peer-to-peer education
Science Teaching European Network for Creativity and Innovation in Learning
STENCIL is:
A virtual community, open to everyone, for sharing ideas, news and events on science teaching in Europe / in your country.
A chance to present your own projects to colleagues from all over Europe. In STENCIL you can directly enter information about your science education project by filling in the Online questionnaire.
An opportunity to get inspired and search for science education projects from all over Europe. In the European catalogue of science education initiatives you will find more than 900 projects realised in schools all over Europe.
A source of inspiration for those who are interested in discovering good practices, in learning more about science education practices, and in transferring them .
Outcomes:
The European Online Catalogue of Science Education Initiatives includes initiatives directly submitted online by teachers and schools from all over Europe by filling in a questionnaire which documents the key elements of the school practices. Initiatives submitted are validated by project partners and made accessible by subjects, school levels, country, keywords, etc.
The Annual Reports on the State of Innovation in Science Education are published at the end of 2011, 2012 and 2013 and include the results of the joint reflection on science education themes and models carried out by STENCIL members as well as the detailed descriptions of the innovative practices identified at national and European level, paying particular attention to Comenius and other EU funded projects.
Study Visits are regularly organised from / to schools and other partner institutions in order to illustrate good and innovative practices in science education. A total of 7 study visits will take place in the following partners countries: Italy, Greece, France, Portugal, Germany, and Malta, in occasion of partner meetings. Also external users are invited to participate in these study visits, namely teachers and school managers.
Workshops are regularly organised during the project life span for both members and external beneficiaries, mainly teachers, school managers, teacher trainers, etc. focussing on themes and methodologies related to the good practices identified by STENCIL members and adopting a peer to peer learning approach. A total of 7 workshops will take place in the following partner countries: Italy, Greece, France, Portugal, Germany, and Malta, in occasion of partner meetings.
International conferences are organised in France, Germany and Italy, addressing teachers, school managers, teacher trainers, school authorities, policy makers, and all key players in science education in order to promote the Annual Reports as well as to present the good practices identified in this framework. They will also to provide occasions of informal exchanges, common reflections and debates, as well as working sessions and social events.
A Call for participants will be launched every year to schools having carried out the successful transfer of a good practice among those highlighted in the Annual Report. An award will be given to the winner school/s.
The Guidelines and Manifesto for teaching and learning science in a creative way will provide educational authorities and policy makers with tools and models for innovating science education in their countries, especially focused on the establishment of contacts between Research and School.
How to join:
If you want to be informed about the STENCIL Network and its activities, please write an e-mail to Ms Francesca Magrefi - e-mail: europe@stencil-science.eu - to be added to the STENCIL mailing list for the promotion of STENCIL activities and events (i.e. study visits, workshops, international conferences).
We are looking forward to establishing a wide range of contacts with practitioners from all over Europe interested in the exchange on science education!
Experts in education reflect by telling stories
EXPERTS - http://blog.experts.story-telling.eu/ - is an easy-to-handle weblog area for the exchange of experiences among kindergarten teachers. It is about stories of personally experienced situations with children in the daily life of kindergarten teachers and day mothers of different countries all over Europe.
Visit the EXPERTS blog:
http://blog.experts.story-telling.eu/
EXPERTS – Experts in education reflect by telling stories
EXPERTS is not about telling exciting, extraordinary, unpublished stories or big problems or events. We would simply like to invite you to tell “little pieces of working life you have encountered in your daily working routine”, for example something important for you, or a situation which was difficult to handle, a situation where you were lost for words, a touching experience, a certain problem, situation, event or encounter that you would like to share with other colleagues…
The EXPERTS project is co-funded by the European Commission and aims at building up a Europe-wide network for kindergarten teachers and day mothers providing peer support for this group and lifelong learning through personally experienced situations from working life. The project is coordinated by ILI – Innovation in Learning Institute, Germany, with partners in Finland, Italy, Slovenia and Spain.
Write your story in the EXPERTS Blog!
… read and comment the stories of other Kindergarten teachers and day mothers.
Contribute to the discussion in the EXPERTS Forum!
... read and comment the messages of others, communicate with us and your colleagues in early childhood education about your experiences.
EXPERTS Blog: http://blog.experts.story-telling.eu/
EXPERTS Forum: http://blog.experts.story-telling.eu/forum/
UCF's openSpace
openSpace is University College Falmouth's platform for making teaching materials free to learners all over the world through Creative Commons. This is your space to explore, experiment, develop and grow...a place where your learning and your knowledge is shaped through your interactions, peer feedback and collaboration with others interested in the same subject. It's about you participating in an active community of learners. The journey is as important as the destination.
The challenge of quality in peer-produced eLearning content
Peer production is not only a novel method to produce eLearning content, but it is also an approach to empower a wide variety of professionals to the learning content production. However, the quality management challenge related to this kind of content can undermine the merits of the method.
A number of useful tools and approaches are currently being applied to ensure and improve the quality of peer produced eLearning content. This article introduces QualityScape, a method developed by the European QMPP project, as an important approach in assuring the quality of peer-produced eLearning content. The fundamental finding in our work is that quality is the result of the interplay between peer production of digital content and peer validation processes of digital content. Overall, the key issue in this project is to develop a holistic approach to the peer production, which enables the effective utilization of this unique method of content creation.