The project idea was developed as part of the cooperation between Bildung im Ausland, Hemut Schmidt Schule and ROC van Twente. These institutions work together on mobility projects since years - now we want to widen our cooperation and put a new focus on the pedagogical work. With the background of digital learning having more and more influence on the way of teaching and learning we wanted to see how this challenge is faced in schools and teaching institutions abroad, learn from the tools and methods our colleagues use in other countries and gat to know the pros and cons of new technologies.
Moreover teaching entrepreneurship is a topic that the institutions involved deal with - there is even an international project that is run by three of the partners since years. That is why the idea of this partnership project was to combine digital learning, entrepreneurship and internationalization - all of them highly important topics to prepare young people to their work life and to become self dependent, self reflected, digitally qualified and open minded persons.
The objective of this strategic partnership is to compare, reflect and learn on the way how the partners teach and train regarding entrepreneurship and how they use digital media in their work. Moreover this project aims to integrate entrepreneurship as a field where you have to teach key competences such as independence, self-reliance and self-initiative and - of course - foreign languages. On the one hand we would like to foster digital competence of teachers, trainers and students by exchanging and using different tools, methods and software. Also with the help of the project we want the students to improve and practice their English skills in real life situations as well as their communicating and presentation skills, to foster openness and to improve their team work skills. On the other hand also teachers are asked to exchange in a foreign language, to work with colleagues with different systems and ways of teaching - that means that also the teachers and trainers will be asked to show tolerance, open mindness and flexibility.
There are five partners involved in the project and of each partner there are two experts in charge of the project. Moreover we plan two student mobilities with 24 students per flow - 48
students in total will have the possibility to take part in the project and to learn digital competence and entrepreneurship as part of an international exchange.
During the project period the students will work on establishing their own Start Up. They will have to use different digital tools and methods to communicate with each other and to prepare their results to present them on transnational exchange meetings. Here the students will meet each other face to face and they will have to present their results, compare and
discuss them with their international colleagues. In face to face situations they learn how to interact with other students, how to present themselves, recognize similarities and
differences in working and living and simply get to know each other.
The whole process will be accompanied by transnational project meetings where the experts exchange on their teaching methods, get to know new tools and software and evaluate
the process of their students.
As a result of the project we expect a reflection on the use of digital media in training situations as well as in teaching entrepreneurship. Also we want to learn about different ways of
teaching and training and make the students feel the use and impact of digital media with regards to their training. This is part of their preparation to their further working life.
Furthermore with we aim to improve communication and speaking abilities, creative thinking, team work and knowledge of the international labour market not only with a focus to the
students but to the teaching staff as well.
The impact of the project is to review existing teaching and training methods, to work on new curricula and to integrate digital methods and tools in daily teaching situations. On a long
term basis our aim is to make web based learning a part of teaching and training but with the awareness to pros and cons of this technique. Everybody using digital tools has to do this
as a competent, reflected user - this applies for teachers as well as for students.