ITD Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche - CNR

Research theme:
«Innovation in academic and professional training»

Project duration: 2012-2015

Project website:

Staff

Donatella Persico

Luigi Sarti

Francesca Pozzi - Project manager

Framework

Pre- and in-service teacher training has made a big effort in fostering the adoption of innovative learning and assessment methodologies. Examples of innovative approaches are: collaborative learning, project-based learning, active learning, etc. At the same time, computer support is achieving widespread adoption and learning institutions have taken an active role in fostering the adoption of ICT in teaching and learning, by providing infrastructures and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). This calls for new professional development for teachers.

The project METIS aims to contribute to the improvement of national in-service teacher training curricula (one of the EU Lisbon strategic goals) by offering high quality materials for teachers' professional development on the use of modern learning techniques and tools.

The consortium assumes that changes in teaching practices cannot be expected to happen by just providing teachers with new pedagogies and/or ICT tools. The experience of the partners indicates that professional development training (e.g. in the form of workshops), although necessary, is not sufficient. Therefore, the project goes a step further by complementing professional development workshops with a set of “closed-cycle workshops” (training workshops plus learning design enactment in a real learning scenario) aimed at teachers who will enact authentic learning situations, applying innovative pedagogies (e.g. collaborative and project-based learning and assessment) using learning design tools in an Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE).

Objectives

Main objectives of the project are:

1. To develop an Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE), which will integrate existing free and open source software solutions that include:
   1. Co-design support for communities of practitioners.
   2. Learning design authoring tools following different pedagogical approaches and authoring experiences.
   3. Interface for deployment of learning designs on mainstream VLEs.
2. To run a series of workshops for teachers at partner institutions on how to use ILDE
3. To disseminate the project’s outcomes and maintain a community of teachers

Workplan

Activities will include the design and development of the ILDE, and the design of a workshop format for teachers tackling the issue of learning design, associated with the learning materials. Besides, the project will test and evaluate the ILDE, as well as the workshop format, in three specific contexts, namely; university education, vocational training, adult education.

Expected results

Expected results include:

1. An Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE), able to support teachers in the design (and delivery) of ICT-based innovative learning activities
2. A workshop format for teachers on the topic of learning design, together with the learning materials and a system able to support the teachers’ community
3. A community of teachers trained and able to design and share ICT-based innovative learning activities.