Klaipeda University Continuing Studies Institute's team wish you happy coming holidays and would like to acknowledge the time spent together with a honest "Thank-you!". May everything is united by the holidays spirit, May the miracles come!
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
First Milestone Reached by Deadline - Welcome to our Blog
According to the Detvet project plan the first deadline after the kick-off meeting was to launch the project website in November. Yesterday, on November 30 the Detvet Blog was made visible to the entire Internet community.
The kick-off meeting in Klaipeda in October decided that the project website would be a blog - easy to update for all project partners. The first post and much of the informative content on right hand of this blog was made already at the meeting. We decided however to launch the blog later, when there is more to explore.
We welcome all new readers!
The kick-off meeting in Klaipeda in October decided that the project website would be a blog - easy to update for all project partners. The first post and much of the informative content on right hand of this blog was made already at the meeting. We decided however to launch the blog later, when there is more to explore.
We welcome all new readers!
Sunday, 29 November 2009
New Technologies in Education and Training
Information and Communication Technologies are being increasingly used to create richer learning environments. In all sectors of education from primary schools to adult education, in schools for pupils with special education needs and in colleges and universities, technologies are being used across the curriculum to enhance students’ experiences.
The use of technology and new media is crucial to involve new generation in education and facilitate their learning process. It is important to train teachers how to use at best technologies and design and create attractive learning environments, and build experience also to be exchanged freely with others.
The above concepts have been developed by Training 2000 and EU partners in previous Comenius project named TACCLE, which ends at the end of 2009. The outcomes of the project aim to train teachers and trainers to create e-learning materials and raise their awareness of e-learning in general in order to establish a culture of innovation in the schools in which they work.
The TACCLE handbook created for trainers and teachers supplying suggestions on how to implement new technologies (including web 2.0 tools) and e-learning in class is available online (please click here if interested!). You may be interested to know that an in-service training course “Creating your own e-learning content in school education and adult education” is also planned to take place in Urbino, Italy in April 2010 and it has been a great success, as we have 65 applicants from all over Europe! (Click here to read more about it).
This experience from the TACCLE project can be partially transferred to DETVET and further exploited through the involvement of the VET providers and trainers in partners countries.
Training 2000 is responsible for the development and organisation of Training for the Municipality of Sant’Angelo in Vado and as first dissemination event, has organised a conference with aperitifs and snacks at the University of Urbino on November 9th 2009, with 20 participants/trainers, experts, teachers trainers and university researchers/professors.
The best moments are recorded and presented to you here:
The use of technology and new media is crucial to involve new generation in education and facilitate their learning process. It is important to train teachers how to use at best technologies and design and create attractive learning environments, and build experience also to be exchanged freely with others.
The above concepts have been developed by Training 2000 and EU partners in previous Comenius project named TACCLE, which ends at the end of 2009. The outcomes of the project aim to train teachers and trainers to create e-learning materials and raise their awareness of e-learning in general in order to establish a culture of innovation in the schools in which they work.
The TACCLE handbook created for trainers and teachers supplying suggestions on how to implement new technologies (including web 2.0 tools) and e-learning in class is available online (please click here if interested!). You may be interested to know that an in-service training course “Creating your own e-learning content in school education and adult education” is also planned to take place in Urbino, Italy in April 2010 and it has been a great success, as we have 65 applicants from all over Europe! (Click here to read more about it).
This experience from the TACCLE project can be partially transferred to DETVET and further exploited through the involvement of the VET providers and trainers in partners countries.
Training 2000 is responsible for the development and organisation of Training for the Municipality of Sant’Angelo in Vado and as first dissemination event, has organised a conference with aperitifs and snacks at the University of Urbino on November 9th 2009, with 20 participants/trainers, experts, teachers trainers and university researchers/professors.
The best moments are recorded and presented to you here:
Thursday, 26 November 2009
About questionnaires
As it was decided during the first meeting in Klaipeda - the leaders of this „workpackage“ Irena (KU CSI) and Iveta (Olomouc University) were appointed to create a tool for investigation - a questionnaire. The ideas for this questionnaire were also proposed by Elmo and they were based on the experience of the previous EMCET and TACCLE projects.
Iveta sent us a version of the questionnaire which is designed to find out the methods that teachers are using and also lacking in their work (Iveta‘s questionnaire).
In the meetings that Irena organized in our Andragogy department there were discussions that there should be a questionnaire shape allowing us to find out about the particular methods we are considering in our DETVET project.
We also believe that the partner offering a particular technique or approach should find out the questions or statements which are to be put in the questionnaire. We are attaching a scheme of this tool (CSI questionnaire) together with the statements allowing to reveal our – andragogic – part of teachers competences or skills. That could be an example how all the partners could fill in their parts, too, by formulating 5-6 statements. In any case – if you have any other and better idea – please let us know about that!
Could we expect each partner's contribution until December 7th?
Iveta sent us a version of the questionnaire which is designed to find out the methods that teachers are using and also lacking in their work (Iveta‘s questionnaire).
In the meetings that Irena organized in our Andragogy department there were discussions that there should be a questionnaire shape allowing us to find out about the particular methods we are considering in our DETVET project.
We also believe that the partner offering a particular technique or approach should find out the questions or statements which are to be put in the questionnaire. We are attaching a scheme of this tool (CSI questionnaire) together with the statements allowing to reveal our – andragogic – part of teachers competences or skills. That could be an example how all the partners could fill in their parts, too, by formulating 5-6 statements. In any case – if you have any other and better idea – please let us know about that!
Could we expect each partner's contribution until December 7th?
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Paradigm shift in teaching and learning
The DETVET project aims at promoting VET teachers’ pedagogical, didactic, mentoring, coaching and other transferable competencies. Pedagogical competencies include, among other things, an innovative and meaningful use of ICT and social media in teaching and learning. But, introducing a new tool does not necessarily make teaching any better; in fact, in some cases it may make it worse. My concern is VET teachers’ awareness, or lack of it, of the paradigm shift in teaching and learning. This paradigm shift changes teacher and student roles in ways that are in a striking contrast with traditional teaching.
Traditionally, the focus was on teaching. Teachers were in control of students’ learning distributing bits and pieces of their knowledge to students, who were seen as ‘tabula rasa’, fairly stable in their abilities merely acquiring a toolbox of knowledge to be applied in basically similar situations. Now the focus is on the learner and learning, and what students can do to deepen their understanding of the phenomenon under study. Teachers’ task is to facilitate students’ learning process by helping them to set their own goals, monitor and assess their learning, take control. Collaboration, self- and peer-assessment, continuous feedback and feedforward are key words in this process. Here new technologies have proved a great asset enabling and encouraging students to knowledge building by sharing and learning together and from each other.
However, old habits die hard. There is plenty of scientific evidence of how difficult it is for teachers to let go of control. Teachers are rather quick to take new technologies into use and are excited about new possibilities they offer. But why is it that many times the new tool becomes a delivery vehicle of teachers’ knowledge that they want to transmit to students, instead of becoming a tool for students to construct their own knowledge networks? An overhead replaces the blackboard with the end result of messy transparencies, a computer drills and practices through automatic responses, the net becomes a material bank with questions formulated by teachers for students to find correct answers to, Second Life is equipped with auditoriums, where teachers can show power point slides!
In my dissertation on vocational education, I investigate what goes on in teachers’ minds as they face the paradigm shift and want to change their teaching. I argue that it is a question of conceptual change; the whole concept of teaching has changed. Transforming one’s mindset is not easy and does not happen overnight. Further, even though teachers may agree with the new theories of teaching and learning and want to apply them in their work, their practices do not necessarily change accordingly. I suggest that to change their teaching teachers should first become aware of their existing beliefs and critically question them in light of the new theories. Only by abandoning their entrenched beliefs are they able to accommodate their mental schemes to receive new information about teaching and learning and to truly apply it in practice.
I also make an effort to formulate a model of how this could be achieved. It requires an intentional conceptual change on the part of teachers. This means that their goal should not be primarily to make use of social media or ICT tools in a meaningful way, but to question their beliefs in order to change their pedagogical thinking. The rest will follow. To achieve this goal teachers need to have an understanding of new theories of teaching and learning and they need to engage in critical self-reflection and collaboration with colleagues.
Reference:
Mällinen, S. (2007) Conceptual Change Process of Polytechnic Teachers in Transition From Classrooms to Web-based Courses. Tampere University Press. Available 14 October 2009 at http://acta.uta.fi/pdf/978-951-44-7072-1.pdf
Traditionally, the focus was on teaching. Teachers were in control of students’ learning distributing bits and pieces of their knowledge to students, who were seen as ‘tabula rasa’, fairly stable in their abilities merely acquiring a toolbox of knowledge to be applied in basically similar situations. Now the focus is on the learner and learning, and what students can do to deepen their understanding of the phenomenon under study. Teachers’ task is to facilitate students’ learning process by helping them to set their own goals, monitor and assess their learning, take control. Collaboration, self- and peer-assessment, continuous feedback and feedforward are key words in this process. Here new technologies have proved a great asset enabling and encouraging students to knowledge building by sharing and learning together and from each other.
However, old habits die hard. There is plenty of scientific evidence of how difficult it is for teachers to let go of control. Teachers are rather quick to take new technologies into use and are excited about new possibilities they offer. But why is it that many times the new tool becomes a delivery vehicle of teachers’ knowledge that they want to transmit to students, instead of becoming a tool for students to construct their own knowledge networks? An overhead replaces the blackboard with the end result of messy transparencies, a computer drills and practices through automatic responses, the net becomes a material bank with questions formulated by teachers for students to find correct answers to, Second Life is equipped with auditoriums, where teachers can show power point slides!
In my dissertation on vocational education, I investigate what goes on in teachers’ minds as they face the paradigm shift and want to change their teaching. I argue that it is a question of conceptual change; the whole concept of teaching has changed. Transforming one’s mindset is not easy and does not happen overnight. Further, even though teachers may agree with the new theories of teaching and learning and want to apply them in their work, their practices do not necessarily change accordingly. I suggest that to change their teaching teachers should first become aware of their existing beliefs and critically question them in light of the new theories. Only by abandoning their entrenched beliefs are they able to accommodate their mental schemes to receive new information about teaching and learning and to truly apply it in practice.
I also make an effort to formulate a model of how this could be achieved. It requires an intentional conceptual change on the part of teachers. This means that their goal should not be primarily to make use of social media or ICT tools in a meaningful way, but to question their beliefs in order to change their pedagogical thinking. The rest will follow. To achieve this goal teachers need to have an understanding of new theories of teaching and learning and they need to engage in critical self-reflection and collaboration with colleagues.
Reference:
Mällinen, S. (2007) Conceptual Change Process of Polytechnic Teachers in Transition From Classrooms to Web-based Courses. Tampere University Press. Available 14 October 2009 at http://acta.uta.fi/pdf/978-951-44-7072-1.pdf
Saturday, 10 October 2009
DETVET Had a Brilliant Start
The kick-off session of the DETVET project was rounded off late Thursday afternoon with a tour to Klaipeda's old brewery.
Earlier all the important decisions to make the project running efficiently over the next two years. The project plan was scrutinised in detail and many specifications made.
The main form of activities is partner meetings, to be arranged January 2010 in Malmö/Lund, Sweden, April in Sant'Angelo, Italy, October in Odense, Denmark, January 2011 in Olomouc, Czech Republic and May 2011 in Tampere, Finland.
The meeting also started the DETVET blog to be launced in November and the DETVET Google-group for communication and work between the meetings.
The steering committee members were chosen, dissemination plan made and the tools for investigations discussed.
The meeting was exemplary well organised by Loreta, Asta and Alina and everybody felt very welcome and comfortable. Also all expectations according the kick-off meeting were more than fulfilled.
The only problem we other partners face now is; how to reach the high standard the hosts have set to a DETVET meeting now that we still are in turn to be in charge of meetings.
Pictured: Most members in a DETVET family photo
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
DETVET Started Today
Today representatives of all DETVET project partners gatheded at Klaipeda University Continuing Studies Institute (KU CSI) to kick off the project. The welcome speech was made by by the director of KU CSI Ruta Marija Andriekiene and the opening presentation by Head of the Project Group Loreta Staskuniene.
Birute Jatkauskiene, the head of the of Andragogy Department of KU CSI gave a presentation titled Peculiarities of Andragogue’s Professionalization. All partners made presentations of the possibilities of improvement of education techniques for lecturers in different countries.
The aim of the project is to form an international sustainable partnership in order to improve VET teachers’ competencies in education techniques.
The objectives of the project are:
- to make an inventory, exchange, evaluate and disseminate the best in-service training practice, methods which enable VET teachers to acquire and develop their competencies focused on education techniques,
- to compare educational competencies development needs of VET teachers in participating countries,
- to test a chosen method in the partner institution or silent partner,
- to produce a Common Methodology Framework for the teachers from various fields of VET system enabling to reach an optimal efficiency when assisting students in learning process, also helping them in choosing adequate material and tools for their knowledge practical implementation.
- Klaipeda University Continuing Studies Institute (KU CSI), Lithuania, coordinator
- Folkuniversitetet (FU), Sweden
- SDE College (Syddansk Erhvervsskole), Denmark
- Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Finland
- The Municipality of Sant’Angelo in Vado, Italy
- Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic
The project will run until end of July 2011. DETVET is a partnership project funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme.
VET = Vocational education and training
DETVET = Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training
Pictured: The entrance to Klaipeda University Continuing Studies Institute
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