context in which this takes place is sustainability and social innovation. Various methodologies are taught that address marketing, creativity, project and process design in order to come up with sustainable, marketable, innovative, feasible and accepted project plans. To emphasize a reality-oriented learning environment the students will work with assignments and projects defined by real clients that reflect real needs and challenges outside the school. Taking risks by investing financially in one’s own education is an additional factor that will allow students to grow and be trained in a maximum reality setting.


4.3.4 Peer-Assessment & Reflection “Getting stuck in order to fly”: learning can be a difficult and emotional road, because situations may seem problematic and solutions may not be at hand. It is the intention to allow this to happen and to overcome the problems in a collaborative setting. Reflection is an essential element: the ability to learn as a team and use the diversity of the team to rise above a problem situation. An effective learning setting is one where you can express doubts and share critique. Because each individual is going through a personalized learning process, there is no standard assessment or accreditation. Students are asked to reflect twice a month using the “learning wall”, where they present what they have learned and then get feedback from peers. At the end of the year there is a final project/assessment: the “Rite of Passage”. The four questions (above) are put central in the project. Each student is asked to express what they have learned in whatever form they want to (i.e. workshop, film, art installation, etc.). Each student will receive a personalized certificate with a story about him/her and tips for the future.

4.3.5 Client-Assessment Crucially, Knowmads is an enterprise as well that needs to survive in a competitive environment. The students manage the enterprise in close collaboration with the staff, and determine the strategy and identity of the school. It is not a school that only preaches social entrepreneurship, but is social entrepreneurship. Chaos and complexity part of the curriculum as well as the organizational structure: there is little high-level control over what the students must do or know. Because students are in fact working for the partners, they are assessed according to market standards. Their efforts may result in sending in an invoice, so if the work is not good enough, the partners will definitely tell them.

4.3.6 Autonomy Students must follow their intuition and take a chance. Knowmads intends to create a space where you can manifest yourself and increase your awareness, taking the journey from dependent to autonomous.

4.3.7 International With the World as a Playground Knowmads strive for the ability to navigate turbulent chaos, not only from the safety of their home, but wherever, and whenever. Therefore an important part of the education is to temporarily relocate and try out new things and different cultural contexts. Hence, after 1 year of their education, – for a period of three months – students have the possibility to go abroad and work on international projects as one and the same team. This part of the education is called International Project Design and can take place in any country and/or continent: Knowmads students decide and set the destination.

4.3.8 Co-create/Collaborate Knowmads have a free curriculum, with some fundamental concepts and methodologies that are taught and used during the year, depending on the projects the students are involved in. Leadership is something that emerges from the group process and collaboration, where

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some people emerge as leaders in one context, and leave leadership to others in another context. An important element for both the Knowmads and KPNL is the collaboratively organized trip to another, totally different country. Teamwork (so the result of the team), rather than individual work, is assessed.

4.4 Findings from Workpackage 1 The project began with a first Work Package (WP1) in which the aim was to explore the profiles of the participants: learners, teachers and management staff, in order to ensure that the approach developed would be adapted to their needs, requirements, and preferences and also that relevant aspects such as their attitudes and motivation were well understood, in order to provide information for the development in subsequent work packages of the project methodology, and a series of activities designed to re-motivate students to study and regain confidence. It was agreed between partners to employ a qualitative method for this exploration WP1 and it was also agreed that a semi-structured interview would be the most suitable data collection tool. The average profile of a beneficiary of this program is a person between 17 and 20 years old, who has left the formal education system without a qualification due to a combination of personal, social and institutional reasons. 5.4.1 Conclusions 5.4.1.1 Attitude and ICT knowledge Students - Lack of motivation is caused by a range of issues: bad relationships with teachers, language deficits, lack of concentration in difficult subjects, bad temper, laziness, personality problems, poor family support, low interest in subjects or contents offered at school, structural problems (distance, overcrowded classrooms), and also, the feeling that there is a generation gap between them and the teachers. As a result, participants develop low self-esteem and low self-confidence, and consequently feel there is no sense in continuing with school. The majority of participants who were involved in Early School Leaver programs were mainly more interested in finding a job than in the program itself. - Between their personal interests, it was found that they were engaged in a wide range of activities, including use of ICT. This leads to the idea that when there is intrinsic motivation, and a subject that interests them, these students do act and interact, and that ICT may be a useful tool to stimulate the motivation of these learners. Trainers Concerning trainers, most of them had extensive experience with the target group and agreed that good communication skills and the ability to transfer their enthusiasm to the


students was key to getting them to participate and achieve their objectives. Besides, almost all had some knowledge of ICT (for personal uses), but didn’t have a clear idea of how to use technologies for education. A “train the trainers activity (or course)” about the new methodologies that are going to be used is needed, so that trainers will be able to give support to students and feel comfortable about using them. Managers Managers were the group that mentioned more problems in relation to the implementation of new methodologies. There is a need for a methodology and a program that involves no extra cost, is easy to manage, does not enter into conflict with the centre´s educational approach and that is convincing for both managers and trainers. 5.4.1.2 Ideas to reduce difficulties & barriers

- Programs should promote a good relationship between teachers and students. - Programs should encourage close relationships with classmates so that knowledge

exchange is fostered (occasionally even between other countries participants). - A stimulating learning environment should be created and a positive way to do this

may be by using ICT tools. - Activities should be related to job needs. - Entertaining, autonomous, and useful learning activities should be used. - Time dedicated to theory and practice should be well balanced. - Schools should try to involve family and friends, so that they are not an obstacle in

their training process. - It’s important for trainers to develop their abilities in the new methodologies, activities

and e-learning tools, and in supporting self-confidence in students. 5.4.2 Proposals for the ICT methodology and tools

1. A methodology that fulfills the most important features expected by all participants in the Project will be:

a. Collaborative. b. Practical. c. Flexible in timing. d. Adaptative to learning styles. e. Only win-win outcomes. f. Easy to integrate in planned curricula.

2. A program that is based on: a. Creativity b. Limited duration. c. A certain degree of competition. d. Collaboration with others e. Regular actitivy. f. Positive feedback. g. Relation to their interests or specialty (job oriented). h. Understandable and shared by families.

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3. With tools that: a. Are user friendly (both by participants and trainers). b. Without language barriers (mainly visual and no “school terminology”). c. Work in groups. d. Can be game-based (perhaps serious games). e. Use social networking. f. Freeware. g. No substantial hardware or technical demands.

4.5 What Does this Mean in Practical Terms 4.5.1 Trust as a Basic Value The reAct Methodological design must enhance a culture of trust between students as well as among teachers and students. Positive feedback from teachers or coaches is essential in gaining confidence and motivation to go forward. Sometimes, even online mediation can increase trust among participants, because there is equality of participation possible that could develop a free flow of thoughts. In the reAct Project teachers will have to do a tough job as they will be in face-to-face contact with their students. Nevertheless, it will be part of the reAct Design to enhance trust between students and teachers.

4.5.2 Blending Communication Channels Talking with nowadays’ students implies that a blend of communication tools will be used. And these tools are available 24/7, and are very cheap to use in many cases. Students communicate for reasons teachers would never do. They send SMS or are on Skype talking and chatting about almost nothing, but very frequently, with new ways of starting and ending their conversations. This culture of being connected all the time is what teachers have never been accustomed to, unless their children and grand-children are forcing them. In the reAct Project the relationship with students will include the use of communication tools and as a consequence teachers will have to deal with the ‘always on’ culture of their students. This does not mean that they should be available for their students at all times, but what they should do is communicating to their students when they will be and when they will not be available, as students expect instant feedback to their mails, sms, and chats.

4.5.3 Flexibility in Pedagogical and Organizational Design From the interviews among the partners in WP1 we have learned that there is a variety of national contexts in which the reAct Project will be implemented. These national contexts relate to differences in educational systems and regulations, to differences in target groups, to differences in financing the ‘courses’ that will be provided, and finally, also to differences in organizational structures of the institutions involved. This variety of contexts makes ‘one-size-fits-all’ methodological design unlikely to become a success. The methodological design below will therefore offer a generic framework, each of the partners will have to interpret in their local context. Nevertheless, the design should consist of major pedagogical design principles for groups of students that are outside the regular educational system, and that should be supported in building motivation for learning in order to get re-involved in life long learning.


5 Implementations in Local Contexts In this chapter all reAct partners describe their plans how to implement the Pilot 1 in their local situations. As the contexts vary among the countries, partners will adapt the overall strategies, and design principles according to the local circumstances. However, the main phasing of activities will be implemented as much as possible according to the project workplan (see: provisional_react_project_workplan_190210.doc). PILOT1: There will be two iterations of the pilots in each centre in the project which will test the methodology and the environment developed. • FAMILIARIZATION: The first stage of activity will involve familiarization with the tools and

the other participants, with special emphasis on activities focused on the development of a sense of belonging to the group.

• COLLABORATIVE CREATION: The participants will then form international teams and participate together in a creative project. Though they will be supported in this, all aspects, such as the subject, objectives, and tools used will be their decision.

• SUPPORT AND REFLECTION: This will take place in parallel to the project and after it. The support team will look for opportunities to promote reflection on the process with the learners and propose activities related to meta-cognitive skills and critical thinking.

• COLLABORATIVE INTEGRATION: In this phase the integration with the main activity of the training action will begin. The process will be similar to the previous project and decided on by the learners but will now relate to the subject area of the training action in each centre. These projects will be presented to the other centres at the end of the phase.

• FINAL INTEGRATION PHASE: In this phase the activity turns to the principal activity of the programme. This however will be adjusted, depending on the results, in each context, of the previous activity – particularly with respect to learner motivation - to include more creative and collaborative activity and a greater emphasis on the use of meta-cognitive and critical thinking skills.

5.1 The Austrian Pilot 1 Contact person: Till Mayhofer

5.1.1 Target Group Pilot 1 and 2 are implemented in the “Berufskundliche Hauptschulkurs” in Innsbruck. This is a school founded by the labour market Service Tirol and coordinated by the BIF-Tirol with the goal that the pupils ought to reach a secondary/compulsory school certificate. Therefore all participating pupils are juveniles between 15 and 18 years and they don’t have completed secondary level II. The School gives the pupils the chance to achieve a certificate and afterwards to enter a further education or professional training. Without such a certificate most of them can get low skilled jobs only. The participating juveniles are an extremely heterogeneous target group, but most of them come from a low educated social class, have a lack of education (weak basic skills, language deficits, etc.), most of them come from a

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difficult family background and nearly all suffer from bad experiences with the school system. The “Berufskundliche Hauptschulkurs”, which has around 60 participating juveniles divided into 6 classes, starts at the first September 2011 and ends at July 2012. The duration, start and end of the School fits perfect into our timetable for pilot 1 and 2.

5.1.2 Teachers Involved For Pilot 1 we have chosen 2 trainers, who are going to use our future tools in their lesson. The pedagogical leader, Osswald Zangerle, an expert for E-learning and PLE as well as the trainer, Zapf Fritz, the IT-technician of the “Berufskundliche Hauptschule” and E-learning expert are responsible for the implementation of the tools beginning with September 2011. We have chosen these two persons because they have the ability to be the teacher/trainer and the tutor for technical support at the same time. Both are very familiar with Online-Tools and E-Learning in Austria. They use this kind of learning support (f.e. moodle and specific Online-tools for Austria) in nearly all their courses. Zapf Fritz will do most of the work. Furthermore the two trainers and we hope, that they can attract the attention of the other 10 trainers, that the will work more intensive or even try to work with online-Tools in their lessons, which is especially very important for Pilot 2. The 12 trainers of the “Berufskundliche Hauptschule” will work from September 2011 to July 2012 full time, so another advantage for the implementation.

5.1.3 Course Details At this stage we don’t’ know exactly the content and duration of the subjects and the Kick-Off (Familization for the first two weeks). But after the 15th of June we have a detailed schedule for Pilot 1 and 2. Because on this date we have a national meeting (TiBS+BFI+teacher) were we get to know and decide all importation tasks concerning the implementation. In our case it is indispensable that we clarify all questions for the implementation of Pilot 1 before July (all the teachers are on holiday form July to August). So far we can say that around 20-30% of the workload in the pilot phase can be completely autonomous. Oswald Zangerle has a subject (2-4 hours a week per class) in which he has no strict curriculum to keep. Furthermore a kind of collaboration of pupils through the countries should be possible. But only with certain tools, told us Oswald Zangerle. For the remaining 70 to 80% we have already a solution, which is based on a certain kind of structure - but not a too strict one. Fritz Zapf who is responsible for this, has one learnfield with certain subjects. Within his learnfield and subjects he uses our tools.

5.1.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project Due to the fact that the trainers of the “Berufskundliche Hauptschulkurs” are using already online tools in their subjects, the school could use the frame of the reAct Project for the whole school, if we succeed with our ideas and the implementation of the tools.

5.1.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools The BFI has not decided yet on tools to use during the pilot 1. However, staff has some requirements for tools that seem appropriate for the target group involved:

• Tools without a main focus on language but on other symbols of communication (graphs, videos, pictures, paintings etc.).

• Tools should be intuitive and no manual should be required.


• Tools should be easy to do and if possible in a short time span as students appear to have short attention spans.

5.2 The Greek Pilot 1 Contact Person: Maria / Kiriakos The Greek pilot will be delivered by KEK KRONOS in company’s facilities with the following strategy.

5.2.1 Target Group Under the Greek educational system, there are 3 school levels before a student can reach the tertiary level of education. Primary school; it is an obligatory level and the ages of the students are between 6 and 12 years old. Lower secondary (gymnasium); it is also obligatory level and the ages are between 12 and 15 years old. Upper secondary (lyceum); it is not obligatory and student’s ages are from 15 to 18 years old. The phenomenon of early school leaving very rarely appears in the first level and almost exclusively in situations of minorities (Pomaks in north Greece, some moving families belonging in ROMA– gypsy’s minority and some Muslim minorities). It gets a little stronger in third class of Lower secondary and much harder in Upper secondary. The target group of this activity (Pilot 1 under Re-Act project) will be young boys and girls from 16 to 28 years old. All of them will have the diploma of primary school. Some of them will hold the diploma of a Lower secondary school, while the others will not have such a diploma; they are early school leavers. No one will hold a diploma of Upper secondary (lyceum). Persons that do not hold at least a diploma of Upper secondary level or a diploma of a vocational training usually can get only low paid jobs. The target group is expected to be heterogeneous in interests, previous experiences in education and motivation; some of them can have previous experiences in jobs while others may never have had a job experience. The number of participants is estimated from 10 to 15. We can not estimate the level of learner’s ICT skills.

5.2.2 Teachers Involved The teachers (trainers) that are going to be involved will be 5 to 7, as the learners themselves will choose the thematic area of their interest. It will be proposed an area in tourism sector. One or two of the trainers will be members of company’s permanent staff while the others will be trainers collaborating with company. All will have above average IT skills.

5.2.3 Course Details The period of the pilot 1 will be from the middle of September 2011 till the end of January 2012. Usually under Vocational training programs the period covered by a program is estimated in hour basis depending on the thematic area the program covers. As an example a program in basic ICT skills has duration of 100 hours; a program in secretary’s training can be from 200 till 300 or a program for waiters in tourism sector can be from 200 to 400 hours. The total duration in hours is divided by the weeks this program is going to last in order to estimate the weekly duration. Then together institution, trainers and learners can create the daily duration. As we are talking about adult learning it is usual that some of them may have

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other activities like not permanent jobs, family’s job assistance or small kids (especially for young mothers) that have to be considered. The weekly duration must be flexible and usually is divided in morning hours and /or afternoon hours per week. .

5.2.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project There will be a combination of use of traditional training methods and techniques and the new pedagogical ones that are going to be introduced under the reAct project. The main issue is to motivate learners “to learn how to learn”. It is also important is that this program will be learner focused and there will be a higher autonomy to learners to choose their path towards the goals.

5.2.5 Preliminary Choice for Specific Activities and Tools As it is not estimated yet the details of the offering training it is rather difficult to estimate the specific activities and tools.

5.2.6 Issues to be Decided

5.3 The Italian Pilot Contact person: Elmo de Angelis Training 2000 will involve two regular schools who are interested in the reAct Project. Below follows their preliminary drafts of the program they intend to provide in collaboration with Training 2000.

5.3.1 Target Group Corinaldesi , technical school of Senigallia The Corinaldesi school is a regular school and is interested in piloting the reAct methodology in a whole class of students. It is difficult to manage an isolated group of drop-out students because of internal organization problems, difficulties among the teachers to deal with this and also ministerial directives. The school director, who shared his thoughts with us and with the vice director of the school, is planning to apply this pilot 1 to a third level class of students in order to guarantee a continuity for the second year pilot testing. Third level classes are ideal because they have 16 years old students (end of compulsory education) and few of them begin considering the idea of leaving school. IT IS, technical school of Urbino The approach and proposals with the ITIS of Urbino are more or less the same. The school proposed the possibility to involve an entire class (more or less 20-24 students) on this project or to create an inter-class group. In this case - the inter-class group - students of different classes and having particular difficulties, will follow this experimental path. Besides the traditional classes, they could take advantages of online environments in order to go into detail in some particular subjects or to review some face to face classes subject to multimedia registration. Through a good and well developed community, students could be supported in making their homework and in preparing their examinations.


The school was also thinking of using this project during the remedial classes. It is about a period of the scholastic year dedicated to those students that have some problems in certain subjects and in need to work more deeply on them.

5.3.2 Teachers Involved Corinaldesi , technical school of Senigallia The next steps regarding the organization of the pilot courses are the identification by the school director of the class involved on this project and the interested teachers to take active roles. The most important aspect for the piloting, to be successful, is the commitment, involvement and motivation of the teachers. Once the group of teachers has been identified they will be working on contents and didactical methodologies during the next 2-3 months together with the experts from this project. Methodology should be different from the traditional ones and should integrate the face to face methodologies to the on line ones (blended learning). We also discussed about the possibility for the students to work on specific projects work, which will be made/promoted by the students in order to achieve an independent/autonomous learning. T IS, technical school of Urbino

5.3.3 Course Details Corinaldesi , technical school of Senigallia The piloting period will last the entire school year, the objective of the course being to get a certificate enabling them to carry on with their regular program in the following year. The pilot testing will probably focus on three/four subjects and won’t change the ministerial programs, but it will change the teaching methodologies. Subjects that seem to better fit this kind of experimental path are English language, mathematics and technology, computer studies. The school, will also evaluate if adding more specific subjects as law or business economics. There is a possibility to teach a technical subject in the English language. The school, would like to have more contacts with other European groups of students in order to show their students other realities and at the same time improve and enhance their knowledge about specific subjects. This could be implemented with a videoconference or similar ICT tools. The school already owns some on-line/video conference systems that could be also used during the piloting phase.

5.3.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project The schools involved in the pilots are regular schools who have identified the need for new teaching methods as an increasing number of students show little interest in learning and risk to enter the labour market without any appropriate qualifications. They realize that nowadays’ students may profit from technologies that enable students to learn autonomously, in groups and in online environments that provide opportunities to raise interest in learning and as a consequence achieve the very same learning results without the traditional teaching practice and without traditional text books. As they apply new teaching methods in the reAct pilots, these schools could provide evidence that even within the regular school system of Italy it is possible to change practices and finally achieve the same results. Many former experiments, such as the Schools for Thought in the USA, Summerhill

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Schools and ACOT Classrooms, have shown that new teaching methods aiming at motivation, agency and collaboration, lead to good learning results and students who are proficient in dealing with the 21st century skills. The challenge for the two technical schools involved in the reAct Project will be to manage the change in teaching methods and support and facilitate the teachers to acquire the necessary skills, beliefs and attitudes.

5.3.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools Corinaldesi , technical school of Senigallia The choice of the subjects, specific contents and methodologies will be identified together with the teachers that will be working on the project. T IS, technical school of Urbino Regarding the adoption of ICT tools, the school has all necessary tools. Some teachers already use online tools to communicate with their students and some classes have already created facebook groups for teaching and learning.

5.4 The Spanish Pilot 1 Contact person: Amparo Ferrando / Celia Ruiz

5.4.1 Target Group Our target group will be learners from 16 to 20. Most of them did not finish compulsory school and do not have a school certificate, so they can follow a program in the same school where they can both, get the certificate -and have the possibility of following further studies- and learn a craft to enter into the labour market, though only in low skilled jobs. In this Program there are periods of training and working. In the first part of the course participants get a scholarship and afterwords they learn and do practices in a company or industry related to the course.

5.4.2 Teachers Involved We want our teachers to be friends of ICT, in some way, using technologies in their usual teaching practice, and enthusiastic about the pedagogical methodologies underpinning the reAct Project. How are we going to get that profile? We will work according to the following plan. Teacher Training Programme September 2011

From the 5th to the 7th of September. On line monitoring and meetings during the pilot stages.

Objectives:

• Presentation of reAct Project. Objectives, reAct web, other web links.

• To raise in encouraged teachers the initiative, enthusiasm, skills in using ICT they know and use

• Methodological training (using the developed guidelines)

• ICT Training (using the collection of selected tools).


The length (number of hours), contents and Teachers Training Programme didactic strategies will be adapted to the target group of teachers involved in Pilots. The teacher trainer will offer support (if necessary) to teachers at the start of the different pilot phases with the double purpose of providing security to teachers and to get feed-back on the evolution of the pilot, regardless the tools of quality control and monitoring which might be defined.

5.4.3 Course Details The duration of courses in the above mentioned programme can be 1 or 2 years. The course PQPI - Ceramics selected belongs to an Initial Training Qualification Programme during one school year with practices in companies. The Pilot 1 will start in 14th September 2011. Here we enclose the schedule for Pilot 1 in SERVEF, taking into account the duration of each stage. A teachers training period will be from 5th to 7th of September initialy, but will continue during the following stages.

Figure 2 - Pilot planning SERVEF

The content of the course will be related to the different subjects to succeed in getting the School Certificate and the subjects related to the trade they are being trained. The objective of the course is not only to learn some practical skills and some kind of certification, even including developing positive values related to learning the craft, such as discipline, effectiveness in achieving the objectives, efficiency, the value of teamwork,

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punctuality and responsibility to themselves and to the work they do. The overarching objective of reAct goes beyond these objectives. The reAct Project aims at recovering the interest in learning which is a basic attitude for lifelong learning including the basic meta cognitive and critical skills that will allow these learners to function autonomously in our current society and the labour market.

5.4.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project Approaching learning through a new methodology that using the affordances of ICT and specially designed activities, promotes changes in the motivation to learn of the target groups of learners, and provides them with skills appropriate for learning throughout their lives. This involves three central objectives: to promote a change in attitudes to learning through participation in creative activities, defined and designed by them that are relevant to their own lives; to promote wider perspectives making the most of the benefits of discovering other contexts, ways of life and points of view, which have been amply demonstrated by mobility and intercultural programmes, in this case through virtual collaboration with learners from other geographical contexts; and teaching to learn through activities that develop meta cognitive and critical thinking skills. One of the principal difficulties involved in pilot projects is that they run the risk of failing to integrate into the context they arise from, and become interesting experiments, rather than being adopted into everyday practice. For this reason another fundamental objective of the project is to integrate the methodology for recovering the motivation to learn into current initiatives. The activity proposed is intended to function as a launch platform at the start of an action, with aim of changing perceptions of learning and hence of the action (from “last option” to “personal opportunity”). The activity therefore takes place at the beginning of an action before slowly making room for the usual activity (though transformed) of the action. We intend to follow the four phases foreseen in the project: 1. FAMILIARIZATION: The first stage of activity will involve familiarization with the tools and

the other participants, with special emphasis on activities focused on the development of a sense of belonging to the group.

2. COLLABORATIVE CREATION: The participants will then form international teams and participate together in a creative project. Though they will be supported in this, all aspects, such as the subject, objectives, and tools used will be their decision.

3. SUPPORT AND REFLECTION: This will take place in parallel to the project and after it. The support team will look for opportunities to promote reflection on the process with the learners and propose activities related to meta-cognitive skills and critical thinking.

4. COLLABORATIVE INTEGRATION: In this phase the integration with the main activity of the training action will begin. The process will be similar to the previous project and decided on by the learners but will now relate to the subject area of the training action in each centre. These projects will be presented to the other centres at the end of the phase.

5. FINAL INTEGRATION PHASE: In this phase the activity turns to the principal activity of the programme. This however will be adjusted, depending on the results, in each context, of the previous activity – particularly with respect to learner motivation - to include more creative and collaborative activity and a greater emphasis on the use of meta-cognitive and critical thinking skills.


5.5 The Portuguese Pilot 1 Contact person: Anabela Luis

5.5.1 Target Group We will implement reAct in a course of Adult Education and Training already existing in the scholar system. The target group will be composed of young adults between 18 to 25 years old. They all left the traditional system before, without completing the secondary level of education. With this EFA course, they will get a secondary certificate that gives them the possibility of pursuing higher education and an University degree.

5.5.2 Teachers Involved I have a dream: to work with enthusiastic, motivated, open-minded teachers, available to learn how to work with ICT in the class-room and to put their main-focus on the pleasure of learning and learners-centred, shifting their education paradigm from a behaviourist point of view to a connectivist one. But our reality is still far away from this beautiful picture. Though I believe we have the chance to make the difference, even if, up until now, there are no teachers involved yet: the Director of the school told me we would have to wait for the end of July, when all the service is distributed for the next scholar year. This unknown parameter will increase the challenge, but, in fact, if all were perfect, there would be no need of a project such as reAct . Our school has about 100 teachers. For this particular EFA course, we need about 6 to 7 teachers. Some of them are familiar with ICT, but do not seem too comfortable with the idea of using them in the classroom. They have already acknowledged concepts such as “competences” and “informal learning”, but they still have a formal approach of the task of teaching. I believe they are open-minded to a different kind of learning environment, but they are still very engaged with a course-centric point of view. They feel that teachers are less important, because they have the single duty of preparing the students for the exams and nothing else. And, in fact, that’s what happens most of the times: students are prepared for the national exams and not with a life-purpose in the XXI century. But as I said previously, it is too soon to profile the staff, since they will be chosen only in July.

5.5.3 Course Details The course is addressed to adult learners. They must be at least 18 years old to participate. The EFA course (Adult education and training course) will last for a scholar year, from September 2011 to June 2012. The course is composed of three Key-Competences Areas : CLC (Culture, Language and Communication); STC (Society, Technology and Science) and CP (Citizenship and Professionalism). Each one of these Areas is subdivided in Units of 50h (8 for CP; 7 for STC and 7 for CLC). Each Unit requires a specific contribution from the students, with an individual work about the theme of the unit. All the specific works are organised in an individual Reflexive Portfolio of Learning.

5.5.4 Pedagogy: Relevance for reAct Project This course allows students to pursue individual learning pathways, although it always considers a common referential of competences and skills. I think that it will be possible to motivate learners to see this course as theirs, empowering them in their oneness and

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ownership, and enlarging their horizon, as they will be confronted with different experiences in Europe.

5.5.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools First we will have to prepare a preliminary part of Pilot 2, in the first two weeks of September, in order to warm up the new team of teachers. Those days are still to be defined with specific activities. The idea is to ask them to consider the importance and the meaning of a learner-centric kind of approach. In fact, I was thinking about allowing the teachers to transform this project into a project of their own, to involve them and give them the recognition of their value as teachers. Something very similar will be done with the students, as it will be important that they feel being recognized as human valuable beings. That’s why I suggest activities proposed by the learners themselves, letting them be the co-creators of this project. how would they prefer to acknowledge the curriculum? what changes would they propose? what if they were in charge? (this one is my favorite)

5.5.6 Issues to be Decided The preliminary part of Pilot 2, in the first two weeks of September.

5.6 The Dutch Pilot 1 MIX academy is a creative institute where the approach is bottom-up rather than top-down: individuals get the opportunity to find their identity through creativity and are not forced into a standard curriculum. We considered the possibility of incorporating MIX into the first pilot, because they are a good example of how to achieve creativity, and how alternative teaching approaches motivate students to participate and be active. Therefore, we asked them to have a leading role in the first pilot.

5.6.1 Target Group MIX Academy students, many of whom have dropped out of regular education, are 1st and 2nd year art students between 16-28 years old. Most of them have finished some kind of previous education, but most of them have dropped out from regular higher education. They arrive at MIX academy unaware of their own identity or talent.

5.6.2 Teachers Involved The teachers at MIX Academy are successful professionals in the creative industry (Amsterdam area) or successful artists. They are hired for a 2-month (or more) period to assist the students in their projects. Students lead the way with regard to what they want to make and achieve, and the teachers are Ralph, the founder of the academy, plays an essential role in the educational process. He is teacher and mentor and organizes everything from teachers, attributes, events, etc. Obviously, if possible, in collaboration with his students. Students have the key to the school and are able to come and go whenever they please.


5.6.3 Course Details MIX means Mentality, Identity, and eXpectation. About 15-30 students fulltime (4 days a week), €4000 per annum student fee, no official or state recognized diploma, and three fulltime teachers. Students are usually potential or true drop-outs between 16 and 28 and are not successful in the regular education system. A fulltime student spends at least 4 days a week in the school, which can be described as an open studio. Students (especially second and third year students) are also involved in peer-tutoring, which means that in collaborative group sessions, the students from different years are supposed to give each other tips and reflect on each others work. Artists and/or professionals from the creative industry organize a workshop each week on Tuesday. Each professional usually provide 5 workshops within a specific theme or technique. Another part of the pedagogy is earning by learning: students are motivated to sell their expertise, creative approach, and their work during the education. It is important to consider the role of the teacher in more detail: at MIX, the wish or demand of the students are really central. All is focused on finding a drive, finding an intrinsic motivation to learn to express in a creative and meaningful way and making money at the same time. Teachers and professionals are asked to ask questions, to listen, and to ‘teach’ only when asked for by the students.

5.6.4 Pedagogy: related to the reAct Project The pedagogy at MIX Academy is based on the idea that through creativity, one discovers his/her own self. By creating, one must make choices (in contrast with a conversation, where it is easy to evade choices. When students express themselves using various creative techniques (photography, painting, street-art, illustrations, etc.), and explain their choices, they identify themselves and find their true self and their favorite form of expression. Another important element in the 3-year program concerns entrepreneurship. Students have to become entrepreneurial which is described in the term “earning while learning”. In that way, they become responsible not only for the direction they take in the education, but also in the use and application in society. Collaboration is also central, described by the word “Interdependence”. Students continuously are occupied with projects which they have to organize together. For example, at the time of writing this document, the students are organizing an exhibition for their work of the first year. This project is a collaborative effort which includes a marketing campaign, arranging a location, selling their work, DJ, and more. MIX is a creative art academy: creativity is the essence of the education. It could therefore be an interesting partner to look at how creativity emerges from the students.

5.6.5 Preliminary Choice for Activities and Tools MIX academy will play a somewhat alternative role during the first pilot. They will be participating in the pilot as students, but for some essential activities, they will also play a leading role:

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• Profiling: the students will share their profile on the Facebook page, and show off their work.

• Creativity support: the students answer questions about how to be creative • Teacher support: one MIX Academy teacher will be involved in answering questions

on the Facebook page, and suggesting mini-activities to be creative.

5.6.6 Issues to be Decided The exact involvement depends on a more worked out program. Still, we have the full support from the MIX Academy director/founder and his students.


6 The reAct Methodological Design Boiling down what has been said in the former chapters the reAct teaching methods will be based on a variety of learning concepts derived from both theory and practice. This chapter presents the eight design principles for the teaching practices we will implement in the pilots we are planning. The design principles will lead the way the reAct pilots will be carried out and evaluated. The principles are described in general terms, they leave room to the teachers to put them to practice taking into account their local circumstances. Teachers will be supported by the reAct Project in implementing the design principles through

• An online community of practice where they can share knowledge, experiences, upload questions and give answers.

• A repository of examples of best practice. • Short powerpoint presentations on issues they will be asking for, e.g. how does a

personal learning environment look like?

6.1 The Seven Design Principles As has been said in Chapter 3 the reAct partners operate in different national contexts that should be taken into account when trying to implement innovative approaches for teaching and learning in groups that are outside the regular educational system. Having said this, there is a number of pedagogical principles that can be applied in any national context and for any target group if adjusted and implemented according to local conditions. The reAct Project strives at piloting and implementing innovative teaching practices that can change the traditional ways of second chance or non-formal education, still relying on traditional classroom teaching and content orientation. Technology will be explicitly included in the design as it offers unprecedented opportunities for communication, sharing, resources and tools. We come to the conclusion that we need the following eight design principles:

1. Trust: students and teachers must become confident that their ideas, contributions, and comments are treated with respect, online as well as offline. Fostering trust will engender self-esteem of the students who have most of the time a poor image of themselves as far as learning is concerned.

2. Challenging: students and teachers get motivated to learn when they experience or are faced with challenging, but manageable assignments. Teachers must ensure learning environments that offer the context in which students can adopt personal or group challenges. Teachers should address topics to study they consider relevant to research. Hence, assignments teacher suggest should be negotiable, or assignments should come from students themselves and teachers should enable students to define the relevance related to the learning goals set out at the beginning of the course.

3. Self-guidance: we must put more trust in the hands of students to guide their own learning. Within the boundaries and restrictions of each individual pilot, teachers must try to allow as much self-guidance and self-directed learning as possible. This requires not only a different way of thinking, but most important: patience.

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Sometimes, it takes some time before students get motivated to do ‘something’. Asking questions usually is a better approach than providing assignments.

4. Collaboration: Students take great interest in working with others. Teachers support collaboration through group-based work and regular feedback moments.

5. Ownership: If students (as well as teachers) have the impression that they are in control of the learning they do, there is a sense of ownership. This is an essential ingredient for motivation and self-guided learning.

6. Creativity: in creativity one can be honest and you are able to develop an identity. Through creative expressions one is able to have an idea about his or her capabilities and interests, which is fundamental for maintaining motivation and discovering one’s talents.

7. Relevance: ownership of learning also means defining those topics that the learner finds relevant in life, even though this is not part of the official curriculum. Teachers should, as far is possible, allow students to define the topics they want to learn, research, do. This means that they are allowed to do a project about anything they are passionate about, whether it is Cristiano Ronaldo, learning Spanish, or bio-informatics. The main objective for teacher is to add relevance and to foster curiosity about the topics they want to be covered. Sugata Mitra proved that with no or only limited guidance, students can learn.

8. ICT enabled: The role of ICT is critical but not an aim in itself. Using ICT is not about using tools, but about a different, and better way of learning. Students can find a huge amount of valuable learning resources online, they can find and use free tools to create and share content, and they can use free environments to communicate in order to learn collaboratively. The reAct Project is going to provide a dynamic list of tools that teachers and students can use and complement. It is available on Diigo and will function as a shared resource to which participants can contribute.

6.2 Organizational Strategy How should these pedagogical principles be applied in a school, institution, or other organization? This section describes a possible implementation strategy for partners and teachers involved in the reAct project.

6.2.1 Assumptions We have made a number of assumptions about the practical implementation strategy. 1. Teachers will only change their teaching practice if they have ownership on their

activities. This is why we should strive at making plans together with them. 2. Teachers will only change their teaching practice if they feel confident about the methods

used. This is why we should strive at introducing new practices step-by-step. 3. Specific activities should not hinder the main program; rather, they should support them.

This is why we should plan for concurrent activities with the program teachers teach. 4. Specific activities should not take too much time, but should be thought of as critical and

attracting to participate in. As far as the start of the Pilot 1 is concerned, we will start the specific activities with a 2 weeks program (familiarization) in which teachers will work with the students on the students’ interest, their ambitions, goals, backgrounds, families, and dreams they have for


the next 6 months period. Students from MIX Academy will take a stimulating, supporting, and moderating role by presenting their profiles, their interests and current activities in a closed group environment of Facebook. Teachers can use the discussions to spot the students’ interests and work out plans for how to integrate the students’ activities, skills and interest in the program they will teach afterwards. The overview below shows a more specific outline of the first pilot phase.

Table 1 - Weekly overview of activities pilot 1 Week T-Activity S-Activity

-2 Teacher Learning community (training)

-1

1 (Sep.1) Familiarization - Profiling - Project definition 2

3

Teacher / Learner community

- Teacher / Learner community - Project 1 (International)

4

5

6

7

- Teacher / Learner community - Project 2 (Local Program)

8

9

10

Continuous Regular group discussions and reflection (online and in class) && Log books and research activities

The idea of these 2 weeks is to let the students take the lead in defining what and how they would like to learn, what kind of tools they are acquainted with and how they could use these for learning. The students’ ambitions could be matched with a list of suggestions for further specific activities during the 6 months period of the pilot. Every month students could choose, using a poll, from the list of specific activities. These activities might be alternately local or International. Teachers should participate in these activities being a part of the learning philosophy of the reAct Project, and also because the activities can help them using new tools that can be helpful in new teaching approaches.

6.3 Some Examples of Specific Activities 6.3.1 Activities Fostering Independence in the Learning Process

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The following teaching strategies are aimed at teaching participants to explore, to contribute and learn by themselves, being the conductors of their own learning process. Facing a problem in which they feel concerned, that emerges from a real need, causes in them the intellectual challenge necessary for motivation and involvement, and to a mobilization of the cognitive and affective systems towards the achievement of the common task. The teacher should design activities that motivate the students, raise many new issues and questions but also effective solutions. The avid search for knowledge and curiosity must be, again conscious acts and self-motivated. Taking into account the different phases as proposed in the pilot courses of the reAct project, we suggest different types of activities related to each of the phases of the pilots:

1. Familiarization a. Activities designed by the teacher aimed to familiarize themselves with the

management of ICT tools available to students in general. b. Activities designed by the teacher to use different tools in combination. c. Activities designed between the teacher and the student group, which by

consensus is determined to carry out the process to develop the feeling of being membership of a group.

2. Creative Project a. Activities where students propose creative, collaborative projects in which

they themselves and working in teams determine how to perform the research process, reflection and preparation. The teacher acts as a mentor during the process of defining the project, providing a high level of confidence in the student and intervening as needed for each team.

b. self-building activities and collaborative development in international teams. 3. Subject Project

a. Activities related to one of the subjects where the teacher presents the topic or topics to be worked initially proposing projects which identify clearly the different aspects to consider (goal, resources, assessment rubric, the type of deliverable, etc.). Here, the students decide their research and working process, implementing meta-cognitive and critical thinking skills acquired during previous stage(creative project).

4. Integration in the main course program: a. Activities where the teacher presents the topic or topics to be worked initially

proposing projects which identify clearly the different aspects to consider (goal, resources, assessment rubric, the type of deliverable, etc.).

b. Activities that combine collaboration in the classroom with online collaboration c. Activities that combine individual research with team research.. d. Activities that combine collaboration in the classroom, local Internet

collaboration and collaboration with international teams. e. Activities that enhance creativity at individual and group level.

Use of Google Translate Below, we suggest many online tools and websites that are in English only. We therefore suggest the non-English speakers to integrate Google Translate in their toolbar and to translate the English texts in their own language. Google also offers an automated translation toolbar for each browser. On translate.google.com you can find all necessary information.


6.3.2 Specific Activity: Profiling This activity has been described above. The idea for profiling comes from the fact that the course is just starting, participants can get to know each other. In addition, kids are predominantly occupied with themselves, and as a consequence like more to show themselves in an online environment sharing ideas, activities and interests. We propose an activity in which the individual can express him- or herself using whatever tool available. The first 2 weeks students get the opportunity to share personal information using the Facebook group page. If students or teachers do not have a Facebook page, they must create a profile on Facebook, otherwise they will miss the entire discussion. We have chosen for Facebook, because it is the most widely used social platform worldwide, and very easy to use. It also motivates users to use their real names. In this document, we provide a large list of tools that can be used to express one self. For example, users can create an online video with pictures and music they like and share that online. They can also choose an image to identify themselves, or create an art piece (and show that online).

Aim of the activity The aim of the activity is to create a basic level of trust amongst all participants and getting used to conduct a process autonomously. We try to motivate the participants to be creative and to show some things about themselves. Rather than being told what they should learn, be, or become, they are now the persons who give direction to the process. Teachers should also be involved, because their involvement will hopefully diminish the hierarchical relationship between students and teachers. They are both equal in this learning process. Based on the outcomes of the profiling activity, the teachers may better be able to provide assignments or suggest projects suited to each individual learner.

Link to the learning program This part of the learning program is linked with the familiarization part. Students and teachers will have to use Facebook and possible some other tools to identify themselves and be creative.

Description of Roles and Activities It can be scary to share such information with each other, especially if you don't know each other, so we will need to motivate a small number of participants (at each pilot project) to lead this exercise. Also, we will ask MIX Academy students to provide interesting images, videos, links, and comments on the Facebook page, because if you see peers share content, you are more likely to share content yourself. Teachers will have a similar role as students, and will also participate in profiling and commenting on other profiles.

Relevant links The links we have chosen here are supplementary to the links that we describe in a following section called “The Creative Toolbox”. In addition to that set of links, we propose the following links as a way to create a profile: Facebook - the social network we will use to communicate YouTube - find a video that has to do with you and share that on the Facebook page, explain why that video is so important 43things.com - write down some goals you want to achieve in life, and find peers that have similar goals All other links included in the Creative Tool Studio (below).

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Possible way to conduct this activity In class, the teacher asks the students what they want, who they are, and asks if they are willing to share their ideas, dreams, and goals, because that would improve the way the education will be delivered. He explains the basic concepts of the pedagogical approach taken, and proposes to share information on the Facebook page and to look at what others share. Students are free to choose the topic and form of expression, in order to give them a sense of ownership and force them to think about what they really like or want. If students or teachers have questions regarding creativity or art, they can ask those in English or their own language on the Facebook page with “#MIX” in the question. Then, students or teachers from MIX Academy will provide an answer, tip, or suggestion. Storytelling Another interesting way to share personal information, or to conduct a project, is through storytelling. Students might enjoy sharing stories or creating stories collaboratively, by writing and/or creating visuals (pictures, graphs, etc). A clear structure of how to build a story together could support students to develop language skills, communication skills, and creativity. The teacher could propose using a tool like Storybird (http://www.storybird.com) or point to the Bubble Project (http://www.bubbleproject.com) to give students an idea of what they could do. This is generic enough to allow students to become creative and express themselves in a way they want. Their creations must be shared online, and discussed in class. Creative teachers may want to add fun assignments during the storytelling, for example by saying that the story has to include a known myth.

6.3.3 Specific Activity: Online games

Aim of the activity This activity stimulates social interaction and motivation in each student and teacher by providing them with free online games and having students (and teachers) play them together, either in a competitive or a collaborative setting. Students are motivated to play together with others, and to compete and win in games. Serious games, such as Mathgarden.org provide students with math skills and at the same time motivate students to do math and have fun. Below we give an overview of appropriate game websites including a short description. Teachers and students are invited to use these games, discover what they can learn and experience from them. Some games might just give students and teachers to find out what is in these games for learning or for social meetings. Others might be challenged and work hard to get to the levels you want to reach. All games listed below do not need long instructions, most can be played by students without any instructions. That is how they go forward when playing games anyhow. And students might take a teacher’s role explaining to their teachers how to play the game! This approach called inversed pedagogy, might be typical for this specific activity in the reAct Project. Teachers and students discovering learning worlds that are motivating for both and that will strengthen the social cohesion of the group including the teacher. This approach is also an effective and efficient way of in-service training for teachers as they learn together with students along their working hours. Instead of going to a course the teachers’ learning process take place in the classroom.


As a consequence of this inversed pedagogy we do not provide an extensive pedagogical pathway for each game. The pedagogy is in the game and the gamer will discover how it works by playing the game. The idea is that students and teachers use and discover these games, and discuss what happens during or after play; how the games make them feel, and what they think they might learn from them.

Link to the learning program The activity taps both into the social skills and personal motivation of individual students and teachers in a highly interconnected and social setting, and into the learning skills as the games are educational. By playing and discussing games in a group, students might acquire social skills (e.g. collaboration, competition), cognitive skills (e.g. strategic thinking, resource management, math skills), and increased personal development (e.g. goal setting, self-directed discovery).

Description of Roles and Activities The teachers’ role Teachers should take the role of a learner here, and tell students to help him/her discover the world of serious gaming. We suggest that teachers start a short discussion with the students on what they are used to play, how long they play these games and what they think is most attractive in games. The teacher can then introduce the list of serious games below and suggest to choose one of them to play together. These games should be of interest to all and provide the possibility to play the game in a group. Besides teachers can spot specific interests or learning difficulties with individual students in advance and suggest each student to start playing specific games from the list below. In addition, teachers might invite students to come up with a list of games they usually play and decide to play one of them together. This can be done within the classroom and at a distance when each of the gamers is online at home. The huge advantage of playing web-based games, is that students (and teachers) only need a web browser to play; they don’t need to download or install anything (with the exception of Adobe Flash). Most online game sites offer aggregations of different games that can be played by students and teachers. The table below contains suggested websites, but many more are available. Student’s role What might be interesting for students to do is organizing a LAN Party (Local Area Party) where students and teachers come together to play games for hours on a row. LAN Parties are highly social events where the participants become friends and exchange lots of information. All you need is a place where there are computers available that are connected locally or via the Internet. If the teacher is able to provide the room with computers, students will do the rest. A LAN Party is like a schooltrip, it is exhausting for teachers but it brings motivation and interest of learners.

Relevant links Game / site name and URL Description FarmVille FarmVille is a farming social network game developed

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http://www.farmville.com/ by Zynga. It is available on the social-networking website Facebook and as an App on the Apple iPhone. The game allows members of Facebook to manage a virtual farm by plowing land, planting, growing and harvesting virtual crops, harvesting trees and bushes, and by raising livestock (from Wikipedia).

MouseHunt apps.facebook.com/mousehunt/

MouseHunt is a popular Facebook application in which players, referred to as hunters, catch mice with a variety of traps in order to earn experience points and virtual gold through passive gameplay. From time to time the developers add new locations and mice as well as sponsor periodic giveaways and tournaments (from Wikipedia).

Kongregate http://www.kongregate.com/

Kongregate is a popular online games hosting website. Kongregate has a system of points, which are 'experience' awarded for performing certain on-site actions. These points contribute to the level of a registered account. There are several ways to gain points on Kongregate, such as rating games, or user-created levels, earning achievements, creating games, completing quests (Consisting of sets of achievements), and completing challenges. It allows users to submit high scores and in some games, earn achievement badges (from Wikipedia).

Armor Games http://armorgames.com/

Armor Games is a website that hosts free Flash-based browser games. It hosted The Lord of the Rings-themed content, such as the games "Hob the Hobbit", "Battle for Gondor", and "Orc Slayer". The site has since hosted a variety of games across many genres, such as puzzles, shooters, and strategy games. In addition to hosting other developers' games, the site's staff creates free Flash games in-house (from Wikipedia).

Enercities http://enercities.eu/

EnerCities is an educational game about energy, co-funded by the European Commission. The game is about energy sources and the balance between people, planet and profit. An educational toolbox is available for this game and can be downloaded from the website.

Mathsgarden. http://www.mathsgarden.com/

Math Garden is a web based training-tracking system to playfully train and measure mathematical skills. Children can help their plants grow in their garden by playing math games. By clicking on a twig in the garden, a child will start a math subject and will play a game to increase his skill in that domain. After leaving the game, the twig will grow depending on the child’s level of success. The better children play, the more beautiful their plants grow.


6.3.4 Research & Learning

Aim of the activity This activity aims at developing search skills and learning skills using ICT tools that are available on the Internet. The skills consist of both strategies for searching information and for using appropriate keywords. The pedagogy of this specific activity might focus on problem oriented learning activities. The problems may be defined by students themselves and should contain information retrieval and research aspects. Most important is that students take ownership of the problem to be researched. Problem based learning or PBL is a pedagogical concept of "active learning" that was developed at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and fits well in the reAct Project philosophy. The PBL principles are translated into the following basic features of problem-based learning: • The subject material is presented in the form of "open-ended" problems; • Students work together in small groups; • Teachers assume the role of "facilitator" of learning. The aim is that students take responsibility for their group and organizing them, and directing the learning process with the support of a tutor or instructor. PBL can be used to enrich the content knowledge and the development of communication, problem-solving ability and self-directed learning skills can be promoted. The teaching material consists of a series of "tasks" as problem tasks, action tasks, study assignments and discussion tasks, enabling students in different ways to treat substance must approach. Besides tasks textbooks, articles, cases, instructions to the teaching materials include. Each task is handled using a jump seven, comprising the following steps: 1. clarify ambiguous terminology; 2. formulating the problems; 3. brainstorming; 4. the problem, mentioning any of the brainstorming discussion; 5. formulating the learning objectives; 6. tutorial / information search outside the group; 7. The debriefing of the learning / synthesizing and testing new knowledge. The first five steps together form the briefing, then, students start learning in smaller groups, and the seventh step is the discussion in a last session dealing with the task shutdown. At each meeting, one of the students takes the role of moderator (chairman) and one student the role of secretary. Each student group is accompanied by the teacher, the tutor. The tutor guides the group process, sends the appropriate discussion and acts as a content expert if necessary.

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In fact, this pedagogical approach can be applied to any other learning in the pilots of reAct, but it is particularly suited to the activity of learning how to learn and search for appropriate information as in this specific activity. It is not compulsory to follow the 7 steps in detail. Depending on the time available and the problems that might emerge from discussions with the students, some PBL like activities can be organized. It is the responsibility of the teachers involved to find the right balance.

Link to the Learning Program Finding appropriate information or answers to questions is key in a world where the answers are at your fingertips. As a consequence, learning today depends more and more on what students can find, select, and share on the Net. They should be able to find (a) the right information, (b) reliable information, and (c) sufficient information to perform a specific learning task or assignment. In addition, they should be able to find information quickly by using the appropriate keywords. Besides these information retrieval skills, the Internet offers a variety of websites where students can learn for free. These sites build communities of people having the same interest and flourish by the communication between the users. Examples of these sites can be found for learning foreign languages or learning math.

Description of Roles and Activities Teachers might define specific challenges for students to research, students might also bring up issues they would like to research. The issue here is to challenge students for complicated tasks and let them find their way how to come up with creative solutions.

Relevant Links • www.powerofresearch.eu • www.about.com • www.zooniverse.org • www.smithsonianeducation.org/ • http://prezi.com (presentation tool) • http://sketchup.google.com/ (create 3D models) • http://quora.com (Ask questions and get answers, or give answers yourself, in

English only)

6.3.5 The Creative Tool Studio

Aim of the activity This activity stimulates creativity in each student and teacher by providing him or her with free online tools that support creative work, sometimes in a collaborative setting. Students are motivated to share their creations with others, and comment on the creations of their peers. We provide an aggregation of tools plus description, and teachers and students should discover what they could do with it. In other words, we do not provide an extensive methodological approach for each tool, because that would probably interfere too much with the regular education. The idea is that students and teachers use and discover these kinds of tools in their free time, and discuss the creations online and in class. Many of the tools are web-based, so if a teacher decides to use a web-based tool, fast broadband Internet is


usually required. It is not required to use a web-based tool, students can choose to do a photography, music, or video project offline without using any of the tools, and upload that to the Facebook page.

Link to the learning program The activity taps into the creativity of individual students and teachers in a highly interconnected and collaborative setting. Creativity emerges from motivation: students formulate questions and become inquisitive and through exploration become creative.

Description of Roles and Activities The Creative Tool Studio is an aggregation of tools that can be used by students and teachers.

• Introduction: Teachers can introduce the tools in class, and possibly provide a creation he/himself to give an example.

• Creative Tool Studio is shown: a list of tools and possible related projects. Obviously the student may do whatever they like with the tools, the projects are only there to describe the tool.

• Choice and execution of creative project: Students can choose their own tool, work on their own or in groups, and are stimulated to make something within 4 weeks and share that in a digital format.

• International project? > can we easily foster international projects? Or is it just reflection and discussion online?

• Involvement MIX Academy students: From the beginning, MIX Academy students will share creative projects on the Facebook page, discuss, and an that way be an example for other participating students and teachers.

• Support when asked for: Support (on Facebook or other means) may be given to students by students and teachers from the MIX Art Academy.

Possible tools The list below contains many optional tools to be used in- and outside the classroom. Web 2.0 tools can be categorized according to six main activities:

• communication • publishing and distribution, • collaboration, • self-organizing learning process • the creation of a social network, and • searching and filtering of information in the network.

The tools below have not been categorized as they function as examples of tools available for teachers in the reAct Project. Within Diigo the list of tools will be searchable for any purpose a teacher has looking for an appropriate tool. Hence, the teacher will search for tools on the basis of teaching activities rather than functionalities of tools. This seems to be a much better approach to provide tools in an environment where teachers can also contribute, write comments and share experiences. Name and URL tool Pedagogical Description Aviary - aviary.com Aviary’ motto is “Creation on the Fly”. It is a

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suite of creative image and audio tools. big place with lots to do. First of all, it is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your browser. It is also an online community of digital artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing, that makes it easy to share and collaborate with others. Several possibilities:

● Images & Photos: edit images, create effects.. (i.e. create a flyer)

● Audio: create a beat, make your own ringtone, play an instrument online and record, etc.

Many tutorials available, but only in English (it seems).

Masher - masher.com Animoto - animoto.com Picasa - picasa.google.com

These free online editing studios lets you create a video by mixing together video clips, music tracks and photos. Special effects are also possible. You can use your own materials, and masher even lets you browse through their extensive library from BBC, Rip Curl and more. Easy to share on social networks.

Andrea Mosaic - http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/

This is free desktop software, compatible with PC and Mac, that lets you create beautiful photo mosaics using your own photographs.

Looplabs - http://www.looplabs.com/ Looplabs is an online music mixing application and platform. LoopLabs’ online interactive music platform offers a wide range of possible feature implementations such as multi-channel mixing (up to 32 channels), advanced multi-channel presets, MP3 sampling / triggering / remixing, complete load/save/vote functionality, audio recording capabilities (client-side), sequencing / song composing, output audio to WAV/MP3 files, video mixing capabilities and integration, multiuser, collaborative music environments, crossplatform (MAC|PC), etc. It has support and explanations in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. It does require a broadband Internet connection. Also, there are applications available for iPhone or other smartphone devices, such as Everyday Looper or Easy Beatmaker.

Pixton - pixton.com Toondo - toondoo.com

Pixton is an award-winning comic strip creator with a wide variety of features that lets you create comics without needing to draw them. You can customize everything on the page with a simple click-and-drag option. It works on any browser, Mac or PC, it’s easy


to share by email or embed in blogs or social networks. ToonDoo is a cool, comic-creating tool. Drag and drop images and share your ideas and thoughts in a comic strip and share with others.

Mix Book - mixbook.com If you like making scrapbooks, Mix Book is the place to start. It’s an online community where you can express yourself creatively. With their free online tool, it’s easy to make your own multimedia scrapbooks and share them with friends.

Mashup Arts - mashuparts.com Mashup Arts website was built for social networkers who want to share video and photo ecards by remixing their personal content with free internet content. There are many options to help you create your Mashup Cards by customizing photos, videos, text and music to create a unique and personal card. Shareable in online networks like Facebook.

Odosketch - odosketch.com Pencil - pencil-animation.org

Odosketch is a flash drawing application that lets you create sketches online, using different paper textures, a variety of brushes and drawing effects. It’s possible to save your sketch in flash format so you can watch it as it was being drawn, and share it with friends. Pencil is a similar application, free and open source, and can be downloaded on the desktop. It has more functionality than odosketch.

Glogster - glogster.com Wallwisher - wallwisher.com

A Glog is a kind of poster, made up of text, images, music and video. Glogs are a perfect way to express who YOU are! Wallwisher is an online collaborative space where people can leave online notes (post-its). See for example http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/react-project

Go Animate - goanimate.com Strip creator - stripcreator.com Xtranormal - xtranormal.com

Go Animate is an online tool to make animated cartoons. The support is in English and Spanish. The animations can easily be shared online. Strip creator is a very easy-to-use comic creator. xtranormal is an easy-to-use 3D movie-creator. You only have to be able to type, and the characters will speak the text.

Google Sketchup - sketchup.google.com Google SketchUp is an intuitive 3D modeling tool by Google. It has a lot of support videos in multiple languages. Users can model anything imaginable, such as a classroom redecoration, new piece of furniture, or something else. Also, online you can

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download free models to get started. Picnik - picnik.com Pixlr - pixlr.com

Advanced and very popular image/picture editors.

Voki - voki.com Voki allows you to create a personalized talking avatar that can be used in any blog, profile or email. It also has an active Facebook page.

Jing - techsmith.com/jing/ Skitch - skitch.com

Jing, Skitch, and SnagIt are advanced screencapture tools (image & video). Captured images or videos can easily be edited (i.e. adding arrows and comments) and shared instantly.

Fotobabble - fotobabble.com A fotobabble is a talking photo. An iPhone app is also available. Easy adding of voice.

Audacity - audacity.sourceforge.net Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to record live audio / convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs / edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files / cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together / change the speed or pitch of a recording / and much more.

fffound - fffound.com Enormous collection of interesting and beautiful images to inspire creativity. Community websites.

Relevant links More interesting and relevant links are aggregated here: http://groups.diigo.com/group/react-project.


7 Research Activities During the pilots, research will be conducted to capture the results and knowledge emerging from the pilots. There will be regular interviews and surveys in order to evaluate the approach taken. Also, as a part of dissemination, results will be published in relevant journals, and websites e.g. elearningeurope. The research will address the change in behavior and learning for both teachers and students involved in the project. The objective is to get an idea about

• how does the reAct teaching approach changes the attitude of learners and teachers with regard to learning,

• what are the benefits and drawbacks of self-organized learning with regard to dropouts,

• how do ICT tools and environments support the reAct learning approach

7.1 Partner Involvement (Without active involvement of partners, research or evaluation is impossible. The researching partner does not have direct access to participating teachers or students, and even if that would be the case, language would be a significant barrier.) In order to be able to conduct qualitative research, the reAct partners need to be involved. The specific responsibilities concern:

• Interviews with teachers: The reAct partners are to carry out pre-structured interviews with the teachers involved. The researching partner will provide the necessary interview formats and questions

• Surveys amongst students: The reAct partners will also distribute survey instruments provided by the researching partner to the teachers and students.

• Regular interviews with the researching partner: The reAct partners will have regular online interviews in which the progress of activities will be evaluated.

The researching partner will publish a Operational Research Plan including the timelines for all research instruments mentioned above. These activities will be planned together with the project evaluator in order to create synergy between research and evaluation purposed of both partners.

Documents

reAct methodological design