One year of implementing the project NEStOR (Networked European School Web Radiο) has already gone by. A year full of enthusiasm, creativity, challenging work, and encouraging results. During this year, Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (CPI) formed a close collaboration with all partners involved.
CPI, leading outputs O4/Educational & Support Material and O5/Evaluation of Web Portal & Radio, introduced to the consortium the Visualized Learning Design methodology for the purposes of creating an educational scenario requiring a technology-enhanced learning environment. The three-level design templates and examples became the guide tracks that enabled the partner schools to design and share their scenarios productively. Support to the schools was ongoing, as well as monitoring the progress of designing and executing their scenarios. The learning designs, the educational scenarios and the radio shows were completed successfully by all three participating schools by the end of the first year. These products are already hosted on the project partners’ online space and will be soon available on the web portal to any teacher who wants to learn and follow these good practices.
In regards to evaluation, CPI completed the evaluation of the pilot implementation of the educational scenarios by the three partner schools. The report identifies the existing perceptions, the challenges faced and the results achieved. Suggestions for improvements will be shared to the consortium. For the second year, CPI has designed pre and post implementation questionnaires, not only for the participating teachers and students, but also for the community, so that to examine the impact the implementation had on the community, as well.
In order to further disseminate the project, during the first year of NEStOR, CPI became a partner in ESR’s annual Radio Contest and Festival and invited the schools of Cyprus to participate. CPI was involved, also, in the evaluation of the radio submissions. A prize was set by CPI so that any Cypriot school awarded in the competition would win a trip to Greece with 2 students and one teacher participating in the festival. Two schools from Cyprus won awards in last year’s contest and CPI used about 1/3 of its NEStOR management budget to cover the expenses of the trip. During the 3day festival, the participants engaged in sound design and radio show workshops, met and formed close relations with peers and listened to their radio productions. The Cypriot students and teachers were very enthusiastic about the festival and the whole experience of travelling to Greece. This coming year CPI is participating as a co-organizer of the festival and contest. The same award to Cypriot schools has been set by CPI, as last year. Furthermore, the promoting of the NEStOR project occurred in different occasions during the past year, especially in workshops that CPI contacts for teachers who wish to learn the basic elements of creating a short film with their students.
On September 4th 2017, CPI circulated an open call to all schools in Cyprus to express their interest in implementing NEStOR during the school year 2017-2018, as part of the dissemination of the project to more schools in Cyprus. A meeting with these schools was held on November 28th 2017, during which our partner school, Aglantzia Gymnasium, presented their work, as well. CPI looks forward to further implementing the project this year and engaging the educational community in the creative and fruitful activities of the European school web radio.
