collaborative learning

The idea developed by David Mitchell, who teaches at Haworth Primary School, in Bolton, is based on the fact that a blog needs an audience to keep learners engaged. Too often blogs wither away leaving the learners frustrated and bored. Quadblogging gives students’ blogs a truly authentic and global audience.

The system is quite simple: teachers sign up online, and shortly after their class will be allocated a quad with other four schools/classes. Students will then start commenting on each other's blogs in an organised fashion.

Each week one blog is the focus blog, with the other three classes visiting and commenting during that week. Over the course of a month, every blog gets read and commented. Along the way, students learn about respectful online communication. The four week cycle is then repeated. However, this time, pupils know what is coming and they will work harder to have interesting content in their blog.

QuadBlogging has been mentioned very highly in recent OfSTED Reports in the UK and praised for offering opportunities for “profound impact in developing pupils’ team working, communication and problem-solving skills.”

AGRICOM (AGRIcultural COMpetences) is a project funded by the European Commission, and seeks to improve transparency and comparability of Vocational Educational Training (VET) by establishing a Competence Model for the agricultural sector. 

AGRICOM's inspiration has been the Water Competence Model, which they have transferred and adapted to the world of agriculture. Initial pilot programs will test the validity of the model in different national contexts, starting soon in Germany and Italy.

The Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) in Germany and then University of Tuscia in Italy (UNITUS) will implement the model in their own organizations, and investigate its practical implications for skills and competence management in the agricultural sector.

If you are interested in contributing to the first competence model for the European agricultural sector, you can join the open discussion run through the VOA3R project. Click here to share your views on important agricultural competences, job profiles, training opportunities, and certificates that lay the foundation for the ACM. 

To learn about the newest updates regarding the AGRICOM project, to contact the project consortium, or to learn how the AGRICOM Competence Model could help your human resource management and vocational education and training situation, visit the project website.