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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

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.

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”.

The pupils searched for multimedia resources, such as videos, music, and still images, to use as part of their book trailers. This involved the pupils working independently, with minimal direction from their teacher.

According to Raffaella: “I think it's important for the teacher to act as a tutor, providing guidance and feedback without lecturing the students all the time”.

The pupils were divided into groups, with each group working on one book. Each group had a blog, where pupils could record their progress through video logs, and share results with and provide feedback to other groups. At the end of the project, each group produced a multimedia library, containing the book trailer, and a conceptual map of the book that they had studied.

The book trailers had the effect of motivating the pupils to broaden their reading, deepening their knowledge and understanding of the book that they themselves worked on, and gave them an insight into how information and ideas can be presented and shared.

To view the pupils' book trailers, go to the Teacher Stories page.

Since its launch in 2010, the iTEC project has been piloted in over 500 classrooms, across 16 countries. Teachers from across Europe have benefited from the principle of innovation being introduced to their teaching practice through use of iTEC Learning Activities. Earlier this month, the evaluation results of the second cycle of the iTEC school pilots were published.

The second cycle of the iTEC project saw Learning Activities piloted in 420 classrooms in 15 countries. The evaluation, compiled by iTEC partner Manchester Metropolitan University, made some significant findings. Most teachers reported that the Learning Activities that they piloted promoted innovation in their teaching through technology-enabled pedagogical change such as enhanced student autonomy and new approaches to assessment. Teachers also reported increased levels of motivation, for their own part, and also for the pupils.

The respondents reported an increased use of digital tools in their teaching, with many teachers indicating use of tools that they had not used before, but now considered essential to their teaching practice. In particular, 60% of teachers used TeamUp, and 52% used social networking tools such as Facebook or Edmodo.

To read the Cycle 2 Evaluation Report in full, click here. To learn more about the evaluations of the iTEC project to date, click here.

The iTEC project is organising a teacher training workshop on Future Classroom Scenarios in Brussels, 6-7 May 2013. 

Teachers taking part in the workshop will be involved in developing innovative ideas for the future of teaching and learning, and exploring new methodologies and technologies to enhance classroom practice. The workshop will also provide an opportunity to collaborate with like-minded teachers from across Europe, and to share experiences and ideas on how best to meet the challenges of teaching in the classroom of the future.

The training will take place in the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels. The Future Classroom Lab is European Schoolnet’s fully-equipped, reconfigurable, teaching and learning space developed by European Schoolnet, its 30 supporting Ministries of Education and leading educational technology providers.

For full details on the event, including information on who can take part and how to apply, please click here.

The deadline for applications for this workshop is Sunday 31 March; don't miss out on this opportunity to collaborate with teachers from across Europe!

Video: Some teachers who attended last year's teacher training event share their experiences of using iTEC Learning Activities with their classes.