student competences
As Novas Tecnologias Questões-chave da Educação 2012
As tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) têm entrado nas escolas, sendo por isso motivo de reflexão actual: quais devem ser as capacidades básicas a adquirir pelos alunos no uso das TIC? Os alunos aprendem melhor com recurso às novas tecnologias? Em que casos tem este tipo de meios revelado melhores resultados? Pode o aluno «descobrir» conhecimentos por si mesmo com o auxílio das novas tecnologias?
Nesta conferência, focar-se-á essencialmente o papel do computador e do multimédia na aprendizagem do aluno. Um professor holandês discutirá o modo de conceber e utilizar recursos tecnológicos para promover a aprendizagem, dois especialistas portugueses abordarão as mais-valias das novas tecnologias para a aprendizagem por alunos com necessidades especiais e por alunos do básico e secundário em áreas das ciências. Estaremos a utilizar bem as tecnologias em prol da aprendizagem?
Dia 3 de Dezembro no Porto; dia 4 em Leiria e dia 5 em Lisboa.
STEM Annual Conference 2012
The Higher Education Academy’s first annual learning and teaching STEM conference will take place on 12 and 13 April 2012 at Imperial College London, one of the world's leading centres of excellence for teaching and research in the fields of science, technology and medicine.
STEM subjects are recognised as having strategic importance in higher education for the economy and employers. The student learning experience in STEM subjects is vital in ensuring sustained growth in the uptake of these key disciplines. Furthermore an excellent learning experience ensures that students have developed the right skills at the time of graduation and beyond through continued professional development. The Higher Education Academy (HEA) provides national leadership in developing and disseminating evidence-informed practice in learning and teaching in higher education; this conference will provide a platform for this for the HEA's STEM disciplines (for full list see below).
The key conference themes applied to STEM disciplines are:
• innovative practice in STEM learning and teaching;
• gender issues in STEM subjects;
• Mathematics and Statistics in an interdisciplinary context;
• work-based learning in STEM subjects;
• teaching and assessing large classes;
• assessment and feedback;
• employability;
• flexible learning;
• internationalisation;
• retention and success.
How eTwinning can boost skills at school
Teachers involved in eTwinning, the European online community for schools, met with local and national policy-makers in Genoa to discuss how linking up with other schools can help improve teaching quality and pupils' skills.
The conference took place alongside ABCD, Italy's most important education fair, which attracts over 40,000 visitors. Participants discussed ways of integrating eTwinning into education policies by using it systematically as platform for teachers to develop innovative practices and forge new ways of developing their professional skills.
In a video message the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, encouraged participants to "explore the contribution that eTwinning can make to your own national, regional and local priorities for improving the quality of learning, for encouraging cooperation between teachers, and for promoting school improvement."
Last week, school leaders from across Europe met in a similar event near Berlin to look at how they can make specific use of eTwinning to raise the profile of their school, get an insight in modern trends of educational leadership and find partners in Europe (To know more).
Background
eTwinning is the European online community for schools involving already 145,000 teachers across Europe. eTwinning is funded by the European Commission as part of the Lifelong Learning programme.
The eTwinning platform (www.etwinning.net) offers opportunities for teachers to meet and interact with each other in school projects, special interest groups and online forums. It also offers teachers many opportunities to develop their professional skills via online learning events.
"At the end of my first project, when summing up the results and my pupils' feedback, I started to think that eTwinning could be more than an extra project and could be fully incorporated into teaching. eTwinning is the most flexible tool of my teaching that allows my pupils and me to learn, improve, have fun and make friends." Maria Doria, teacher from Italy
More information: www.etwinning.net
Follow the event via its joint blog with the Experts Meeting in Education Networking (Eminent): http://blogs.eun.org/eminent/