"San Filippo" International Primary School participated to the closing event of the e-Skills week
The Direzione Didattica Statale I Circolo "San Filippo" and its "San Filippo" International Primary School (European Language Label 2009 for its Intercultural Dialogue activities) would like to thank European Schoolnet and the European Commission for the opportunity they gave us to take part in the e-Skills Week 2010.
"San Filippo" International Primary School is a unique international state school in Italy located in the Umbria Region, Northern Tiber Valley.
From my point of view, we are a very multicultural Community; our students and families come from the various continents of the Planet. Our vision and our mission is to work for social and community cohesion, to value our diverse identities, to promote unity, universality, brotherhood and peace. We want to develop and establish an International curriculum of studies at our school. Innovation, commitment and creativity are among our major sources of inspiration.
e-Skills Week Closing Event Report – Bringing the IT to future Europe
On 5th March 2010 four representatives of the Junior Internet project (as the international stakeholders), including one nominee for the e-Skills Week Competition Award, took part in the e-Skills Week closing event in Square Meeting Centre in Brussels. We all appreciated the opportunity to be a part of this European-wide initiative just as we appreciated the endeavour of the European Commisssion to bring ICT technologies to young people and raise awaraness about the importance of IT related skills among young people.
The project objective is to identify, define and anticipate the trades and skills of information technology and communication are essential to the development of digital channels in the border region, through common core skills .
The project also intends, through forecasting tool, to help inform and assist agencies and institutions of initial and continuing to adapt their offering to industry needs.
It is also to help guide young people and jobseekers to these channels through the steps of awareness and information.
Report on the discussion “How to motivate students to learn a subject that is difficult to teach” by Teresa Almeida d’Eça, retired EFL teacher from Portugal.
5 Mar10: Square Meeting Centre, Brussels, Belgium (14:00-16:00)
Participants: Jeroen van Gorsel, Rinus (his friend), Maria del Carmen García (teacher from Tenerife, Spain), Evangelos Koltsakis (teacher from Greece), another teacher sitting behind me, Maite Debry and Teresa Almeida d’Eça (teacher from Portugal)
Teachers suggested that good ways to motivate students are computer games, digital posters and involving students in computers. Jeroen (a secondary school Dutch student aiming at passing exams to get into university) disagreed about games. He argued that educational games are less fun than normal commercial games, that school and “non-school” activities are always in conflict, and that non-school is always more fun. In his opinion, and this is the first main conclusion he came to, IT should be used as “a support for the lesson, not as the lesson itself”.
Oracle and the Oracle Education Foundation are delighted to have participated in the European e-Skills week program, and the closing event in Brussels on the 5th of March. Sophie Barbedette, Sr. Manager, Oracle Academy EMEA, told: "This event provided us the opportunity to meet with students and teachers and share information on our education programs delivered through ThinkQuest and the Oracle Academy. These programs can support education providers to fill the ICT skills gap and empower young people to succeed in the knowledge based Economy!"
This workshop aimed at youngsters and secondary school teachers aimed to raise awareness about the diversity of careers offered by the Nano & ICT sector. The workshop consisted of a presentation of a selection of professions involving nano-sciences, a role playing game and an open discussion. It was based on the materials developed for Nanoyou (Nano for Youth), a project funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme.
The applications of nano sciences are very large, ranging from GPS to high tech materials with engineered properties, microprocessor, memory, power, tagging system, e-paper, bio sensors etc
The workshop focused on showing the link between nano ICT and ambient intelligence applications (AmI). The central approach of the workshop is that professions related to nano ICT are related to the decentralised creation of ambient intelligence.
The link between nano ICT on the one hand and AmI applications and services available to us in everyday life on the other hand is difficult to understand. During the workshop, Marjolijn Bloemmen illustrated the idea with the image of an iceberg as a metaphor to link these two extremes. The iceberg showed, from deep down hidden below water level to well visible above water level 6 levels:
This workshop, at the Go Digital closing event in Brussels, was led by Eva Fabry, European Centre for Women and Technology.
Key topics:
This session explored the issue of women and ICT from a range of perspectives, focusing on the following issues:
o Why are female students less attracted to ICT studies and careers?
o How can we improve gender parity in the ICT industry in future?
o Are there examples of good practice?
e-Skills Week IT Careers workshop: Q&A session with students and professionals
The IT careers session at Go Digital on 5 March gave young people a chance to meet IT professionals and find out more about their careers.
Co-moderators: Eva Fabry, European Centre for Women and Technology and Alexa Joyce, European Schoolnet
In this session, we invited attendees to form small groups with the role models, to exchange and debate on ICT studies and careers. Each role model briefly presented him/herself before breaking into groups. At the end of the session, the participants shared what they learned.
Role models:
Nathalie Leleu, Proposal Manager for the Flemish Government Account, Hewlett Packard
Vicky de Laet, Business Services Consultant, Hewlett Packard
Jean Noel Colin, Professor in IT at Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix
Helka Blahova, graduate in IT and intern at European Schoolnet
Biljana Pavlovic, Cisco
Natasa Vuckovic, Cisco
Ozden Karakok, Cisco
e-Skills Week workshop: Examples and lessons learned
This workshop took place as part of the Go digITal! event, closing e-Skills Week in Brussels. It was moderated by Jonathan Murray, DIGITALEUROPE.
This session shared examples of good practice in e-Skills Week, launched at national and cluster level. National contact points from the e-Skills Week consortium highlighted their experience. Discussion and debate with the audience aimed to identify key lessons learned.
o Which activities were most successful in e-Skills Week?
o Are there specific strategies that have high impact on the target groups involved?
o How can these lessons learned help in future e-Skills outreach?
Presenters:
Laura Franchesi, ANSAS, Italy
Ulla Gilberg, DI ITEK, Denmark, demonstrating Danish and Scandinavian cluster results
Jaime del Rey Tapia, CTO, Grupo Gesfor & e-Skills Ambassador, AETIC, Spain
e-Skills Week workshop: Sustainability of e-Skills activities
At the Go digITal event last Friday 5 March, the session on sustainability closed the day.
Moderator: Andre Richier, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
This session examined how short-term e-Skills activities can be transformed into longer-term, sustainable activities as part of a wider e-Skills strategy. Examples of existing initiatives were given. Discussion and debate with the audience looked at sustainability measures and approaches needed.
Questions raised were:
o Which kinds of e-Skills activities are most needed to be sustained?
o How can EU policy and practice support future e-Skills activities?
o What kind of partnerships can enable long-term action?
Some new video clips were put online for e-Skills Week recently. The first is from Motorola, explaining why e-Skills is important and their contribution to the Week. The second is a great clip to motivate young people to think about IT, made by the Spanish national contact point for e-Skills Week, AETIC.
How does the so called 1:1 computing change education? What are the new possibilities achieved by learning and teaching with netbooks which are portable, lighter and cheaper for the schools than the "normal" computers?
The netbook-pedagogy is still evolving and good practices are only starting. The Acer-European Schoolnet Educational netbook-pilot project is aimed at understanding and documenting how learners and teachers can use netbooks in various educational contexts. The project was presented in the last workshop session of the e-Skills Week closing event.
e-Skills Week workshop: What are the skills needed in 20 years?
The future challenges of education and how to solve them was the topic of the Oracle Education Foundations workshop on 5 March at the closing event of the e-Skills Week. How is the world going to look like in 20 years and what are the skills needed to survive in it?
The award ceremony of the e-Skills Week competition was presented at the closing event on 5 March 2010, in Brussels.
The ceremony was presented by Sofia Aslanidou and Christina Crawley from European Schoolnet and each of the six e-Skills Prize were given by a representative of the company sponsoring the prize.
1. The first prize announced was the Cisco award for Entrepreneurship and e-Skills. The runner-up are the secondary girls students from Ireland (Kirsty K., Maeve Claire M., Ciara M.) with the 'LEAPNI website' project on how to plan a viable business.
The winner for this category are the students Cezar U. and Adrian B. who created the Green cell phone charger, a device that turns mechanical energy into electric energy.
2. The second e-Skills prize was the Employability and vocational training EEA and was presented by Sylvie Laffarge from the European Employability Alliance. The runner-up is Weronika Pielas from Poland and the winner: Augusto Lima from Portugal.
Watch the videos of the Award ceremony:
Introduction and e-Skills Prize for Entrepreneurship and e-Skills (CISCO) (part 1)
e-Skills Week closing event: More efforts needed to encourage young people to embrace ICT careers
The closing event of the e-Skills Week campaign highlighted the need more actions to encourage young people to study IT careers and develop e-Skills. The closing event - whose tag line 'Go digITal' is a call to arms - was a highlight of a week of activities organised throughout Europe to inform young people, SMEs; teachers about the growing needs for IT-savvy workforce.
Here are some highlights of the presentations: Jean Noel Durvy, Director for Innovation Policy at DG enterprise and industry, European Commission highlighted the efforts of the European Commission to place e-Skills/digital skills as one of the priority of the newly adopted EU 2020 plan. e-Skills needs are sharply on the rise he said to an audience of young people, IT industry representatives and educators.
Bridget Crosgrave, Director of DIGITALEUROPE who is co-organising the campaign and represents the interest of IT industry at the EU level, directly talked to all young people in the audience, she encouraged them to learn e-Skills without which they would have little change of finding a job. In the IT industry there is no recession she said. ICT skills are about solving the problems and challenges the IT industry and SMEs are facing. Companies are also desperate for more women to work in their companies, the ICT sector has demands for women's skills and capacities.
Marc Durando, from European Schoolnet also a co-organiser of the campaign run through a series of initiatives European Schoolnet is leading to encourage and study young people's use of new technologies in schools. He highlighted the growing gap between IT savvy student and IT shy teachers. Also he talked about the fact that IT use at home does not imply use for educational means at school. Marc mentioned four key factors to work on: support and motivate teachers, look at innovative curriculum for inspiration, role and engagement of industry and analysis of the shift in demand.
Welcome addresses:
Jean Noel Durvy, Director for Innovation policy, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
I think the competiton may help many young people to develop their skills and to start new of interest. When you starting project you must spend many time to learn about your theme. I think is a great idea to learn new things and find our new hobby.
Marek W. 19 years old, student from Biala Podlaska/ Poland
Zsz nr 1 Biala Podlaska.
It is a great idea, good exeriences and as a girl I could show that also I can do something what rather boys do.
This is the some kind of using your free time.
Joanna D. 19 years old student from Biała podlaska
Go digITal! e-Skills Week closing party on 5 March
Go digITal! is the closing party of the European e-Skills Week campaign. It will take place on Friday 5 March in Brussels, at the Café les Halles, a cultural heritage centre equipped with several high-tech interactive installations including Belgium’s very first interactive bar! The entrance is free, and you can already register at this link: http://tinyurl.com/ydvw8qm
Women can build a career in IT and also build a family
Let me bring here my experience about working in IT, using e-skills and beeing a women in this 21th century world.
I'm 41 years old, I've been working in semiconductor industries for 16 years as engineer in high technologies.
I'm also the mother of four children (15, 13, 8 and 5 years old).
Today, I'm very proud of that accomplishment, but it was really not so easy to make it happen.
Diversity is a good thing. People thrive and perform well in diverse atmospheres. Companies want employees that represent their potential clients - men and women from different nationalities and cultures. Children see opportunities without racial or gender barriers. Unfortunately, the IT industry is very unbalanced.
This text was written by Marsha Jones, Financial & Strategic Management Consultant in the US as a reply to an article published in the Financial Times titled “IT first aid: e-skills can make ideas into innovation” written by Ade McCormack. To read the article "IT first aid: e-Skills can turn ideas into innovation" click here.
Dear Mr. McCormack,
I read your article today in the Financial Times titled “e-skills can make ideas into innovation”.
Your article has confirmed what I believe to be true and have been practicing during most of my entire career.
I am in my late 40s, female, and African-American (US citizen). I have always embraced e-skills to enhance my work and to operate efficiently as possible.
I am currently working as a Financial & Strategic Management Consultant (Self-employed) with a MBA in the US. I returned from Europe last year after working there for 5 years in several different countries. It was not my first time working abroad. Previously, during the 1980’s, I worked in Europe for a period of 5 years also.
Tajani, Kroes & Vassiliou speak out about e-Skills
Three European Commissioners - Antonio Tajani (Commisioner for Enterprise and Industry), Nellie Kroes (Commissioner for Competition) and Androulla Vassiliou (Commissioner for Education and Culture) - are see Europe's e-Skills as a major priority. They have underlined how important e-Skills are for careers, and for Europe's future competitiveness in an article written for the Parliament magazine. Download the article in PDF
[comment] Spanish teachers are not afraid of using ICT tools any more!
This comment was published by Dr. Beata Jarosievitz ( IT teacher) - Gabriella Gidró (Spanish teacher) in the e-Skills Week Blog
The request to organize a two day workshop on the use of ICT and web 2.0 based techniques came from the Association of Spanish Teachers in Hungary. The event was held in a bilingual school in Budapest in a computer room equipped to the Hungarian standards where teachers have access to a projector and each student is provided by a computer.
The objective of the workshop was to show how to use and design digital material and how to use the web 2.0.in the Spanish lessons. Both Hungarian and Spanish teachers participated and they came from all levels of education: primary, secondary and university teachers also attended the workshop.
Let us know from your perspective what can be done in the domain of arts thanks to digital tools. Share with us some examples of innovative approach to traditional art forms that you know. Let us also know if you think that digital expression has a positive impact on society in terms of awareness, education, or other (social, humanitarian, environmental, etc.).
La semaine e-Skills - entretien avec Marie Le Boniec
Marie Le Boniec from European Schoolnet was interviewed at the Belgium edition of the Webdesign International Festival held in Namur, Belgium on 5-6 February:
What boys always wanted to tell you but their pride didn’t let them. (My testimony)
Helena Blahova is 22, and comes from Bratislava, in Slovakia. She shares her experience.
My story might be a bit unconventional since I am already a second generation girl computer geek. My path was pretty straight since I remember… One of my first achievements in life was winning a computer day-camp when I was about 10.
Nyla - May Bulliard, a French teenager, sent in this article to share her views.
We all must admit that there are many more men working with computers than women; but this doesn't mean that women are not as capable as men.
Reading articles on the net and reading some posts here and there; I have the impression that women are looked at as if they were not as capable of working with computers. But they are as intelligent and as talented as men with computers. Especially today, now that many families have a computer at home.
It is an art based on already-known algorithms and brand new solutions
The sentence in the title of this entry may be considered rather not useful, but imo. some people tend to think that any IT specialists carry out the entrusted tasks in a way that is always of the same patterns for everyone. It really requires creativity. This is the reason why the computer science is not as dull as many other school subjects and is one of the only few useful subjects. Indeed, we do not need to learn about another stupid unreal date in the history or to figure out why someone considered whether "to be or not to be". I really regret having only two hours of IT at school. I'd rather learn the ropes of another programming language than learn a little bit of the broad fields of knowledge that I will never explore. During my winter holidays I would only like to stress that school learning is always too unreal and, for sure, not creative enough to live up to the world.
Grzegorz G., 17 year old, student from Katowice, Poland
This comment was published by Cristina Todorean in reply to the post by Sally Buberman
I really like this post Sally. I found new things about how people are living in Argentina and how hard is for children to learn in good conditions.
I am glad that ICT is used in this way. I say this because in my country, some children and teachers don't use it as a tool for learning, but only, in some cases, for spending their time playing online games.
I read a recent study that says that with 30 minutes spent online everyday you get smarter. I hope that all children who spend their time online will get smarter, because the future is in their hands!
My name is Sally and I am an ICT entrepreneur from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sally Buberman won the Imagine Cup, a Microsoft competition for young IT programmers. Here she shares her story.
Hello everyone!
When I was invited to share my experience with young European students I was very excited for the opportunity because I am from a very far away country in South America that even if it’s quite close to European Culture (all the population comes from European Families), it has a different reality in terms of poverty, population, economics, etc.
Since my family is from Italy, I was lucky enough to travel a lot around Europe and that made me realized that we actually have different perspectives because our needs are completely different.
Listen to the e-Skills Week Podcast: interviews with key ICT industry representatives and experts
As part of the e-Skills Week campaign, European Schoolnet and DIGITALEUROPE are releasing a series of podcasts featuring key industry representatives, teachers active in eLearning and experts. In the coming weeks, more episodes will be added, do subscribe to our iTunes channel to receive updates directly on your MP3 player.
Join the discussion on Entrepreneurship and ICT until 21 February!
You are invited to post on the second topic of the e-Skills week blog from 15 February to 21 February 2010. We are very interested to read your opinion about this topic!
Let us know from your perspective what can be done thanks to the use of ICT, digital skills in the society. We are very interested to read about your experience, examples of projects or companies that are successful and are helping citizens and the society through the use of ICT and digital skills (social, environmental, humanitarian, green IT, etc.)
Sally Buberman, IT Director of Wormhole IT and former winner of the Imagine Cup (Microsoft student technology competition), has accepted to be our guest on the e-Skills week blog this week. She will share her experience with you and is ready to participate in the discussion on entrepreneurship and ICT and on the benefits of new technologies for the society.
Don’t hesitate to post your texts and your questions until the end of the week! Sally will be happy to interact with you.
Austris Štāls, a teenager from Latvia explains his views on gender and technology.
It is true that most of IT specialists of today are men and there is a stereotype that women can't handle technology.
I'm a boy and I'm really good with computers too and I'll admit that I haven't met a girl who is good with computers but I know that there are some boys that understand less from technology than most of girls. In my opinion mostly girls aren't good with computers because they have different interests and don't really care about how good are they because there allways will be some friend who knows his (rarely hers) way around the computer.