Online Published Dissemination Link: Kick Of Meeting 

ERASMUS+ IDADOHS Digitalization of Education – Mother Teresa University, Skopje, North Macedonia – Mother Teresa University (unt.edu.mk)

 Online Published Dissemination Link: Workshop 1:

 ERASMUS - Integrating Digital Content and Digitalization of Educational Content | Visoka škola za informacijske tehnologije (vsite.hr)

Online Published Dissemination Link: Workshop 2: 

Delavnica Erasmus+ projekta “Integrating Digital Content and Digitalization of High Schools” – iDADOHS št. 2021-1-MK01-KA220-HED-000027646 | Fakulteta za organizacijske vede (um.si)

https://fov.um.si/sl/novice/10/2022/delavnica-erasmus-projekta-integrating-digital-content-and-digitalization-high

June 28th 2022 – Online Virtual Meeting and dissemination of activity results. 

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88971939517

The Pandemic from COVID19 has shown us that digitalization is at very low level and since all the schooling has moved to online mode, we have evidenced that the digital content is crucial for the learning process of schools. In the last decade great efforts have been made to integrate ICT in the educational process. But it has not been carried out with the desired dynamics. The most important reasons for that include: lack of digital learning content, insufficient training of teachers and lack of desire and motivation to follow and use the latest technologies and methodologies for e-learning. Besides these, the lack of time for preparation and application of these technologies in the classroom has been pointed out.

 Objectives: What do you want to achievee by implementing the project?                                                                                                                                                                  

The aim of the project is to increase the human capacity in high schools that will work on the digitalization but also in integration of ICT in teaching through the application of technologies for e-learning and through creation of digital content for education in the form of online OERs.

 Implementation: What activities are you going to implement?                                                                                                                                                                      

This project will be carried out by 10 partner organizations of which 5 are universities that possess substantial expertise in the fields of ICT and E-Learning utilization it the educational process. The other 5 partners are Highs Schools in 3 different countries and have some experiences in e-learning but lack the resources and the knowledge to advance to higher levels and cope with the fast change. The project will provide training for the creation of digital content and the integration of ICT in teaching that is designed for a critical number of teachers from each partner organization. Creation of a critical number of digital content (OER) for teaching that will be used by all partner organizations and the wider community of teachers is also foreseen with the project. There are four (4 ) trainings – workshops planed. These trainings will help teacher to improve skills and competences for usage of ICT in the educational process and will also help them learn to develop digital educational content in form of OERs. These training will be helped and enforced by the planed Intellectual Outputs of the project that include: analyses, recommendations, tutorials for eLearning and OER creation and also developed several OERs.

 Results: What project results and other outcomes do you expect your project to have?                                                                                                                                                        

The expected main outcomes of this project refer to the increase of digitalization process and development of the digital skills and competences of the teaching staff to design and manage with OER. We also expect increasing and expanding of the cooperation with the schools in the region and Europe through creation of an OER exchange net. We expect at least 30 teachers to undergo the training and to develop OERs to deliver at least three common subjects. Besides teachers, students who will use these OERs will benefit from the project. Having in mind the accumulated experience and expertise in the participating partners, their previous collaboration, the systematic approach and the vigorous project methodology we believe that the successful implementation of this project will have adequate and long term impact: teachers will receive increased competencies and skills through training; schools will receive advanced teaching methodology and students will be able to use directly lessons that will be more contemporary and easier to use. And yet this project would just be a solid base for further growth of the interactive, modern and transnational knowledge base in form of OERs available worldwide.

Chosen priorities relate to the aims and objectives of your project.                                                                                                                                                                 

1. Digitalization of education and the Integration of the ICT in High School education is one of the most important priorities of modern society. The intention of this integration it to enable teachers to use ITC without any burden, but as a common and ordinary tool during their daily teaching routines, and supporting teachers, school leaders and other teaching professions. The deficit of digital content for learning is identified as one of the main reasons for the slower integration of ITC in the process of education. The Integration of Digital Content and Digitalization of High Schools includes the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) that enables faster and easier integration of the ITC into the daily activities of the educators. While developing such OER, it is very common to reach a deadlock even at the beginning of the process during the phase of the idea definition. A project of this kind is an excellent opportunity for the exchange of ideas and practical experiences that can lead to substantial results. 2. In order to develop and adopt OER in everyday teaching every educator needs to acquire specific skills. This alludes to the improvement of utilization of computers and other digital technology with innovative methods. Specifically, every teacher should gain skills for designing digital resources in any type including but not limited to: text, presentations, images, videos, audio, animations, etc. It is understandable that some persons could show a bigger talent for a certain skill and develop it at a professional level, but also has to be aware of the benefits of the other skills and should be capable to employ them on a basic level. 3. The acquiring of additional skills and the availability of OER will enable the teachers to achieve higher self-confidence and also will help them cope easily in the digital educational environment. As a result, we will get competent teachers that don’t fear using ITC in the educational process.

 Please select up to three topics addressed by your project                                                                                                                                                                     Digital content, technologies and practices

Digital skills and competences

Development of training courses

ProjectDescription                                                                                                                          The context and the concrete objectives of your project.                                                                                                                                              

The context of the project is the digitalization of the High School content, improving the digital skills and competencies of students. The concrete objectives of the project are: 1) Creation of Digital content implementation of technologies and practises in High school 2) Digitalization and development of training courses 3) Increasing Digital skills and digital competences

 How will the project meet the needs of your partnership and those of the target groups?                                                                                                                                                                      

The aim of the project is to increase the human capacity in high schools that will work on the integration of ICT in teaching through the application of technologies for e-learning and through the creation of digital content for education in the form of online OERs. The project will provide training for the creation of digital content and the integration of ICT in teaching that is designed for a critical number of teachers from each partner organization. The creation of a critical number of digital content for teaching that will be used by all partner organizations and the wider community of teachers is also foreseen with the project. Besides teachers, students who will use these OERs will benefit from the project. In the last decade great efforts have been made to integrate ICT in the educational process. But it has not been carried out with the desired dynamics. There are a lot of reasons for it among which the following are considered as most important ones: lack of digital learning content, insufficient training of teachers and lack of desire and motivation to follow and use the latest technologies and methodologies for e-learning. Besides these, the lack of time for preparation and application of these technologies in the classroom has been pointed out. These facts have been presented in numerous external researchesnd have been subject of our recent research on user acceptance of technology for e-learning. An indirect factor for reasons of inadequate integration of ICT in teaching is the rapid development of technology. Technology is developing faster than the average teachers can follow. This project will help teachers make comparison between the technologies and methodologies they are currently using and the latest trends worldwide. The trainings will help them learn about new technologies and to gain skills for their application. With an adequate training they will be encouraged to start creating and sharing their own digital content. Due to the above mentioned we believe that the implementation of this project will have adequate impact: teachers will receive increased competencies and skills through training; schools will receive advanced teaching methodology and students will be able to use directly lessons that we think will be more contemporary and easier to use.

Even at this stage, when the project is still in its draft version, the proposed consortium members are communicating between each other, in order to design best possible approach in obtaining best possible result. Numerous e-mail messages were exchanged and responses to any type of question were provided within 24 hours hence proving that the communication channels are open from the Day 1 of this project proposal. Similar situation is obtained with the remaining partners as well, since all of them had responded to the offer to be a part of this project within 48 hours. If this project is to be approved, the management team will meet on each 6 months, in order to be familiarized with the latest developments of the project targets and to have an overlook evluation which might provoke creation of a bottleneck situation.

The main way of communication considers exchange of e-mail messages. Also, phone calls, Viber, WhatsApp and Skype conference calls have been used for the preparation of the proposal and will be another way of communication when immediate reaction would be required. Project management meetings will take pace in each of the consortium members’ facilities, thus enabling all consortium members to be familiarized with the possibilities for additional project developments. Having in mind the length of project life (24 months) the project management team will have 6 meetings, of which the first and the last one, the Kick-off and Final meetings will take place in Mother Teresa University. The remaining 4 meetings will take place at the premises of each of the institutions, part of this project in consequential order. On each meeting, at least one person from each consortium members will participate, representing and reporting on behalf of his/her institution.

The expected main outcomes of this project refer to the development of the competencies of the teaching staff to design and manage with OER. We also expect increasing and expanding of the cooperation with the schools in the region and Europe through the creation of an OER exchange net. We expect at least 50 teachers to undergo the training and to develop OERs to deliver at least three common subjects. A detailed description of the expected results is listed in intellectual outputs, multiplier events, and training activities.

- more attractive education and training programs, in line with individuals' needs and expectations; - use of participatory approaches and ICT-based methodologies. The innovativeness of the project is emphasized through the intention of application of the latest technologies and methodologies in a way adjusted to the needs and abilities of the local schools which are partner organizations in the project. When we talk about the latest technology we mean the application of e- learning and the development of digital content that will be approachable by Windows, iOs and Android platforms. OERs will be a huge assisting tool not just for professionals e.g. teachers but for the younger population as well. As they will assist their parents, friends, or associates, they’ll be identified as future community young leaders and will be a raw model for the rest of their friends. Finally, EU-funded projects are heavily insisting in the creation of Open Resource Learning Objects, which is one of the targets of this project.