8 out of 10 say EU projects aid innovation in classroom European Commission Press release Brussels, 7 May 2013 8 out of 10 say EU projects aid innovation in classroom More than eight in ten people involved in an EU-funded initiative aimed at encouraging innovative teaching methods and improved learning materials for children say the scheme had a positive and lasting impact on them. The same proportion also stated that it would have been impossible to achieve the same results without European support, according to a new study. The projects were funded through the EU's Comenius scheme, which supports a range of activities, from school partnerships to teacher training and the eTwinning school network. "Our aim is to help schools to provide pupils with the knowledge, skills and confidence that they need to reach their full potential,” said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. Background Project examples Comenius and eTwinning Who was Comenius? For more information European Commission: The Comenius programme
Europe's Record Youth Unemployment: The Scariest Graph in the World Just Got Scarier - Derek Thompson Europe's job market is a historic disaster. The EU unemployment rate set a new all-time high of 12.2 percent, according to today's estimates. But it's the youth unemployment crisis that's truly terrifying. In Spain, unemployment surged past 56 percent, and Greece now leads the rich world with an astonishing 62.5 percent of its youth workforce out of a job (graph via James Plunket). My God, look at Greece's trajectory. It is suddenly not insane to imagine a youth unemployment rate of 70 percent in the developed world. It should be noted that some people consider youth unemployment figures a bit hyperbolic. But even the ratio fails to account for the millions of young people who have all but given up in their awful economies. Youth unemployment is bad for all the obvious reasons, including the big loss to future productivity and earnings.
Houzee! De recessie in Spanje is voorbij! Voorbij? Amehoela! : Tom lievens “Spanje uit recessie” kopte nu.nl gisteren. Ik verslikte me meteen in mijn koffie die ik net meende te drinken. Na de hoestbui ontsnapte me een spontane: “¿Que?!” Dit moest ik toch eens lezen. En amper een paar minuten nadien lees ik: “Spanje uit recessie”. Spanje is met een economische groei van 0,1 procent in het derde kwartaal uit de recessie gekomen, na negen kwartalen van krimp. Cijfertjes Nu het slechte nieuws? Gevolgen voor Juan Lullo Tot zover het droge cijfermateriaal. Is het dan verwonderlijk dat men alweer massaal de straat optrekt? Nu trek ik naar Barcelona om met eigen ogen even te genieten van het einde van de recessie, al die blije mensen in elkanders armen te zien vallen, leuzes met dankwoorden scanderend om dit heugelijke feit. PS: Er staat een donatiebutton op deze site. Tom
Can iPad's catch-22 stranglehold be broken? iPad dominates the schools market, but for how long? App-maker John Friend investigates The landscape of technology in schools has changed rapidly since the iPad launched just over three and a half years ago. Now around 40 per cent of UK primary schools are using tablets, and almost 20 per cent of pre-schools. That’s according to research my company, Apps in My Pocket, carried out earlier this year. At the end of October, Apple CEO Tim Cook came up with an extraordinary claim of a 94 per cent market share in the education tablet market in the US. That's because it showed that my own research, which had found a 50-to-1 ratio of iPad’s to Android tablets in US schools, was pretty much on the money. The reason I conducted this research was to see whether I should put my resources into developing a version of my PocketPhonics app for other platforms like Android or Windows. PocketPhonics launched for the iPhone and iPod Touch almost five years ago.
Sigue la mesa redonda desde casa Mañana, a las 13h, hablaremos de educación en el CCCB (Barcelona). Si quieres venir, consigue tu entrada gratis aquí . Si te queda demasiado lejos, puedes seguir la mesa redonda de Tiching desde casa haciendo clic aquí . Además, te invitamos a participar en el debate, ¡queremos conocer tu opinión! Puedes hacerlo desde Twitter con el hashtag #tichingCCCB ¿Sobre qué queremos hablar? A través de las redes sociales descubrimos, compartimos, recomendamos, opinamos y experimentamos. Pero, ¿más información e interacción significa una mejor educación para los estudiantes de hoy en día? Juntamos a cinco personalidades de diferentes ámbitos como son Gaby Castellanos , Núria Mañé , Jordi Jubany , Rafael Gómez y Núria Farré para compartir una mesa acerca de la educación y de las oportunidades que nos ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías para lograr un aprendizaje mejor y más personalizado. El futuro de la educación se acerca y os invitamos a descubrirlo juntos.
New family of spiders found in US cave A specimen of a new family of spiders, which scientists are calling cave robber for its fearsome claws. Photo: AP/California Academy of Sciences Amateur cave explorers have found a new family of spiders in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon, and scientists have dubbed it Trogloraptor - Latin for cave robber - for their fearsome front claws. The explorers sent specimens to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, which has the West Coast's largest collection of spiders. Entomologists there say the spider - reddish brown and the size of a half dollar - evolved so distinctly that it requires its own taxonomic family - the first new spider family found in North America since the 1870s. The fearsome claw of a new family of spider, which led to naming it Trogloraptor, or cave robber. "It took us a long time to figure out what it wasn't," said Charles Griswold, curator of arachnids at the academy. Advertisement "Even longer to figure out what it is.
Sesión de Autoformación Tiching-Espiral El próximo miércoles 23 de mayo se realitzará una sesión de formación presencial organizada por Tiching y Espiral. Tema: Tiching, donde la comunidad educativa se encuentra Tiching es una plataforma online dedicada exclusivamente a la educación escolar y pensada para encontrar contenidos digitales educativos y conectar a la comunidad educativa (docentes, estudiantes y familias). Tiching nace para satisfacer las necesidades educativas derivadas de la integración de las nuevas tecnologías en el aula. Este será un taller práctico que permita a los usuarios conocer la plataforma de Tiching, su utilidad, las funcionalidades que ofrece y los beneficios que aporta a la actividad docente. Además, los usuarios podrán compartir y expresar sus opiniones, valoraciones e intereses respecto a Tiching, para continuar acercando esta herramienta a las verdaderas necesidades de la comunidad educativa. Podéis encontrar más información en: Formadoras: Glòria Santaeulària. Pilar Soro. Dia y lugar de realitzación:
Preparing Your School for an iPad Implementation Planning is imperative for any technology initiative - iPad or otherwise. You need to ensure that you clearly understand and communicate how the technology integrates with your overall pedagogical objectives. Too many institutions purchase technology and then search for ways to utilize it ... or leave it collecting dust on the shelf. Planning needs to consider both infrastructure needs and the educational applications of the new technology. Without the proper preparation, technology initiatives are liable to become expensive failures. Campus Infrastructure Considerations Signal Strength: If you’re using wifi iPads then you’ll need a strong and reliable connection to the web. Pedagogical Considerations: Pedagogical Models:Have you discussed how the use of iPads will be integrated into your educational processes? Your iPad implementation plan requires careful thought and preparation.
Highlights Hoe kunnen onderwijs en opleiding de EU-strategie ter bevordering van groei en werkgelegenheid schragen en hoe kunnen zij met name bijdragen aan het verminderen van de jeugdwerkeloosheid? Dat zijn de voornaamste punten die de Raad op 10 februari heeft besproken. © Fotolia.com Het aantal werklozen in de EU is zeer hoog. Veel ministers waren van mening dat een belangrijk middel ter verbetering van de link tussen de wereld van het onderwijs en die van het werk is gelegen in het versterken van de praktische elementen in onderwijs- en opleidingsprogramma's. Een aantal ministers maakte gewag van inspanningen in hun land om, in samenwerking met de sociale partners, voor aanzienlijk meer stages en leerplaatsen voor jongeren te zorgen. Tot slot benadrukte een groot aantal lidstaten dat de beschikbare middelen uit de EU-fondsen en ‑programma's moeten worden gebruikt om meer jongeren aan werk of een opleiding te helpen en hun mobiliteit te verbeteren. Meer informatie: Persmededeling Openbaar debat
Mimi Ito - Weblog: When Youth Own the Public Education Agenda Originally posted on the Huffington Post. I've devoted my career to researching how young people take up new technologies like computers, mobile phones, and the Internet and make them their own. If we pay attention to what young people do when they are socializing and having fun with these new media, it's clear that they are both highly engaged and learning a great deal. For most young people, however, this is about learning how to get along with their friends, what it takes to get a date, or how to get to the next level in Halo, and not the kinds of academic learning and civic engagement that schools are concerned with. As a parent and educator who is also an anthropologist committed to appreciating youth perspectives, I stand at the cusp of two different learning cultures--one that is about youth-driven social engagement and sharing, and the other that is embodied in educational institutions' adult-driven agendas.
At Davos, the ‘skills gap’ is on the guest list As the world’s movers and shakers head to Davos, Switzerland, this week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the International Labour Organization has issued a gloomy report on employment – just in time to focus minds at Davos even more sharply on the global jobs crisis. “The jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide – or an estimated 1.1 billion people – either unemployed or living in poverty,” said Juan Samovia, the ILO’s director-general. The annual ILO publication highlights the fact that globally, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 per cent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-crisis level. Of those aged 15-24, 74.8 million were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007. Editor of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report and of the World Education Blog
Explosive Growth in Education Apps Digital Tools Teaching Strategies Flickr:Flickingerbrad By Carly Shuler, Joan Ganz Cooney Center In 2007, when the iPhone made its debut, there was little doubt that it would revolutionize the mobile phone industry. Less than five years later, more than a quarter of all parents have downloaded apps for their children to use, according to a Common Sense Media study. Today’s children will benefit if apps become an important force for learning and discovery. 1. Over 80% of the top selling paid apps in the Education category of the iTunes Store target children.In 2009, almost half (47%) of the top selling apps targeted preschool or elementary aged children. 2. Apps for toddlers/preschoolers are the most popular age category (58%), and experienced the greatest growth (23%).General early learning is the most popular subject (47%), and there are signiicantly more general early learning apps than the second most popular subject (math, 13%). The App Explosion 3. 4. 5. Address the app gap. Related