Exploitation Experience of VLW on the Example of

Exploitation Experience of VLW on the Example of Transnational Projekt Id. A for Enhancing and Enriching Literacy of Rural Citizens by Alexander Topchishvili SALL 2010 5 th of November 2010 Patras, Greece

Arbeit und Bildung e. V. is Advanced training institute for 1600 teenagers and adults Employment promoter with 330 jobs formerly unemployed persons Operational and external-operational training center for 140 trainees Employer of 140 pedagogues, teachers, instructors and administrative specialists Promoter of professional orientation of 100 teenagers Specialized service for professional integration of unemployed and disabled persons Partner of the EU for employment and education 2

Goals Qualifying employment of unemployed persons Psychosocial and vocational general education, advanced training and continuing education of the population Support in bringing up and public education Support of the youth care and the youth welfare 3

Arbeit und Bildung e. V. 4

Region of Central Hesse 5

University town Marburg District town of Marburg-Biedenkopf County in Hesse Population – approximately 80. 000 residents Area – 124, 5 km 2 Located on the banks of the River Lahn Since the 12 th Century possesses town ordinances and privileges Fulfills the function of a regional center Has a special status as a major medium-sized town Has the oldest in the world, Protestant founded in 1527 university 6

University town Marburg 7

University town Marburg 8

Transnational Projects at Arbeit und Bildung e. V. • So. Rura. LL (networking of different categories in rural areas for lifelong learning). • Id. A (promoting professional opportunities and integration of young adults in the labour market; biannual professional practical training embraces two months of work and learning from partners in various European countries such as Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. ). • Equijobs ( start-up and insertion of women in men dominated professions in rural areas). 9

So. Rura. LL Project Aim • • • Investigation of the potential for enhanced lifelong learning offered by social networking tools and platforms Determination how the existing potential can help those living in geographically and socially excluded communities with a particular focus on innovating and changing educational processes Creation of VLW specially developed platform for social networking of rural communities in partner countries of the project for life-long learning 10

Virtual Learning World (VLW) VLW – online environment, which envestigates the potential for learning offered by social networking tools and platforms available on the web. VLW – platform that enables users to adapt their interactive environment to their own specifications according to their needs. User may view the site in his native language or in English while accessing a common European user database for communicating and exchanging information. 11

Virtual Learning World: Functionalities • • • Blog E-Learning platform External applications Forum Search Social networking platform Videoconference Video sharing Web Chat Wiki 12

Virtual Learning World http: //daisy. cti. gr/sorurall/ VLW - specially developed platform for social networking of rural communities in partner countries of the project for life-long learning. 13

Startpage of German VLW User 14

Educational Scenario of Use from Au. B Use of Social Networking Tools in the Pedagogical Work with Low Skilled 15

Au. B Educational Scenario “Use of Social Networking Tools in the Pedagogical Work with Low Skilled” (original planning) Goals: • Familarization of pedagogues to capabilities of the Virtual Learning World • Selection of an appropriate tool, which could be used for lifelong learning • Using pedagogues as disseminators for social networking tools in educational work • Using Virtual Learning World 16

Au. B Educational Scenario “Use of Social Networking Tools in the Pedagogical Work with Low Skilled” (original planning) Target Groups • Disseminators of training courses • Unemployed women and young people from rural areas • Young people in vocational training / professional development from rural areas 17

Au. B Educational Scenario “Use of Social Networking Tools in the Pedagogical Work with Low Skilled” (realized) • • Training pedagogues / participants of courses with different tools of VLW Practical application in VLW – Blogs on different activities of several german groups in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain within the European transnational project „Integration through Exchange“ - Id. A 18

Transnational Projekt Id. A • • • European project Professional opportunities and integration of young adults in the labour market Biannual professional practical training Two months of work and learning from partners in Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands Preparation phase (three-month in Marburg): – – • Groups: – – – • Language courses Cultural courses Personal development courses Professional development courses First - May-June 2010 in Mallorca, Spain Second - July-August 2010 in Spain Third - August / September 2010 in France Fourth - August / September 2010 in the Netherlands Fifth -October-December 2010 in Spain Sixth - October-December 2010 in Great Britain Results: – Participants and Pedagogues created and will create multiple blogs, wikis, etc. on various practical and everyday educational issues/problems during their visit overseas 19

Transnational Projekt Id. A (continuation) 20

Transnational Projekt Id. A (continuation) 21

Workshops with Id. A participants 1. 27 th April 2010 – 1 st Id. A-group (Spain direction) (initial) 2. 8 th July 2010 – 1 st Id. A-group (Spain direction) (final) 3. 20 th July 2010 – 2 nd Id. A-group (Spain direction) (initial) 4. 21 st July 2010 – 3 rd-4 th Id. A-groups (French and Netherlands direction) (initial) 5. 13 th October 2010 – 5 th Id. A-group (Spain direction) (initial) 22

Workshop with Id. A participants 8 th of July 2010 23

Workshop with Id. A participants 20 th of July 2010 24

Workshop with Id. A participants 21 st of July 2010 25

Workshop with Id. A participants 13 th of October 2010 26

Blogs Section of German Site at VLW 27

Id. A´s Blog: Spanish Course, Culture, Sightseeing 28

Id. A´s Blog: By the End of the Internship 29

Id. A´s Blog: Once to Palma and Back 30

Id. A´s Blog: Our Trip to Barcelona 31

Id. A´s Blog: Excursions, Internship and World Championship 32

Id. A´s Blog: Photos of Rotterdam (First Week) 33

Id. A´s Blog: Photos of Rotterdam (First Week) (continuation) 34

Id. A´s Blog: Photos of Rotterdam (First Week) (continuation) 35

Id. A´s Blog: Hola 36

Id. A´s Blog: Integration through Exchange in France (Diary) 37

Lessons Learnt by Using VLW 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. VLW gives possibility for close networking for different groups of trainees within a group. VLW provides a stable contact for persons/groups being for instance in the other regions of the country or moreover in other countries, far away from their native place of residence (especially located in different rural areas), by allowing their families, friends, etc. to learn in details about current events in the mentioned above regions. Working with VLW gives possibility for a user to improve significantly his/her ITskills. Broad use of VLW within the project Id. A gave possibility for close networking of the various courses/classes of participants to each other, assisted for seeking and finding an advice from the others, getting acquainted in details with reviews of previous groups/ users concerning different aspects of life in other countries, etc. Using VLW within the groups of Id. A had an important effect on the formation of "team's joint thinking/intellection": joint consideration of what should be the content of Blogs, which photos/pictures should be inserted in them, discussions within the group, etc. brought new ideas and significantly enriched the published Blogs as well. 38

Lessons Learnt by Using VLW (continuation) 6. 7. 8. 9. German Id. A-groups consisted partly of low-skilled persons. It was especially important to motivate them to work frequently, on the regular basis, with the VLWtool "Blog". The quality of the results depended not only on a personal group participant, who published the Blog, but also on the motivation of course instructors. Many young people are used to social networking tools in everyday life, but it seems to be a big difference to use them "freely" during free time/leisure and for educational purposes. To do something frequently, with high motivation, with a high quality, seems to be a barrier for young people, when they work with social networking tools. Social networks can not be used widely in the educational field, as the most users use social networks in their free time/leisure and moreover they are used to act freely. When they should work now in social networks like VLW under more strict/severe requirements, there arises some resistance to accept default requirements (based on the former experience). 39

THANK YOU for Your Attention! Contact: Jochen Eisold, Alexander Topchishvili Arbeit und Bildung e. V. Krummbogen 3 35039 Marburg Tel. : +49 (0) 6421 9636 44/49 Fax: +49 (0) 6421 9636 37 E-Mail: eisold@arbeit-und-bildung. de; topchishvili@arbeit-und-bildung. de http: //www. arbeit-und-bildung. de 40