Category Archives: Press Release

Sep 04

Empowering teachers and students beyond the classroom

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for immediate release

Empowering teachers and students beyond the classroom
Pan-European open learning platform introduces MOOC digital learning modules accessible to everyone, anytime everywhere. Even on your mobile.

Madrid, 19th of JUNE 2014 – A truly pan-European project where 9 different countries, 6 leading educational entities and 6 ICT companies collaborate on creating the largest eco-system of open teaching modules in Europe so far. With one goal: to convince the teacher to invest a little bit of time to become an E-teacher, step out of their comfort zone and create their own teaching modules. The modules are structured in such a way that it will allow for teachers (and pupils) to teach, learn, anytime, anywhere.

The project acronym ECO stands for E-learning, communication and Open-data and conveniently illustrates what the project partners set out to do. The goal within the project running time of 3 years is to create a self sustaining beehive of individual MOOCs that will grow as an independent and healthy eco-system. MOOC stands for Massive Mobile Ubiquitous and Open Learning.

Sara Osuna, is Assistant Deputy Head at UNED, university of distance learning in Madrid and head of the South American operation, is coordinator of project ECO: “We are 5 months into the project and the educational concepts as well as the technical groundwork are all set in place. They have to be because in November 2014 the pilot ECO-MOOC modules will be launched.”

These pilot MOOCs will serve as an example for teachers to look at when they will start and create their own MOOC and learn how to do so in 8 weeks. “We want to reach out to 50.000 teachers from all educational levels in 7 target countries” Sara explains. “From this interest group we will then recruit 4.000 teachers who will be offered to complete the accredited course to become a MOOC teacher”.

For those who are Interested: they can already sign up for the mailing list as of today to be informed about the course to become E-savvy teachers.

Press contact details
Marije Nieuwenhuis
communication@eco-learning.eu
Communication officer ECO learning
www.eco-learning.eu

About the ECO consortium

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme under grant agreement no 621030.

19 partners from 9 different countries work together to create a pan European platform for ubiquitous learning. The overall objective is to improve the quality and cost-efficiency of teaching an learning in Europe. Moreover the term ubiquitous learning in this project has an ideological intent as ECO aims to create an eco system where courses are freely accessible for teachers and students from different levels, backgrounds, age and ability alike. The creators of the platform are focused on creating a digital tool for a target group of 50000 teachers that will expand beyond the horizon of the classroom. The first practical goal is to create an online e-learning course for 4.000 registered teachers. Promotion of the platform and the recruiting of these teachers will commence in the 2 months prior to the launch of the first MOOCs created by the partner. The pilot MOOCs will serve as example for teachers as well as new students.

Consortium partners are:

  1. Universidad Nacional de educacion a distancia, UNED
  2. Open Universiteit Nederland
  3. Universidad de Valladolid
  4. University of Manchester
  5. Universidad de Oviedo
  6. Politecnico di Milano
  7. Universidad de Zaragoza
  8. Universidad de Cantabria
  9. Reimer IT Solutions B.V.
  10. Sunne Hanna Eichler
  11. Fundación Universidad Loyola Andalucia
  12. Universidad Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle
  13. Vicente Montiel Molina
  14. Telefonica Elearning services TLS
  15. Fundacao para o estudo e desenvolvimento da regiao de Aveiro
  16. Editrain S.L.
  17. Vereniging van European Distance Teaching Universities
  18. Humance AG
  19. Prisma Vist Digital SL

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Press release editors:

Tiberio Feliz

Tiberio Feliz

Leader WP5

Marije Nieuwenhuis

Marije Nieuwenhuis

Communications officer ECO learning

Apr 16
news

Press release

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16 New, online, all-access free courses and 1 do-it-yourself course on designing a digital programme for a large amount of participants including the use of social media for peer review.

These brand new online courses are for you, the teacher and they will help you understand the potential of new technologies for your classroom. 17 Massive Online courses called MOOCs were launched as pilot earlier in 2014 covering various topics and in 6 different languages. But all from the same springboard: the ECO Learning MOOC platform, a pan-European registration point for course participants and those who may want to become digital teachers. The project´s central message Learn. Teach. anywhere, everywhere refers not only to the freely accessible nature of these massive online courses, but also in the social inclusive concept behind the methodology. From April 20th onwards the second round of the tried, tested and improved MOOCs commences. Each MOOC round last for 8 weeks, guided by a teacher or group of teachers. If you want to discover what distance learning, digital learning and in addition how to design your own digital course, becoming a member of the ECO platform is an excellent way of discovering what a new era of digital learning and teaching has to offer.

The ECO Project Consortium is constituted by 22 universities and companies from Europe and Latin America* and funded by the European Commission.

All MOOCs can be accessed via https://portal.eco-learning.eu, where new users will be prompted to create a login (+3 minutes):

In English:
1.       Videos for teaching, learning and communication

In German:
2.       E-Learning-Projektmanagement an Schulen (E-learning and project management at schools)

In Portugese:
3.       Introdução aos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (Introduction to basic Geographic Information systems GIS)
4.       Competências digitais para professors ((Digital competences for teachers)
5.       Necessidades Educativas Especiais. Como ensinar, como aprender (Special education needs. How to teach, how to learn).

In Italian:
6.       Introduzione alla matematica per l’università: Pre-Calculus (Preparation course mathematics for university: Pre-Calculus)
7.       M’appare il mondo: dalle carte alla Terra digitale partecipata (Geomatics course)

In Spanish
8.       Sexualidad Amigable y Responsable (Friendly and non-abrasive sexuality)
9.       Flipped Classroom
10.     Comunicación y aprendizaje móvil  (Mobile communication and learning)
11.     Alfabetización Digital para Personas en Riesgo de Exclusión: Estrategias para la Intervención Socioeducativa (Digital literacy for people with high risk of social exclusion. Strategies for digital socioeconomic intervention).
12.   Recursos Educativos Abiertos. Aplicaciones pedagógicas y comunicativas (Open educational resources: pedagogical and communicative applications).
13.   Competencias creativas para el profesorado (Creativity MOOC Camp) (Creative teacher competencies)
14.   Artes y tecnologías para educar (Arts and technologies for education)

In  French:
15.   DIY Education aux médias et à l’information – (DIY Media and information Education)
16.   MPSW : « Ma pédagogie à la sauce web 2.0 » (My pedagogy web 2.0-style)

E il MOOC trasversale per progettare il tuo MOOC in tutte le lingue precedenti:
17. Social sMOOC step-by-step

*European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, FEDRAVE – Fundação para o Estudo e Desenvolvimento da Região de Aveiro, Geographica, Humance, Open Universiteit Nederland, Politecnico Di Milano, Reimer IT, Riverthia, Sünne Eichler Beratung Für Bildungsmanagement, Tabarca Consulting, Telefónica Learning Services, Universidad de Cantabria, Universidad de Oviedo, Universidad de Quilmes, Universidad de Valladolid, Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Universidad Manuela Beltrán, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Universidade Aberta, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and University of Manchester.

Nov 17

Press release: Making the most of your experience beyond the walls of the classroom: how digital teaching and learning will expand the teacher`s horizon.

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Madrid, 17th of November 2014

At the beginning of November, 14 brand new Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs were released on the central platform ECO-Learning. 2 More are set to be uploaded by the end of this month. The purpose of the MOOC platform is to attract students to participate and experience what ubiquitous and community learning is like during the course of 6 weeks. The 16 ECO-MOOCs cover 5 different topics at the start of the project and are set up to impulse the creation of new MOOCs, adding a growing number of courses and topics to a self-sustaining ECO-system within the next 2 years.

One of the project` goals is to motivate teachers to create and design their own MOOCs. The consortium ECO-learning is therefore looking to recruit 4,000 teachers from 7 different countries specifically for the purpose of becoming an active member of the ECO-learning community. Whether either teachers are experienced and enthusiastic users of the digital tools available for education or dread the learning curve and time that is required to learn how to use the tools, ECO-Learning is an open community for both.

The project´s central message Learn. Teach. anywhere, everywhere refers not only to the freely accessible nature of these massive online courses, but also in the social inclusive concept behind the methodology. In addition it refers to the paired mobile app, as to enable users to access and participate wherever and whenever they can and want.

The content of the MOOCs varies from e-learning methodology, computing and digital skills to creative skills and the classical foundation of our education system such as mathematics. These MOOCs are all content orientated , whereas a Common Course will be developed where teachers will be offered a training in the basics of MOOC design.

All available MOOCs can be accessed via https://portal.eco-learning.eu, where new users will be prompted to create a login. The MOOCs are offered in 5 different languages:

  1. In English: Videos for teaching, learning and communication
  2. In German: E-Learning-Projektmanagement an Schulen (E-learning and project management at schools)
  3. In Portugese:
    – Introdução aos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (Introduction to basic Geographic Information systems GIS)
  4. In Italian:
    – Introduzione alla matematica per l’università: Pre-Calculus (Preparation course mathematics for university: Pre-Calculus)
    – M’appare il mondo: dalle carte alla Terra digitale partecipata (Geomatics course)
  5. In Spanish:
    – Sexualidad Amigable y Responsable (Assertive and non-abrasive sexuality)
    – Innovación Educativa y Desarrollo Profesional. Posibilidades y límites de las TIC. (Innovation in education and in professional training: Possibilities and limitations of ICT)
    – Competencias creativas para el profesorado (Creativity MOOC Camp. (Creative skills for teachers)
    – Necessidades Educativas Especiales. Como enseñar, como aprender (How to teach & learn. Special needs in education)
    – Flipped Classroom
    – Comunicación y aprendizaje móvil (mobile communication and learning)
    – Alfabetización Digital para Personas en Riesgo de Exclusión: Estrategias para la Intervención Socioeducativa (Digital literacy for people with high risk of ssocial exclusion. Strategies for digital, socioeconomic intervention).
  6. In French:
    – DIY Education aux médias et à l’information – DIY Media Education and information

Contact details

Contact person Spanish MOOCs: Mr. Rodríguez Hoyos Carlos, at the University of Cantabria, rodriguezhc@unican.es
Contact person English MOOC: Ms. Teresa Rasgado, teresa.rasgado@manchester.ac.uk
Contact person German MOOC: Ms. Eichler Sünne eichler@eichler-beratung.de
Contact person French MOOCs:  Ms. Divina Meigs divina.meigs@orange.fr
Contact person Italian MOOCs: Mr. Stefano Menon, stefano.menon@polimi.it

Jul 02

Partners meet to dicuss development and launch of 16 multidiciplinary MOOCs this fall

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Lisbon, 2nd of July 2014 – After 2 intense days where the ECO MOOC pedagogical model and technological features plus courses outline were presented the overall conclusion is that the ECO platform will offer a set of unique approaches to MOOCs. Both the several innovative developments on the pedagogical methodology as well as the different Massive Open learning modules ´MOOCs´ features were presented and discussed. Moreover all partners joined in to comment on the work ahead as well as that very important launch date in November for the first pilots to be presented to the teachers.

The meetings took place on the 30th of JUNE and 1st of July, hosted by the Portuguese open university (Universidade Aberta – UAb) at the Museu das Comunicações (communications museum) in Lisbon. All work package leaders presented their work so far and what they are planning to work on for the coming months.

Sandra Caeiro, Prof. Auxiliar at Universidade Aberta comments: “It was very stimulating to meet all partners face-to-face. In between these consortium meetings we have a communication platform at our disposal where we organise forums and meetings. Nevertheless it is very good to touch base with collaboration partners and align once again our efforts.”

Caeiro comments that during the meetings it became ever so much clearer how diverse and interesting the contents of the different MOOCs wills be. “We were pleasantly surprised. We knew of course from the beginning of the project in February what the content of the MOOCs would be. But to hear in the partners presenting what they plan to launch is quite impressive.”

Variety of course subjects
The content of the MOOCs varies from e-learning methodology, computing and digital skills to creative skills and the classical foundation of our education system such as mathematics. These MOOCs are all content orientated , whereas a Common Course will be developed in which teachers will be offered a training in the basics of MOOC design.

Launch pilots in November
A total of 16 MOOCs will be developed by 12 Universities, not only from Europe but also from North and South America such as Quilmes University an Manuel Beltrán University. The MOOCS serve as examples and best practices for the targeted 4.000 selected teachers. They will be invited to actively participate on the ECO platform and create their own MOOC.

The coming months all consortium partners will input their efforts in finishing the ECO MOOCs and kicking off the promotion campaign to reach out to teachers via the press and relevant associations before meeting again in January 2015 in Manchester.

Press contact details
Marije Nieuwenhuis
communication@eco-learning.eu
Communication officer ECO learning
www.eco-learning.eu

About the ECO consortium
22 partners from 9 different countries work together to create a pan European platform for ubiquitous learning. The overall objective is to improve the quality and cost-efficiency of teaching an learning in Europe. Moreover the term ubiquitous learning in this project has an ideological intent as ECO aims to create an eco system where courses are freely accessible for teachers and students from different levels, backgrounds, age and ability alike. The creators of the platform are focused on creating a digital tool for a target group of 50000 teachers that will expand beyond the horizon of the classroom. The first practical goal is to create an online e-learning course for 4.000 registered teachers. Promotion of the platform and the recruiting of these teachers will commence in the 2 months prior to the launch of the first MOOCs created by the partner. The pilot MOOCs will serve as example for teachers as well as new students.

Consortium partners are:

  1. Editrain S.L.
  2. Fundação para o Estudo e Desenvolvimento da Região de Aveiro (FEDRAVE)
  3. Fundación Universidad Loyola Andalucia
  4. Humance AG
  5. Vicente Montiel Molina
  6. Open Universiteit Nederland
  7. Politecnico di Milano
  8. Prisma Vist Digital SL
  9. Reimer IT Solutions B.V.
  10. Sunne Hanna Eichler
  11. Telefonica Elearning Services TLS
  12. University of Manchester
  13. Universidad de Cantabria
  14. Universidad de Oviedo
  15. Universidad de Valladolid
  16. Universidad de Zaragoza
  17. Universidad Manuela Beltrán Fundación
  18. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED
  19. Universidad Nacional De Quilmes
  20. Universidade Aberta
  21. Universidad Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle
  22.  Vereniging van European Distance Teaching Universities

Jun 19

Press release: Empowering teachers and students beyond the classroom

By | Press Release | No Comments

for immediate release

Empowering teachers and students beyond the classroom
Pan-European open learning platform introduces MOOC digital learning modules accessible to everyone, anytime everywhere. Even on your mobile.

Madrid, 19th of JUNE 2014 – A truly pan-European project where 9 different countries, 6 leading educational entities and 6 ICT companies collaborate on creating the largest eco-system of open teaching modules in Europe so far. With one goal: to convince the teacher to invest a little bit of time to become an E-teacher, step out of their comfort zone and create their own teaching modules. The modules are structured in such a way that it will allow for teachers (and pupils) to teach, learn, anytime, anywhere.

The project acronym ECO stands for E-learning, communication and Open-data and conveniently illustrates what the project partners set out to do. The goal within the project running time of 3 years is to create a self sustaining beehive of individual MOOCs that will grow as an independent and healthy eco-system. MOOC stands for Massive Mobile Ubiquitous and Open Learning.

Sara Osuna, is Assistant Deputy Head at UNED, university of distance learning in Madrid and head of the South American operation, is coordinator of project ECO: “We are 5 months into the project and the educational concepts as well as the technical groundwork are all set in place. They have to be because in November 2014 the pilot ECO-MOOC modules will be launched.”

These pilot MOOCs will serve as an example for teachers to look at when they will start and create their own MOOC and learn how to do so in 8 weeks. “We want to reach out to 50.000 teachers from all educational levels in 7 target countries” Sara explains. “From this interest group we will then recruit 4.000 teachers who will be offered to complete the accredited course to become a MOOC teacher”.
For those who are Interested: they can already sign up for the mailing list as of today to be informed about the course to become E-savvy teachers.

Press contact details
Marije Nieuwenhuis
communication@eco-learning.eu
Communication officer ECO learning
www.eco-learning.eu

About the ECO consortium
22 partners from 9 different countries work together to create a pan European platform for ubiquitous learning. The overall objective is to improve the quality and cost-efficiency of teaching an learning in Europe. Moreover the term ubiquitous learning in this project has an ideological intent as ECO aims to create an eco system where courses are freely accessible for teachers and students from different levels, backgrounds, age and ability alike. The creators of the platform are focused on creating a digital tool for a target group of 50000 teachers that will expand beyond the horizon of the classroom. The first practical goal is to create an online e-learning course for 4.000 registered teachers. Promotion of the platform and the recruiting of these teachers will commence in the 2 months prior to the launch of the first MOOCs created by the partner. The pilot MOOCs will serve as example for teachers as well as new students.

Consortium partners are:

  1. Editrain S.L.
  2. Fundação para o Estudo e Desenvolvimento da Região de Aveiro (FEDRAVE)
  3. Fundación Universidad Loyola Andalucia
  4. Humance AG
  5. Vicente Montiel Molina
  6. Open Universiteit Nederland
  7. Politecnico di Milano
  8. Prisma Vist Digital SL
  9. Reimer IT Solutions B.V.
  10. Sunne Hanna Eichler
  11. Telefonica Elearning Services TLS
  12. University of Manchester
  13. Universidad de Cantabria
  14. Universidad de Oviedo
  15. Universidad de Valladolid
  16. Universidad de Zaragoza
  17. Universidad Manuela Beltrán Fundación
  18. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED
  19. Universidad Nacional De Quilmes
  20. Universidade Aberta
  21. Universidad Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle
  22.  Vereniging van European Distance Teaching Universities