Ideas on change in teaching from around Europe

We've had a bit of a marathon day here in Glasgow, today, with teachers and Head Teachers from Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain, Catalonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Bulgaria, Austria and Germany, taking a peek at how LTS supports teachers and learners.

This afternoon we played, discovered and looked at what kind of collaborative languages projects could come out of gaming, image sharing, interactive game-making on Flickr and sharing practice on a blog, like this. What follows are the five points of positive action from each group, ways that they hope to go back to their country and effect change, even in the smallest of ways:

Group 1:
Share all the Scottish experiences with teachers in our area, face to face and online.
Using our own blogs more to share
Get students to create their own blogs with the purpose of developing communication and writing
Organise a course for those teachers who don't know how to blog yet

Group 2:
We won't be the only ones with this gap between 'our world' and the things we saw today
Expertise in using ICT needs improving:
The teacher is no longer the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side: change of mentality needs changing by... (help!)

Group 3:
Sharing our experiences through talks, workshops, time to reflect

Group 4:
Introduction of intranet: we're technically able, so we need to learn from each other's mistakes
We need to look at the 'Toxic Childhood' issue: how do we encourage responsible use?

Group 5:
We're going to play!

Comments

[Vivien]

I think I speak for the whole group when I say what a fantastic day we had. I am certain that everyone went away with lots to think about, and look forward to reading about what everyone does once they are back home. Once again, many thanks to everyone who helped out today.

[Doug Dickinson]

Wow !! Sound like a fantastic day ...just makes me feel more isolated than before. The frightening thing is that I don't read 'Headteachers from England, Wales and Northern Ireland' in the list. Perhaps that is because they already know what LTS is doing ( I think not ).

[Con Morris]

Thanks very much to Ewan and Vivien for inviting me to share some CPD experiences with the group. I promised a list of references. You will find them on the CPD Team blog at http://ltsblogs.org.uk/cpdteam/2007/11/22/arion-group/