| Programme: | EU Comenius Programme |
| Contract type: | Sub-contract |
| Role in the project: | Project manager |
| Date: | 2010-2011 |
Programming is a core competence for advanced computer literacy. Modern information systems and applications of all kinds are integrated with programming/scripting languages to allow advanced usage and adaptation. Programming skills are also necessary to exploit the extensibility of open-source software. Finally, there is a need to ensure that talented young people are attracted to computer science/engineering departments to ensure the competitiveness of the EU ICT industry.
The project aims at making programming courses in secondary education viable, attractive and effective by leveraging recent advances in education programming languages. It developed appropriate curricula, collected and adapted the most appropriate education programming language environments, developed teachers’ training material and students’ training material and test it in the context of appropriate training scenarios.
Our task was to bring our expertise to the development of standard-based eLearning services and training material and know-how in systematic planning and quality control of eLearning content. We had to coordinate and contribute to the survey of educational programming languages and pedagogical approaches as well as in the specification of teachers’ training scenarios.
Exploiting a modern eLearning infrastructure, the project also provided a uniform access point to modern tools and materials so that they can be efficiently used in traditional classroom activities. In particular, the project developed appropriate curricula both for teachers’ training and for students. The curricula were taking into account the situation in the secondary educational system of EU countries and the need to harmonize them with the i2010 objectives. These were based on appropriate pedagogical strategies including constructivism / problem-solving / game-based learning approaches. It also produced specific proposals for adaptation of the educational systems from the perspective of programming skills development.
The project had a clear focus on exploiting state of the art pedagogical approaches and learning technologies in order to facilitate the EU objectives of creating a competitive IS focusing on the development of programming skills of the EU workforce that are necessary not only for future computer professionals but for also for all knowledge/information workers. PSkills is a Comenius Multilateral Project within the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme.