Supporting schools in internationalisation activities

In order to support schools even more strongly in their internationalisation activities, the BMBWF and the OeAD have set themselves the goal of further expanding the existing support structures within the framework of a joint initiative. The main focus is on stays abroad (by pupils, but also by teachers), which are financially supported by the Erasmus+ programme.

In order to implement this initiative, the OeAD has commissioned the educational research institutions 3s (www.3s.co.at) and ibw (www.ibw.at) to hold talks with representatives from schools and education departments in order to gather practical experience. The main question was which support structures, instruments and measures VET schools already use or still need in order to increase their mobility activities.

In the course of the discussion, which lasted several hours, the concept of Learning Communities, as developed in our project, was also discussed as an important adjusting screw for quality development in European mobility and included in the protocol for further development. The information on our project results will be made available to Ms Tritscher-Archan (ibw) for further use. At a further planned meeting in autumn 2023, the possibilities for implementation will be discussed.

Project presentation in an online conference

On 25 January 2023 we had the unique opportunity to present our project and especially the created teacher matching platform to members of the DG EAC in an online conference.

Present were Michael Kvas (bit management GmbH), Maria Pichlbauer (Directorate of Education Styria), Ulrike Storost (DG EAC), Lucia Contreras-Garcia (DG EAC), Markus Rester (Head of Sector – Online Education Platforms at EC) and Gerhard Doppler (Future Balloons, unipessoal, lda).

The Commission shows great interest in including the idea of our platform as a feature for the new European School Education Platform (ESEP) and is very likely to implement it soon. At the meeting, technical details were exchanged and further dialogue with Gerhard Doppler was requested.

Learning, teaching and training activity in Porto

This learning, teaching and training activity took place in Porto, Portugal from 16.-20.01.2023 as part of the Erasmus+ project “Regional Learning Communities and Facilitators”. A total of24 participants from Portugal, Sweden and Austria took part in this 5-day training week. The target group of this activity was teachers and therefore all participants, except the project leader and the project partners from Portugal, were teachers or employees in the school system. Future Balloons, unipessoal Lda., from Portugal, was the host of this training event.

The main objective of this event was to test the FACILITATING LEARNING COMMUNITIES’ COURSE with the help of the participants: teachers, principals and other staff from education – from Sweden and Austria. The second modules of the online training were published one month before the onsite training where the content units 11 to 15 were covered.

Some content units of the curriculum were presented, namely:

• Design and run Offline Meetings and Workshops,
• Know and Apply new digital tools,
• Know how to deal with difficulties,
• Design and run Online Meetings and Workshops and
• Outroduction

All the content units were presented by the different project partners from Austria, Sweden and Portugal.

Learning, Teaching, Training Activity in Portugal

The LTTA (Learning, Teaching, Training Activity) in the framework of the Erasmus+ Regional Learning Communities and Facilitators project took place from 26th to 30th September 2022 in the beautiful coastal city of Figueira da Foz, Portugal, being Future Balloons, the organizer and host of the event.

Having as main objective to test the FACILITATING LEARNING COMMUNITIES CURRICULUM, the 24 Austrian and Swedish teachers participated in an active and committed way in the event.

Some modules of the curriculum were covered, namely: Organising for Clarity, Participation, Cooperation, Sharing and Organising and Designing (Regional) Learning Events, presented by the project partners.

The project promotes learning communities and cooperation, with an online platform, with examples and didactic materials to develop learning communities. It was a time of great sharing, cultural exploration and individual learning.

Transnational Project meeting at Frida Utbildning AB, Vänersborg Sweden,…

The halftime transnational project meeting for the RLCF project took place at Frida Utbildning’s main office in Vänersborg, Sweden. The Transnational Project Meeting was carried out both onsite and online with participants Veronica Sülau, Jesper Grönlund and Karin Helmerson from the hosting organisation Frida Utbildning AB, Laura Reutler from the project coordinator bit management Beratung GesmbH, Gerhard Doppler from Future Balloons, unipessoal, lda and Maria Pichlbauer from Vereint für Europa und Bildung, BD Steiermark (online). The hosting organisation initiated the meeting by offering a cultural exchange and an introduction to Swedish Midsummer with food and traditional music.

Project coordinator Laura Reutler, bit management, led the meeting in a structured and efficient way to fit all the points of the agenda in during the day. After the exchanges about the cultural experience the evening before, the introduction to the meeting and its main aims were made. The vision of the project is to create vibrant local, regional and European learning communities supported by regional learning facilitators. The project aims to promote learning communities and cooperation on all levels through a collection of best practice examples, online learning material and a matching and collaboration platform.

During the meeting, past tasks and events were evaluated and discussed as were the current status of ongoing tasks and the next steps for the project’s Intellectual Outputs. In addition to the project results summary and the timesheets, this part was gone through thoroughly in order to be the basis for the project interim report. Then, the current status, delegation and time aspect of ongoing and future tasks were discussed. These included:

IO1 – Future vision on European cooperation in Education – the report from  Feedback circles on Best practice with existing learning communities and the work on the Final Policy paper to be disseminated and presented to key decision makers as widely as possible. In connection to this, the most useful platforms and efficient ways for dissemination of the project activities and results were discussed.

IO2 – Curriculum for learning community facilitators – the unit work continues and plans were made for the first upcoming LTTA  hosted by Future Balloons in Portugal 26-30 September 2022 with participating teachers and project staff from Frida Utbildning AB and BD Steiermark.

IO4 – Matching and Collaboration platform – there was a fruitful workshop on the selection of the most relevant survey questions for a successful matching process.

Transnational Partners Meeting took place online

A Transnational Online Partner Meeting took place between the days 17^th and 18^th February 2022 to talk about the project “Regional Learning Communities and Facilitators”. The consortium met to discuss some topics about the project’s progress, tasks and collaboration, reflect on the final destination for the Blended Learning Course on “How to become a Facilitator of a Learning Community” and how to better develop learning materials to match the completed curriculum.

Learning, Teaching and Training Activity – online and on…

In October 2021, the first LTTA within the project “Regional Learning Communities and Facilitators” took place in Sweden. There was an introductory meeting online in September. The main objective of this event was to test and evaluate parts of the project’s curriculum and to conduct training sessions with the participants – teachers, principals and other staff in education from Sweden, Austria and Portugal. The participants were introduced to different topics such as communication, cooperation and structures for better meetings. The training combined theoretical input with practical activities and dialogues.

Regional Learning Event goes Brussels

In May 2021, we experienced an exciting online Regional Learning Event. Various schools of all ages, two education regions as well as education directorates, the Rectorat de Nice and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research took part. In six different Learning Spaces, insightful information was shared. The repertoire presented included: the European Centre for Languages and Multilingualism, scholarships of leading public schools as well as youth exchanges, information about Fulbright Austria, the positive effects of bilingualism and how the French language could provide more solidarity. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the event.

Regional learning event to kick off the year

Have you ever thought about learning another language? What has prevented you from doing so? Our Regional Learning Event to kick off the year, which took place on 26.02.2021, dealt with the topic of language, among other things. Valuable, joint exchange and informative input from various speakers took place in six different Learning Spaces. A great way to promote multilingualism is the student exchange, which is recruited and supported by various institutions in each country. In line with the motto of our E+Project RCLF, networking takes place naturally in such settings. Because language clearly connects people.

Regional Learning Event in Advent

In discourse with a wide variety of schools, educational regions and extracurricular educational institutions, we were once again able to generate and disseminate a lot of exciting knowledge in four different Learning Spaces on 11 December 2020. Learning Communities thrive on joint exchange and cooperation. That is why such meetings for networking and learning are regularly promoted in our project in order to strengthen the community in the long term. A wide variety of speakers with a broad repertoire of different inputs constantly broaden the common horizon and reveal new perspectives, in line with our motto “When we share, we win”.