Course for teachers on Social Media & Technology in the Classroom

Course overview

Nowadays new technologies and social media are playing an important role in our society. Web platforms, mobile apps and social networks offer to education a wide new range of new possibilities and tools, but not without challenges. New technologies can be a muddy environment for teachers and education staff and approaching it without a proper guidance and a practical training can be a time-consuming task.
Taking part in this course teachers, trainers and education managers will gain a outlook on best practices and concrete ways of using social technologies, web solutions and interactive apps to empower and support education. Through an hands-on approach and learning-by-doing methodology teachers and educational staff will learn how to make the most of new technologies, apps and social media and will reflect together how to use them in the classroom.

Main objectives

This structured course allows participants to improve their ICT and digital skills in a practical and concrete way together with other participants and trainers throughout all Europe thus gaining as well a broader understanding of education in Europe and exchanging best practices and experiences. The general aim of this course is to foster excellence in education by empowering teachers, trainers, headmasters and other education staff to integrate new technologies and social media into teaching and education.
This course is a great and effective way to discover in a safe, friendly and supportive environment the best apps, web solutions and social platforms for teaching and student learning. This course is especially recommended for the education staff that is doing the first “digital” steps since it provide a comprehensive and all-embracing overview on ICT and social technologies for education.
The course has a flexible approach in order to adapt the learning outcomes to the particular needs and ICT competencies of the participants.
Thanks to this course the participants will:

Get an overview of the most important new technologies and of the growing trend of integrating ICT into education;
Get acquainted with the most relevant social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube…) and how they can be integrated into education and learning;
Learn how to create and use images and videos in your classroom;
Learn how to easily design a website or a blog;
Learn the basic concepts of creating an e-learning platform;
Learn about the best apps and web solutions to make education more engaging, motivating and innovative;
Get a new perspective on ICT tools and learn new ways and best practices to integrate new technologies into education;
Exchange best practices and share experiences with participants and staff coming throughout Europe;
Make contacts with individuals and organizations working in the education field in Europe through everyday cooperation and networking activities.

Sessions planned

Bologna
16/02/2020 - 22/02/2020
01/11/2020 - 07/11/2020
18/04/2021 - 24/04/2021
14/11/2021 - 20/11/2021

Palermo
26/07/2020 - 01/08/2020
01/08/2021 - 07/08/2021

If none of these dates suits you please mind that if there are at least 8 participants interested we may organize an additional session ad-hoc for your school.

Target audience

This course is addressed to teachers, trainers, educational counsellors, career counsellors, school psychologists, headmasters, school management and administrative staff working in primary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, training centres, adult education schools, higher education and NGOs.
This course is recommended for people with basic computer skills. If you consider yourself an intermediate ICT user we recommend you to enroll in our course “Integrating ICT and new technologies into teaching and education”.

Language

The course is held in English. For groups with at least 8 participants, we can organize an ad-hoc session in a different language.
Please write an email to staff@ifom.info to get more information about it.

Standard daily programme

Please find below the standard indicative daily programme that will be personalized on participants needs and professional profiles.
Our standard program comprises 7 days of course, of which the first one is dedicated to networking, preparation and cultural immersion and the last one to follow up, specific needs and cultural activities. Please note that we always do our best to accommodate the specific needs of our participants in a flexible way, including but not limited to budget restrictions and travel arrangement. Participants can choose to arrive 1 day before the start of the course and/or leave one day after the end of it in order to enjoy a deeper cultural immersion. Upon specific request we can organize longer or shorter versions of this course.

Sunday	- Participants arrival - Individual orientation and information about the venue and the city - Networking activities - Guided visit in Bologna (optional) - Welcome dinner
Monday	- Course introduction - Competences ex-ante evaluation - Social media, Information and Communication Technologies and new digital trends in education and classroom management - How teachers and students can easily create outstanding multimedia content - Practical work: using the App Snapseed to edit a photo - Practical work: making a photo collage with the App Photogrid - Practical work: creating a stunning video with Magisto - Introduction to virtual whiteboard and App to create a video lesson - Practical work: turning your iPad or Android tablet into a virtual whiteboard to create a video lesson
Tuesday	- Exploring the best and most used interactive apps and web solutions for teaching and student learning in the classroom - Practical work: creating and running learning games to motivate, teach, revise and assess - Practical work: creating and administering quizzes and tests graded in real-time - Practical work: creating a lesson around a video - How to personalize and tailor teaching and student learning thanks to ICT tools and apps - Cultural activities in Bologna and traditional Italian aperitif
Wednesday	- The most common and used social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube…) and how they can be integrated into education and learning - Practical work tailored on the learning needs of the participants - Plenary presentation and peer-review - Guided visit in Florence or another Italian city (optional)
Thursday	- Introduction to e-learning, blended learning and flipped classroom - Focus on Edmodo as a social learning community - Practical work: creating and e-learning classroom - Practical work: sharing news, links and images with the students - Practical work: creating and administering a quiz and an assignment - Practical work: award a learning badge and entering a grade
Friday	- The basics concepts of web design - Practical work: creating your first website or blog with Weebly - Introduction to collaborative web tools and Google apps - Practical work: sharing and working simultaneously in a document on google drive - Practical work: creating a Google form and embed it in your site/blog - Additional social technologies, apps and web solutions that can be used in education - Tailored practical work based on the participants learning needs and expectations - Dinner in traditional Italian restaurant
Saturday	- Space for discussion of future cooperation and planning follow up activities - Course roundup and final evaluation - Validation of learning outcomes and certification ceremony - Additional training session tailored to specific needs (optional) - Cultural activities or additional guided visit in another major Italian city (optional) - Participants departure

Pre-registration

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Participant Name *

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Email address *

Phone Number *

Will you apply for Erasmus+ funding? *

Select your preferred dates *

If you've selected "Other" please specify: *

How many participants from your organization will join this training course? *

Pre-register

Other relevant facts

Methodology
Costs and Erasmus+ Funding
Certification and Validation of learning outcomes

We tailor the working methods based upon participants’ needs, attitudes and professional profiles in order to ensure high productivity, effectiveness and transferability into practice.
The standard methodology is highly practical and participative with hands-on approach that comprises real-job examples, case studies examination and simulations. We embrace collaboratively working methods that foster mutual learning and cooperation among participants. Our focus is on learning in an interactive and international environment knowledge applicable to the real contexts and/or in the classroom. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, group and peer activities, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange. They include visits with local schools and institutions allowing the participants to better understand the local education system as well as exchange ideas and contacts.
Morning Wrap-up and brief daily evaluations are foreseen to ensure quality of education and to adapt the learning programme to participants' needs better tailoring the education.
We organize optional social, networking and cultural activities in order to give participants the opportunity to know Italy as well as to exchange best-practice and establish professional cooperation and links.
The training and staff team is multinational thus giving a full European dimension to the course.

Teachers, trainers, headmasters and any other staff of education organizations are eligible to receive an Erasmus+ grant covering all the costs to attend our training courses including travel, board and lodging, cultural activities and all fees. Our training courses are tailored to be fully funded by Erasmus+ and we offer different options to ensure that the Erasmus+ grant will be sufficient. Read more about Erasmus+ funding, shall you have any problem with your grant please let us know and we will see how to accommodate your needs.
The most common option that we offer to schools and organisations costs EUR 1220 and includes course fee, certification and support fee, accommodation in single room, all coffee breaks, 3 meals per day, walking tour in the venue’s city and local transport during the training course. Based on your preferences and budget you can request different services, a less inclusive/cheaper package or you can choose to organize the board and lodging by yourself and opt to just attend the training course. Read more about how we take care of your subsistence.

At the end of the course, each participant will be awarded a certificate of attendance including a description of training content and as well as its starting and end date, together - if requested - with the Europass Mobility Certificate.
We support the participants in every step of certification an d validation of learning outcomes with specific focus on European instruments and Erasmus plus requirements such as staff mobility/learning agreement, quality commitment and Europass mobility certificate.
We experienced that schools and education organizations may require additional documents to certify the competences learned or the presence in the training course. Upon request we can provide additional certification and reporting documents as well as we provide photos of the training course and a sum-up video that can be used for visibility and dissemination purposes.

Videos and photos of previous training courses

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