Keep Calm and Teach English

For Safer Internet Day 2017 , 1,500 young people aged 8-17 years took part in an online survey conducted by ResearchBods and commissioned by the UK Safer Internet Centre. The aim was to explore the role of images and videos in young people’s digital lives and the influence this can have on their self-esteem, behaviour and emotions. The findings reveal how important images and videos are in young people's digital lives, demonstrating the positive role this plays as well as the risks and pressures they may face as a result. It underlines the importance of ensuring that all children have the skills, knowledge, confidence and resilience to communicate using images and videos safely, responsibly and creatively. Parents, teachers and most importantly schools in general should be able to understand the implications such surveys convey in order to guide children and teens towards better and  safer  internet use. 

Doing Projects and Project- Based Learning are not quite the same thing. T he chart below by Amy Mayer, clarifies the main difference between the two.  “Projects” can represent a range of tasks that can be done at home or in the classroom by groups of students, quickly or over time. While project-based learning (PBL) also features projects, in PBL the focus is more on the process of learning and learner-peer-content interaction than the end-product itself. For more information on this engaging, learner-centred method you can browse my learning diary  on  the "Introducing Project-Based Learning" MOOC,  which comprises a wide range of examples, materials and ideas on how to implement PBL in our classroom.

One more interesting and inspiring MOOC offered by the European Schoolnet Academy has ended. This MOOC's aim was to train and empower teachers in fostering the sense of initiative and the entrepreneurial mind-set of their students by developing innovative and creative attitudes and skills. The sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is the ability to turn ideas into action through creativity, innovation, and risk-taking as well as the ability to plan and manage projects . It is a key competence that can be developed through any school subject,  from primary to secondary and beyond. It does not necessarily involve a specific school subject. Rather, it requires a way of teaching in which experiential learning and project work have the main role.