The fourth transnational meeting of the e-Teach Project was held on 28-29 August 2023 in Helsinki, Finland, where the representatives of Helsinki University warmly welcomed all the project partners. The meeting was attended by participants from all partners institutions including Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Baltic Education Technology Institute, University of Social Sciences, and University of Helsinki.
Day 1:
The day started with a warm reception from our host partners over coffee and streamlined technical preparations. Prof.Dr. Jari Lavonen from the University of Helsinki started the meeting with an interesting presentation about the Finnish school system and Finnish teacher education. Subsequently, Tiina Korhonen and Laura Salo highlighted the pioneering work carried out by Innokas Network in fostering innovative approaches to digital pedagogy, both within Finland and internationally.
Shortly after, partners discussed the translations of outputs of the project in partner national languages, and agreed that while the teacher guide and modular curriculum will be translated into the national languages of all partners' intituions, the knowledge paper and the OER course will be only traslated by Baltic Education Technology Institute (BETI).
A summary of feedback and experiences from Pilot Joint Online Workshops and national surveys on digital pedagogy was presented. Moreover, partners discussed the conditions for issuing the e-Teach Certificate Program of the upcoming Training Sessions in October-November 2023. Participants who meet the criteria will receive the certificate from the e-Teach Project. In addition, the participants joining the training in Lithuanian and meeting the conditions of BETI will also receive a national certificate. It was agreed that participants should follow at least 80% of the synchronous online training sessions and complete at least one learning task activity on the OER course for each module. Finally, partners discussed further improvements about the content and structure of the training, and decided about the dates and times of the E-Teach Certificate Training program sessions. The first session of the Certificate Training program is planned for the 17th of October 2023, the second one on the 24th of October 2023, the third one on the 31st of October 2023 and the last one on the 7th November 2023. The training (online workshops) time will be 5-7pm Central European Time, 6-8pm Eastern European Time, and 7-9pm Turkey Time (TRT).
During the afternoon, the meeting took a practical turn with a detailed progress review on the e-Teach Scenario-based Digital Pedagogy Teacher Guide. Each partner gave an account of their contributions, focusing on content and layout design. Deadlines for review, feedback, and final versions were agreed upon, aiming for completion by the end of September 2023 and translation into national languages by the 10th of October 2023.
In a similar vein, the status of the Online Education Resources (OER) on Canvas was examined. Each partner’s modules were critically reviewed and possible improvements where proposed, with a target for finalizations by the end of September 2023.
A lighter yet equally instructive moment came with a Virtual Reality workshop. Participants were introduced to VR's potential research applications and given a hands-on opportunity to experience the VR technology themselves.
The day closed with a summarizing session that recapped the crucial points and agreements made throughout the day. The social dinner that followed allowed for relaxed conversations and networking, strengthening partnerships and setting an optimistic tone for the project's future endeavors.
Day 2:
Day 2 commenced with a welcome coffee and a smooth technical setup facilitated by the University of Helsinki. After ensuring all participants were ready, the first topic on the agenda was the discussion of Project Multiplier Events. Led by VUB and all partners, the conversation focused on the scale and reach of these events. Each partner is to host one event, with plans to involve 40 local, 2 international, and 10 virtual participants. Parters agreed that the Multiplier events will be organized after the e-Teach Certificate Training program and each partner will organise one Multiplier event in order to disseminate project results to a wider audience and the related stakeholders in each partner country.
The following session was dedicated to project management, focusing on details such as project reporting, quality assurance and project impact.
Next, partners discussed the details about the upcoming meetings. The next Transnational Project Meeting is going to be hosted by the University of Social Sciences (SAN), on the 9th and 10th of October 2023. Afterwards, participants will participate at the BETI Conference in the beginning of December 2023 in connection to the BETI Multiplier event of the project. The project final conference will be hosted by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels at the end January 2024.
Finally, all partners discussed the next steps, specific activities, and timing related to the project activities. Also all project partners are committed to further disseminate the project outputs on social media, partner institutions websites and through other dissemination channels. Moreover, project partners have committed to generate more blog posts for the e-Teach website to ensure new content related to the discussions of digital pedagogy each week.
In conclusion, the fourth Transnational meeting of the e-Teach Project was held successfully on August 28-29 in Helsinki, Finland. The conclusion of Day 2 of the Transnational Project Meeting reflected a successful culmination of targeted discussions and future-oriented planning. Overall, the meeting was very productive, and the partners have made good progress towards achieving the project goals.