Travel Well Criteria www europeanschoolnet org www eun

Travel Well Criteria www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org

e. Quality. Net (e. QNet) • • A three-year (September 2009 -2012) Comenius Multilateral Network funded under the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning programme. The network for joint reflection and co-operation is coordinated by European Schoolnet and involves 9 Ministries of Education or agencies nominated to act of their behalf. – http: //www. eqnet. eun. org The primary aim is to improve the quality of educational resources in European Schoolnet’s Learning Resource Exchange for schools – The vision driving the LRE is that a significant percentage of high quality resources developed in different countries, in different languages and to meet the needs of different curricula can be re-used at European level. – As a pan-European service, the LRE required validated techniques and tools to identify learning resources that ‘travel well’ across national borders – Work focused on developing criteria that can be applied to identify ‘travel well’ collections both already within the LRE and candidate collections for inclusion in the LRE www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org

e. QNet Methodology • • The criteria were tested and refined by a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches and testing in real-life settings to improve the LRE involving: – Teachers in e. QNet initially defined a potential set of criteria based on their own understanding ‘travel well’ concept and favorite collections/national repositories – Closely following international initiatives engaged in the development of digital content quality criteria for education, i. e. Achieve, Inc in the U. S. – Integrating requirements and content quality criteria already in use by Ministries of Education involved in e. QNet – Once a draft set of criteria were developed the criteria were tested as teachers applied them to improve the quality of content in the Learning Resource Exchange for schools – e. QNet partners refined the criteria based on an analysis of data produced when teachers (using the LRE’s Web 2. 0 features) applied criteria to create showcase • http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/travelwell-all – Using questionnaires to collect feedback from teachers outside of the e. QNet network (both expert ICT users and average ICT users) and content developers/publishers (process still open) • Ranking criteria in-terms of most ‘important’ for different stakeholders The application of the Travel Well Criteria to improve the quality of Learning Resource Exchange’s content continues as new collections are added to the LRE. www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org

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Trans-national Topics (MUST BE PRESENT) The resource addresses curriculum topics that could be considered trans-national. For example, teaching multiplication is usually covered in every national curriculum, but teaching the folklore of a very specific region is not. It can also be a resource well suited for use in multidisciplinary or cross-curricular contexts. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resour ce-details? resource. Id=280919 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resour ce-details? resource. Id=400452 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 5

Knowledge of a specific language is not needed (MUST BE PRESENT) The resource can be used without having to translate accompanying texts and/or the resource may be available in at least 3 European languages. For example, a resource might be a video where the narrative can be turned off, or it employs icons, images, animations, maps, etc. making its contents understandable for everyone. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=400117 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=264342 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 6

Stored as a file type that is usable with generally available software* The resource can be used in any environment (online and off-line) and runs on multiple platforms (also hand-held, IWB). For example this can be an animation that plays in a web browser without the need for additional software. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/gues t/resourcedetails? resource. Id=264832 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/gues t/resourcedetails? resource. Id=250809 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 7

Methodological support for teachers is not needed Subject teachers can easily recognize how this resource meets their curriculum requirements or how this resource could be used in a teaching scenario without further instructions. This criteria should not be used to assess the usability (technical qualities) of a resource. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/gues t/resourcedetails? resource. Id=399088 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/g uest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=401108 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 8

Intuitive and easy to use The resource is intuitive to use in the sense that it has a user-friendly interface and is easy to navigate for both teachers and students without having to read or translate complex operating instructions. Example are resources with simple button commands to create maps for use on computers, printouts or interactive white boards. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/res ource-details? resource. Id=261871 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/res ource-details? resource. Id=280960 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 9

Interactivity with or without feedback in a digital environment This kind of resource invites or requires a significant degree of user input or engagement, other than just reading something on a page in an online or offline environment. The interactivity can be simple or complex. Simple forms can be feedback on correct or incorrect answers in a drill/practice scenario. Complex forms can be lab activities that produce different results depending on user actions or hints to help complete tasks successfully in an online environment. An interactive resource that does not provide feedback but still requires user input would be a geometric 3 D shape that can be moved and turned. http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=248375 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=264849 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 10

Clear license status (MUST BE PRESENT) The user can easily find information about the license/rights (sometimes called Terms of Use, Copyright or Permissions) for this resource. These statements explain if users or educators are allowed to make copies, or remix or redistribute a resource, or use images from the site in a blog without contacting the photographer, or if they can put this resource in a VLE like Moodle, etc. This license/rights information should be understandable for a typical user. Creative Commons/Public Domain but also other ways… http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=265528 http: //lreforschools. eun. org/web/guest/resourcedetails? resource. Id=399091 www. europeanschoolnet. org - www. eun. org 11

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