The ELA Blog

ClickIt is not always easy to keep the classroom motivated, engaged and enthusiast when it comes to teaching. This is when ICT tools such as apps and web platforms become essential in helping teachers to communicate and transfer knowledge while also maintaining their students’ full attention. Nowadays it is fundamental to know our way around interactive learning so that we can offer our students an alternative and non traditional style of learning and keep them engaged. 
The new edition of the course “Integrating ICT and new technologies into teaching and education​” took place in Bologna from 30/01/2023 to 04/02/2023. The participants came from all across Europe, with Miriam García García and Álvaro García López from CEIP JOSÉ ROBLES in Spain, Marie Tuttle, Niamh Deegan, and Sarah Clohessy from Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board in Ireland.
During this course the participants learnt how to use a vast range of technological tools and to put them into use by integrating it into their teaching methods. 
First of all, they learnt how to create engaging and interactive multimedia content and presentations and learnt how to digitally assess students’ knowledge and understanding in real-time. Furthermore, they learnt how to create a website or a blog and  how to use ICT tools to make education more engaging, motivating and innovative.
Moreover, they got a new perspective on ICT tools and learn new ways and best practices to integrate ICT into teaching and training as well as exchanged best practices and share experiences with participants and staff coming throughout Europe. All of the aforementioned activities allowed them to make contacts with individuals and organizations working in the education field in Europe through everyday cooperation and networking activities.
During these past years traditional education had to leave space to virtual lessons and online classes. Therefore it was inevitable for this course to also explore the applications useful to hold an online class such as a virtual whiteboard that can create engaging and captivating online lessons and also collaborative learning experiences.
Moreover, the participants had the chance to dive into the technological world with plenty of practical activities such as presentations, virtual quizzes, learning how to create engaging social media content, using tools dedicate to organizing graphics, posters and collages and much more. 
This course allowed participants to confront themselves with each other and learn from their shared experiences. The participants left this course with a new knowledge of interactive learning and a new set of tools, ready to use them in their classrooms. There is no doubt that this approach will increase the students’ creativity, engagement, attention and motivation and help transform learning into a fun and dynamic activity! 
Discover more about this course here 
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Bullying behaviours, perpetrated through a virtual or a face-to-face interaction, have massive negative impacts on people, being them victims, survivors, or the bullies themselves. The aim of this course is to learn about effective ways to prevent all forms of bullying in education and school settings.
The new edition of the course “How to stop bullying and cyberbullying in schools and promote social emotional learning​” took place in Bologna from 29/01/2023 to 04/02/2023. This time, all participants came from Spain, with Antonio, Francisca and Marga from the Colegio Juan de la Cierva.
We started with our introduction day where we brainstormed all the different kinds of bullying: how does the behaviour manifest itself? According to the bullying cycle, which role does every participant interprets in a standard scenario? Which are the three main elements distinguishing bullying from conflict? Every “student” was asked to define in three points his idea of conflict. Then, they shared with each other what they had written down as to give shape to different types of situations.
We moved on to focus on the victim: which are the main risk factors that lead children to be bullied? And what can we do to prevent this situation? What are the initiatives that we can conceive and carry out in order to prevent bullying behaviours? We looked at these topics through 4 different points of view: family, school, individual and community.
One of the most spread types of bullying to be eradicated, since subtle but lethal in its effects,  is cyberbullying. Nowadays Internet plays a major role in the lives of our kids and may have disparate, contrasting degrees of influence on them. Nonetheless, it presents some positive sides: interconnection endures as the best way to communicate with a large audience and foster discussion on a nearly public level. With some practical activities we explored the world of cyber bullying. In particular, we reflected on the differences between traditional and cyber bullying and about the things that they have in common. As to understand and put ourselves in the shoes of bullying victims we implemented a very powerful activity which can be used both with students, parents and teachers to raise awareness: everyone in the class created an all-new Facebook profile, made up entirely through their imagination. After that, the other people initially commented photos and info the others decided to publish; a second wave of comments were determined by an assigned role, based on the bullying cycle previously studied.
In order to prevent bullying behaviours it is vital to foster a positive classroom environment. This is why we explored the topics of emotional intelligence, membership and inclusion and collaboration. These are pillars for a supportive classroom and should not be underestimated. Divided in groups, participants had to connect the basic skills of a strong and cooperative team with their definitions. Of course, we discussed about this with a lot of non-formal and creative activities and games, thanks to which it was impossible to get bored ;)
Discover more about this course here