L2lbyte the guide

Learning to Learn by Teaching (L2LbyTe)

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INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 5 L2LbyTe: Reflecting and Connecting Hypermediate Adult Learners .................................................. 5 Our Promises ................................................................................................................................... 5 Our Approach .................................................................................................................................. 6 Theoretical Frameworks ................................................................................................................. 7 Interventions ................................................................................................................................... 8 Experiences ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Reflections....................................................................................................................................... 9 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 10 Reflection on pilot lesson dd. 13/02/2014 ................................................................................... 11 References .................................................................................................................................... 12 PART ONE .............................................................................................................................................. 14 The Project Summary ........................................................................................................................ 15 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 15 The context ................................................................................................................................... 15 European Added Value ................................................................................................................. 15 Evaluation ..................................................................................................................................... 16 Adult Education Systems in the Participating Countries .................................................................. 17 PART TWO ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Research Findings ............................................................................................................................. 20 Videos................................................................................................................................................ 20 Narratives - summary.................................................................................................................... 20 Narrative account – BELGIUM ...................................................................................................... 22 Narrative Account - LATVIA........................................................................................................... 23 Narrative Account – ITALY (Maglie) .............................................................................................. 24 Narrative Account – PORTUGAL ................................................................................................... 25 Narrative Account – ENGLAND (Praxis) ........................................................................................ 26 Narrative Account – ROMANIA (Constanta) ................................................................................. 28 Narrative Account – ROMANIA (Targoviste) ................................................................................. 29 Activities ............................................................................................................................................ 32 Maglie Activities about Constanta Video ...................................................................................... 32 Constanta Activities about Praxis Video ...................................................................................... 32 Portugal Activities about Latvia Video .......................................................................................... 36 Praxis Activities about Portugal Video .......................................................................................... 38

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Latvia Activities about Constanta Video ....................................................................................... 39 Targoviste Activities about Belgium Video ................................................................................... 41 Narratives about Activities................................................................................................................ 43 Belgium ......................................................................................................................................... 43 Romania (Targoviste) .................................................................................................................... 44 Romania (Constanta) .................................................................................................................... 44 Reflections on Activities .................................................................................................................... 45 Portugal and Praxis (Video Constanta / Activities Maglie) ........................................................... 45 Latvia and Belgium (Video Belgium / Activities Romania - Targoviste) ........................................ 45 Maglie and Constanta (Video Latvia / Activities Portugal) ........................................................... 45 Portugal and Praxis (Video Maglie / Activities Belgium)............................................................... 46 Targoviste and Tuscia (Video Portugal / Activities Praxis) ............................................................ 46 Hasselt and Latvia (Video Praxis / Activities Constanta) ............................................................... 48 Constanta and Maglie (Video Targoviste / Activities Latvia) ........................................................ 49 Testing ............................................................................................................................................... 50 England.......................................................................................................................................... 50 Maglie ........................................................................................................................................... 50 Latvia ............................................................................................................................................. 51 Portugal ......................................................................................................................................... 52 Constanta ...................................................................................................................................... 53 Targoviste...................................................................................................................................... 55 The Effects on Teacher’s Performance ............................................................................................. 57 Constanța ...................................................................................................................................... 57 Targoviste...................................................................................................................................... 57 Riga................................................................................................................................................ 57 Praxis ............................................................................................................................................. 57 Maglie ........................................................................................................................................... 58 Portugal ......................................................................................................................................... 58 Hasselt ........................................................................................................................................... 59 La Tuscia ........................................................................................................................................ 59 FINAL REMARKS .................................................................................................................................... 60 APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................................. 62 Appendix 1 - Adult education system in England: adult and informal education The Gilfillan partnership - Research and consultancy services ............................................................................. 63 Sources .......................................................................................................................................... 65 Appendix 2 - Higher Education in Flanders ....................................................................................... 66 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 66 Content ......................................................................................................................................... 66 Appendix 3 - Adult education in Italy Centro Territoriale Permanente - Maglie .................. 73 Formal Education .......................................................................................................................... 73 Non-Formal Education .................................................................................................................. 74 Links .............................................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix 4 - Adult and non-formal education in Latvia ................................................................... 76 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 76 Adult and non-formal education................................................................................................... 76 Key Providers for Adult Education ................................................................................................ 76 Appendix 5 - Adult Education System in Portugal ............................................................................ 78 Appendix 6 - Adult education system in Romania ............................................................................ 79 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 79 National context............................................................................................................................ 79 Local context – Dâmbovița County ............................................................................................... 80 Charity organisations .................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix 7- Template for presentation in the TIG ........................................................................... 82

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INTRODUCTION Patricia Huion – Belgium

L2LbyTe: Reflecting and Connecting Hypermediate Adult Learners

Limburg Catholic University College, Centro Territoriale Permanente di Maglie, Università degli Studi La Tuscia, Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža, Tomaz Pelayo Secondary School, Colegiul Technic Energetic, Colegiul Economic ION GHICA, The Gilfillan Partnership Ltd, Praxis Community Projects set out to develop a pedagogical approach in which adult students of English become their own teachers. Through design research they developed a way of teaching in which reflective educational connectors adopt a research-based attitude creating platforms for students which allow them to connect to their peers, and to knowledge and learning opportunities outside the classroom.

The adult learners relied on their personal knowledge of their national cultural identity to become do-it-yourself learners creating knowledge clips about traditions, music & dance and food & drinks learning on their children, friends and relatives to improve their digital literacy.

Watching these knowledge clips inspired other adult learners to create new knowledge clips sharing their personal knowledge and communicating in English to describe a recipe, explain a song or tell a story about a local tradition.

Learning to Learn by Teaching (L2LbyTe) embarked on this research trajectory starting with the intervention of 27 knowledge clips which encouraged teachers to adapt the flipped class paradigm. L2LbyTe created knowledge clips which were produced by teachers, by professionals or more importantly by the adult learners themselves. Adopting knowledge clips in a flipped class setting resulted in a systematic rethinking through Delphi rounds of class activities rather than language exercises and engaging ways of assessment plotted on Carrington’s padagogy wheel and Bloom’s highest level of creation rather than organizing standardized tests.

As a consequence both teachers and students became reflective learners connecting and cooperating in Facebook groups, blogs and in face-to-face meetings. They adopted a can-do mentality using phones, I-pads and cameras and working with Popplet lite; Total recall; Simple mind+; Google search; VoiceOver in PowerPoint, Quizcast; Twitter; Screenchomp; Toontastic; Fotobabble; Prezi; Facebook; Googledocs; Glogster; Amara to create their knowledge clips and assessments.

Our Promises

Learning to Learn by Teaching (L2LbyTe) promised to design a new approach allowing adults to learn about European culture, acquire a second language and improve their digital literacy at the same time. Furthermore the approach would admonish adults to become their own teachers creating authentic materials about their traditions, food, arts, proverbs, music, traditional dances.

It was our working hypothesis that in order to be able to share these cultural features learners would need to use and improve their knowledge of a common language, English. Secondly, in order to be able to create and share these products learners would need to rely on digital tools.

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From the very beginning we realized this would result into critically adopting innovative pedagogical approaches that both embrace the learning opportunities provided by the Internet as well as redefine students as friends who learn from each other in either face-to-face or digital learning environments: cooperative learning, formal-informal learning, self-study technique, peer or tutorial education were mentioned.

From the teacher’s perspective we put forward a community of practice in which teachers discuss approaches, share lesson plans and create materials through a Moodle platform as well as in transnational meetings both among the partners and with the community of adult learners.

Our Approach Experiential Learning and Design Research

We situated this challenge – creating an innovative approach by teaching adult learners to become their own teachers while learning about national and European identities, the English language and digital tools – within design, practice-based or action research: Action research might be defined as “the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of the action within it”. It aims to feed practical judgment in concrete situations, and the validity of the “theories” or hypotheses it generates depends not so much on ‘scientific’ tests of truth, as on their usefulness in helping people to act more intelligently and skillfully. In action research “theories” are not validated independently and then applied in practice. They are validated through practice. (Elliott, 1991, p. 69) L2LbyTe gathered adult teachers from Limburg Catholic University College, Centro Territoriale Permanente di Maglie, Università degli Studi La Tuscia, Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža, Tomaz Pelayo Secondary School, Colegiul Technic Energetic, Colegiul Economic ION GHICA, The Gilfillan Partnership Ltd, Praxis Community Projects to create a new way of teaching adults through their own practice as teachers. Each transnational meeting could be seen as a learning cycle as described by Kolb (1984):  we shared our experiences in presentations discussing how we proceeded developing knowledge clips, activating didactics and using these in class;  we reflected in discussions, through narratives and through the creation of a database for knowledge clips based on CEFR. This resulted in questions which furthered our learning path;  we conceptualized these questions through the lens of theoretical frameworks. These concepts were validated in three conferences (ATEE, ETEN and Berlin Online EDUCA) and through try-out lessons in our own institutions or in other educational contexts;  we created lesson plans through Delphi rounds within the flipped classroom paradigm redefining the teacher as a reflective and connecting learner; the students as d-i-y digitally literates; learning as connecting through language, culture and ICT; and testing as engagement and creating.

Educational design research (van der Donk & Van Lanen, 2009) is a user-centered approach designing new or improved tools, environments, didactics to improve the teacher’s praxis. It combines cycles of interventions with feedback sessions and systematic design processes.

Similarly to Kolb it relies in all phases on the user’s experiences. It starts from design criteria to concepts, and from concepts to feedback and testing. It is a cyclical way of improving

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educational praxis. It starts from a problem which arises from class experience and works within a set of criteria which are deemed necessary to solve the problem.

L2LbyTe combined both experiential learning and design research to create an innovative approach allowing adults to become their own teachers while improving their digital literacy, use of English and cultural awareness.

Although design research most often starts from interventions, L2LbyTe started with theoretical frameworks, moved on with interventions, reflections, cooperative design sessions, feedback from the academic world and on the job and testing sessions. In what follows we describe these phases.

Theoretical Frameworks

Theoretical frameworks have two functions in design research: they help us formulate the focus of our practice-based research and they are a way of validating our research findings (van der Donk & van Lanen, 2009).Theory offers new perspectives and forces you to critically evaluate your results against previous research findings. We also considered that theory is perhaps a safe way of starting a new cooperation since studying theoretical frameworks is within teachers’ comfort zone.

In the course of our two-year trajectory we explored the following concepts.

The criteria put forward in the application (new pedagogical approach, adult students becoming their own teachers, combining use of English, intercultural knowledge and digital literacy) inspired us to present several concepts of teacher identities during the kick-off meeting in Maglie (September 2013): the teacher as ethnographer (Denzin, 2003; Ellis, 2004), Facebook Teacher (Huion, 2012), reflective practitioner fulfilling a variety of roles (Przybylska, 2012), designer, connected educator (Nussbaum-Beach & Ritter-Hall, 2012; Przybylska, 2011) and as digital storyteller (Murray, 1997).

We ventured into learning through life narratives, learning narratives, dance, drama, films, pictures and play. Next we situated language learning within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR). Finally we looked into the flipped class concept (Bergmann, Overmeyer, Wilie, 2011). This resulted in a first conclusion: we can create knowledge clips.

The many questions which were posed concerning the implementation of knowledge clips all of us had produced led us to conceptualize the following aspects in our second transnational meeting in Riga (April 2013): engagement (Newmann, 1992), communicative teaching and learning, active and interactive learning (Freeman & Blayney, 2005; Jackson, 2007), learning styles (Kolb, 1984), multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983), emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995), the influence of ICT on teacher’s and learner’s roles and interactions (BECTA, 2004) and the 21st Century skills. These ideas inspired us to move from language exercises to meaningful activities during class time.

Having moved towards activating didactics we needed to think up another frame to assess learner’s progressions. Thus we immersed ourselves in Targoviste and Constanta (August 2013) in narratives as ways of learning (Griffiths, 2009) and in Carrington’s padagogy wheel using apps to allow students to create meaningful artifacts (2012).

In Hasselt (November 2013) we concluded that the ability to reflect (Brookfield, 1995; Moon, 1999; Przybylska, 2012; Schon, 1983; Templer, 2004; Taggart, 2005) is a critical feature of teachers willing to implement the L2LbyTe approach.

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Interventions

Both design research as well as experiential learning are cyclical ways of knowledge construction. L2lbyTe designed 4 interventions: the application, 27 knowledge clips, 7 lesson plans and 7 revised lesson plans as assessment.

The application opened up the debate about adult teaching and its need to new ways of teaching tailor-made for adults.

The 27 knowledge clips spawned the reflection on form and use of tutorials. The knowledge clips varied in use of language (some were in a native language, others worked with English subtitles and yet others used English); in use of English (some used professional native speakers, others allowed students to speak, others even included mistakes in the use of English); in digital literacy (some were made by external professionals, others were teacher-made featuring students and yet others were student-made); in cultural awareness (some created a touristic knowledge clip, others a students’ documentary of their cultural features, yet others ventured into fictitional settings). All these differences served to confuse the project team and created a space to rethink self-evident conclusions.

Incorporating these knowledge clips into lesson plans spawned the discussion about the differences between activities and exercises. Again we were confronted by the differences in implementation ranging from textbook (closed) exercises to authentic learning experiences linked to activities typical of adult lifestyle.

Finally after the Delphi rounds we all created one final lesson plan which again illustrated the differences in required digital literacy, the use of authentic situations for our students in which they have to perform activities connecting to other Europeans, tools to improve their use of English, space for students to become teachers creating their own knowledge or remaining learners, memorizing, understanding, analyzing material.

Experiences

We all started by telling stories about our educational system, about the school, community, university college, university we work in.

We invited our colleagues to visit our countries, taste our food, appreciate our culture. Each project meeting included an activity which resulted in us getting out of our comfort zone: dancing, bread baking, glass painting, chocolate tasting/making‌ Although we all decided to do the same thing, we always ended up with different interpretations which caused a lively debate. Also the fact that we all started from different institutions which taught on different levels and to different adult students with very specific goals enlivened the conversation.

The informal talks about our culture, traditions, food and drinks, dance and music which we all got to know more through transnational project meetings, knowledge clips and through Moodle, Facebook and the blog created an open atmosphere encouraging us to adopt a European perspective on adult education rather than a national one.

However, sometimes we were too demanding for our adult learners. For instance, we asked them to indicate which competencies could be learned using traditional media and which required new media. We did the same exercise in one of our project meetings and decided to agree it is not an either/or debate.

Next we asked our students to engage in widened learning sharing what they had learnt outside the classroom. This proved to be too vague as you need to have a clear concept of what, how 8

and when you are learning. You need to have these reflective skills. Our adult learners felt it was the teacher’s task to do this. Using digital tools to create knowledge clips, on the other hand, was acquired through their personal network and was shared with colleagues.

We also invited our adult learners to monitor their own learning path retrieving useful links on learning English, assessing them or presenting and exchanging them through Facebook. This proved to be too challenging a task as well (European Parliament & European Council, 2006). Yet finding information about their culture, was not a problem at all.

Asking adult learners to connect with their peers in Europe through a blog was also too daunting a request. Even assuring them that all students make mistakes and that making mistakes is the only way to learn a language did not persuade our adult learners to communicate with these strangers in a virtual environment.

Reflections

Once we saw the diversity of knowledge clips we were not sure about the ways of implementation in our teaching praxis. We questioned the roles of these tutorials and started devising a database defining possible uses of each knowledge clip first linking it to the competencies and levels defined by CEFR and then adding some exercises. Although we worked in teams and spent quite some Riga-time doing this, we dropped the idea in the end as every knowledge clip could be used in many ways and on many levels.

We then proceeded to write learning narratives about the construction of knowledge clips and the development of exercises and activities which we presented in Constanta and Targoviste. It allowed us to observe all the differences in approaches between the countries but still did not help us to define an innovative approach.

So we devised a design circle in Hasselt in which partner one produces a knowledge clip, partner two thinks up activities, partner three and four comment on these activities and partner five recreates and tests the activities writing a final narrative about the redesigning and testing.

Yet even in the final designs there were major differences. Two of them created a link to students from another country for instance. In one activity proposal students were asked to prepare a welcome party for a new student coming from another country; in the other students were asked to create a Facebook group with students from the country whose food and drinks they were studying. They both used digital tools to facilitate this connection: Popplet lite; Total recall; Simple mind+; Google search; Quizcast; Twitter; Screenchomp; Toontastic; Fotobabble; Prezi; Facebook; Googledocs; Glogster; Amara. As to the activities one asked to share stories, scan texts and create a mindmap, google for more information, create a test about key words for their peers, write tweets about what they think is happening; tell a story about traditions in their country, design cards, retell the original narrative in a new way and take a group picture with the new member. The other one asked the learners to identify the products, discuss them from an economic perspective, create a Facebook group to collaborate doing research, create a questionnaire for their fellow students; present research findings, translate and ask an expert to correct it, discuss the video, create criteria, a poster, a video, a google map and a hip hop song. I put it to you that all these activities are about redefining.

The other five, however, forgot to mention the digital tools. Their activities did not involve connecting to learners from the other nation either. Activities such as “fill in the gaps”, write another description using the sentences from the knowledge clip, order sentences, act out a dialogue from the knowledge clip, collect ideas from the knowledge clip are also situated on the right side of Carrington’s wheel.

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These differences highlighted the importance of one feature of the L2LbyTe teacher: the ability to reflect. That is why we created a mindmap on the reflective teacher in Hasselt.

Initially we only wanted to change the learner’s identity but soon we realized we were also changing our identity as teachers. Eager to be able to find out more about these new roles, we developed a questionnaire.

We shared our work through Moodle. We discussed and shared theoretical concepts in fora, posted knowledge clips in our YouTubeChannel, gathered activities in a Wordpress blog, posted pictures of our work in Facebook, tweeted. The Moodle platform allowed us to document our activities both in a chronological way – every project meeting had its own space – as well as in a thematic way: manual, dissemination, blog, twitter, YouTube.

During our last project meeting we joked that we are the ones who have learnt more. We have increased our digital literacy to improve our use of English: we have given presentations, conversed, listened, read, and written a lot while creating knowledge clips and activities. As a consequence our intercultural awareness has grown. Furthermore each project meeting invited us to connect: the purpose of every assignment was to create our personal network and professional learning community. Every task could be situated on the left side of Carrington’s padagogy wheel: redefinition. Many of us had never created knowledge clips, imagined activities or ventured towards new identities of teachers. We had never made time to think about teaching as a reflective practice nor about learning as connecting. We had certainly never before experimented with that many tools. In short, we have become the learners who have learnt by teaching.

This teacher/learner identity, both reflecting on their practice, proved to be very important.

Adult learners are willing to adopt new ways of learning quite eagerly as long as teachers adapt to their learning path, facilitate connections, define and guide the information retrieval on the Internet, show examples of knowledge clips made by other adult learners and start from the personal knowledge adult learners already have. Adult learners are willing to connect with other adult learners in a hypermediate way: they watch videos others have made and share their own videos. Adult learners are quite able to use digital tools: nobody has lectured on the use of apps or I-pad or phone, yet adults relied on their personal network to create their own clips.

Finally both teachers and learners stepped out of their teacher’s or learner’s roles. We switched for one thing but also we became storytellers, expert cooks, designers, interviewers, documentary makers… eager to share our knowledge (construction) with other Europeans.

Conclusions

In a time when teachers are still wondering whether they should adopt the flipped class paradigm and when they are complaining about their lack of digital skills, L2LbyTe has embraced and adapted this new pedagogical approach inspiring adult learners to create tutorials about their national identity using a variety of digital tools. Tapping into their personal knowledge about their national food&drinks, dance&songs and traditions gave our students the confidence to connect to their European peers. The method we have developed proved successful since in the testing phase it only took us three hours to create two knowledge clips per team. In the first adult learners created and shared a fictitious story interweaving cultural aspects of the country whose video clip they had studied at home, while in the second they were eager to teach them how to prepare a national dish. The learners had worked through the knowledge clip produced by their European peers and read through the links which were given prior to class time. They were proud of their own created clips and enjoyed the active didactics thoroughly. The teacher

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who allowed us to test our approach was surprised but she is quite eager to use this way of teaching: Reflection on pilot lesson dd. 13/02/2014

On Thursday evening, Patricia Huion came to my class for a pilot lesson on “activating didactics”. The class was a sixth year English (lever B2), evening class. We had watched the youtube-films on Portugal and the Singeverga liqueur the week before, we were all excited because we didn’t really know what to expect. There were 7 students in the class.

All my students were very excited about the lesson. They liked the new approach and they were stimulated to be creative while using English. They were quite enthusiastic about it all. And most importantly, they felt they had learned something. For me as a teacher, it showed my new and interesting ways of working with students.

To start off Patricia used the story cubes as an introduction. Getting to know each other through a short story was something they liked very much. I, as a teacher, thought this was a great idea, I’m definitely going to use this in my classes in the future.

The story construction (on the six slips of paper) was also very interesting. Especially the part where they had to use one slip (part of their story) of themselves and two slips of paper (parts of the story) of the other groups and construct a story with it.

The fact that they had to use the woman from ‘Singeverga liqueur’ and make her pop up in their story at least twice was a lot of fun.

They also talked about Belgian products and made a short film about the products to introduce them to the people in Portugal. At the beginning my students were a bit apprehensive but as soon as they had decided what it was going to be about they were enthusiastic and determined to bring it to a good end. They decided to present two Belgian dishes (Flemish stew with Leffe and chicory with ham/bacon and cheese sauce), they drew pictures and explained how to prepare it. The fact that it was filmed made them a bit nervous but afterwards they were really proud that they had done it and that the result was to their likings. It was very stimulating, the films can be used in class afterwards in different ways.

It was all very “refreshing” for all of us.

Thank you for letting us be part of this.

Warm greetings, Krist’l Hermans (Film created in test scenario can be viewed on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/L2LByTe?ref_type=bookmark as it was presented on the Brussels monitoring day).

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References BECTA (2004). A Review of the research Literature on Barriers to the Uptake of ICT by Teachers. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1603/1/becta_2004_barrierstouptake_litrev.pdf Bergmann, J., Overmeyer, J., Wilie, B. (2011, July).The Flipped Class. What It Is and What It Is Not. The Daily Riff available from http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation689.php Bloom Brookfield, (1995).

Draper, S. (2005). Interactive Lectures. Available from University of Glasgow; Available from Learning/BiosciencesProject/ActiveandInteractiveLearning Carrington, (2012).

Denzin, (2003).

Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography (Ethnographic Alternatives). Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

Elliott, (1191).

Erixon, P., Marner, A., Scheid, M., Strandberg, T.& Ortegren, H. (2012). Paradigms and Teaching Practice in the Screen Culture: art, music and the mother tongue (Swedish) under pressure, European Educational Research Journal, 11 (2), 255-273.

European Parliament & European Council (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, Official Journal of the EuropeanUnion, 30 December, L 394/10-18.

Freeman, M. and Blayney, M. (2005). Promoting interactive in-class learning environments: A comparison of an electronic response system with a traditional alternative. Proceedings Of The 11th Australasian Teaching Economics Conference: 23-33.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences New York: Basic Books.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ for Character, Health and Lifelong Achievement. Bantam Books, New York.

Griffiths, M. (2009). Using Personal Narratives and other Stories in Educational Research: Issues of Validity and Truthfulness. First International Conference on Educational Research for Development.

College of Education: AAU. Harmer, J. (2006). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Available from http://download.101com.com/CAM/conf/2007/T07.pdf Huion, P. (2012).

Jackson, R. (2007). The Promises and Challenges of Integrating Interactive Technologies into University Pedagogy, Campus Technology. Available from http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/CentreforExcellenceinActiveandInteractive Kearsley, G. (1997). The Virtual Professor: A Personal Case Study. Available from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development.

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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Leu, D. J. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an information age. Handbook of reading research 3 (2000): 743-770. http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/Handbook.html Moon, J. (1999). Reflection in Learning and Professional Development. US and UK: Kogan Page Limited.

Murray, J. (1998). Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. US: MIT Press.

Newmann, F. (1992). Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools Nussbaum-Beach, S. & Ritter Hall, L. (2012). The Connected Educator. Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. USA: Solution Tree Press.

Przybylska, I. (2011). Teacher’s perception of their roles. The Learning Teacher Journal: 15-31.

Przybylska, I. (2012).

Schon, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

Taggart, G. (2005). Promoting reflective thinking in teachers: 50 action strategies by Germaine Taggart. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Templer, (2004).

Van Der Donk, C., & Van Lanen, B. (2009). Praktijkonderzoek in de school. Bussum: Uitgeverij Coutinho.

Links http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/ilig/il.html http://www.p21.org http://www.edudemic.com/new-padagogy-wheel-helps-you-integrate-technology-using-samrmodel/

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PART ONE

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The Project Summary This project is needed to create new European people, aware of the different cultures, traditions and also languages in each participating country. Therefore, we want to give adult learners the opportunity to get in touch with each other. The learners may teach their foreign peers through digital and face-to-face approaches, and begin a co-operative relationship as friends.

Purpose The aim of this project is to enlarge the European vision of culture by exchanging materials on traditions, food, art, proverbs, music and traditional dance. In addition, we will collect materials in order to teach a second language. We want to explore innovative methods of teaching and discover the pros and cons of working with adults when teaching a second language. We would like to use original and authentic materials from different countries because this is the easiest way to learn a new language and so to create a partnership. In doing this, teachers will also exploit their own methods and be more aware of the advantages and disadvantages of a range of approaches.

Learners can learn new traditions through practising a second language, even in a Mobility. The result could also be a practical guide for those who do not know anything about the other language and traditions and, at the same time, a digital guide. The Internet will provide new ICT learning opportunities for all partners and other people involved in the project, as it will work through a Moodle platform, developed on all the partners’ websites.

The context After years of economic and social progress, the recent economic crisis has exposed structural weaknesses in the European economy. That is why the European Commission launched the Europe 2020 Strategy in March 2010, a document they drew up in order to exit from the crisis and prepare the EU economy for the challenges of the next decade. One of the seven priorities in this agenda is, of course, the development of digital competences.

Because of the high levels of dynamism and innovation inherent in the sector, and the enabling role the sector plays in changing how other sectors do business, the economic impact of ICT has become significant. Moreover, it has a very important social impact, considering that there are more than 250 million daily Internet users in Europe.

Once again, if we want to confront global competition, we have to contribute to the growth of the European people by improving communication and co-operation between the European nations and maximising the social and economic potential of ICT. On the other hand, considering the number of older people is increasing and this requires them to remain in the workforce and share their experience, they continue to play an active role in society and live lives as healthy and fulfilling as possible, reducing the gap between those adults who have a second chance to go back into, and finish, their formal education, and young people who are more often digital natives.

European Added Value For most of the organisations and learners in this partnership, this is their first taste of Europe and they are focusing on developing sustainable networks of professionals for the purposes of exchanging experience, improving practice and fostering intercultural dialogue.

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Some of the partners, thanks to their long term experience, have well established stakeholder networks at local, national and European levels. Less experienced partners can learn from this experience and use it to help broaden the impact of the project beyond our immediate partnership.

At each meeting, national organisations will be visited and invited to exchange their experiences, which will encourage the cross-fertilisation of ideas beyond the immediate partnership. These close contacts will foster mutual trust among a wider critical mass of language trainers and others among participant countries, and this can then lead to joint and sustainable new initiatives which will follow after this project ends.

European identity and a European dimension are at the centre of this co-operation: the organisations will involve their learners and develop a European citizenship; some of them will contribute audio-video materials about the topics, while others will develop language exercises.

Such a project will allow us to use the materials produced and that would not happen without cooperation. We hope to motivate learners to produce the material in a second language supported by new technologies and to provide adults with pathways for improving their knowledge and competences.

Learners will develop self-confidence in language and develop motivation. Partnership will help to promote mutual understanding and skills for creative learning. Although a key reason for each partner involvement is the potential benefit of the e-learning platform, partners will gain experience in lifelong learning programmes and build networks for further partnerships at local and European levels. European connections will be promoted via linked e-learning platforms, and will create ongoing opportunities for lasting relationships and intercultural dialogue.

Evaluation The Gilfillan Partnership will co-ordinate this activity with all the partners. It will agree an initial evaluation framework with the partners at the kick-off meeting, and produce an evaluation report at the end of the project, identifying progress and key achievements in the partnership, lessons learned and any barriers faced and/or overcome by the partnership.

We will share this information and place it on the European Shared Treasure platform.

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Adult Education Systems in the Participating Countries The Portuguese team It is clear that in the adult education systems of these six countries 





 

overall responsibility rests with the Ministry of Education, even though it may be supported by local town halls, civil society organisations and institutions dependent on social welfare services, as well as public institutions devoted to vocational training and employment style. adult learning is a vital component of the education policies in all countries, as it is essential for competitiveness and employability, social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development. the main aim is to allow adults the opportunity to improve basic skills, obtain new qualifications, up-skill or re-skill for employment, to cope with the labour market.

Nevertheless, it may also cover personal development and fulfilment. courses were adjusted to adult learners’ needs, from long term to short term modular training. paths to learning are more flexible than in compulsory education. The courses may take place during the day or in evening classes, full-time or part-time, in a formal or informal environment, with a fixed group of learners or not.

Although not referred to by all partners, we understand that     

adult education is free. students may have their learning certified with a diploma, a certificate or a certification for the recognition of competences. universities are gradually increasing their role in adult education. e-learning for adults is becoming a new possibility. adult education may also cover vocational and in-service training for business or sectoral needs.

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P2

P3

Educational institution

Centro Territoriale Permanente di Maglie

Limburg Catholic University College

Adult Education Systems

- improving knowledge, skills and competence; - training initiatives; - cultural and functional literacy; - promotion; - re-motivation; - re-orientation; - professional requalification.

-full integration; - introduction of higher vocational education; -choice for modular courses; -New support structure for adult education.

-maximise access and impact on community learning; -bringing new opportunities; -improving lives; -promote social renewal;

-increase access to education for vulnerable groups; -reduce social exclusion and discrimination in education; -develop and modernise.

-raise academic ability; -raise vocational qualifications; -enhance employability; -certification of acquired learning.

-provide individuals with the opportunity to obtain or complement existing learning.

-formal; -non-formal.

-modular courses (contact education or combined education)

-formal courses; -informal (Community Learning Providers)

-vocational training education; -popular education and education for leisure time; -basic education

-Recognition, validation and certification of skills; -Modular training programmes; -Specialised Technology Courses

-vocational secondary education; -training programmes; -distance learning.

-languages; - basic knowledge and skills; -cultural and relation skills; -initial vocational training.

-Languages; - Mathematics; -Social -ICT.

-skills; -innovation and science; -business and trade.

-ICT; -languages; -handicrafts; -

-vocational training; -ICT; -basic knowledge and skills;

-vocational courses

-Permanent Territorial Centres; -Evening Schools.

-adult basic education centres -Dutch Language Houses partners.

-education colleges; -adult and community learning providers; -independent training providers; -distance learning.

-private providers; -semi-public institutions; -popular universities; -cultural centres.

-public schools (inside them and in community centres)

-local government; -private education institutions.

Goals

Type

Courses

Where

P4

P7

P8

P9

The Gilfillan Partnership

Colegiul Economic ION GHICA

Tomaz Pelayo Secondary School

Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža

Table1: Participating countries’ education systems 18

PART TWO

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Research Findings Videos All videos can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/l2lbyte .

Narratives - summary

Context

English level

Adults / Learners

School

These tables attempt to show the main ideas of the narratives each partner wrote about the video making. NB: The University of Tuscia (Partner 1) and The Gilfillan Partnership Ltd (Partner 4) did not make videos.

P2 Centro Territoriale Permanente di Maglie

P3 Limburg Catholic University College

-Italians and non-Italians; -Learners who have completed a multimedia studies course;

-Adult (teachers)

Beginners.

B1 at the beginning; they aimed to reach B2 level by the end of the course.

-To improve both English and their teaching competence connected to their job.

-Learners joined the English courses to improve their communication and cultural skills (tourism).

P5 Praxis Community Projects

-Migrants; -Wide range of backgrounds and education; -8 females and 10 males; -Aged from 21 to 50; -50% were working and 50% seeking employment.

P6 Colegiul Technic Energetic

P7 Colegiul Economic ION GHICA

P8 Tomaz Pelayo School

P9 Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža

-Adult learners and fellow teachers.

-Shy and afraid to speak; -More ambitious than younger learners.

-Unemployed and employed adults who want to improve their academic ability; -Different age, lifestyle and knowledge.

10 learners and 5 teachers.

Different levels.

Different levels.

-Economic crisis; -Government cutbacks; - The number of learners has been decreasing; -Courses available are being transferred from public schools to employment centres.

English is a very important language for Latvians - mostly for young people.

Learners will be able to acquire English and communication skills.

Different levels.

-Government cutbacks; -Some learners had no other learning opportunities than this one; -Multicultural country.

-Adults who want to improve English.

-They need English for their job.

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Planning Process Advantages Disadvantages

-Presented to learners before starting the courses; Enthusiastically received; -Teachers stressed the importance of taking part into an EP; -Two months.

- Presentation of the project -Brainstorming and then planning along the way together with the learners.

-7 sessions between December and June; -3 Teachers and 2 native speakers studying Arts had a major role.

-Learners reactions were mixed; -Learners were very much involved; -Teachers made technical suggestions; -The team was divided into three groups.

-Filmed at school; -Materials provided by teachers, learners and associations; -Record Interviews.

-Need to learn about digital technologies, too.

- No need to learn about traditional exercises.

-Stimulation to new approach.

-Preparation at home discussions often through Facebook and realisation of videos in class.

-18 learners were involved as much as possible; -Learnercentred and learner-led; -Role-plays.

-Learn English; -Use Programmes; -Gain selfconfidence; -Teachers and learners actively used resources and synergies.

-Improvement of English.

-Change in conception of teaching/leaning.

-Questioning of traditional methods.

-Use of ICT

-Learn English; -Learn technical skills; -Teachers learned more about how to engage learners through active learning.

-Not easy to make the videos.

-Resistance to the new methods and drop-outs

-Not all learners were present at every session; -Decide on the content; -Work at weekends; -No ESOL classes at the time; -Learners didn’t have a major role; -Having permission from external bodies.

-Teachers chose the topic; -Learners designed the film; -Younger learners helped with the films; -Learners distributed the tasks.

-Discussed ways of teaching and learning; -Discussed the importance of ICT in the learning process.

Teachers gave the tasks and learners planned the work.

The learners themselves created the work groups. They initiated ideas and discussed them with their teachers.

-Older learners shared their knowledge of Romanian traditions; -Younger learners shared their knowledge about technical things; -Communication was made via social media; -Role-play

-Other teachers were involved; -Learners researched and interviewed people; -Learners videotaped and organised the ideas with the teachers; -Learners worked in and out of the class.

The learners made films mostly independently.

The most exciting part of the tasks was filming the action and the interviews. They learned more about Latvian traditions and historical events.

-Learn English; -Gain confidence; -Learn from one another; -Exchange roles (become teachers); -Learners took charge of many things; -Teachers became surveyors and co-ordinators.

-Constanta is a mixture of nationalities; -Learners were from different classes and with different schedules.

-Learners felt this project was their own; -Process and production was learnercentred and learner-led; -Learners gave ideas for the activities / exercises.

Learners learn English and ICT skills also improved, as well as acting and communication skills.

-Time spent in school was quite limited.

Everyone is very busy because time is limited.

Do not have full range of equipment.

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Conclusions We can draw several conclusions from these narratives.    

These videos can be (re)used for other activities.

When you give feedback and assess your work throughout the process, the product is better.

You can learn in non-formal environments.

You learn better when you do it yourself.

As for the learners, they       

widened and deepened their knowledge of history and traditions; used ICT tools to communicate with each other; used ICT tools to work in English and learn authentic English; learned technical skills; worked as a team, shared experience and knowledge; developed autonomy and self -esteem; improved co-operation and acceptance;

Finally, we would like to emphasise that, from these narratives, we can conclude that discussing what, why and how has been essential to involve the learners in their own learning process. Broad participation since the conception of the videos has made the whole process more effective and productive. All the partners made great efforts to reach the main objectives and these reflections on our practice will help us all improve our teaching.

Narrative account – BELGIUM I'm teaching at a university teaching faculty. For this project, I co-operated with adult students: teachers who wanted to upgrade their diploma by attending evening classes. They all had jobs as teachers during the day. The teacher training curriculum balances self-study and traditional classes: students are taught both the English language and the didactics of teaching English and attend 78 hours of class, so we needed a virtual learning environment. I introduced L2LByTe from the very beginning as a way of dealing with the limited class time but also as an exploration to deal with the lack of learner's motivation in secondary education: everybody has the right to attend school in the 21st century but nobody wants to go anymore. Initially, my students were quite eager to participate but, as the group became smaller, and the level decreased, the atmosphere grew tense. We started with the film on music. We brainstormed about the genres, had lots of fun with some lyrics, discussed whether we should use an old song or a recent one, Dutch or English lyrics and what we wanted to say about our country. After the first session, we opted for Milow because we are proud of the quality of the Flemish songwriters of today. We spent quite some time thinking up a scenario for the clip and discussing its purpose. We had no difficulties in designing formats for exercises. Filming, however, proved to be the proverbial stumbling block. I used my I-Pad to film it. My students, however, didn't feel comfortable being filmed, so we used masks, but it took quite some time before we had enough courage to be filmed. Initially, we wanted to edit the footage into one clip, but then we started to integrate this concept into our lesson plans and decided it would be easier for teachers to have several very short clips. Meanwhile, my students were reflecting on their learning trajectory: am I learning? How am I learning? They realised they had to redefine their concept of what learning is. One student didn't want to adopt this new way of thinking and he dropped out. The others continued with our food clips. While I coordinated the music film, I know Merels gave a briefing, outlining the detective concept and sharing the link with e-pals. Brainstorming, conceptualising and production were done in our Facebook group. It took considerably less time and the fun of thinking up characters and writing the murder story, sharing pictures of the house, the murder weapon ...it was crazy! My students used their I-Phones to film their own recipes. For our third film on traditions, it was easy to decide which topic we should introduce, but our heart was not in it. The exams were approaching and we had a lot

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of other things on our minds. There was no creative space anymore so we rushed through the assignment. We made a montage of pictures and used PowerPoint with a voiceover. I asked my students to use the European frame of reference to assess their learning trajectory and they saw they had improved all their competences. They also saw that, in preparing exercises and activities for their students, they almost never asked their students to produce things so, for our Easter films, they focused on that! In retrospect, my students joked that they had to study two subjects: English and digital literacy. Although we discussed communities such as uncollege and conferences such as Eden in which people question the need for institutionalised education, it remained shocking for my future teachers of English to understand fully the impact online resources and tools can have on their profession. Even though we've never had one boring moment and they agreed that they’ve improved their speaking, conversing, writing, reading, listening skills and had to brush up their grammar, expand their vocabulary and increase their intercultural awareness, my students still questioned whether this could be "sold" as teaching. The flipped class, in which knowledge is transferred into knowledge clips which students study at home, and where teachers excel in activating didactics, is a difficult concept to adjust to for some older students and teachers. Older students are not very familiar with the DIY learning approach, either. Connected educators need skills and perhaps support to find excellent resources. I would recommend that, prior to starting a course using the flipped class and its knowledge clips, we have a thorough study of students' (lack of) appreciation for the current educational approach. I would recommend that we also discuss ‘What do I gain and what do I lose as a teacher and student when I embrace this concept?’ I would recommend offering our course as "possible visions of a future" to reduce fear and anxiety amongst current teachers.

Narrative Account - LATVIA Context for making the film Riga Business College is a state college and the majority of our learners are aged 15 and upwards.

Our college offers business and engineering education. In co-operation with the Latvian Association of Refrigeration Engineers (LSIA), we provide adult training. English language skills play an important role in ensuring good communication skills within the specialist subjects offered In Latvia, the English language is gradually becoming the second foreign language, as in Scandinavian countries where English is being used by more and more young people. Video making, promoting the development of English language skills improves communication, technical and technological skills and promotes the use of ICT. A working group of 14 persons participated. For almost all the participants, it was the first time they had taken part in such a project and so the work had to be both new and exciting.

Planning the film Before the work started, we introduced the learners to the given themes of the videos. The learners themselves organised the working groups and chose the themes which seemed most interesting to them. Within a group, the precise duties were decided - ie which of the group members would do what.

The first task, of course, was to find sources of information. The most popular source for learners is the Internet, naturally. The teachers also suggested asking their relatives and friends for help and the learners willingly agreed. The learners who were most successful in English were appointed to write the screenplay and those with better speaking skills agreed to record the text. In order to carry out the planned tasks, the college’s administration department obtained a new video camera and software.

Making the film The first part of the film making process was carried out by the learners independently and then a working meeting was arranged and the other groups and teachers were introduced to the screenplay.

Some corrections and improvements were made regarding both the content and the use of English.

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Those learners who were the best at searching on the Internet had found some photos and had made appropriate sound tracks. These were also shown and accepted at the working meeting.

The most exciting part of the task was filming the action and the interviews. The learners themselves decided on the members of the group who had the best acting and communication skills and the work started. The teachers introduced the learners to the new video camera and helped edit the footage.

The English teacher supervised the recording of the English text.

Learning from the experience We would like to stress the importance and benefit of the practical outcomes of the work for both parties: the learners involved and the teachers as well. The process of making the videos created good co-operation between the learners and the teachers. It was a little different from everyday cooperation in the college lectures; we all felt equal, and open to each other’s ideas and suggestions.

The independence and the sense of responsibility of the learners involved in the project were developed. English and ICT skills were also improved, as well as acting and communication skills. The learners and the teachers were inspired to look back into our history, traditions and folk art and also to find the best way of introducing them to people from other countries.

Narrative Account – ITALY (Maglie) CTP in Maglie offers education and development to native and non-native Italians aged from 16 years old and upwards. English, computer skills, multimedia studies, local culture and L2 Italian are the most popular courses. Most of the learners who study Italian are from other countries and the CTP teachers pay particular attention to intercultural communication and exchange.

The L2LbyTe project was presented to the learners before starting the courses. It was enthusiastically received, even though not everyone managed to take part later on. The CTP teachers stressed the importance of taking part in a European project, as well as the need to be able to speak other languages to communicate, to use technologies to access information and for personal development and to enlarge one’s horizons.

The acquisition of language and computer skills are the project’s objectives. The learners were not used to creating complex works, but they showed interest and commitment in giving their own contribution throughout.

The people who were involved in the making of the short videos included: learners who had completed a multimedia studies course, learners of English (beginners’ level), learners from other countries, and learners from culture, dance, local traditions and music courses. Two videos for the project were produced entirely by two advanced learners, who welcomed the challenge in making them.

The videos were filmed at school, while the material (photos, documents, etc) was provided by teachers, learners and associations. The topics were chosen by the partners and the contents by the CTP teachers and learners. Basic levels were chosen to accommodate the learners’ needs and to be able to evaluate and appreciate a range of local traditions. Some of our learners joined our English courses in order to improve their communication and cultural skills so they could communicate more effectively with the numerous tourists who visit Salento all year round, as they run B&Bs, pizza restaurants, restaurants or shops.

The planning of the activities took 2 months’ work. The short videos were made with the school’s and learners’ tools. It was a great opportunity to learn how to use the programmes, to discuss and exchange information and to offer critical opinions.

The learners particularly enjoyed the recording of the interviews. Some were overwhelmed by the camera but we teachers stressed the importance of gaining self-confidence when speaking in public.

Making the short videos was not very easy, but it was a very good experience. Achieving our objectives was very motivating and also stimulated hard work. This has been one of the strengths of the project.

Teachers and learners together have researched, learned new things and actively used resources and synergies. The short videos will be used for new school activities and new intercultural projects in the next academic year.

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Narrative Account – PORTUGAL Context Portugal is a small country in south-western Europe. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east.

Portugal is a developed country with an adult literacy rate of 99%. However, a large number of adults have not competed secondary education and that is the reason why Portuguese adult education is part of a national strategy for national development. Nowadays, there are many adults enrolled on different courses aimed especially at vocational qualifications and training. Some of them are unemployed, but others are employed people who just want to improve their academic ability.

Lately, due to the economic crisis and government cutbacks, the number of students has been decreasing and the courses available are being transferred from public schools to employment centres.

Students involved The adult learners vary in age, lifestyle and knowledge. The time available for classes and extra activities also differ. This means that organising an activity like the one proposed in this Grundtvig project was not always easy.

Most adult learners have long ago left school and the way some of them see their learning process is the old fashioned way: teacher-centred classes. This video making was a challenge for us, the teachers and for most of the students. In fact, we were curious about how they would embrace this idea.

Planning the video We started by discussing ways of teaching and learning (past and present, when they were younger). Then, we came to the importance of ICT in the learning process. Everybody agreed that we have, nowadays, new and important tools to help us in the learning process. Our students are familiar with ICT tools especially through their own children.

Only later did we introduce the use of videos in our debate.

All this took us some time. The discussions were not always in English because our students have different levels of English but they shared ideas.

After smoothing the path, we proposed to them the making of a video about Portuguese traditions, food, drinks, music or art. They discussed the project and decided to work on something typical from the North of Portugal where they live - Santo Tirso.

We spent some time on motivation, because we wanted them to understand the aim of this project so that they would feel involved and accept it as theirs.

Process The involvement of other teachers was believed to be useful so we asked some of our language and history teachers to help students to think/reflect about what is important in our culture and what would they like to show to the world about us. ICT teachers helped the students with the video making, of course.

Students researched several topics that might be useful and interviewed some people who had relevant information to share with them. After this, they selected the information and started to plan the video. They videotaped a wide range of different things which were later organised with the help of the teachers.

The videos were made after school hours, but students worked on them in class: editing and adding sound and subtitles. As far as possible, however, the process and production were learner-centred and learner-led.

More than three videos were made, but they chose which three should be presented to the other partners. We think that the three final videos show our Portuguese culture and traditions.

Activities With the three videos ready to show to other adult students, we asked how we could use them to teach and learn English. The students gave us some ideas that we used to create our exercises.

The activities were mainly elementary and intermediate exercises, focusing on all four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Grammar and vocabulary were also practised.

Conclusion The learners made a positive evaluation of the work done so far. They learned technical skills and English language skills, as did the teachers.They developed their autonomy and their self-esteem.

They made use of their imagination and creativity. They improved co-operation and the acceptance of new ideas. They had fun whilst learning.

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Narrative Account – ENGLAND (Praxis) Context for making our films Our organisation, Praxis Community Projects, was founded in 1983 and is a registered non-sectarian charity. Praxis provides advice and information on immigration, housing, welfare and accessing health services to migrants, as well as supporting those whose first language is not English, to improve their skills for finding employment. When we are able to access funding, we offer ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes, some leading to a nationally-recognised qualification.

Our learners come from a wide range of backgrounds and education. For the video production, we had a total number of 18 participants, although not all of them were present at every session. Between 5 and 9 participants took part in 7 sessions which took place between December 2012 and June 2013.

Our learning cohort comprised 8 females and 10 males and their ages ranged from 21 to 50+, although most were in their mid-twenties to early thirties. Learners came from Spain, China, Morocco, Rwanda, Somalis, Peru, Colombia, Bangladesh, Venezuela and Italy.

Fifty per cent of the group were working and the rest were seeking employment.

We were all very excited about the prospect of producing the videos, although my colleague, Fabricio Catroppa, and myself were concerned about the deadlines for completing all the work. (See Section 2 below). The learners felt that the experience would engage and involve them more deeply in learning English language skills, than more traditional classes. Furthermore, because of government cutbacks, there is a dearth of English language provision throughout the UK and so some learners had no other language learning opportunities than those we provided them with through this project.

Planning the films Who was involved in planning the films?

Elizabeth Goldman (ESOL Tutor) and Fabricio Catroppa (Education and Employment Adviser), with the initial support of Berhanu Kassiye (Project Manager), held planning meetings to discuss deadlines and resources. Fabricio was responsible for recruiting the participants (the learners) and Elizabeth for scheduling and planning activities. Elizabeth also secured the services of two native-speaker film learners she knows (currently studying at Norwich University of the Arts) to ensure that the standard of video production would be both professional and engaging for audiences. (Although Elizabeth has a component of her BA in Film Studies and taught Media and Film Studies at an FE College, this was many years ago, so she felt her skills were very rusty!).

How did you decide on the content for each film?

As Praxis is based in London, this presented us with the following issues: L2LbyTe project required videos which showed national traditions, food and drink and music and dance.

Grundtvig European partners’ countries.

It was therefore very difficult to decide on the content, but we finally agreed that it would be both essential and interesting to reflect upon and to raise these issues and so our ‘cast’ of learners and the topics we covered, both exemplified and described the unique nature of British culture today.

How did you decide how the films would be made?

We were limited as to time because not all our participants were available at the same time and some were working, so we had to work at weekends in some instances. We also had to factor in the availability of our camera and soundmen, Josh and Alex, who would be travelling from Norwich to London. Furthermore, there were no ESOL classes taking place at Praxis on a regular basis so we did not have a fixed cohort of learners at any given time.

How did you decide who would make the films?

Because of all the constraints mentioned above, it was not feasible to give the learners as great a role in either the planning or the making of the films as we would have liked, but we asked Josh and Alex to ensure that they involved the learners in the production side as much as possible (eg inviting

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learners to help with shots and the sound wherever possible, as well as explaining what they were doing technically, and why). This worked well, as both were very open to engaging with the learners and enjoyed learning new information from them, too – eg cultural background, traditions etc). As far as possible, however, the process and production was learner-centred and learner-led, with the learners discussing and agreeing on topics within the three themes, developing storyboards, researching topics and using their own experiences as ESOL learners living (and sometimes working) in the UK, to inform and direct the project.

How long did it take to plan the films?

About 6 weeks in all.

Making the films Who was involved in making the films?

Elizabeth, Fabricio, 18 learners, Josh and Alex. We also arranged to film staff working at local businesses (a snack-bar, restaurant and pub) and at Praxis, and obtained permission to use still photographs and videos from Dennis Sever’s House and the Blackheath Morris Men. How did you decide who would carry out the different roles in the film making (e.g. directors, actors, interviewers, interviewees, technicians etc)?

See Section 2 above. For the ‘Guy Fawkes’ section of the ‘Traditions’ video, we involved all the learners present in role-playing various parts, to bring the historical events to life. We also used two Praxis volunteers (Pol and Rukhsana) as both ‘actors’ and mentors for those with only basic Internet skills (when we were researching information online in the pre-filming sessions); they also helped to explain the project to newcomers to the groups, thus reinforcing their own understanding and knowledge, practising their English language skills and helping to foster group cohesion.

What equipment did you use for making the films?

Canon 600d, recording resolution 1080p.

Learning from the experience What went well or badly when you were planning and making the films?

Despite not always having high numbers of participants, the learners were always positive and engaged and worked hard. We all enjoyed the outside filming, although the day that we filmed outdoors for the ‘Traditions’ video was bitterly cold! A particularly good session was when learners role-played the ‘Guy Fawkes’ story wearing Guy Fawkes’ masks. We were rather hampered when making the ‘Music & Dance’ video by not being able to use clips of famous UK artistes, because of copyright laws.

What did teachers learn from the planning process?

How to engage learners more through active learning (eg the role-play mentioned above).

What did learners learn from the planning process?

Group work – both small groups, pairs and plenary sessions; research skills; prioritising; English language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening); evaluating; giving and receiving feedback.

What did teachers learn from making the films?

Technical skills, eg captioning, making a commentary for a video, editing, etc.

What did learners learn from making the films?

Acting, English language skills (speaking and listening), technical skills.

What skills do teachers and learners need to make this kind of film?

Planning, prioritising, language skills, technical skills (eg computing and filming), teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, research skills.

What advice would you give to anyone who was thinking about making similar films?

It is much easier if you have a fixed cohort of learners attending regular classes. Everything – planning, obtaining permission from external bodies, the filming process itself – takes much longer

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than you imagine. If you can get professional technical support, this is good and saves a lot of time, but it is also good for teachers and learners to acquire technical skills (eg filming).

Summary of main points participants made in the evaluation of the videos and related exercises and discussions about the range of media they use to learn English Participants: deepening their knowledge of British history and were stimulated to research more on their own d both see concrete evidence of the history, ask questions and discuss the information received help them rs and improve their own English language skills information news programmes and films

Some are using it to learn languages other than English conventional methods of learning

Narrative Account – ROMANIA (Constanta) Colegiul Tehnic Energetic is a college where learners between the ages of 14 and 60 can complete their education and receive a high school diploma in the technical field. The school provides daytime classes for learners between the ages of 14 and 19. There are also evening classes for adults who have jobs during the day. For the learners who have already graduated, the college offers foreperson training courses.

Our target learners are mainly adult learners who are more reticent in using a foreign language, but are willing to learn to be more confident in using it, being aware that in today's society, learning, and even teaching another language, is an advantage. There are also fellow teachers involved in this project who consider themselves as learners and who are thrilled by the opportunity to improve their English.

When they were presented with the task of making the films, the learners' reactions were mixed: some were afraid they would not be able to cope with the assignment, some were excited by the prospect of being directors or cameramen and the older ones were proud they could share the knowledge they had about Romanian traditions. All in all, they realised that each of them could contribute something and thus they gained confidence in themselves as a group. There was a very interesting group dynamic. The younger learners shared their knowledge about technical things, while the older ones provided the information about traditions. They learned from one another and became teachers in their turn.

Some are proud that now they can help their children with their ICT or English homework.

The adult learners were very much involved in the planning of the films. They suggested the content, the best way to film and the best locations. The teachers made suggestions about the cameras and the sites which could provide more information.

It was difficult to decide on the content for each film because Constanta is a mixture of ethnicities, each with its own unique tradition. We tried to include some of the more distinctive and interesting traditions from our region, Dobrogea.

The food, the music and the dance are also a mixture of features from different ethnic traditions.

We thought long and hard about how we would make the films. We didn't want them to be long and dull, full of uninteresting information. We strove to produce exciting material, easy to follow and work on, keeping in mind that learners had to do various tasks based on the videos.

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Who would make the film wasn't a decision that anyone imposed. While talking about the task and how we could best approach the making of each video, some skills and abilities came to the surface and some learners felt they could manage with gathering the materials, some volunteered to get the cameras and others were confident they could film the material.

It took about a month to plan the films because the group involved in the project is made up of learners from different classes. Some have courses in the daytime and some in the evening and it was rather difficult to meet, but they communicated via social media.

The learners and teachers alike put a lot of creative effort into making the videos. There was a lot of brainstorming and we all bounced ideas off each other until we finally arrived at an acceptable result.

Once we knew who wanted to be involved in the project, it was easier to plan the sections.

The team was divided into three groups according to the theme of the video they were in charge of filming. Each had a director, a technician, an interviewer or a presenter. After their initial reticence in the face of such a task, various members of the team put aside their fears and realised they didn't need to be professional film makers. After many discussions, some appointed themselves as directors or camerapersons, while others were chosen for their respective skills. There was even a role play task where learners discovered their strengths as actors, narrators, scriptwriters or technicians. In the end, the three groups shared their knowledge about the films, so each contributed to all the videos.

There were three learners who became specialists in editing and subtitling and who “beautified” all the videos and also uploaded them on project’s YouTube channel.

The learners had a few limited choices in the equipment they could use due to the low budget and settled on a digital camcorder, an I-Phone 5, computers, Windows Movie Maker and a Samsung digital camera.

The parts where the learners are speaking were more difficult to film. The team was laughing at times and it was difficult to film; there were mistakes in some scenes, so they had to be filmed more than once, but everybody had fun and it was not a stressful job to do. The light was a problem- we tried to film during the day as much as possible because the budget didn't allow for lighting and so, in some places, the picture is not of the best quality. There were also abrupt scene changes.

At first, teachers thought that the hard work would rest on their shoulders, but, while planning the process, they realised that the learners were willing to take charge of many things that making the films involved. Teachers learnt that they could trust the learners and their ideas and, in the end, the teachers became surveyors and coordinators, letting the learners make decisions about the making of the films. The learners involved in the project are not from the same class, they come from different classes and levels, and therefore the planning process was a little difficult at first. While planning and making the films, however, they learned how to work together, how to share their knowledge, how to use the equipment and how to make subtitles work. Some older learners learned how to upload or download and use materials on YouTube. The group learned that it is a good idea to give feedback and assess the work at different stages in the process. In the end, we evaluated our own work and were very satisfied with the result.

We came to the conclusion that you don't need many skills to make this kind of film, you only need the desire to learn. You gain experience and skills by trying and doing it.

We would encourage anyone who was thinking about making similar films to do so because it is fun and you learn a great deal about organising, working as a team, making compromises for the good of the team and gaining confidence in yourself and your abilities. Since the environment is not a formal one, learners relax and communicate in English without being self-conscious. They express their ideas with much more ease than they would in a formal English class. You should stay focused on the task and facilitate participation from all the members of the team.

Narrative Account – ROMANIA (Targoviste) Context for making our films Our school's main field of training is in economics. However, our learners have a general education through a curriculum that includes Romanian language, mathematics, foreign languages and social and human sciences, so providing training in theoretical subjects is an important goal. This is the reason why teachers of theoretical subjects (other than languages) are eager to learn English and use it in curricular or extracurricular contexts, and are part of our target audience (teachers of physics, mathematics, Romanian, French). Why English? To access sources of new and important information about every discipline that we teach and also because, in the current context of opportunities for EU partnerships with teachers, that enhances young people's interest in gaining new knowledge.

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Planning the films First, the movie theme was chosen in order to meet several criteria: ❖To present aspects of Romanian traditions; ❖To present issues relevant to our area (we had it in mind that our city, Targoviste has a name with economic significance) ❖Can be integrated into the curriculum as a teaching aid in certain subjects (economics, literature Romanian) ❖Can be used as a tool for teaching / learning English Therefore, the method we chose to create this movie was the project. It included: OUTDOOR RECORDINGS: ❖Identifying fairs which are representative of the county ❖ Exploring a literary theme, showing aspects of Romanian fairs and what trade was like in the C18 and C19 ❖Analysing passages about economics ❖Interviews with traders in modern fairs ❖Recording videos relevant to contemporary fairs INDOOR RECORDINGS: ❖An interview with a professor of Romanian literature ❖Video editing ❖Making a selection of relevant musical works ❖Making a video ❖Creating English subtitles and posting the video on the Internet FOLLOW UP ❖Creation of integrated learning materials and video-based ICT components ❖Lesson plans ❖Creating learning and assessment materials The team that made this video included: ● Social sciences teacher ● Romanian language teacher, Gabriela Musoiu ● Maths teacher, Eugenia Zamfir ● 4 learners at post-high school level, second year, Assistant Manager, 1st stage ➔Discussions on the topic and establishment of the scenario. (mindmap). For better management of material, human and temporal resources we made a Gantt chart of the project.

2nd stage ➔Shooting (interviews and relevant issues) 3rd stage ➔Relevant video material selection, selection of videos that complement our happy story (scenes from Romanian filmography, commercial aspects) ➔Selection of appropriate music content ➔Editing and completing the final video ➔Uploading the video to the project’s dedicated YouTube channel ➔Subtitling in English and uploading to YouTube Making the films Although, obviously, skills varied amongst the team (some teachers had skills in methodological issues and learners the use of ICT and video tools) so co-operation was a keyword in our work and entailed being open to learning and the project itself being an adequate reflection of the principle "School is the place where no one knows who gives and who receives" (learners were eager to learn aspects of producing learning materials and the criteria they should use for doing this and teachers were eager to learn how to use video and ICT tools to facilitate their work and allow them to make learning materials attractive to learners).

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Equipment used: ❏camcorder ❏PC Learning from the experience ● Accept personal responsibility for creating the outcomes and quality of their lives ● Discover a motivating purpose, characterised by personally meaningful goals and dreams ● Consistently plan and take effective actions in pursuing their goals and dreams ● Build mutually supportive relationships that assist them in pursuing their goals and dreams  Gain heightened self-awareness, developing empowering beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that will keep them on course ● Become lifelong learners, finding valuable lessons in nearly every experience they have ● Develop emotional maturity, characterised by optimism, happiness and peace of mind ● Believe in themselves, feeling capable, lovable, and unconditionally worthy as human beings ● Effectively communicate orally, visually, in writing, and in a second language ● understand and employ quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems ● interpret and evaluate information from a variety of sources ● understand and work within complex systems and with diverse groups ● demonstrate intellectual agility and the ability to manage change ● transform information into knowledge and knowledge into judgment and action

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Activities

Maglie Activities about Constanta Video ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS CTP MAGLIE – Video: Food and drinks in Romania

ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNERS

SKILLS PRACTISED BY LEARNERS

Invite learners to participate in a training trial in which students and teachers are a learning community.

Watch the video: “Food and drinks in Romania”

Watch the video

Listening, reading

Brainstorm ideas to develop the information presented in the video Collection and transcription of ideas Suggest homework

Look for more information on food and drinks in Romania Compare food and drinks, diet, traditions in Romania and in Salento Learn more about Romania and Constanta Prepare a brochure for a trip to Constanta

Speaking, note-taking Use of English Using technology

Facilitate the activities in the multimedia lab

Watch the video again in You Tube Find out information using Internet

Using technology

Facilitate discussion and research on food, wines, places

Activities in pair, small group

Speaking, listening, discussing, writing

Constanta Activities about Praxis Video

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I: ROLE PLAY Each learner chooses a name of one of the speakers (Sonia, Zara, Lisa, Kat, Tanya, Elizabeth, Fabricio or Peter) and acts out a dialogue with her or his partner keeping in mind what the person in the video talked about.

For example, a learner chooses to be Sonia. Their partner asks her about her likes and dislikes.

Example given by the Romanian CTE learners: Dialogue Interviewer: Where do you come from?

Sonia: I come from Spain.

Interviewer: What do you think of British food?

Sonia: I think there are a lot of desserts and sweet things in British cuisine.

Interviewer: What is different in your country?

Sonia: In my country, people eat a first course, a second course and dessert.

Interviewer: What do you think is the most important meal for the British?

Sonia: I think it is breakfast, because they eat a lot in the morning.

Interviewer: When do people eat more in your country?

Sonia: They eat a lot at lunch.

Interviewer: What is your favourite British food?

Sonia: There is nothing I like more than desserts.

Useful language: likes Do you fancy.../ What's your favourite..?

There is nothing I like more than....

I like/ enjoy/ love What I particularly like about....is.....

People enjoy/ prefer

dislikes I really don't like/ dislike I've never liked There's nothing I like less than What I particularly dislike about...is...

Act out more dialogues using the useful language.

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II: GUESSING GAME - GROUP ACTIVITY

Search for images related to British food or drinks and print them on cards. Put the cards in a bag.

Draw a card without looking at it and show it to the other learners. They have to give you clues so you can guess what the card is about.

Example of CTE learners: Q: Is it a dish or a drink?

A: It's a dish.

Q: Who talked about it in the video?

A: Sonia did.

Q: What does it taste like?

A: It's salty.

Q: Can you tell me some of the ingredients?

A: There are various ingredients: cheese, bacon, tomatoes, cucumbers.

Q: Do you use bread?

A: Yes, two slices.

Q: Can you give me another clue?

A: It is named after a British Earl.

Q: Is it a sandwich?

A: Yes, it is.

Q: Do you eat sandwiches?

A: Not very often.

Q: What is your favourite?

And so on.

III. MAKE A CHART REFERRING TO BRITISH EATING HABITS AND FILL IT IN. THEN DESCRIBE YOUR OWN. MEALS BREAKFAST

THE BRITISH Bacon, sausages, eggs, butter, jam, toast, milk, tea, coffee etc.

YOU Yoghurt with cereals, coffee

LUNCH SNACK TEA DINNER Take a small rubber ball and throw it around the class. The person who catches it has to speak about their own eating habits.

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IV: QUESTIONNAIRE How much do you know about British cuisine?

Make up a questionnaire using the information in the video. Ask a question and provide 3 different answers (1 true and 2 false). There should be at least 7 questions. Connoisseurs of British cuisine should get at least 5 right answers.

Example given by CTE learners The most popular dish in Britain nowadays is: a) fish and chips b) tikka masala c) curry chicken

• Devise an activity involving a hat, pieces of paper and words related to food that you remember from the video.

Example Write the words on pieces of paper and put them in the hat. Each learner draws one and says what they know about that food or drink. (fish and chips – a popular dish in Britain, when the first shop was opened, the others may ask them questions such as 'Have you ever tried it?', 'Would you like to try it?')

• Make up a crosswords related to British food in which the first word down is 'sandwich' Example with the word 'tea' ACROSS: 1. A very popular dish in Britain made of roasted chunks of chicken in a spicy sauce.

2. A British breakfast wouldn't be the same without them. You can eat them fried, boiled or poached.

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3. A type of beer brewed from malted barley.

Down: 1. British people drink it at five o'clock.

• Be a reporter for a day and ask your classmates about their likes and dislikes concerning British food and drinks. Then, make a presentation of the things you found out. It can be a PowerPoint presentation or a report.

Portugal Activities about Latvia Video

Brainstorming 1. Speaking 1.1.

Which of these things are most important to you? Which are least important?

Number them 1 (most important) to 8 (least important). 

home



education



friends



success



freedom



happiness



free time



children

Video - watching 2. Speaking 2.1.

What things are important to Latvian people?

3. Scanning 3.1.

Scan the video to complete sentences 1-5.

1. The video is about __________ and __________ in Latvia.

2. The film is __________ minutes long.

3. There are __________ people interviewed.

4. The participants are __________ and __________.

5. The film was made by __________.

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4. Vocabulary 4.1.

Which word in each group is the odd one out?

1

sunny

chilly

rainy

lively

2

helpful

long

friendly

polite

3

beautiful

popular

historic

tiring

4

fantastic

awful

exciting

fascinating

4.2.

Complete the table with words related to: weather  

4.3.

… …

city life  

… …

country  

… …

Think about your country. Fill in the table below with words related to the same topics. weather

city life

clothes



…



…



…



…



…



…

l.

5. Grammar Comparatives 5.1.

Write some sentences comparing Latvia to your own country. e.g. Latvia is colder than Portugal.

Adjectives and prepositions: feelings 5.2.

Choose the right preposition.

1. Latvian people are very proud about / of / in their country.

2. We’re so fed up with / in / about the weather in Riga. It is very cold.

3. Janis is very keen in / about / on music. He plays the accordion.

4. It’s my second trip to Riga. I’m really excited on / of / about it.

5. Una is interested in / on / with European projects. She is going to apply for another one.

After viewing 6. Writing The video starts with the following statement “Music brings life to our hearts.”

Comment on it.

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Follow-up 7. Research 7.1.

The video is about traditional songs. Find similar songs in your culture.

7.2.

Look up for some information about Riga and imagine you went there on a trip. Write a travel blog entry about your visit.

Praxis Activities about Portugal Video

ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS

ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNERS

SKILLS PRACTISED BY LEARNERS Prepare a transcript of the They first watch the interview Listening interview. with subtitles and identify Reading language errors; then read the Speaking transcript, correct it. (The original Writing interviewers can then amend the subtitles).

Play the video in short bursts so Watch the title and opening shot Predicting learners can use prediction only and predict what is going to skills. happen Watch the first few scenes and Predicting predict what is going to happen Invite learners to use language Watch the video and note down Listening; note-taking; for describing processes. the processes – can be done prioritising; discussing; writing; alone, in pairs, small groups. creating diagrams, flowcharts, Discuss and compare graphs; preparing for afterwards. Write up using examinations flowcharts, diagrams etc. (This could be especially useful for learners preparing for IELTS or similar examinations).

Learners make a video and/or Presentation skills – groupwork; PowerPoint presentation meeting deadlines; speaking; describing a process. This could listening; researching; writing; be similar to the original (eg a prioritising food or drink particular to their country/culture) or another process – eg weaving, lacemaking and so on.

Brainstorm the vocabulary of Groups of learners brainstorm Speaking; listening; using food/drink processes – eg vocabulary for describing grammar and vocabulary nouns/verbs/imperatives/sequen processes –nouns/verbs/ ce markers. imperatives/sequence markers (eg label; to label; paste the label; then/next).

Facilitate discussion and Research the history of religious Presentation skills – groupwork; research on religious orders orders which make liqueurs etc meeting deadlines; speaking; which make liqueurs. and present to each other and/or listening; researching; writing; disseminate via new media. prioritising

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Latvia Activities about Constanta Video Tasks from video: 1. Write a short story about our Riga central market, what is There, what you can buy there, etc.

2. Name different vegetables, milk products and bread products in English.

3. Find the information about when Riga market was founded, what was there before it (from a historical point of view) and who founded it.

4. Students create a dialogue between stallholder and customer.

5. Create a market logo.

6. Write a poem about the market.

7. Compare the Romanian market (from the video) and our market.

What’s the difference? What do/don’t you like?

8. Find a recipe and then make a list you can take with you to the market to buy products.

9. Find out information about the Romanian market and its origins, etc.

10. Carry out an interview and/or survey about how many people shop in the market.

11. Each student after watching the video finds one question and answer in English.

12. Create a test with questions, then the students watch the video and write the right answers.

How it went.

The tasks were accepted very positively. The video was interesting. We all watched the video “Romanian Traditional Fair”.

This video is not ideal for learning because it is not in English and has no subtitles, so we did some creative work to make it more interesting for learners.

After watching the video, we understood that this video is about a Romanian market place, so we created a task about markets and the Latvian Central market.

Before writing and answering tasks, the learners eagerly participated in the discussion and exchanged and compared their opinions about our market.

Each student chose the task s/he wanted to do.

They completed the survey which was created to practise and improve their question making skills in English. As you see, it is still a really difficult task. Also, articles have to be revised and practised again and again.

The students were developing their acting and communication skills in English by carrying out various role plays.

Attitudes and success rates varied among the learners. Those who were shy and unconfident about their language skills were reluctant to play out the dialogues in front of an audience. In contrast, some liked it and did it quite enthusiastically.

It was quite an interesting task to find out information about the history of Riga Central Market because it is one of the landmarks of Riga. Almost all the participants had their own experience of, and opinion about, it .The teacher’s task was to monitor the discussion and ensure it went ahead in English and that learners did not switch to their native language, Latvian.

Students’ practical work.

Survey 1. Do you buy products in the market?

2. Why do you go shopping here?

3. What kind of products do you buy in the market?

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4. What do you think about smuggled goods?

5. Are you sure that there aren’t any smuggled goods in the market?

6. Are you sure that the market sells natural products?

7. Do you bargain with the stallholders?

8. What do you know about the Central Market’s history?

9. Where can you find cheap products in the market or shops?

Students: Ance, Diana The history of Riga Central market.

Central Market is the biggest market in Rīga. Rīgas Central market was established in 1922.

The ‘Godfather’ of the Central Market is Klavs Lorencs.

In the Central Market, there are fish, meat, dairy and vegetable halls.

In the fish hall, there are more than 200 stalls. In the meat Hall, there are 238 stalls with fresh supplies every day.

In the dairy hall, there are more than 300 stalls, with cheese, milk and curd.

In the vegetable hall, you can find different kind of woodland food in every season.

Students: Linda, Daila, Lauris.

Dialogue in the market Anna: Hi! Juris: Hi, how can I help you?

Anna: I’m looking for melons. I just can’t find them anywhere. Do you have them?

Juris: You’re really lucky! There’s just one left. It’s right next to the tomatoes.

Anna: Oh that’s very good. I’ll take it before anybody else buys it.

Anna: But why is it so small?

Juris: Because it grew here in Latvia and it doesn’t have any chemicals in it.

Anna: You must be joking! How can you grow melons here in Latvia?

Juris: They grow in the fields and they spread like crazy.

Anna: Oh! I didn’t know something like that is possible. How long do they grow for?

Juris: Almost all summer and they need a lot of attention.

Anna: That’s very interesting. You’ve convinced me to buy your last melon.

Juris: OK! That’ll be 2 lats Anna: They’re very expensive too! OK, here you go.

Juris: Thanks, come again. We have fresh, natural products all Year round.

Anna: Alright I’ll do that, bye!

Juris: Bye! Recipe for cupcakes and shopping list.

1. You need to heat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease muffin cups. Mix together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt, allspice and vanilla extract in a bowl.

2. Beat the butter, white sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl, until the mass is light and fluffy. Add the eggs and blend into the butter mixture. Add the berries (strawberries, blackberries) into the mixture.

3. Bake cupcakes in the oven until they are golden brown (about 20 minutes) and then your cupcakes are ready.

4. Enjoy the cupcakes.

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Shopping list: 1. Muffin cups 2. Flour 3. Pudding mix 4. Baking soda 5. Salt 6. Allspice 7. Vanilla extract 8. White sugar 9. Brown sugar 10. Eggs 11. Butter 12. Berries

Sintija, Evelina.

Students watch the video and create some logos.

Targoviste Activities about Belgium Video

ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS

ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNERS

SKILLS PRACTISED BY LEARNERS

Prepare a transcript of the videos in order to start the discussions

Watch the videos and try to ListeningReading identify the Belgian products Speaking which are promoted by them.

Discuss and explain the importance of the products for Belgium and the EU economy.

Play the video in short bursts so Make a Facebook group to Research and Teamwork learners can use prediction connect to the Belgium team in skills. order to help you to find out more information about the suggested products.

Present the Google Docs Create a form in English, on Analysis of learning needs platform and its benefits, to the Google Docs, with questions that Practising ICT skills. students you can ask your classmates in order to find out what they know about Belgian food and drinks.

Work with your English teacher or those of your colleagues who are proficient in English.

Invite learners to use language Use the results of the previous Writing an assessment/ report. for describing processes. survey in order to create short presentations in Prezi.com to Research extend knowledge about the Creating Prezi presentations. products presented by the video Public speaking. (the history of beer – who invented it, what were the Practising ICT skills. economic and historical influences which resulted in good products, the importance of human, as well as material and financial, resources ) in English.

Present Amara platform to the Translate the video into Practise translation based upon students and ask them to work in Romanian using the Amara trial and error.

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groups in order to translate the videos into Romanian

platform and following these steps:- Check the translation Teamwork. using Thesaurus in a Word Practising ICT skills. document; Use the Facebook group to discuss with your colleagues and review the individual translation in order to improve the content;- Ask an expert (English teacher) to correct the document.

Invite learners to create a list with Discussions on how the videos Writing criteria for assessing the videos. were made. Creating a Speaking. spreadsheet with criteria to Listening (using grammar and assess the videos (pedagogical, vocabulary aesthetic, technical perspectives) and the impact on students.

Present the Glogster platform – Create, using Glogster, a poster Presentation skills using YouTube tutorials in in order to promote Belgium food English, for making online and drinks. Write the recipe for posters and invite students to waffles. translate the tutorials and practise the technology Invite learners to use their Record a video (using a Using modern technology. smartphones to record a video smartphone) about preparing a Practising English language. on cooking waffles. traditional Belgian specialty.

Explaining a process Explain all the steps and the recipe.

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Narratives about Activities Belgium I was very surprised when I saw this video. It was quite the opposite of what I thought we had agreed to do. As I saw it, we had to teach our students to become autonomous learners: people who knew how to teach themselves new knowledge or skills. Again, according to my interpretation this video production would   

show the transformation from learner to teacher; show what they had learnt; show other learners to become their own teacher.

On a second level, the knowledge clip would create a learning environment in which intercultural communication was a given.

Finally, the video clip would also promote digital citizenship.

Viewing ‘Traditions in Salento’ I failed to see how students had moved away from the “container identity” and become active self-teaching learners. I also questioned the increase in digital citizenship and I was puzzled by the introduction to intercultural communication. In short, the video invited me to rethink my presuppositions.

While struggling with this video, I had a very interesting conversation with a Parisian storytelling association at “The 1001 Stories for Adult Learners” in Alden, Biezen. They told me intercultural communication courses are not about teaching one how to avoid cultural clashes, but actually creating puzzling scenes so students learn how to cope with cultural differences. This made me rethink my activities: I decided to situate the Salento video within this frame of mind.

Next, I rethought my concept of digital literacy. To my surprise and shame, I realised that I had expected an advanced level from the very beginning. Obviously, a passive knowledge of digital media is the very beginning of this competence: we all start from ready-made knowledge clips.

Gradually, I started to realise the potential of this knowledge clip scaffolding-wise.

That’s why I created activities creating an imaginative context in which students are about to welcome a new student from Salento. It is a highly probable one because we have a huge Italian community in our neighbourhood. In fact, in my Dutch class I have two students from this region who are studying to become Dutch teachers.

Thus, the lesson plan focuses on coping with cultural clashes, creating a scene where you see all kinds of things but you don’t know what they are. The knowledge clip works as a thought-provoking tool: I may think I know Italy, but do I? I have these preconceived ideas from my holidays perhaps, but Italy is far more than good food and lovely beaches.

The clip as a whole is too long for the attention span of students , so I cut it into short clips. Each group of students takes responsibility for this sequence and becomes the teacher. I think this is the key issue. They inform their peers, test their peers, create challenges for the newcomer and tell stories about their own countries. In becoming the teacher, they have to study hard. If they have to play the role of the knowledge expert, they have to acquire the knowledge. I find this visibility works in increasing their motivation.

I also challenged myself. I had a look at quite a few apps in Carrington’s Pedagogy Wheel and asked myself which opportunities they offer. I can quite honestly say that this proved to be a very creativity-

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increasing challenge and would like to invite everybody to do the same so as to experience this sense of flow and excitement.

Romania (Targoviste) The activities that we chose, starting with the Belgium videos, were directly related to the subject that we had to teach – Economics (specific), so we had in mind as a goal that our students would learn English by studying and being involved in activities with a strong economic direction. Therefore, we designed activities for them such as: carrying out research and selecting relevant information about Belgium’s production of beer (places, human resources, technologies and so on), making a Google Map to include all this information in a specific map (”Belgium, the land of beer”). After that, we considered it would be interesting for students to analyse the Belgian product in terms of ”generic conditions for obtaining a good product” and to promote it using a Glogster application. For students who are very interested in ICT, we also chose different ICT applications to practise their skills and help them gain competencies such as: I-Movies, Prezi presentation or the Amara platform (which is also a wonderful tool for translating and practicing the English language).

Concerning the affective dimension of the learning process, we considered that it is important to ensure there is a fun environment in order to stimulate students’ creativity, so we asked them to compose a hip hop song and to share it on Facebook or other social networks.

Romania (Constanta) The team from Constanta created some interactive activities and creative tasks, having in mind as objectives developing communicative skills and creative abilities, intercultural skills, improving listening and speaking skills and developing cultural awareness.

The students reacted well when dealing with the activities which involved creating puzzles and questionnaires.

They had fun devising word games and role plays.

The tasks were assigned according to their levels of competence.

The activities emphasise lifelong learning and social skills, as well as critical thinking. There was a peer assessment session. The teacher's role was to monitor the learners’ progress and to give them feedback on their activity.

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Reflections on Activities Portugal and Praxis (Video Constanta / Activities Maglie) The topic of the video is interesting in itself and will motivate learners because food and drink is a universally interesting topic.

The video is in Romanian with subtitles in English.

The teachers tried to give learners a context for the video so they knew what to focus on. This included information about the project itself (L2Byte), which fostered dissemination. The activities were tried out on a group of B1 learners.

Teachers are free to do the exercises and activities they want, tailored to their groups’ previous learning experience, knowledge and learning styles.

Learners watched the video, collected more information about the topic, made some comparisons with their own cuisine and the final product was a leaflet.

Instructions could perhaps have been less open and general, with more specific details given, especially about the comparison and homework sections. The engagement and methodology sections could also have been more specific and tied directly to the topic.

A further activity could be an initial viewing without subtitles and then the learners could act out the video in English and reflect on it.

General comment.

We need to think about how we structure activities allowing for differences in pedagogical perspectives.

Latvia and Belgium (Video Belgium / Activities Romania - Targoviste) Researching the importance of products for Belgium is not for beginners. It is a very difficult and broad subject. It is not for students of English, but rather for students of economics.

We have to teach students some vocabulary first so they can talk about food.

Connect with Belgians to talk about the products. We can't see the specific tasks students have to do.

Perhaps ask students whether they like waffles, Leffe, meat balls and so on.

What happens if your students don't know anything about Belgian food? We question whether ICT is not actually the main focus?

It is all about using ICT and it is about information, but where are the learning activities?

We question whether or not translation is a good way of studying English. We feel studying English has become a secondary target.

Discussion about the video: why not ask the students what food they would like to taste and why?

Prepare the food: perhaps you could ask the students to create a cookery programme, with them discussing how they prepare the products.

Bear in mind there are more than 500 beers in Belgium. We think you could focus on the Trappist beers and the monasteries and have them draw something.

The hip-hop song is really lovely.

On the one hand, this is too technology-driven; on the other we’re sorry that you haven't used the detective story.

Glogsters: we liked this.

Maglie and Constanta (Video Latvia / Activities Portugal) The tasks are organised in the form of a lesson plan with various exercises (fill in, matching, completion, writing). They are teacher controlled.

The method uses a less communicative approach and more task-based teaching.

Objectives: improving vocabulary, introducing grammar, develop scanning, skimming skills, practising speaking, engaging learners in thinking about building other tasks and practising socio linguistic competences.

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It is difficult to make up listening activities, because the songs are in Latvian and the video is subtitled.

The level of the tasks is A2, especially for beginners and pre-intermediate learners.

The teacher monitors and guides the activity of the learners.

The video with the activity could be used for a lesson introducing new vocabulary and grammar points.

It could be a starting point for researching other things about traditions in other countries.

Learners make little use of ICT skills The tasks should engage sociocultural knowledge, intercultural awareness, practical skills, and the development of learner's linguistic competences.

Learners have to complete activities created by the teacher. The teacher becomes an evaluator and a guide.

The tasks should be more complex so as to involve the learners' problem solving, decision making and investigative skills as well as reflection that should include teacher facilitation, but not guidance.

Portugal and Praxis (Video Maglie / Activities Belgium) The video clips are inviting and colourful, so you are immediately engaged. The activities are well structured and motivating.

The learners learn about culture and vocabulary. They go into grammar and then writing. In the meantime, they have to work with ICT tools and new media (eg. Prezi, Fotobabble).

Some activities are done at home, so they can work at their own pace and consolidate their learning.

Some others, the more specific ones, are class based as they may need a facilitator. In addition, they work in groups and these groups can be self-facilitating. This type of work gives them responsibility, promotes co-operation and also allows for the exchange of feedback and reflections.

The learning levels demand a high level of learning and language skills. However the activities can be adapted to different levels and learning styles. Here, learners must create their own activities and they are free to produce what they want.

As learners produce their own exercises and activities, this motivates them because the work is based on their own needs and experiences. Learners are invited to adapt the first video to one of their own.

Reflection is inbuilt because they are constantly giving and receiving feedback. The final assessment includes marks for their success in reflecting. The activities don’t limit the learners. It is an open ended learning process.

Targoviste and Tuscia (Video Portugal / Activities Praxis) The activities exploit the videoclip quite well in a multicultural perspective and by activating students’ participation. We have provided further suggestions also in the direction of enhancing motivation through creative activities and new technologies. One thing we found missing is the contextualisation of this particular contents: which students and why should approach an item about Portuguese culture? One might imagine having to prepare students for an exchange or simply a trip to Portugal.

ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS

Prepare a transcript of the interview.

ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNERS

SKILLS PRACTISED BY LEARNERS

They first watch the interview with subtitles and identify language errors; then Listening, Reading, read the transcript, correct it. (The original Speaking interviewers can then amend the subtitles).

Writing

Reflection on activities set by PRAXIS

Change the position of the activities (the second one should be a warm-up activity so, it should come first); the presentation of the interview should become the last but

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one.

Use the technology (Shazam application) to identify the song, and after we can find the lyrics and try to translate into English

Play the video in short bursts so learners can use prediction skills.

Watch the title and opening shot only and predict what is going to happen

Predicting

Madre Deus – author O Pastor 1996 – album Existir

The warm-up activities can be extended with some research activities, geography, history in order to contextualise the product (Wikipedia); Watch the first few scenes and predict what is going to happen

Invite learners to use language for describing processes.

Watch the video and note down the processes– can be done alone, in pairs, small groups. Discuss and compare afterwards. Write up using flowcharts, diagrams etc. (This could be especially useful for learners preparing for IELTS or similar examinations).

Learners make a video and/or PowerPoint presentation describing a process. This could be similar to the original (eg a food or drink particular to their country/culture) or another process – eg weaving, lace-making and so on.

note taking, speaking Predicting

Allow the creative students to add some special activities like a drama about the process of obtaining liqueur.

Summarise the story in the song, describe the music, the singing, etc.

Listening; note-taking; Find out something prioritising; discussing; writing; similar in their own creating diagrams, flowcharts, graphs; preparing for examinations language (vocabulary).

This is an extension phase with a multicultural viewpoint.

Presentation skills – groupwork; meeting deadlines; speaking; listening; researching; writing; prioritising

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Brainstorm the vocabulary of food/drink processes – eg nouns/verbs/imperatives/sequence markers.

Groups of learners brainstorm vocabulary for describing processes – nouns/verbs/ imperatives/sequence markers (eg label; to label; paste the label; then/next).

Speaking; listening; using grammar and vocabulary

Facilitate discussion and research on religious orders which make liqueurs.

Research the history of religious orders which make liqueurs etc and present to each other and/or disseminate via new media.

Presentation skills – groupwork; meeting deadlines; speaking; listening; researching; writing; prioritising

Hasselt and Latvia (Video Praxis / Activities Constanta) Possible suggestions: We think it would be nice to introduce sentence structures and vocabulary first, as they enable students to prepare the dialogue.

The useful language section is very good. We would like to recommend a playful activity: write them on a slip of paper and invite students to pick one and create a sentence with it. Students move around [body learning].

Tell them in advance they have to remember part of the dialogue.

Separate video into fragments. Then watch again and repeat the dialogue.

Create a word list or cloud so that students get to know these words.

Give your students time to prepare.

Create a dialogue of your own.

Open questions : Beginners: they have a list of words.

Body language learning: subdivide the sentences of the dialogue, have the students move around to create the dialogue.

Leave out the answer and create a new dialogue.

We don’t understand how this works: Act out more dialogues and the link to the pictures?

Search on the Internet and look for more information , look up words to be able to describe what’s on the dishes?

Translate by using Internet tools?

We need more information to do this exercise.

Guessing game: we liked this one!!!

Make a chart: liked it.

We feel the exercises should be rearranged.

True or false: ok

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Tool puzzlemaker.

Reporter activities - export it outside the class.

Questions: take a camera and create a movie Food map: OK!

Constanta and Maglie (Video Targoviste / Activities Latvia) 1. Strong points of the activities: The students were motivated to learn by comparison, they had to compare Riga Central Market with a Romanian traditional fair from Moldavia, and also old time markets with present day ones. The learners were encouraged to think and to learn about the different traditions and cultures, to compare their real lives with the concrete situations from the video.

The role-play activities engaged them and encouraged them to use English vocabulary and improve it.

The activities were very interesting. interactive and attractive for students – for example, the recipe and the market logo ( Riga Market ). They developed the students’ creativity and allowed them to choose the task. The role of the teacher was to guide them and to remind them to speak in English, not in their mother tongue.

The fulfilled objectives were to improve their English through practical activities. The research skills are socio-linguistics skills and lifelong learning skills.

2. The weak points: They didn’t use ICT. Maybe the logo activity should include the use of ICT or they could try to change the logos into electronic images.

They used the video just as a prompt for working/activities.

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Testing England Name of video: Video by: Activities by: Reflection by: Testing by: Target: Number of people: Number of hours:

Romanian Traditional Fair Colegiul Technic Energetic, Constanta Maglie and Constanta Maglie and Constanta N/A N/A N/A

Categorisation:

Digital: Intercultural:

NO Most activities

Language:

All activities

N/A

Do

Teacher Coach Facilitate, manage activities Instruct, feedback, answer

Activities Compare and contrast Facilitate and monitor role-play Assist with queries, give instructions

Reflect

Facilitate

Facilitate feedback

Feedback:

Not tested with learners.

Explore Prepare

Student Compare and contrast Role-play using new vocabulary Use language of comparison, choose tasks Within group

Maglie Name of video: Video by: Activities by: Reflection by: Testing by: Target: Number of people: Number of hours:

Food and drink Praxis Community Projects Colegiul Technic Energetic (Constanta) Limburg Catholic University College & Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža CTP MAGLIE ADULT LEARNERS 20 – English language 20 – ICT 60

Categorisation:

Digital: Intercultural: Language:

Explore Prepare Do Reflect Feedback:

Teacher X X X

X X X Activities X X

Student X X X X

POSITIVE

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Latvia Name of video: Video by: Activities by: Reflection by: Testing by: Target: Number of people: Number of hours:

Food and Drinks in Romania Constanta CTP MAGLIE Tomaz Pelayo School & Praxis Community Projects Riga Business College Developing of English skills, increasing awareness of cultural differences 10

Categorisation:

Digital: Intercultural: Language:

12

Teacher Explore Prepare Do Reflect Feedback:

X X

MS PowerPoint, Google, Google maps Present English Activities Using Internet Enhancing the topic Presentation, discussing Role change

Student X X X

The tasks for the video “Food and Drinks in Romania” were involved in the training session based on the topic “Cultural Differences, Culture shock”. The preliminary work on the theme” EU countries” had been done beforehand. This theme is very interesting and exciting for both the teachers and the learners. There were no problems in creating mutual, cooperative atmosphere. Both the teachers and the learners have their personal experience of visiting other EU countries, the aims and duration of living in foreign countries is different. The experience and the impressions shared include also eating, meals, food, it is always a very interesting theme for discussions. The video was watched by all the learners with great interest and many comments were added.

As the text in the video is spoken in Romanian language the listening skills of English cannot be developed by it. The scripts were in English, so the reading skills can be improved.

The video inspired the learners to search the information about Romania, its history, geographical position, economics, traditions and culture.

The tasks elaborated by CTP Maglie were given to our learners and were performed eagerly, with interest, especially when they had to compare Romanian food and meals with Latvian. The learners were active in looking for the information about Constanta in the internet.

Speaking skills were the most needed and developed for these tasks. English language skills were improved, as well as computer skills, especially internet using skills.

The learners were successfully working in groups, watching the video in You tube and discussed the video qualities and suitability again. They were describing in writing the wine production process, thus improving their vocabulary and writing skills in English.

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Portugal Name of video: Video by: Activities by: Reflection by: Testing by: Target: Number of people: Number of hours:

Beer Belgium Romania - Targoviste Belgium and Latvia Portugal Adults 12

Categorisation:

Digital: Intercultural: Language:

3

Teacher Explore Prepare Do Reflect Feedback:

Glogster, Prezi, Google Maps --English Activities

Student x

x

x X x The students welcomed the idea. They understood the aim and did their best to help us reach some conclusions.

We showed the video about Belgian beer and we stayed with them during the process. However, we let them make decisions from the beginning: they joined in groups and decided on what to do and what final product they would have to make.

There were four groups of three people. They grouped themselves according to age and divided the tasks. Each student had access to a computer.

They worked well and sometimes asked for our help. We tried to keep their interest and they tried to give us a final product with some quality.

Positive points: The classroom environment was pleasant. Students knew each other for some time. This is their second year as a class.

The topic was motivating (beer). After all there was only one young girl in the class.

Students easily grouped themselves and decide on what to do.

Most students had good knowledge of ICT tools, except for Glogster. Still, the younger group chose to try Glogster.

Interactive learning and comparing Belgian beer with Portuguese beer.

Negative points: Students had some difficulty in organising their time. They spent too much time searching for information.

Students couldn’t decide on relevant information.

Some students needed to use Google translator to understand the information they found in the internet. Some sites were not in English.

Students used Portuguese to communicate with each other.

Food for thought Did they learn English? Or did they use their English knowledge acquired before?

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Constanta Name of video:

TRADITIONS IN SALENTO – ITALY

Video by:

CENTRO TERRITORIALE PERMANENTE DI MAGLIE LIMBURG CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Activities by: Reflection by:

Target:

TOMAZ PELAYO SCHOOL AND PRAXIS COMMUNITY PROJECTS COLEGIUL TEHNIC ENERGETIC CONSTANTA ROMANIA ADULT STUDENTS

Number of people:

15

Number of hours:

4

Testing by:

Categorisation:

Explore Prepare Do Reflect

Feedback:

Digital: Intercultural: Language:

Prezi, Fotobable, Popplet lite MOST ACTIVITIES ALL ACTIVITIES

Teacher coach Animate, manage Instruct moderate facilitate

Activities Linking to popplet, Google Create mindmap, quizcast tweets

The activities were motivating and well-structured centered on the student's needs engaging them and bringing them in real world application. They enjoyed the activities which promoted culture and improved their vocabulary.

The activities were adapted to levels B1 and B2 and they emphasized the learner’s cognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allow the students themselves to think about and express their views, thus training in real life the ability to use language to communicate. Even from the beginning the activities elicited the students' experiences and needs. They were required to make up their own activities and they created whatever they liked. They didn't feel confined as they would by the traditional types of tasks so they understood that the activities gave them free reign. Some of the students were thrilled to work with ICT tools and social media tools but others were a little reluctant. Being encouraged by the group they tried and realized that it made their work easier and much more fun. Moreover the students expressed their belief that by using ICT tools they felt there was no limit to what they could do. The activities in the classroom were done in groups promoting cooperation and a sense of responsibility. Some activities were given as homework and thus the students consolidated the things they learned. Afterwards the reflection process was done in class with the whole group. The teacher acted as an animator, coaching and instructing whenever necessary.

In the end the students expressed their opinions about this type of activities 53

which involve them in real life situations concluding that it was more motivating and engaging to acquire knowledge and improve skills using videos and ICT tools, developing creative thinking and promoting culture at the same time.

The video and the activities enhanced the students' interest in the language and engaged students to create and participate in simulated scenarios.

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Targoviste Name of video: Video by: Activities by: Reflection by:

Testing by: Target: Number of people: Number of hours: Categorisation:

Explore

Music and dance in Latvia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPmCBJlaEdM - Rīgas Uzņēmējdarbības koledža Tomaz Pelayo School - Portugal Centro Territoriale Permanente di Maglie & Colegiul Technic Energetic (Constanta) Colegiul Economic ”Ion Ghica” Targoviste, Romania 30 30 6

Digital: Intercultural: Language:

Ivideo, amara platform, word publisher Music and dances - connection Romanian, English

Teacher Online tools and info

Activities Research on internet on Latvian music and dances Select relevant information and prepare a report video

Student Online info

Prepare

Ted-ed lesson (flipped classe)

Do

Moderate activities

Reflect

Feed-back (self assessment)

Feedback:

The teacher has been during this activity just a facilitator, the person who drove the whole scenario development process. He led the activity starting from the form designed by the partners (Latvia, RO - IT) and it moved from reflection and analysis to planning and action. Activities took place in a face-to-face workshop, the first lasting about two hours, the second up to four.

Ted-ed test, newspaper, video Feed-back (self assessment)

Choose the apropriate tool and info to use it in activities. Preparing the studio, checking the logistic.

Recording, making video, uploading, translating.

Feed-back (self assessment)

For the first part of workshop, the facilitator asks the group to work together in small groups using the form proposed by our partners and look at the different impacts as: “Role of teacher”, “Role of students”, “Using technology”. Taking each impact in turn break it down into tasks needed to achieve it. Think through everything that is needed – reports/plans/applications etc. – to achieve that goal.

Students interact with one another to jointly arrive at their decision. During this process, students have been observed to be sharing ideas, listening to each other, and negotiating and debating if they do not initially agree.

The second part of the workshop every student wrote each task on post-it and sticks them on a large piece of paper around the goal. Between the important aspects that students mention on post-it about Role of teacher were: being able to support students in digital media production and developing network skills (being trained in media production), or setting up peer review groups. There were some aspects that students highlighting as “transform learning experience from presenting and consuming to constructing knowledge, creative learning environment (they encompasses the full range of available digital tools and software (from internet browser and multimedia development tools to social media and collaborative editing platforms), new ways of learning and assessment”.

As for the student role, they mention: team work, networking, intercultural

55

environment (in the future we work as a network, learning from one another and building on the ideas of other), the evaluation of internet resources related to the learning goals (they highlighting – to be smart, ethical, user not consumer of information – evaluating the internet resource credibility before selecting which information to rely on.).

Learners took control of learning using technology to manage their own learning, choosing the appropriate resources or tools to support their learning, such as researching and doing a video report to further develop their understanding of a topic (http://youtu.be/k1sZuW8OAso) When students act as designers they have in mind an authentic audience, such as a community that needs the information their video will provide. In this way media supports their real-world problem-solving and innovation.

The facilitator (the teacher) as collaborator, choose to design a Ted-ed lesson based upon Khan academy flipped class model (http://ed.ted.com/on/RNF5EfG3) in order to facilitate students learning. The students appreciated the video as a tool which can contribute to their knowledge and also to reflect on their current practice trying to design and implement innovative selfteaching and learning approaches as a response.

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The Effects on Teacher’s Performance Constanța We search more for developing specific competencies according to individual needs, teaching students how to learn and to discover their needs, to encourage them. We understand that we have to know the students and help them to attend alternative education courses, because informal education is also important. We realized that we have to focus more on the students personal growth, encouraging them, guiding them how to learn and how to use what they have learned in real situations. We think more about teacher as a creator – of the right learning context, the appropriate method or blending methods to reach the objectives.

Targoviste This methodology has produced, in terms of teaching, these effects: - Flexibility – the teaching process has become bidirectional (teacher becomes the learner on his turn and realize that learning is a process throughout the entire life); - Adaptability on the content and the needs of the students and teachers; - Transferability – sharing expertise with other colleagues/ sharing information about teaching resources; - Cross-curricular – this allows an approach from the perspective of several disciplines and requires the integration of student’s reality and also the teacher’s reality into the teaching process; - Intercultural – giving European dimension to the teacher’s competencies; - Flexicurity by default for teachers and students – both teachers and pupils must achieve new skills for new jobs to give them job security and self-confidence in a changing labor market.

Riga Projects give me a better understanding of the use of ICT tools in teaching different study subject.

Flipped class is very useful for my next working practice.

A very important role will be the students' involvement and their independent work in the class and outside. I try to do that more often.

Praxis More motivated in my teaching by understanding and implementing the new role of the teacher.

This is especially helpful for those who have been teaching for many years and may be experiencing burnout.

More confident about letting learners (ie the class) take a proactive role and decide on the content and style of the learning process. However, this will be affected by external limiting factors, eg teaching to a national curriculum, financial constraints on syllabuses, set outcomes.

More interest in, and confidence about, using new media, eg Twitter, Moodle, Facebook. I was taught new ICT skills by my learners (learners became teachers, teachers became learners).

The reflective process – both by learners and teachers – took on more meaning rather than being a task expected by our organisation. For example, ILPs (Individual Learning Plans) also took on a more meaningful aspect as learners were

57

taking on more responsibility for their own learning.

The new role as teacher ensured that areas of language such as grammar which have traditionally been taught in less communicative ways, could be taught and acquired in a more meaningful and communicative way. This led to deeper understanding of structures by learners and they were inspired to use grammar more actively.

Maglie Maria I was involved in an innovative European project.

I developed English communication skills.

I improved the use of multimedia technology in the classroom.

We used video produced by partners from different European Countries as a starting point for research and skill development.

We found different teachers’ approaches to training and education (flipped classes, ‌).

We used social networks to communicate with European partners.

This project helped to better understand the important relationship between adult education and technologies.

Beniamina It was the first time I was involved in an innovative European project and I found it very positive and productive because I could enlarge and compare my methodology to other partners’.

I became a more reflective and motivated teacher. More over I felt more confident in changing roles an letting the learners become leaders in the classroom. As a consequence classes became more interactive as they were shaped by the feedback provided by the learners.

I became more confident with the use of ICT tools in teaching.

Portugal - Learned about other European cultures.

- Realized that T homework can be lightened.

- It can be more interesting for students to make decision about how to learn and the way to achieve what they need to know.

- Teacher can be a coordinator and still help students to learn.

- Reflecting during the process is very important.

- Give time for students to reflect may help them in their learning process.

- Increased digital literacy (T and learners) that will open minds and enlarge opportunities.

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Hasselt The new teacher is a sage in sight During these two years in Grundtvig L2LByTe I moved from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side and finally to the sage in sight. I became a connected educator linking up to virtual teacher communities, using clips from the Khan Academy, the Flipped network, TeacherTube, British Council, BBC education, e-Pals. It made me question who I am as a teacher: what is learning, what do learners expert from me as a teacher, what do they expert from each other, what do I expect from them and most importantly perhaps what do we have to be able to do in the 21st century? Contrary to what I assumed or feared and contrary to what is being written I feel the role of expert became more important. I wasn't someone who lectured about a particular topic well-prepared in advance. I became somebody who had to be well-prepared about everything who could answer any question any time. I also had to become a more flexible, open-minded teacher allowing learners to create their own learning path. Due to the more personalized teaching style the distance between me and my learners decreased. I didn't always feel very comfortable about this change. My learners told more personal stories and I am not sure whether I'm willing to become this personal coach as well. I'm afraid I have to admit I retreated to my comfort zone as knowledge purveyor. However, I really like this role of learning coach. Sometimes I felt things were moving too slowly and I started lecturing again. Sometimes my learners indicated they were too tired to figure out things for themselves and I started lecturing again.

Other learners questioned this new teaching approach, even wondered whether I was still teaching.

They provoked me into rethinking my role again and again. In my class we all became media learners sharing which tools we could use, how to work with them, discussing the contents and functions of the knowledge clips. That was fantastic. We also became a creative team thinking up ways of embedding the knowledge clips in lesson plans. I like this role of making students proud of their achievements, seeking how they evolved into autonomous learners researching their own questions. There is still one question I'm struggling with: how should I evaluate them? Am I still an evaluator? I feel there is a kind of conflict between the role of evaluator and sage in sight. I hope one day we will accept a selfassessment trajectory which we as ubiquitous sages will monitor.

La Tuscia As the partner who had to provide the technological support of the UniTusMoodle platform to this project we should not have to reply to a question on teachers’ change in performance during and after the project. Still even under the technological viewpoint we also profited from the technological expertise of other partners, who have suggested different software and platforms to be used for didactic purpose and in learning environments (many of the applications listed in the so called Padagogy Wheel and things like ted.ed ).

The use to which UniTusMoodle has already been put in our University is the creation and uploading of teaching materials which can be operated interactively by learners and with a cooperative approach.

Particularly in the foreign language teaching moving from a “passive” although interactive use of teaching materials to the actual production of students’ own materials (in the form of ppt presentations as well as quizzes, learning activities or tests) has allowed the integration of the communicative and humanistic approaches with the advanced use of ICT in the context of a blended learning environment. This teaching/learning attitude on the side of some of our university lecturers and teachers’ trainers has certainly been strengthened by the project both under the theoretical viewpoint and the practice of our competent partners. Both lecturers and students will make the most of this project in the prospect of teaching and technological innovation.

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FINAL REMARKS La Tuscia Team – the Coordinators The final remarks on the L2LbyTe project are concerned with two main issues: this very document which the partnership has produced as one of the main expected outcomes of the whole project and what remains to be done after the conclusion of the project.

As can be read in all the preceding pages and above all in the final evaluation report produced by The Gilfillan Partnership, the three main objectives of L2LbyTe have been achieved (they were: 1. for teachers to learn to teach a second language to adults; 2. for students to learn language together with tradition and culture using new technologies; and 3. to reduce the digital divide and develop transnational and trans-generational cooperation). In this way, we can say with some pride that our project has confronted and fulfilled at least seven of the eight key competences for life-long learning indicated by the European Parliament and the Council (Recommendation 2006/962/EC). Actually a lot more has been learnt and contributed by all the partners in these two years’ work. Just to mention one collateral effect: the English language, in whose use every single participant has vastly improved, has been bent to communicate about very national, at times regional and local, customs and traditions, thus challenging the limits of translation and culture-boundedness and moving towards becoming the de facto linguistic common ground to different European realities.

This final document intends to both testify these achievements and the methodology which has made them possible. Moreover, it is intended as an invaluable means of dissemination, particularly among language teachers (both pre- and in-service) in schools, universities and community education centres. So, even against the constructive advice provided by our competent, at the same time cooperative and objective, evaluators, it has been agreed that it should be configured as simultaneously a guide and a diary: a source of practical and theoretical inspiration for anyone interested in life-long learning and a quite faithful narrative of the complex process which brought us in two years to become the teachers/learners we are now. In its introductory chapter by Patricia Huion the prospective addressees will read a strongly founded rationale to all the actions and interventions that have been developed in two years, provided by the partner delegated to the pedagogical support. What clearly emerges from her narrative is that even if there were some clear and distinct ideas and objectives in the minds of the original compilers of the project, these were challenged from the very beginning by the incredible diversity of the actual partners in terms of the different national school cultures (see appendix), of their different adult audiences (ranging from would-be teachers to evening classes’ students to migrants) and also of the single participants’ teaching competence and experience. Thus, while every partner was asked to experiment the new approach and contrive new teaching ways in their own school realities, the parallel process of finding a common code – not simply linguistic, one should say metalinguistic and metacognitive – was carried out, at times with fatigue and certainly with different final points of arrival. Yet, one of the lessons to be learnt is how theory always has to impact with reality and adjust to it, and how much the theoretical dimension can be enriched by the more applicative one, just as the opposite is more normally taken for granted.

This is the sense of the diaristic part of our “manual”: readers with more abstract minds can be content with just the introductory chapter, but since the teachers’ attitude is normally more applicative and pragmatic, we have thought necessary to illustrate not simply the theory but also to exemplify the actual process through all the documents produced around all the steps that have been taken, including the actual products, the suggested didactic activities, the testing and followups and above all the reflections every partner thought fit to accompany their practice with. And this is the second lesson every teacher should learn, which is exactly specular to the former one: every 60

practical teaching action has to be inspired and has to trigger off reflection. This also implies that this project’s experience cannot be considered finished once and for all and its final outcomes cannot be seen as pièces bien-faites to be simply copied and pasted to different realities: they are no new revolutionary coursebook for English language learning/teaching! We simply hope they will be generative of similar practical teaching/learning interventions and reflections in different environments and inspirational for further methodological research actions.

This is why we are so convinced of the success the flexibility and adaptability of our approach may have even for the teaching of different disciplines that we are eager to test it much more than it could be done in the same two years while we were elaborating it. As the Dissemination chapter on our UniTusMoodle course devoted to the project shows, a lot has already been done in terms of spreading the news. But many more initiatives of dissemination and experimentation have been promised by the partners individually and collectively and will have to be carried out in future.

Finally, many of the partners, alongside with the final Evaluation report, feel that while the transnational dimension of the project has been quite tackled with, the trans-generational has been less explicitly dealt with. The partners feel that there is a need to develop it in the light of recent observations on the problems faced by literacy all over Europe. This will again imply both a specific theoretical involvement and a practical follow-up to the methodology designed by L2LbyTe (possibly a L2LbyTe2 project).

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APPENDIX

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Appendix 1 - Adult education system in England: adult and informal education The Gilfillan partnership - Research and consultancy services This paper covers England only. The policies are separate and different in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In England, the relevant ministry, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), is responsible for the broad direction of policy of the adult (post-19) learning and skills sector. The Department’s wider policy remit includes skills, higher education, innovation and science, business and trade. The funding and regulation of adult further education and skills training is the responsibility of the Skills Funding Agency. The Agency was established on 1 April 2010.

In November 2010, the Coalition Government, which had come into office in May 2010, published a new strategy for skills in England in ‘Skills for Sustainable Growth’ (BIS, 2010) and ‘Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth’ (BIS, 2010). The strategy is based on the principle that: ‘Government funds are limited and we will priorities funding support for learners with very low levels of skills or the disadvantaged, while there will be an expectation that learners and employers will co-invest alongside Government in meeting the costs of intermediate and higher level training courses from which they will derive private benefits.’

In ‘New Challenges, New Chances: Further Education and Skills System Reform Plan’ (BIS, 2011), the Government set out its programme of work to reform further education and skills provision for adults (aged 19+). This document also sets out the following priority groups for government funding: young adults aged 19–24; adults who need English and maths skills; those at risk of social exclusion to access Community Learning; and, those seeking work.

In partnership with employers and individuals the Government also supports:   

apprenticeship frameworks. small and medium enterprises in need of management or workplace training to support growth. adults aged 24+ who want to retrain or improve their skills at Level 2.

This year, new further education loans are available to those aged over 24 who wish to do full Level 3 (2 A Levels or the vocational equivalent) or Level 4 (Higher Vocational Education) qualifications in order to qualify for a professional job and/or progress to higher education.

Community Learning (formerly known as Informal Adult and Community Learning) has recently also been the subject of review. The Government is committed to a universal Community Learning ‘offer’ and to safeguarding learning opportunities that support access and progression for people who are disadvantaged and who are least likely to participate in learning. ‘New Challenges, New Chances: Further Education and Skills System Reform Plan’ (BIS, 2011) states that the purpose of government supported Community Learning is to:  

maximise access to Community Learning for adults, bringing new opportunities and improving lives, whatever people’s circumstances promote social renewal by bringing local communities together to experience the joy of learning and the pride that comes with achievement 63



maximise the impact of Community Learning on the social and economic well-being of individuals, families and communities.

Education and training for adult learners falls into the further education sector, which encompasses all publicly funded post-16 provision excluding higher education. Further education providers fall into the following categories: further education colleges, adult and Community Learning providers, and independent training providers. In addition, higher education institutions offer some programmes to the public.

Further education (FE) colleges are major providers. Traditionally, FE colleges offered technical and vocational courses, but many have since broadened their role to offer more general education programmes, including basic skills and GCSEs and GCE A levels for adults, access to higher education courses and, in some cases, higher education programmes, particularly short-cycle vocational programmes such as foundation degrees. Some also provide informal adult and Community Learning.

For young people, colleges are now major providers of full-time courses for 16- to 19-year-olds leading to general education qualifications such as GCSEs and GCE A levels. Colleges also provide vocational and work-related courses for 14- to 16-year-olds in partnership with schools. Colleges can be divided into the following categories on the basis of their mission and subject/mix: Most FE colleges are statutory corporations set up under the Further and Higher Education Act (FHEA) 1992, with effect from 1 April 1993. Prior to this, they were under the control of local government. All incorporated colleges are self-governing and responsible for their own affairs, although there are minor differences in membership and responsibilities of the governing bodies set out in the ‘Instrument of Articles and Government’ between the different types of college.

Community Learning Providers: a range of providers offer Community Learning (previously known as Adult and Community Learning – ACL) opportunities. They include FE colleges, local authorities and voluntary organisations. Such provision receives some government funding via the Skills Funding Agency. Within the FE sector, providers include both general FE colleges and some specialist institutions which have a long tradition of attracting disadvantaged adults to informal adult learning.

Local authority provision may be delivered in adult education centres dedicated to this purpose, or in settings with other purposes, such as local community centres, libraries, schools, children’s centres and other venues. The means of delivery is usually part-time (day or evening) and include workshops or ‘taster sessions’ designed to stimulate interest and encourage adults with low levels of confidence.

Community Learning covers both informal learning and formal learning leading to accreditation or a qualification. Informal learning opportunities without accreditation are often designed to encourage progression to a programme leading to a qualification. Community Learning includes:  



programmes and opportunities for personal development, cultural enrichment, intellectual or creative stimulation and enjoyment learning opportunities and outreach and support activities for people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, such as activities to develop active citizenship and community leadership skills or employability skills family learning programmes designed to enable adults and children to learn together or to enable parents/carers to learn how to support their children's learning, covering literacy, numeracy and ICT skills and courses such as parenting and creative arts.

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Independent Training Providers: other providers include private or NGO/voluntary sector training organisations.

Universities have a long tradition of offering continuing education courses to the public. A wide range of types of programme are available, including lecture series and one day courses, weekend courses and summer schools, as well as longer part-time programmes. Some programmes may be offered without accreditation, while others may offer credits towards a higher education award.

The system is characterised by a large number of providers in competition for the patronage of learners and employers; there are around 350 further education colleges and around 170 noncollege providers, such as local authorities, in England, and many more private providers.

Distance learning is also available in many different formats, including via Learndirect. Learners can study at a local centre, or via the Internet.

Sources Department for Business and Skills: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-forbusiness-innovation-skills EURYDICE : www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/Eurydice National Institute Of Adult Continuing Education: www.niace.org.uk

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Appendix 2 - Higher Education in Flanders Introduction Flanders lies in the northern part of Belgium and is centrally located to major industrial areas in Western Europe. Flanders has a population of slightly over six million. The official language is Dutch.

The Flemish capital of Brussels is also the capital of Belgium and of Europe.

The Flemish Community comprises the inhabitants of the Dutch-language area and the Dutch speakers in Brussels. The Flemish Community is competent in person-related issues. These are policy areas in which services to the population are closely related to the language in which they have to be provided. In concrete terms, these policy areas relate to ‘education and training’, ‘welfare, public health and the family ’and ‘culture, youth, sports and media’.

The Flemish, French and German-speaking Community each have their own education system.

Within the Flemish Government, the Minister of Education is responsible for almost all aspects of education policy, from nursery to university education.

Content 1. Higher Education 2. Adult Education 3. Teacher Training Education Flanders Brussels Wallonia German-speaking Community 3 Structure of Education in Flanders 4 1. Higher Education In Flanders, the following higher education courses are provided: 1.

Bachelor’s degree courses

-

Professional Bachelor’s degree courses

-

Academic Bachelor’s degree courses

2.

Master’s degree courses

3.

Further training programmes

4.

Postgraduate, updating and in-service training courses

5.

Doctoral programmes

Higher professional education consists exclusively of professionally-oriented Bachelor’s degree courses, which are only offered at colleges of higher education.

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Academic education comprises Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses, which are provided by universities. In addition, colleges of higher education belonging to an association are allowed to provide academic education. An association consists of inter-institutional cooperation between one university and one or more colleges of higher education. Associations improve interaction between education and research. There are five associations in Flanders: - the KU Leuven Association - the Ghent University Association - the Antwerp University Association - the Brussels University Association - the University and Colleges of Limburg Association The Higher Education Register records all the programmes of study provided by universities and colleges of higher education: www.hogeronderwijsregister.be 1.1. Bachelor’s degree courses There are professional and academic Bachelor’s degree courses.

The professional Bachelor’s degree courses, which are only provided by colleges of higher education, are oriented towards professional practice. They comprise general and specific knowledge courses and competences that are necessary for an autonomous exercise of one specific profession or a group of professions. The professional Bachelor is trained so as to be able to enter the labour market immediately.

Both colleges and universities offer academic Bachelor’s degree courses, which prepare students for Master’s degree courses.

Academic courses centre on general training and focus on the acquisition of academic or arts-related knowledge. They enable students to acquire competences, which they must have in order to function in the fields of science or arts. Academic courses are founded on research.

The student workload of a Bachelor’s degree course is at least 180 ECTS credits which correspond to three years of full-time study.

5 1.2. Master’s degree courses Master’s degree courses are offered by universities and colleges of higher education participating in an association. Master’s degree courses are always academically-oriented but some also have a professional orientation (eg Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, Translating, Interpreting and so on).

Master’s degree courses are intended to bring students to an advanced level of knowledge and competences that they can use both for general and specific scientific or artistic functioning.

This knowledge and these competences enable them to practise sciences or the arts in an autonomous way. Students can also use this knowledge for independently practising a

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profession or group of professions. A Master’s degree course culminates in a postgraduate thesis.

The student workload on a Master’s degree course is at least 60 ECTS1 credits which correspond to one year of full-time study.

1.3 Further training programmes Students who have completed a professional Bachelor’s degree course, can take a ‘bachelor after bachelor’ course. In this further training programme, students enhance their competences or attain specialised expertise in the competences acquired during the Bachelor’s degree course.

A Master’s degree course can be followed by a ‘master after master’ course’. (second or subsequent master). Just as with the ‘bachelor after bachelor’ course, the competences acquired during the Master’s degree course are further developed. The courses each have a workload of at least 60 credits and a diploma is awarded upon completion.

1.4. Postgraduate, updating and in-service training courses Both colleges of higher education and universities can organise postgraduate courses.

A postgraduate degree is delivered after a course corresponding to education and study activities of at least 20 credits. These training pathways focus on the strengthening and/or deepening of competences acquired after the Bachelor’s or Master’s programme for the purpose of further professional training. Thus, in order to be eligible for a postgraduate course, a Bachelor’s or Master’s Diploma is required.

1.5. Doctoral programmes The doctoral programme trains the researcher to contribute autonomously to the development and growth of scientific knowledge. To this end, the researcher prepares a doctoral thesis. The thesis must prove that the researcher is able to create new scientific knowledge in a certain discipline or across disciplines and it should also result in the production of scientific publications. After a public defence of this thesis, the researcher is awarded a doctoral degree.

Only universities are allowed to deliver this doctorate degree.

1

ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System. This is the European credit transfer and accumulation system and an important tool in building one European Space for Higher Education.

6 1.6. Part-time arts education (dko) Part-time arts education is education which supplements school education and is aimed at children, young people and adults. Participants enrol voluntarily and pay an enrolment fee.

Part-time arts education focuses on the artistic education of children and adults. In this way, it contributes to their personal development. Pupils become familiar with art in all its forms.

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They learn to approach and experience all art forms critically and can practise them themselves. They do so individually or in a group (e.g. in an orchestra, dance group, or theatre company). Part-time arts education thoroughly prepares young people for a professional artistic career in higher education in the arts. Moreover, it improves the quality of social and cultural life in Flanders. In part-time arts education, there are four different courses of study: - Visual Arts - Music - Wordcraft - Dance Every course of study has its own structure, with levels and options that are laid down by law. Children can start dance and visual arts education from the age of 6. For the disciplines of music and wordcraft the starting age is 8. Every discipline comprises different levels : an elementary level, an intermediate level and an advanced level. It is only in the visual arts discipline that a specialist level is organised. Upon successfully completion of every level, a final certificate, or a certificate indicating the level achieved, is awarded to the student.

2. Adult education Adult education is entirely separate from the initial educational pathway. Courses delivered in this type of education may lead to a recognised diploma, certificate or qualification. Adults aged 18 and over and young people who have followed full-time compulsory education, may enrol. Depending on the course chosen, there may be specific entry requirements.

The new Flemish Parliament Act on Adult Education of 15 June 2007 has completely reorganised adult education and contains the following key goals: - the full integration of adult basic education into (adult) education; - the introduction of higher vocational education; - the establishment of 13 regional partnerships (=consortiums of adult education); - a choice of modular courses; - a new support structure for adult education.

2.1. Structure and organisation Adult education consists of three levels of education: - adult basic education; - secondary adult education; - higher vocational education.

7 Adult basic education centres are pluralist centres, established as not-for-profit organisations. The general assembly consists for at least one quarter of representatives of

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local authorities, provinces, inter-local authority partnerships, public centres for social welfare or districts.

Dutch Language Houses do not offer adult education themselves but work closely together with practitioners of adult education. All centres of adult basic education, adult education providing courses in Dutch as a Second language (NT2), VDAB centres, Syntra; university language centres, provincial authorities, the Flemish Community Commission and the local authorities of Antwerp and Ghent, are partners of the Dutch Language Houses.

There are eight Dutch Language Houses, one for each Flemish province and one for the cities of Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent. The houses are not-for-profit organisations focusing on non-Dutch-speaking adults. They organise and co-ordinate the intake, testing and referral of applicants for, and participants in, NT2 provision. Therefore, they map out NT2 provision in their operating area and look into the needs of non- Dutch speakers in search of a course. The Dutch Language Houses are geographically spread out in the same way as the welcome offices with which they co-operate closely in order to integrate nonDutch-speaking newcomers.

2.3. Provision Adult education offers modular courses. The subject matter is subdivided into a number of modules. The centre is free to spread a module over part of the year or the entire year, so modules can start at different times throughout the year and the course participant can create their own study programme and fix the length of their study. The modules can be organised as contact education or as combined education. In contact education, all lessons are taught in the centre. As for combined education, part of the module is taught in the classroom and part can be learned autonomously, at home or in an open learning centre.

Adult basic education courses are subdivided into the following disciplines: - Dutch as a Second Language (Literacy) - Dutch as a Second Language (NT2) - Dutch - mathematics - social orientation - information and communication technologies (ICT) - introduction to English and French Within the ‘general education’ discipline, courses of the former ‘second chance education’ are also offered. By attending these courses, adults can still gain a Certificate in Secondary 70

Education. The adult education centres organise the exams themselves and award the secondary education diploma.

3. Teacher Training in Flanders In Teacher Training, there are two types of training: Pre-service teacher training In-service Teacher Training for practising teachers

3.1. Pre-service Teacher Training Formal education requirements for teachers increase according to the level of education in which they are expected to teach. Initial teacher training for pre-primary and primary levels (2,5 to 12 years of age) requires three years’ teacher training and teaching observation at a Professional Bachelor Teacher Training Department. Prospective teachers graduate with a teaching diploma that entails a specialty in either pre-school or primary school. They are expected to teach all subjects.

The initial training for teachers in lower secondary education (12 to 15 years of age) also takes place at a Professional Bachelor Teacher Training Department, where students follow a three years’ course. They choose two subjects they want to teach in secondary schools and follow increasingly intensive training and practice in teaching. They receive a teaching diploma at the end of three years.

Teaching in the upper secondary level (15 to 18 years of age) requires four to five years of university education. The students follow academic Bachelor’s degree courses, which prepare students for Master’s degree courses. The requisite teacher training courses and practice can be taken alongside the other courses during the last two years or the final year of university study. Alternatively, students may take a two-year part-time course in teacher training upon graduation. Teachers at this level have a Master’s degree as well as a separate teaching diploma. A doctorate is generally required to teach in tertiary education, especially at university level. It is not unusual for teachers with a doctorate in upper secondary education, who are also productive scholars, to become university professors when they have matured.

3.2. In-service Teacher Training for practising teachers At schools for Adult Education, practising teachers (without a teaching degree) can follow higher vocational education to acquire the required teacher degree and this applies to all kinds of education.

The KHLim-students who have taken part in the project ‘Leaning to Learn by Teaching’ are also practising teachers and have trained in-service. This means that they have a teaching degree and have already taught subjects including Maths, Dutch and Arts in the first two years of secondary school.

They want to gain an additional professional Bachelor’s degree as teachers of English, so they follow courses in the evening or at weekends for two or three years depending on the 71

programme they are following.

References Department of Education and Training (2008). Education in Flanders. A broad view of the Flemish educational landscape. Koning Albert II-laan 15 - 1210 Brussels

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Appendix 3 - Adult education in Italy Centro Territoriale Permanente - Maglie Adult education is a set of formal, non-formal and informal educational opportunities aimed at adults, both Italians and migrants. The law of 28 June 2012 no. 92 on 'Provisions for the reform of the labour market in the prospects of growth', provides, for the first time, a formal definition of lifelong learning: 'lifelong learning encompasses learning activity, whether formal, non-formal or informal, undertaken throughout life with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence within a personal, civic, social and/or employment related perspective'. According to the law, formal learning takes place in the education and training system as well as universities and higher level arts, dance and music education institutes. It leads to a qualification or a vocational three-year qualification or diploma, also through an apprenticeship, or a recognised qualification. Non-formal learning corresponds to an intentional choice of the learner made outside the formal system, in organisations with educational and training aims, in voluntary settings, national civil service or private social services, as well as in businesses.

Informal learning does not necessarily correspond to an intentional choice by the learner, but to activities and interactions in everyday situations at work, at home and in leisure time1. There are two different fields in terms of adult formal education: 1. Adult instruction (IdA) falls under the responsibility of the MIUR. (Ministry Of Education, University and Research).

2. Professional Training (FP) is organised by regional authorities.

Formal Education Permanent Territorial Centres (CPT) and evening schools are the main public structures specifically focusing on the promotion of adult education activities.

Permanent Territorial Centres (CTPs) have been set up, (Ministry of Education Regulation no. 455 of 29 July 1997), for adult education and training. They have been instituted so as to guarantee a wider choice of education and training and to better meet different social requirements at a national level.

In fact, this Regulation has reshaped the adult education system, starting from previous literacy courses and courses for workers.

The Agreement of March 2000 establishes that the CTPs’ aims are the ‘harmonisation and interpretation of the formative needs, planning and organisation of adult education and training initiatives, cultural and functional literacy, cultural strengthening and promotion, re-motivation and re-orientation, acquisition and reinforcement of specific knowledge and skills, professionalism and professional re-qualification’.

The activities concern:    1

reception, listening and guidance; primary functional and post literacy, also aimed at a possible access to higher education levels; language learning;

Adult education and training - European commission > EACEA > Eurydice

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   

rebuilding and development of basic knowledge and skills; rebuilding and development of cultural and relational skills necessary for full participation in social life; acquisition and development of a first vocational training or re-qualification; restoration of marginalised subjects in educational and training paths.

Evening Classes at Lower Secondary Schools. A Ministerial circular 7809, 25 July 1990, encouraged evening classes at upper secondary schools, more specifically in so- called 'evening schools'. This circular is particularly innovative because it proposes, not only curricula based on modules, but also a new idea of the class that should no longer be conceived of as 'a unit with rigid composition, educational offer (…) and physical place'.

Five years later, the SIRIO project has been promoted to bring the usual curricula of the technical institutes into line with the specific requirements of adult students.

The main idea was to introduce a series of flexible elements, taking into consideration the approach to knowledge of adult students, the integration of competences between general and professional cultures and the exploitation of the previous learning experiences of students both in work and cultural fields.

Certification

The CTPs have issued the following:  

first cycle of education leaving certificate (at the end of lower secondary school courses, followed by the relevant State exam); certification for the recognition of credits valid for attending evening courses for the obtainment of the upper secondary school leaving certificate and/or vocational qualification diploma.

The evening courses have issued the following:  

upper secondary school leaving certificate; vocational qualification diploma.

Permanent Territorial Centres (CTPs) are currently being converted into Provincial Adult Education Centres (CPIAs). Provincial Centres for School Education for Adults will unify all the existing courses providers at the provincial level (Local permanent centres, evening classes held in all upper secondary schools and relevant prison divisions).   

Public Technical and Professional Institutions offer professional training courses.

Regional Professional Training Bodies offer professional training courses.

Universities offer various types of adult training courses.

Non-Formal Education

Consists of all educational activities organised outside the formal system and run in: 74

  

Associations and non-profit organisations Training bodies Third Age Universities

Within the framework of non-formal training, what is on offer is varied: cultural courses, art and crafts, etc.

A lifelong learning paradigm values all kinds of learning – formal, non-formal and informal.

Recognition and validation of learning outcomes enables learners to identify their starting point, gain entry to a programme of learning at a particular level, achieve credits towards a qualification and/or achieve a full qualification based on competences.

Links http://www.eaea.org/doc/pub/Country-Report-on-Adult-Education-in-Italy.pdf https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Italy:Adult_Education_and_Training

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Appendix 4 - Adult and non-formal education in Latvia Overview Latvia is geographically the central country of the Baltic States, with a rich adult education history.

Adult education is seen in this context as a diverse process, offering personal development and the capacity to cope in the labour market throughout life. It is part of the lifelong learning process determined by the social and economic needs of the state. Latvia offers its adult population many possibilities to learn through both the formal and non-formal learning systems.2 Adult and non-formal education Adult education in Latvia is supported by the principle of lifelong education. The Education Law (1998) specifically concerns the development of adult formal and non-formal education programmes.

The main goal of adult learning in Latvia is to provide individuals with the opportunity to obtain or complement existing learning based on needs and interests, irrespective of age, gender and previous education (with an emphasis on ‘up-skilling’ or ‘re-skilling’).

Arrangements for the provision of adult formal education are laid down by the Education Law, Vocational Education Law, Higher Education Institutions Law and other statutes and regulations.

Different types of further education and training are offered to those who have completed general upper secondary or 2-3 year vocational education and training programmes. These programmes focus on mastering professional skills and knowledge in line with the requirements of the respective qualification level. The training process and assessment of achievements are organised in a similar manner to vocational secondary education and training programmes.

Labour market training for the unemployed is provided for the largest number of participants in the adult education sector. Employment authorities provide a wide range of labour market training, mainly targeted at unemployed adults. The courses are free of charge to those who are officially classed as unemployed.

Adults can also follow a complete programme of basic education or upper secondary education at socalled ‘evening schools’.

The Lifelong Learning Policy is currently based on the strategy ‘Guidelines for lifelong learning Policy for 2007-2013’, with the idea that individuals acquire competences for personal growth, selfdevelopment and integration into the labour market at every life stage. This creates preconditions for the development of active citizenship and helps provide the skills to adapt to, i

and improve, social integration, employment, and active civil participation. The Lifelong Learning Strategy has been developed on the basis of national development policy documents such as the Latvian National Development Plan 2007-2013, and takes into account economic and demographic challenges.

Key Providers for Adult Education There is a wide range of non-formal adult education opportunities, provided by the state, local government and private educational institutions. There are 31 general education evening schools, a 2

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/ eurybase_full_reports/LV_EN.pdf

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network of 58 vocational education institutions, 58 higher education institutions (including 26 colleges) and 571 adult non-formal education institutions. According to the Education Law, an educational institution is able to provide adult non-formal education programmes without having a licence, but other institutions (e.g. private companies) require a licence issued by the local authority.

Distance learning or e-learning facilities are offered for students in most universities (e.g. the University of Latvia, the Latvian University of Agriculture and Riga Technical University). These facilities offer a large variety of non-formal and formal education programmes for adult learners, as well as language learning activities. There are also lifelong learning centres in the regional universities (e.g. Liepaja University and Ventspils Higher Education Institution) which put special emphasis on adult education and offer a broad variety of adult learning courses.

In Latvia, state schools are used for adult education by agreement between the school administration and local authorities. In addition, various adult education programmes are offered by local municipalities, and adult training centres established by municipalities at regional and local level, for example Jelgava Adult learning Centre. This centre provides a good learning environment and offers courses for a wide target group (jobseekers, employees from different institutions, entrepreneurs, school teachers, youth groups and senior citizens).

Adult education as a whole also covers vocational and in-service training for business or sectoral needs. Large state-owned and private companies have training centres (e.g., The National Bank, Latvian Mobile Telephone, Lattelecom, The Latvian Railway, The Latvian Postal Service, large trade centres etc.). These centres have regular education programmes for the employees of large companies. The specific needs and requirements of individuals are taken care of by a network of private and non-governmental educational institutions and undertakings that are run on private funding and some of them are profit-oriented. 3

3

http://www.eaea.org/doc/pub/Country-Report-on-Adult-Education-in-Latvia.pdf EAEA Country Report on Adult Education in Latvia: Helsinki, 2011 77

Appendix 5 - Adult Education System in Portugal 3,500,000 Portuguese adults (16-65 years) have never completed secondary school. The Portuguese adult education system is part of a national strategy for national development. There has been direct governmental involvement consisting of providing funds for different types of activities.

There are many Portuguese adults currently enrolled on adult education courses aimed at vocational qualifications and training. They are adults of working age (employed, unemployed and groups at risk of exclusion). The courses are intended to raise academic ability, enhance employability and provide vocational qualifications and the certification of acquired learning.

Approximately 300,000 have already earned a general certificate. 

RVCC – Recognition, Validation and Certification of Skills o Started with experimental groups and evolved into significant mass expansion o Gave adults the possibility of completing secondary education (12th year of schooling) o This was done via educational and training pathways or procedures involving the recognition, validation and certification of skills o Advantages: knowledge, higher personal status, increased levels of self-esteem, enhanced cultural dignity and reappraisal of the role of the individual participant, in terms of participation in civic life, professional activity (easier to get a new job, higher salaries), positive impact on family and private life. o Negative points: some unemployed adults exploited the system as they did not want to raise their level of training but rather to obtain the financial rewards they received from the scholarships awarded and their participation in the programmes. o At the beginning of 2013, the government ordered the complete shutdown of all activities. State schools received instructions for the dismissal of all instructors and technicians.



EFA – Adult Education and Training o Leads to a double certificate – both academic and professional o Held during, or after, the working day o Academic education and professional training are carried out at the same time o Based on active methodologies that use the adults’ experiences of training



MF – Modular Training Programmes o Modular units that are aimed at raising the participants’ qualification levels o Short-term training modules (maximum 50 hours) o Aimed at obtaining a qualification corresponding to a specific profession



CET – Specialised Technology Courses o Post-secondary education o Prepares and qualifies students for work o Leads to a diploma in specialised technology o Courses are divided into credit units which can be transferred to tertiary education courses to which they give access 78

Appendix 6 - Adult education system in Romania Overview In the last twenty years, Romanian adult learning and education has been modernised and the sector has also been influenced by major reforms to, and related processes of, the education system. The aim of these reforms has been to raise the level of education and to improve school education with the extension of the education period, pushing back dropouts to reach the EU average, and to develop adult basic education and second-chance schooling, especially - in the last fifteen years - for Roma groups. Adult and continuing education has become a key component of that system, challenged by fundamental changes in domestic policies and socio-economic realities, with an impact of European-wide and global trends as well.

National context In the last decade, we can appreciate that, in Romania, the economic, social and educational policies have been revised several times. One of the most important results has been the changing of the adult education climate and the liberalisation of the adult education context.

The national documents and reports produced in the last few years emphasise the special concerns of the officials and decision-makers involved in organising educational system; these are to resolve problems around the differences within education and training programmes and structures, and to create favourable conditions to eliminate the most important barriers to learning for adults.

The most concrete change is the new Education Law (approved in 2011, after a long public and political debate), which reconsiders and affirms, at the level of general principles, the right of adult learners to be involved in different programmes, and the role of non-formal and informal adult education in the professional and personal lives of adult learners.

Amongst the ambitious aims of the new legislation, we can mention as important for the adult education field:      

an increase in access to education for vulnerable groups; a reduction in social exclusion and different forms of discrimination in education; the development and modernisation of an effective network for professional counselling and signposting and guidance; an extension of the role of educational institutions or actors, who are asked not only to be providers of education, but also to change their way of providing education; an improvement in the quality of educational services; the creation of a genuine culture of learning in Romania.

The prime movers in adopting new methodology and practices in adult education are often the NGOs who benefit from a more flexible structure and fewer constraints in terms of budgetary and administrative obligations.

Private providers dominate the market in language and ICT courses. Semi-public institutions, popular universities and cultural centres mostly provide cultural activities.

The NGOs are dynamic and innovative actors and often the first to adopt practices and project ideas from other countries.

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An important development in recent years has been the direct involvement of local authorities in different adult education programmes, especially offered by LLP actions and non-formal adult education projects (mainly Grundtvig). That was one of the clearest and most visible impacts of the Grundtvig programme at the national level.

Romania’s economic situation continues to be somewhat critical and unbalanced. The current crisis continues to lead to poverty and unemployment. The most vulnerable people are now, social and economically, in a more difficult situation, and it is logical for these phenomena to have reverberations in the educational field.

According to the professional literature, but also to various impact studies and analyses of the adult education programmes and Grundtvig projects during the past decade, one can conclude that there is no uniformity in adult education policies today. This is due, among other reasons, to the proliferation of good practices and to the fact that these practices have responded to, and also generated, various needs corresponding to national or local priorities.

However, at least three general areas of adult education currently exist in Romania, very different in terms of funding, providers, participation and, finally, development: - Vocational training education – often well structured, institutionalised, formal, organised by legislative framework, funded by the government or by companies interested in the training of their employees; - Popular education and education for leisure time – extremely diversified and dynamic, covering various forms and types of training and learning, very little institutionalised, non-formal and informal, thus making it difficult to evaluate the results. It is developed by non-governmental organisation, open universities and sometimes by state institutions (such as teaching and training centres) without funding sources, or with unstable human and financial resources; - Basic education – in the last year, supported partially by the government (for example, the second chance education programmes/schools) but mainly developed from popular education programmes; promoted by non-governmental organisations, non-formal or associated with vocational training programmes for disadvantaged groups (especially unemployed people); supported and funded in some few cases by institutions specialising in the education and promotion of educational rights for Roma people, refugees, specific minorities and immigrants.

The Grundtvig programme, one of the sectoral parts of LLP, is implemented in Romania by the National Agency for Community Programmes in the Field of Education and Vocational Training (ANPCDEFP), which was created in 2005.

Grundtvig - as in every country where it has been implemented -, addresses the educational needs of teaching and learning which exist in the adult education field, for any adult who decides to become involved in an educational programme/ project. It also engages with institutions and organisations that provide or facilitate various types of adult education - formal, non-formal and informal, with a special focus on non-vocational education.

Local context – Dâmbovița County The economic situation and the labour market require that the market supports adult education, as part of global business and its dynamics. In Dambovita, most of the training institutions are private companies, NGOs or state organisations (public institutions).Popular universities and cultural 80

institutions sometimes receive regional or local support or support from trusts and foundations.

Most courses, however, are paid for by the participants.

In Dambovita County, there are approximately 25 adult education institutions and organisations.

They are mostly small NGOs, associations, companies, cultural centres, employment agencies or technical/professional schools. Fifty percent of these organisations have fewer than 5 employees.

The other fifty percent of organisations have between 10 and 15 staff. Most of the organisations in Dambovita County are located in the county town, Targoviste. The rest are located in smaller towns or in rural areas.

These organisations have various profiles: associations, foundations, state institutions, companies, and Grundtvig – Learning to learn by teaching - GRU-12-P-LP-442-DB-IT

Charity organisations.

Similarly, they have a wide range of activities such as teaching traditional handicrafts, organising cultural programmes, networking, communication development, professional know-how development, healthy living and preventive healthcare, social work, local and regional development, social and medical services, home care, adult education, teambuilding training, communication training, leadership development, training in creativity development teacher and teacher assistant training (provided at county level), teaching services, teaching-related information and documentation centres, innovation centres, job placement, human resource management, career guidance, general adult education services (language and ICT courses, tailor- made courses for professional and personal competences development for different target groups) and educational projects (LLP and other).

The types of courses provided by the organisations are on a large scale.

They offer handicraft courses, entrepreneurial competences development courses, photography and Train the Trainer courses, participatory community development, first aid courses, entrepreneurial development, pomology (the study and cultivation of fruit) courses, project management, teacher training, Grundtvig in-service training and workshops, language and ICT courses, teambuilding, professional, communication and leadership training, creativity development course and human resource professional courses and career guidance professional training.

The target groups which the Dambovita adult education organisations focus on are adults in general (the majority), young people, unemployed, women, senior citizens, people disadvantaged for health reasons, small NGOs and teachers.

In terms of co-operation, these organisations are active on different levels. They build up partnerships and are members of networks to a large extent on the European level, and they also cooperate with similar organisations and/or companies on a local and regional level. Co-operation at the national level is not as characteristic in these institutions.

Co-operation at the European level is preferred by these organisations, as European partners usually bring strong professional expertise, good practices, dynamism and know-how into the partnership.

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Appendix 7- Template for presentation in the TIG

Name of the TIG

Educational Technology

Name(s) of the presenter(s)

Huion Patricia, Cajot Guido

Institution

LCUC/KHLim

Country

Belgium

E-mail address of presenter(s)

Patricia.Huion@khlim.be Guido.Cajot@khlim.be

Draft title of presentation

Behind the Subject: Devising a Digital Media Enhanced English Course for Adults

Abstract (up to 300 words)

The Grundtvig project -Learning to Learn by Teaching. - addresses two questions: how can adults improve their language skills by becoming their own teachers and how can their digital literacy facilitate this change? The final outcome of this two year journey is a roadmap discussing didactics fostering these mindshifts.

In this paper, we narrow down our focus to the importance of digital media. Teachers from Italy, Latvia, UK, Belgium, Romania and Portugal meet in a Moodle platform, whereas learners converse in a blog. In Belgium, teacher and learners also communicate in a private facebook group. All learners create knowledge clips about music or dance, local tradition and food. The Belgian learners are the only ones attending a teacher-training course. That is why they play a pivotal role in designing a concept of a digital media- driven English course.

Starting from the national curriculum, we draw two circles: one depicting learning activities linked to old technologies such as pen, paper and book, and one selecting those that could be linked to digital media.

Next we categorise our facebook and blog posts following the skills that define the digital competence " the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce,present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet"( European Parlement & European Council, 2006).

Finally, we use both sets of data to draft up a text in Delphi-rounds envisioning how digital media activate English learners.

Erixon P., Marner A., Scheid M., Strandberg T.& Ortegren H.(2012) Paradigms and Teaching Practice in the Screen Culture: art, music and the mother tongue (Swedish) under pressure, European Educational Research Journal, 11 (2), 255-273.

European Parliament & European Council (2006) Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, Official Journal of the European 82

Union, 30 December, L 394/10-18.

Form of presentation (workshop, performance, interactive seminar, discussion, presentation of paper, poster or other forms)

We show some knowledge clips, excerpts from blog, Facebook and Moodle fora to initiate an interactive workshop discussing the concept .

Duration of presentation (max. 30 30 minutes minutes) Resources required (size of performance, laptop, beamer, CD player)

Laptop, beamer and old technology.

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