GAMES 2013 – LEORNARDO DA VINCI PROJECT

Kickoff meeting in Wroclaw – 30/10/2013 – 31/10/2013

Minutes by M3Cube Association

Mona KOMULAINEN/ Daria KYSLITSKA

 

I. Presentation of each partner:

 

1.      The 3rd Age University of Wroclaw (Poland) – the project coordinator

The 3rd age University of Wroclaw (3AU) is an institution that organizes very varied range of trainings for the seniors of the city. The models for the adult education coming from France, Canada, England and China inspire the institution. Furthermore, their training methods are the closest to the French and English ones, which means that those are strictly structured. The “students” of the establishement are over 60 years old and they have to apply to the trainings and only a part gets accepted. As a matter of fact, the 3AU is the most popular section of the Wroclaw institution and for each available students place there is 3 applicants. Today, the institution accounts 750 adult students of which 90% are women (this is a common situation in Poland).

The university gets funding from the local authorities and the University of Wroclaw, also a part of its actions is financed with the European and national level collaboration projects.

 

2. M3Cube Association presentation (France)– see the Powerpoint presentation.

3. HEM Nazilli Hal EgitimiMerkeziVeAksamSanatOkulu (Turkey)

Hem is an education provider that offers a very large range of courses addressed to adults and younger. The aim of the institution is to provide training to its participants in order to reinforce their skills and enable them to integrate the job market. HEM focuses in finding the most adapted methods of learning for their pupils, and also the course offers follows the demand of the participants (craft work, languages, ICT skills, local traditions …). The trainings have no age limit and are free of charges for all.

 

4. University of Almeria – The Research group of Psychological intervention and guidance in education (Spain)

It is an independent university that aims to adapt in the demand of the society. The University of Almeria is located in the very Southern part of Spain and it has 650 students coming all over the world. The interests of the research group are the lifelong learning targeting children, adults and seniors. This groups has already participated in several Grundtvig projects, such as Chance and Unity from Diversity, as well as it also contributed to several national cooperation projects. 

 

5. DCoach Company (Austria)

The company has been funded in 2000 and ever since it offers different consultancy services for Austrian firms and local authorities. Also, the organization was the national agency for the “Youth in Action” programme during 2000-2007.

·         The key points of the DCoach’s actions are:

·         training of the qualified staff, for which lifelong learning is a must

·         adapting to the special need of the organisations

·         developing the potential and the creatuvuty of the organisations’ staff

DCoach could contribute in the Games 2013 project is several ways:

·         It has experience in foreign language teaching (French and English)

·         Development of games and simulations

·         Innovative and creative entrepreneurship

 

6. Association of Young Educators loving Democracy (Turkey)

The main principle of the association is that volunteer trainers (often university students) give courses to different kinds of public. These activities take place the both at the local and the national level. The main aims of the association are to help disabled persons (who have learning trouble) to continue learning by following the problem-based learning method as well as to reinforce the women’s rights in Turkey by empowering them.

 

2. GAMES 2013 project presentation

The main aims of this Leonard da Vinci project are to:

To define and to compare the most useful supportive techniques, tools, games and simulations for language learning. Notably, we will:

·         find which games can stimulate the mind

·         suggest how games for memory training can be applied in language teaching.

·         suggest stimulations for VET trainings.

> These tasks will be done with different kinds of games and simulations that are discovered by the project team.

We will also:

·         research which ICT tools can be used as supportive learning in the language learning process

·         suggest how make the ICT courses for disadvantaged groups more efficient

·         demonstrate the effect  of the audio-visual objects in language teaching

> These tasks will be carried out with the help of different kind of tools in learning

 

How do we achieve this:

·         Seminars

·         Workshops

·         Research

·         ITC courses

·         Language courses

·         Cooperation with in the consortium

> All the partners will choose the most adapted methods to carry out these missions. Most of the partners will carry out intergenerational workshops on different topics or ICT courses and languages lessons. It is important to remember that all the partners should the two following field on the project actions:

·        the use of games and simulations in languages teaching

·        the use of ICT in language learning for adults

 

The specific tasks of M3Cube association are the following:

A1: To suggest which games can stimulate the mind

A2: To demonstrate how games for memory training can be applied in language teaching

 

3. The new attribution of the selected project results

All the partners that participated to the project proposal were not funded by the National Agencies, and so, certain results are re-attributed within the consortium:

Task

Responsible

Deadline

Project website

Poland

November 2013

Logo and project image

Spain

November 2013

Leaflet

France

November 2013

Common tool for investigation

Poland

January 2014

Electronic catalogue of Supportive Techniques in Languages learning

Austria

End of 2013

Project dissemination in the social media

Turkey-Nazilli

November 2013

Participants staff portifolios

ALL in Linkedin

November 2013

 

4. The plans of each partners to carry out the project actions

A. Poland: Carry out English courses with 2 different levels (introduction and advanced) by using the new ICT tools. After the training semester, a focus group will be organized in order to evaluated the training sessions. The will be about 20 learners in the group.

B. France: Organize a set of language learning workshops where different kinds of games (online and unplugged) as well as simulations are used for the learning. In the end of the workshop-set a evaluation session with the participants will be organized.

C. Spain: Organize language workshops in day-care centers and ICT-tools would be used. These workshops will be held by student trainers in order to promote the intercultural aspect

D. Austria: During the project meeting in Vienna, organize workshops for the consortium partners where the city is discovered by the means of different kinds of games and simulations.

E. Turkey (AF Association): The aim is to gather a group of disadvantaged students (who have trouble in learning) and find solutions how they could progress on the general level. The adapted teaching methods would use games, simulations and ICT-tools. The project dissemination would be done with the local authorities and chamber of commerce.

F. Turkey (Nazilli Hem): Organize a class of 20 participants mixing adults and younger learners. The method would be a mix of formal and informal learning; the idea is to teach English to the learners with very creative way that could enable them to solve problems in Englsih. 

5. General matters

The next project meetings:

·        The 2nd meeting will be held in Paris by M3Cube association during the 7th and the 8th of February 2014.

·        Third meeting will be on the 11th of September in Spain by the University of Almeria.

 

To do for M3Cube November 2013 – February 2014:

·        The project leaflet Nov 13

·        The description of the educational supportive techniques (before the end of the November 2013)

·        The research of the mind stimulating games

·        Organize the next project meeting

·        Organize language workshops for seniors

 

5. Pictures from the meeting

 

 

 

 

 

Mona Komulainen from M3Cube Association is doing the presentation of the organization for all the project partners.

 

 

 

The Polish coordinator organized some joyful and nice games where all the project partners got to know each others and learn names.

 

 

 

 

Our Turkish friends are visiting Wroclaw in a guided tour offered by our great Polish host.

 

 

 

 

 

The central market place of Wroclaw. Our Polish coordinator showed us Wroclaw during a 3-hour guided city walk. The project partners learnt a lot about the city that has lived very lively periods of the European history. Beautiful and sunny town showed us!