Open Discovery Space
4TH Newsletter
Welcome to the ODS Newsletter!
2015 ODS Contest
Following the success of its 2014 edition, the ODS Consortium has recently launched the 2015 Open Discovery Space Contests. The event consists of two parts: a National Contest, at the end of which all national winners will be awarded a seat at the 2015 ODS Summer School, and an International Contest, where two ultimate winners will be selected from the national contestants - one by an international jury of experts and one by popularity vote of fellow teachers.
The Open Discovery Space Contest is targeting teachers all around Europe. To participate, teachers will have to create and submit an innovative teaching scenario through the ODS Community Website before the 31st of December. Those teachers who are not yet familiar with ODS can find helpful resources on the project portal, such as why and how to use the Training Academies and theODS Toolbox and guidelines how to share educational resources. With questions or enquiries please contact the: contact_ods@intrasoft-intl.com
Meet National Contest Coordinators
We are pleased to present you National Coordinators. To get more information about the National Contest in your own country just click the links below;
- Austria National Contest - Gabriele Reinstadler
- Italy National Contest - Elena Pittao and Stefano Martellos
- Latvia National Contest - Kristiina Rattasepp
- UK National Contest - Christopher Leigh
- Romania National Contest - Marius Preda
- Estonia National Contest - Kristiina Rattasepp
- France National Contest - Carine Brienne
Here is the sneak peak from the Estonia and Latvia Contest:
Miksike Learning Environment, an ODS partner in Estonia and Latvia, created an online contest that encourages teachers to add new educational material and contribute directly to this innovative system, giving students a better learning experience.
Contest Dates:
Estonia (for both Estonian and Russian speaking schools)
October 27, 2014 - mid January, 2015
Latvia
November 7, 2014 - mid January, 2015
Miksike Leaning Environment and ODS will work cooperatively with Riga’s Education Culture and Sports Department, in Latvia, to provide an even better learning environment.
Guntis Helmanis, Director of the Riga Education Culture and Sports Department (left)
Guntars Jirgensons, Director of the Riga 28th Secondary School (right) after the meeting where the ODS contest was discussed
ODS Examples of Lesson Plans and Scenarios
To access full description and further details on each method just click at the links below and you will be redirected to the ODS Community Resources pages!
ODS & TRANSIT Conference 2014
180 Teachers of all subjects and levels, educational professionals, policy makers attended the Conference entitled: “European/national initiatives to foster competency-based teaching and learning Conference", hosted by the Open Discovery Space European (http://portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu/) & TRANSIt (http://transit-project.eu/) initiatives. The event took place in Ellinogermaniki Agogi Premises in Attica Greece, on Friday October 31st 2014.
The key competence acquisition (KCA) by every young person is one of the long term objectives of the updated strategic framework for European cooperation. Most of the EU Member States are formulating and at least beginning to implement policies that move their school systems from being predominantly input led and subject-oriented towards curricula which include competences, cross-curricular activities, active and individual learning, as well as a focus on learning outcomes. Yet, these developments do not necessarily result in significant, widespread changes in practice – that is, in how schools actually organise and provide learning experiences for pupils. The difficulty is in all cases translating these policies into practice. TRANSIt is a European project that aims to contribute to the enhancement of transversal key competences of students through building teachers capacity for competence oriented education.
In parallel, the use of online content and the relevant innovative teaching techniques are reshaping the modern school. The “European/national initiatives to foster competency-based teaching and learning Conference" aimed at building the necessary structures and networks that will facilitate competence development (of students and teachers) embracing e-learning by the teaching community.
Talks on a range of relevant issues, such as European/national E-Learning Policies & initiatives to foster competency-based teaching and learning, the role of e-learning in the Opening up Education agenda, the development of multilingual educational social media and what ODS can offer to a school, by selected speakers involving representatives from the Greek Ministry of Education, and the academic field were followed by presentations of innovative teaching practices with an aim to foster key competence acquisition, involving e-learning sources, as well as 5 parallel two-hour workshops on:
- Designing and Evaluating Educational Activities fostering Competences (using electronic resources and being member of the dedicated ODS community)
- Inquiry-Based Learning to foster students’ transversal key competences and digital badges
- Open Badges
- Fostering the acquisition of key competences with project-based & inquiry based learning activities
- Project based learning / cross-curricular projects
More information: www.transit-project.eu/conference
Thinking at the Edge
ODS in Action
Innovation in Learning
Can Learning Analytics already be addressed during Learning Design? Presentation on General Evaluation Framework at International ICCE Conference in Japan
Dr Christian M. Stracke, Managing Director of the TELIT Research Institute and Quality Manager of ODS, will present research results during the 22nd international ICCE Conference 2014 in Nara, Japan. This year the ICCE conference is focusing on "Constructing New Fundamentals of Computers in Education for the Future". In his speech, Dr Christian M Stracke will focus the question "How can Learning Analytics fit into a General Evaluation Framework and already be addressed during Learning Design?"
Dr Stracke will introduce the General Evaluation Framework for Impact Assessment (EFI) and discuss the opportunities to address and plan learning analytics already during the learning design phase from the beginning. "The Evaluation Framework EFI facilitates the assessment of internal as well as external impact and thus, it is a valuable instrument for integrating learning analytics into initial learning design" he points out.
Dr. Stracke will demonstrate his research towards these aims through theoretical reflections as well as findings from several research projects including Open Discovery Space and Inspiring Science Education. As one of the largest European projects ever, ODS is introducing e-Learning in 28 countries and over 2,000 schools throughout Europe and is helping more than 10,000 teachers open up and modernize school education. On the other hand, ISE has focused itself on improving STEM education in Europe through high-quality, open educational resources based on real-world problems. These projects share a core concept in dynamic interaction between educational actors such as leaders, teachers, and policymakers, advancing learning relevance and flexibility in a quickly changing world.
More information about the International ICCE Conference in Nara, Japan is available online To find out more about the TELIT Research Institute and its efforts regarding innovations in learning quality clicke here
Sunday, Nov 30, 2014, 09:00 AM
Nara, Japan
Innovating Education in Greece
On November 1, 2014 Ellinogermaniki Agogi, a school in Athens, worked closely with the Centre for Focusing Studies in Greece, to organize an all-day ODS event.
The goal was to create a Practice Reflection workshop where they could test Thinking at the Edge (TAE), a focusing technique, and assess its value within the classrooms.
Over 40 teachers and advisors attended the event and actively participated in designing lessons, scenarios, and further work to enhance the pupils’ learning experience.
Teachers made excellent use of the ODS Authoring Tool by creating interactive lectures on the theme “Speaking from the Felt Sense” where Thinking at the Edge’s various steps were discussed.
ODS as an Example of Openness in Education
Dr Stracke addressed a large, diverse audience of international education professionals during the ICDE International Conference 2014 on connecting the world through open, distance, and e-Learning in Moscow from 25 to 26 of September 2014 and during his keynote at BI2020 in Oslo on 13 October 2014, hosted by BI Norwegian Business School.
In his talks, Dr Stracke emphasised the necessity for change which educational institutions face, corresponding to the growing role of technology in the learning processes. However the introduction of new learning technologies alone cannot address the issues in learning quality which have appeared during the revolution of open education answering globalization and societal challenges.
ODS webinar on metadata content integration
The 14th ODS webinar on metadata harvesting will focus on metadata content integration in ODS. The event is primarily targeted at content providers, but anyone interested in learning how to mix and match metadata schemas might find it useful. It is strongly recommended to have a good knowledge on metadata, IEEE LOM application profile, ODS application profile, and Harvesting (OAI-PMH).
This webinar aims at introducing the concept of harvesting as well as the protocols and technologies related to harvesting in ODS. After this module, learners will be familiar with the ODS metadata workflow and integration scenarios, will be aware of Intellectual
Property Right issues related to metadata ingestion in ODS and will know more about the contractual implications of signing over metadata rights, as well as other legal commitments. This webinar uses the materials elaborated by UAH with the collaboration of CTI in the context of the Open Discovery Space training academies (WP6) and more precisely the “Content Providers” training academy.
The speaker will be Mr. Enayat Rajabi. He is a researcher and PhD candidate at University of Alcalá. He is coordinating UAH works at ODS WP7 (Open Learning Content), which includes everything related to harvesting and other content integration tasks in ODS.
Tuesday, Dec 9, 2014, 05:00 PM
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ODS partnered with ISE
Learn more about the INSPIRING SCIENCE EDUCATION
Mission in the Inspiring Science Education team is to provide digital resources and opportunities for teachers to help them make science education more attractive and relevant to students’ lives. Through the Inspiring Science Education website and the activities organised by the partners, teachers can help students make their own scientific discoveries, witness and understand natural and scientific phenomena and access the latest, interactive tools and digital resources from within their classrooms.
Inspirational science teachers are at the heart of successful science teaching – ask any scientific Nobel prize-winner who had the greatest influence on their decision to become a scientist and invariably the answer will be – my Science Teacher! So what is it that makes a science teacher truly inspirational? That’s one of the conundrums we aim to unravel in the Inspiring Science Education project. That’s why we will be setting up workshops and exchanges, communities of practice and learning opportunities for science teachers and teacher trainers aimed at helping them find ways to make their teaching of science more inspirational.
As a project team, ISE is aiming for large-scale take-up of these opportunities amongst European science teachers. Pilot activities will take place in 5000 primary and secondary schools in 15 European countries. During these pilots, teachers will be accessing interactive simulations, educational games and eScience applications and integrating them with extra-curricular activities, such as field trips to science centres and discovery parks, and virtual visits to research centres. Teachers will also have the possibility to access remote and online labs, and relevant scenarios for their use in the school classroom. Students will be inspired to use eTools and digital resources to learn Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEMrelated subjects) in a practical, competitive and exciting way.
The School Observatory : Space Studio
Friday, Jan 23, 2015, 02:00 PM
Banbury, United Kingdom
About Open Discovery Space
Open Discovery Space: A socially-powered and multilingual open learning infrastructure to boost the adoption of eLearning resources is a European CIP-ICT-PSP funded 3 years project which started in April 2012. It consists of 51 partners across 23 countries, led by INTRASOFT International (Luxembourg): IT Solutions and Services expert group. For the full list of partners, please visit our website.
Website: www.opendiscoveryspace.eu
Phone: +352 44 10 12 21 86
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opendiscoveryspace.eu
Twitter: @ods_eu