iTEC

New article: Students designing educational games

2013-05-14T11:37:20Z

When teachers try to implement game-based learning, they always have questions like: What kind of games should we use? How high is the educational value of the game? How much do the students like the game? One safe way to answer these questions is to let the students develop the educational games instead of playing the games - the focus can then be on the process of developing the game. The article describes a case-study in which 11-12 year old students designed educational games for learning English as a foreign language.

This article describes how students in the 5th grade were asked to design a game that teaches topics of English as a foreign language. The case study is part of iTEC project pre-pilots. The intent of this article is to provide a good example of how to motivate students and integrate innovative activities into teaching.

The article was published by European Alliance for Innovation (EAI Endorsed Transactions on Game Based Learning, Volume 13, Issue 01-12). The authors, Martin Sillaots and Ingrid Maadvere, work at the iTEC partner organisation, the Tiger Leap Foundation.

Read the full article here

Visualising coastal defences

2013-05-24T07:52:48Z

When constructing a system of coastal defences to protect against erosion; not only the environmental impact must be considered, but also the visual impact, as coastal management schemes can often be the source of controversy.

These were among the factors that Chris Long asked his pupils to consider when proposing new designs for coastal defences. Pupils used Google Sketch to visualise and present their ideas, and used the class blog to reflect upon their progress. The class used ActivExpression to measure the support among pupils for the various schemes proposed.

Eliza, one of pupils taking part, had this to say about the project: “It was a bit hard to choose the defenses, as we had to make sure they would last long, keep the beach looking natural and wouldn’t be too expensive. But in the end, we managed to decide, and we think it’s a good decision.”

To read more about this classroom activity, click here.

Teacher: Chris Long

School: English International School, Marbella

Country: Spain

Creating an object

2013-04-17T15:56:37Z

At SEK-Atlántico international school, 9th graders are investigating, getting inspiration, designing and creating a lamp. After that, they will share their process with classmates, as well as their creations.

Now, this is not just any lamp. It must be created with recycled materials, students are in charge of entire design and creation process, and they must defend their choices and modifications.

This is part of a cycle 4 story happening right now. To see students´ opinions, actual designs and work in action, take a look at our blog here.

Where: Pontevedra, Northwest of Spain

Teachers: Rafael García and Beatriz Trillo

Students: 3º ESO A and B

Let us know what you think through the comments!

Rafael

Designing the school's coffeeshop

2013-04-05T09:54:39Z

In Colegio Base, Madrid, pupils reimagined the the use of space for the school's cafeteria facilities.

To read more about the project, click here.

Teacher: Dina Cordoba

School: Colegio Base, Madrid

Country: Spain

Evaluating the third cycle of iTEC - upcoming webinar

2013-04-12T09:58:26Z

During the third cycle of the iTEC project, which took place from August to December 2012, 334 teachers from across Europe took part in the school pilots. Pupils from 18 countries benefited from the principle of innovation being introduced to their classroom practice through iTEC Learning Activities.

Teachers can tailor the use of Learning Activities to suit their own particular classroom context. Francesca Panzica, a primary school teacher from Florence, Italy, used the activity ‘Visualising the planet surface' to take a virtual school trip with her class. Fifth year pupils in Ostrava, Czech Republic, learned mathematical concepts and developed their presentation skills through teaching a maths class to younger pupils.

The iTEC project will host an interactive webinar to evaluate the 3rd cycle of the school pilots. The discussion will focus on the project’s progress to date, which pedagogical tools were most effective, and any challenges that have been encountered. The iTEC project is always interested to hear teachers’ feedback on their experiences, or on ideas to improve the project, so make your voice heard and help shape the future of the project!

The webinar, ‘Discovering, thinking, creating - findings of the 3rd iTEC evaluation’, will take place on Wednesday 24 April, 16:00-17:00h CEST. The webinar is free, and open to all of those who are interested in taking part, so register today at http://bit.ly/10Zh5sW

More information on iTEC webinars: http://itec.eun.org/web/guest/webinars

This class in Italy took a virtual school trip to London as part of the project - find out what your class can do with iTEC Learning Activities.

Redesigning the school's sports facilities

2013-04-05T09:38:53Z

Pupils in Colegio Base, Madrid, used iTEC Learning Activities to reimagine the use of space in their school's gym.

Read the class blog.

Teacher: Diana Cordoba

School: Colegio Base, Madrid

Country: Spain

Creating video 'book trailers' in Italy

2013-04-09T09:59:41Z

Raffaella Fiorini is an iTEC teacher in Liceo Classico Chris Cappell in Anzio, Italy. While studying works of English literature with her class, Raffaella decided to create ‘book trailers’ for the books; that is, short reviews of the books in video format.

In carrying out this project, Raffaella wanted her pupils to learn not only about the books in question, and to improve their English, but to learn the principles of audio-visual editing, and to collaborate with one another and learn project-based skills:

“It is not only the narrative content; it's about arousing interest in the book in potential new readers. The aim is to share the emotions. That's all in the choice of the music, of the images, the video editing”.

To read the news story, click here.

To embed the book trailers as widgets, go to the iTEC widget store, and search for 'book trailer'.

Booktrailers: