At Rudbeck there have been important policy decisions that have recently been made forging the groundwork that the Digital Bridges project is built upon. Three priorities have been made regarding the use of digital tools by staff in their teaching.
- ICT is central in the work with summative assessment
- ICT should be used in to benefit collaborative teaching and to contribute to extended collegial teamwork
- ICT should be utilized to improve the availability of educational materials and to increase flexible learning
The leadership at Rudbeck has motivated their new Internationalization plan in the following manner; the ability to understand others peoples’ life situations and other cultures is strengthened by a secure cultural identity. It is the task for a school to help to develop such an identity. Schools, like society as a whole, are affected by immigration, arriving refugees and the international contact brought about by inclusion of cultural diversity. This means that staff and students must have knowledge and a means to conduct cultural meetings that are natural and enriching elements in everyday life. It is a school’s responsibility to emphasize the value of such cultural diversity. The instruction in most subjects allows the possibility to present international perspectives. The methods can vary, from teachers expanding the horizons of their own knowledge to students cooperating over borders.
The combination of incorporating pedagogic digital devices in an international cooperation proved to bring added value to the competence development for the teachers in our recently concluded Comenius Regio project Paducation. Besides solidifying the cooperation between the Lichtenberg-Schule and Rudbeck, the project jumpstarted the Germans to take new initiatives in working towards a 1:1 concept based upon iPads for their school. The new leadership at that school has together with a majority of the teachers mapped out a strategy to bring iPads into the learning process. They see Digital Bridges as a very positive contribution to that process.
Essentially we are going to organize students to do group work in a collaborative manner sharing a theme together with another group in the other country. These students will, themselves, create the manner in which they identify a question and then cooperate on gathering information, sorting through the data, make an analysis, present the results and then make an assessment on the quality of their work.
The areas we intend to work with are Math, Business economics, Art, Social science and English. There are a number of themes that have been suggested by teachers in the preparation of this project that the students will have as points of reference when deciding how to go forward.
In the advanced mathematics courses there is a section in the curriculum titled problem solving which has been difficult to fulfill:
- Strategies for using digital media and tools in solving mathematical problems.
- Mathematical problems of relevance to society and application to other subjects
- Problems connecting to the cultural history of Mathematics
The teachers involved have seen the transnational character of this project as an important element in communicating in the language of Math.
The Swedish teachers in business economics have suggested several interesting themes that are actualized when considering the opportunity of cooperating with Germany.
- The strong presence of companies incorporating environmental strategies
- The consequences for sustainable development in the business sector
- Differences in marketing, leadership, work organization and company culture
The success for the program of Junior Achievement in Sweden is very attractive for the German teachers involved in developing concepts of entrepreneurship in their education. This opens up for students to investigate possibilities to start up companies together over borderlines.
The recent situation in Europe actualizes several very important themes that students can base their inquiries upon in social science courses, e.g. Religion, History and Political Science.
- Active citizenship
- Attitudes towards newly arrived refugees
- Strategies towards inclusion amongst a culturally diversified student body
- Extremism and intolerance
Everyone involved realizes that recent events have actualized an awareness of what happens in one part of Europe affects all other parts. The collaborative work process of bringing the library into the classroom with the use of iPads is especially promising for these courses.
In the Paducation report there is a chapter describing the cooperation between Art classes with the theme „Identity“. The framework for going further in developing new concepts in creative interchange are already in place The new factor present for Digital Bridges is the upcoming 14th Documenta International contemporary art exhibition in 2017. This event brings a unique and exciting factor to our transnational student collaboration. There are many possibilities to be inspired by upcoming themes from this major art event that occurs only once every five years in Kassel. It will be an opportunity to create and share art projects within the creative context being presented by this cultural happening. The Swedish students will be able to personally experience the exhibition together with their German partners during their examination work in the second year of the project.
English will be the working language in this project. Students will be training their English in the transnational discourse during these two years. This will be in the form of both verbal and written expression. It is self-evident that this is going to be a challenge for the participants but also an opportunity for significant advances in their ability to master this international language of science, culture and business. There are interdisciplinary possibilities for English language teachers to include student work done in this project when assessing achievement in language courses. We see this as a very positive element in Digital Bridges in regards to strengthening basic literacy aspects in the students’ education.
Students in the Communication behavior science course will be doing evaluation studies of this work over a two-year period of time. This will be including self and collegial assessment, an essential part of the pedagogic development at Rudbeck. The teaching staff at the Lichtenberg schule is looking forward to learning more about summative assessment and the 1:1 learning environment.
The groundwork for Digital Bridges will be done in the aforementioned subjects during the first year of the project. We expect that about 330 students will be involved at the start. 60 of these students will continue in the second year to complete their examination paper in this project. It is in conjunction with this continuation that the mobility activities will occur. The students will spend 5 days in each country in an exchange that will strengthen the collaboration with direct contact as well as allow attaining on the spot information. This will allow students to do interviews, study visits and otherwise make visual documentation relevant to their subject of study We count upon at least10 teachers will be involved in supporting this work. They will utilize the visit to confer with their partner teachers regarding positive and negative outcomes of the project, observe lessons in their respective subject and accompany students, when appropriate, on their investigations.
There is no mold already existing for the students to follow in this project. It is our intention to create a learning environment for the students themselves to then explore in what manner they can both cooperate and communicate with each other and their partner group in the other country. The immediate results will be that students will be more engaged and learn more about their subject of study. Their ability to present their results to a larger audience will be enhanced and they will gain a broader understanding of what is meant with an European perspective. By confronting obstacles and finding solutions these students will pave the way for many more students to follow in working in a collaborative manner on a transnational level using digital devices to accentuate the learning process.