Keep Calm and Teach English

Online safety is an integral part of what schools need to be teaching in 2017. It encompasses a wide range of issues and affects staff, pupils, parents and the wider school community. As more and more schools embrace technology as a tool to support learning, it is important that staff and pupils alike understand how to use it safely and responsibly. Research suggests that 57 per cent of young people think that their friends engage in risky behaviours online  which demonstrates the need to address this in schools. The "Online Safety Course"  at the European Schoolnet Academy offered participants a better understanding of the current risks and challenges that young people face when they go online. They discussed strategies for supporting young people and helping them to develop safe and responsible behaviours when they go online. A wide range of resources that can be used in schools was provided, and participants were also asked to share their own experiences, chall...

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.

Another interesting MOOC was organised by the European Schoolnet Academy . The course focused on Collaborative teaching and learning. Being able to collaborate effectively is a valuable 21st-century skill, yet teaching about or through collaboration remains rare in schools because of a lack of understanding of what real collaboration in an educational setting means, and because existing policy conditions do not always enable it to flourish. This introductory course provided insights into: What is collaborative learning? How can I carry it out effectively in my classroom? What tools can I use to assess collaborative learning? How can I collaborate with fellow teachers to facilitate collaborative learning? The diary includes some inspiring diaries from fellow teachers attending the course as well as a collection of ideas for collaborative activities, digital tools that can be used in collaborative teaching and lesson plans. Collaborative teaching and learning Cour...

Did you know that two-thirds of teachers in the European Union learn about ICT in their own time, and almost all are positive about its impact on students, according to the Survey in schools: ICT and education (2013)? Despite this readiness however, many teachers in Europe still have a lack of competence in using ICT in their teaching and use it only to a small extent in their classrooms. In order to meet this challenge, the European project MENTEP (Mentoring Technology-Enhanced Teaching, managed by European Schoolnet Academy and funded by the European Commission) developed an online self-assessment tool to empower teachers to progress in their Technology-Enhanced Teaching (TET) competence at their own pace. This course was the first in the MENTEP MOOC series on improving Technology-Enhanced Teaching. The MENTEP MOOC series will support the project’s goals to: - Boost teachers’ competence and confidence to use ICT in the classroom - Increase the number of teachers able to in...

In September 2015, the European Schoolnet Academy offered a MOOC on developing digital skills in our classroom. Digital skills are already an essential requirement for young people to succeed in an increasingly digitized society. Not only are these skills demanded for an increasing number of jobs, they also are a requirement and a right of citizens, if they are to be functional in today’s society. Schools and teachers therefore need support to work with their students to develop a wide range of digital skills that ensure young people leaving school have the skills required by the labour market and by an increasingly digitized society. The course guided teachers in how to develop a range of digital skills and to introduce them to the tools and resources that are available to them.   Created with Padlet