Developing a diverse teaching and learning environment using Erasmus +
MPETNS embarked upon its first Erasmus + project recently which centred around developing areas of school life; I.C.T. and Wellbeing. Wellbeing has been highlighted and acted upon in a totally new way since completing our project. We have experienced the benefits of using mindfulness attitudes like acceptance, kindness, gratitude and curiosity by implementing learned concepts such as ‘Nurture School’ and EFT Tapping. We have also developed a digital learning curriculum which now includes not only coding and computational thinking but podcasting, video production and robotics all of which has resulted in our school being awarded the inaugural Digital School of Europe Award. We have recently welcomed Minister of European Affairs Thomas Byrne to our school to witness some of the results of our project.
We were delighted that the Minister was able to join us and take part in our student podcast where he discussed all things Europe as well as his own journey through primary school.
Digital School of Europe 2022
Learning from the Extremes started in February 2022 and for the following 24 months aims to offer a vision of what can be achieved with adequate investment in ICT infrastructure, tools and content, along with a detailed Rural School Innovation Roadmap on how to achieve that vision – a plan with clear targets, clear priorities, and a management process that will ensure continuous feedback and reflection. Learning from the Extremes adopts a multidimensional approach to thinking about and planning for the future of technology enhanced rural school education, comprising:
​
-
foresight work involving all educational stakeholders, aiming to identify the probable, possible and desired developments in rural school education in the mid-term future and
-
user-driven consultation process with the key stakeholders, to map the directions provided by the foresight activity onto the diverse realities of rural schools in Europe today, assessing the impact of numerous innovative digital solutions and identifying barriers to adoption and wide roll-out.
MPETNS, along with other participatingschools will all benefit from stronger, more responsive and reliable distance education platforms, online labs and simulations, supporting high-performance web-conferencing and collaboration tools. All schools will be able to share teaching excellence with professional support in the classroom, the school and the region. Students will have modern, connected and constructive learning spaces equipped to support engaged, personalised learning. Teachers will have the development, support and resources they need to integrate digital tools within the learning environment. School communities will have access to digital tools and connectivity for effective communication and collaboration.