Describe the results of your project as per today:
Students improved their behavior and developed socially and academically. They developed a positive attitude towards specific courses and school generally. They were able to speak about their fears, strengths, talents without being afraid of rejection. They felt secure and confident in participating in teams. They developed friendships and valuable affective traits, such as empathy, understanding , acceptance etc. They developed their self awareness, learned how to cope with problems and valued their uniquness. The end product was the creation of three books: The friedship book/The book of my Friendly Acts/The book of “It’s all about me and my feelings”
How does it fulfill the users’ needs:
Many problems in education could be avoided if our main concern for a child’ s academic growth was balanced by an equally strong concern for his affective development and his feelings for self worth as a person. This project aimed at providing students with intellectual as well as social and affective growth.
How many users interact with your project per month and what are the preferred forms of interaction:
Students and teachers from participating schools regularly interacted using the project’s twinspace. Students were able to see the work of their partners and teachers to discuss problems and views.
How has it improved the quality of educational and/or training services:
The student evaluation questionnaire was based on Kirkpatrick’s model.
Students were given questionnaires aiming, among others, at providing answers to the following questions:
• Did they like the project? (Reactions)
• What did they learn? (Learning)
• Will they use what they learnt? (Transfer of knowledge)
• Will they change? What is the impact to the school setting? (Result)
• ROI (Return on Investment). How will the school benefit from the students’ involvement in the project?
Students provided answers to the above questions which revealed ways they would use their knoweledge and make changes in their behavior. Thus, we were able to evaluate how the school would benefit from the students’ involvement in the project (ROI).
How has it improved the participation of professionals, children, youth and other stakeholders:
All participants were able to benefit from the project: Students were able to develop academically and socially, receiving the best that a school, not a single teacher can offer them. Teachers were able to develop professionally, as planning and implementation of the program offered them the opportunity to be involved and think about their work. As a conclusion, we would dare to say that the whole educational and family system benefitted from the project.
How does it promote the use of ICT for the educational and cultural development by professionals, children and youth:
ICT was the medium of teachers’ collaborative work, as the twinspace was the area for project design, publication of results and project problem solving. Students and teachers used ICT to see each other’s product (e.g. e-book on activities), while students developed their ICT skills by learning how to use search engines, create photo stories, make powerpoint presentations, develop their e-book etc. We might say that ICT was proven an excellent psycho-pedagogic tool in our project.
Describe how you measure (parameters) these results:
The results are measured by two student evaluation questionnaires: One focuses on intrapersonal and the other on interpersonal activities, making an overall project evaluation, as well. Moreover, professionals involved in the project were able to make their own evaluation through the consultive collaboration scheme.
