A large international conference was held on 18-19 September 2010 at the Goethe Institute headquarters in Munich which brought the COMENIUS project “Schule im Wandel” to a successful conclusion.
In the two years the project was active, a film-based professional development programme for foreign language teachers was produced and tested. The purpose of the blended learning project is to effectively train and develop teachers’ pedagogic and didactic competences with regard to equip them to constructively deal with the increasingly complex professional challenges.
The conference was opened with a podium discussion in which the project partners from Germany, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the Czech Republic approached from their respective perspectives the topic of the rapidly changing national and international context of teaching/learning foreign languages at schools. Furthermore, the results of academic research arising from the implementation of the blended learning project "Schule im Wandel" in different countries was presented. Subsequently the approximately 90 conference delegates had the opportunity to familiarise themselves, in workshops and at the “market place”, with the concept of “blended learning” and the materials which had been produced by the project partners. The Internet platform “E-Twining” provided attractive opportunities of facilitating European partnerships for schools. Similarly, participating pupils of some European partner schools were given the opportunity to directly experience and develop concrete networking on a European level. The reception at the end of the conference provided ample opportunity to make contacts, discuss aspects of the project with the partners present, and arrange for further projects. The student band “The Twitter Sisters” brought the conference to a fitting end with their inspiring and witty performance.
Overall, this was a very successful event which managed to provide an important stimulus for the wider use of innovative formats of learning and professional development in general and the new product “Schule im Wandel” in particular.
The product is freely available in the Internet on Moodle. One can log in as a guest (type "siw.gast" in the rubric Anmeldename and "goethe" under Kennwort). Having logged in, one has access to all materials, including the films. All interested teacher training institutions and institutions involved in the professional development of foreign language teachers can transfer these materials, including the films, to their own institutional platform, completely free of charge.
In the two years the project was active, a film-based professional development programme for foreign language teachers was produced and tested. The purpose of the blended learning project is to effectively train and develop teachers’ pedagogic and didactic competences with regard to equip them to constructively deal with the increasingly complex professional challenges.
The conference was opened with a podium discussion in which the project partners from Germany, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the Czech Republic approached from their respective perspectives the topic of the rapidly changing national and international context of teaching/learning foreign languages at schools. Furthermore, the results of academic research arising from the implementation of the blended learning project "Schule im Wandel" in different countries was presented. Subsequently the approximately 90 conference delegates had the opportunity to familiarise themselves, in workshops and at the “market place”, with the concept of “blended learning” and the materials which had been produced by the project partners. The Internet platform “E-Twining” provided attractive opportunities of facilitating European partnerships for schools. Similarly, participating pupils of some European partner schools were given the opportunity to directly experience and develop concrete networking on a European level. The reception at the end of the conference provided ample opportunity to make contacts, discuss aspects of the project with the partners present, and arrange for further projects. The student band “The Twitter Sisters” brought the conference to a fitting end with their inspiring and witty performance.
Overall, this was a very successful event which managed to provide an important stimulus for the wider use of innovative formats of learning and professional development in general and the new product “Schule im Wandel” in particular.
The product is freely available in the Internet on Moodle. One can log in as a guest (type "siw.gast" in the rubric Anmeldename and "goethe" under Kennwort). Having logged in, one has access to all materials, including the films. All interested teacher training institutions and institutions involved in the professional development of foreign language teachers can transfer these materials, including the films, to their own institutional platform, completely free of charge.
