Copy

Newsletter #5

Happy holidays and warm wishes for 2022, from all of us at Open Schooling together!

This month we bring you our next edition, where we update you on some of the work we have been doing and share some interesting stories from across Europe:
  1. We share a piece by Schools As Living Labs interviewing Claudia Aguirre from Association Traces on how she conducted the co-creation process that led to produce an accessible and adaptable learning methodology, suitable for various contexts.
  2. We highlight - not one - but three snapshots of our open schooling activities from the ground: in Estonia, Spain and Greece.
  3. We describe (and recommend) the service design methodology used by Make it Open to make sure their pedagogical tools were grounded in reality
  4. We offer you 12 videos made by CONNECT which provide learning methods and techniques on teaching strategies, learning activities and objectives, scientific discourse, open educators’ role and the nature of science    
  5. And of course, we offer a list of good reads and upcoming events we think you should keep an eye on.
If you are not doing it yet, stay tuned for all things open schooling by following @OStogether on Facebook and Twitter.

Enjoy the reading!
In-depth: Open the doors to the others
Schools need to re-invent themselves. But they don’t have to do it alone. For more than a year, the European project Schools As Living Labs has supported 50+ schools across Europe through its open schooling approach, supporting them in transforming into an open-educational space. 

Schools As Living Labs worked with formal and non-formal educators across Europe to understand the needs, fears and difficulties when transforming schools in such a way. Based on that, the project developed a methodology and a series of tools to support them throughout their transformation.
To understand why this methodology is so special for teachers and students, we sat down with Claudia Aguirre, project manager at Traces a think-and-do tank based in Paris, France, who led the co-development of the SALL methodology.

A snapshot of the interview:

"Something built by and with different people benefits from the variety of expertise involved. When biologists study a biological phenomenon, they develop excellent biological solutions. But if you bring a physician, a mathematician and a chemist around the table, they will all start to consider this biological phenomenon from different aspects and it will provide very significant input to the research results. It’s the same here.

Different profiles were involved in this co-creation process: experts in living-lab, researchers, teachers, science educators, museum professionals, explainers, engineers, etc. Their collaboration led to creating a highly-adaptable methodology with a variety of tools that meet different ways of learning."

 

Read Claudia's interview
Open schooling snapshots
Short stories about open schooling, on-the-ground, moments, by practitioners
By the Schools As Living Labs project, shared by the Muraste school in Estonia

The Muraste school led a living lab project to further develop and rebuild the school yard. and to create more possibilities and activities to learn outdoors. Across the school year students will involve parents and the community to build new plant boxes which will create more possibilities to learn outdoors for the students.
Read the snapshot
By the MOST project, shared by the University de Jaén and the Natural History Museum of National Sciences in Spain. Written by Ana Maria Abril Gallego, Marta Romero Ariza & Sabine Mickler

How can Open Schooling projects be implemented when, due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic, school classes are not supposed to have contact with outsiders either inside or outside the school? Together with teachers from early childhood and primary school education, the MOST project partners in Spain have developed a special concept, based on the popular legend of 'Magdalena's lizard', to offer children an open schooling experience despite the difficult pandemic situation.
Read the snapshot
By the CONNECT project shared by of Mr. Dimitris Nikas, a science teacher from the High School of Kounoypidiana in Crete, Greece

Students were able to make not only an educated choice of an animal to rewild Greece, with their families’ involvement, but also create scientific arguments to justify their choice and even clarify doubts with an invited scientist from the Natural History Museum of Heraklion. Furthermore, following the last stages of CONNECT’s “CARE-KNOW-DO” principles, the students also decided to take action by writing a letter of intent to government departments responsible for environmental issues.
Read the snapshot
In the making
Our selection of noteworthy tools and methodologies for co-creation action or public engagement
Using service design to ground pedagogical tools in reality
by Make it Open

Target: Professionals in the science engagement and education field 
Goals: To think deeply about need, to focus on qualities and to fully understand the outlook from the perspective of the user when designing a pedagogical tool or approach

Foundations: Service design
Timing: At an early stage of the process
Actors: All actors impacted should be involved. To frame the Make it Open project, teachers, families and policymakers were invited to join the process.

Read more about the approach Make it Open adopted
Videoclips with learning techniques
by CONNECT

Target: Science educators
Goals: To 
support teachers, educators, pedagogical mentors, and coaches, with formal and informal techniques and methods that can be used in the classroom or other educational contexts.
Location: Applicable for any formal and non-formal science education space.
Timing: Suitable for any time or situation

Q. How does it promote innovation in education?
There is a total of 12 videoclips of max 4min duration, that provide learning methods and techniques that can be easily followed by educators, which bring something original and different to the classroom contributing to increasing the students’ interest, engagement, knowledge, motivation, etc. 

Q. What makes these videos so special?
Each video has a theme and a purpose, they are short, easy to understand and implement or adapt to particular situations. The videoclips have been validated by a group of experts in open schooling and non-formal learning techniques. 

Browse CONNECT’s video library
Tips and tops
Good reads
 
The STEM Teacher Internship Programme shared an ambitious vision for the education system required to prepare learners for the future in their latest report: 'Immersive STEM Learning Experiences to Shape Shared Futures'
 
Upcoming Events
 
The ASE Annual Meeting
Europe's largest science education conference
5-12 January 2022 | In person & Online
More information


The Active Learning MOOC
9 January - 23 February 2022 | Online
More information
 
In case you´ve missed it
COMnPLAY SCIENCE Project Closing Conference
5 November 2021
The closing conference was divided into several topic blocks to allow flexible participation, including the COMnPLAY SCIENCE project and its main outcomes, workshops and discussions about the potential of coding, making and play-based non-formal and informal science learning activities. Also,
round table titled “The future of education: What can be improved and how?” was jointly organised with the Open Schooling Together Initiative.
Read the round-up article


Twitter
Facebook
Email

Open Schooling together is a joint initiative of 8 projects funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims to raise awareness on the opportunities of open schooling and on the different methodologies to implement this concept.

Copyright © 2021 OSTogether, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
ostogetherh2020@gmail.com 

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp