dissemination

People from 13 organisations in 12 countries got together in Dublin this week for the launch of a new project in science teaching. SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry Learning in Science) is all about putting in place assessment strategies to support inquiry based science education in Europe at second level (students aged 12-18) and is a key development in the enhancement of innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) teaching.

Speaking at the launch of the SAILS project, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, spoke about the importance of innovation in this area and praised Dublin City University for taking this initiative. SAILS is a 4 year support action funded under FP7, ATiT are partners in this project with responsibility for dissemination. Initial information about SAILS is available from the project website.

The DiVa project, which focusses on Good Practice for Dissemination and Valorization of Educational Projects, has recently published its final products: a handbook for project co-ordinators, a best-practice catalogue and recommendations, and the MEDEA Awards are mentioned in the best-practice catalogue thanks to the dissemination activities undertaken by the MEDEA:EU project, of which ATiT was the project coordinator. The successful actions of the MEDEA:EU project, the European Commission-supported project which helped to extend the European identity of the MEDEA Awards through a multilingual newsletter and the European network of national contact points, have been taken up and are being enhanced by our current MEDEA2020 project.

By carrying out European studies about successful educational projects and evaluating them based on certain criteria, the DiVa project has already proven to be very useful for new as well as already started European projects and through these publications everyone can now benefit from this collection of different and innovative ways to promote, disseminate, exploit and valorize.

Jim O'Sullivan and Sally Reynolds presented the results so far of the SoRuraLL project during the CESI annual conference held 5-6 February in Portlaoise, Ireland.

This conference, entitled Creative Technology for Challenging Times brought together about 150 teachers and others working with ICT in primary and secondary schools in Ireland for a day and a half of presentations, exchanges and discussions about the effective implementation of ICT in Irish classrooms. One of the highlights of this conference was the presentation given by Joe Dale on 'New Tools, New Curriculum, New Opportunities', to find out more about Joe and the tools he recommends, visit his blog.

The SoRuraLL presentation provided an opportunity to showcase some of the blogs and websites being developed by rural schools in Co. Clare as part of this project.

The November edition of the Re.ViCa newsletter is now available.

Highlights this month include:

• a presentation of the Re.ViCa Handbook which is about to be published and a sneak preview of its contents
• an overview of the collaborative work carried out by the Re.ViCa International Advisory Committee and the growing network of experts contributing to the virtual campus wiki
• a summary of the current status of the Open University of Japan by International Expert Dr. Kumiko Aoki
• introductions to several experts in the field; David Porter (BCcampus, Canada), Em. Prof. Terry Mayes (Glasgow Caledonian University, UK) and Em. Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan (Wawasan Open University, Malaysia)
• a round-up of announcements, reports and publications in the field of e-learning and the virtual campus

For more information visit the Re.ViCa web site or the virtual campus wiki and inventory set up and managed by the project team. 

The October edition of the Re.ViCa Newsletter was published this week and is being distributed to almost 500 subscribers all over the world who are interested in the virtual campus phenomenon.

In this edition you will find an article on postsecondary educational accreditation in the United States, an article about multilingualism in the Virtual Campus wiki and introductions to new people in the Re.ViCa network from New Zealand, UK and Palestine.

The newsletter also gives information on several recent reports including a Commonwealth of Learning report on ICTs for Higher Education and a Study into Global Activity published by JISC in the UK as well as a progress report on the Virtual Campus wiki.

The October issue of the Media in Education Newsletter highlights the launch of the new Greek ministerial video web site for schools, the new JISC Digital Media Newsletter and the way Swedish schools are using media resources.

This month's newsletter contains a feature on the winner of the MEDEA Special Award in 2008 as well as a profile of CSP in Italy, a very active MEDEA national contact point. The October edition reports on the numbers of entries to the 2009 MEDEA Awards and gives information about other awards in this sector.

If you have relevant information or news you would like to share in this newsletter, contact the editors.

This month's edition of the Re.ViCa Newsletter is now available and has been sent to an extended mailing list of researchers, stakeholders and others interested in the Virtual Campus phenomenon.

The lead article deals with the question as to whether European Virtual Campuses are intrinsically different to Virtual Campuses in other parts of the world and describes some of the conditions that appear to have had an influence on the set-up and operation of Virtual Campuses in Europe. In the rest of the newsletter you will find information about relevant forthcoming events, summaries of articles on related topics and information about project activities and events.

For more information about Re.ViCa, visit the Virtual Campus wiki.

This newsletter is aimed at people actively engaged in promoting excellence in the use of media in education and is linked to the annual MEDEA Awards. Each month it  includes news about the MEDEA competition and other events, projects, initiatives and developments related to how media can best be used in education.

This month it includes an interview with Sergio Lopez Figueroa (Creative Director of Big Bang Lab) about his collaborative interdisciplinary creative learning project with British secondary school pupils called "Unseen Voices". The output of this project includes a film created by students entirely by re-using archive film footage and photography and editing digitised clips on the history of the second World War, the Holocaust and Kindertransport (youth refugees in 1939). 

The number of organisations supporting the promotion of the MEDEA Awards for 2009 is growing, and MEDEA now has contact points in almost 20 European countries. Recent organisations to join include Masaryk University Brno in the Czech Republic, the Estonian e-Learning Development Centre, Webstroom in The Netherlands and CSP - Innovazione nelle ICT in Italy. To see the full list, check out the list of partners on the MEDEA web site.

The MEDEA Secretariat now has A2 size posters as well as leaflets for promoting the 2009 Awards and can provide them to anyone interested in helping to spread information about MEDEA. These are available in French, German or English and are part of the current promotional work being undertaken by the MEDEA team.

The network of MEDEA National Contact Points is also growing and there are now partners active in 15 European countries, partners willing to promote MEDEA are still being recruited, so if you are interested, please contact the MEDEA Secretariat.

To find out more about the Awards and how to enter, visit the MEDEA web site. Participation in this competition is for free and the closing date is 30th September!