Intellectual Outputs

The project results in the following Intellectual Outputs O1 to O6:

  • IO 1: App based learning environment
  • IO 2: Portal as an authoring tool
  • IO 3: Generic Tasks for lower secondary level
  • IO 4: Generic Tasks for upper secondary level
  • IO 5: Handbook/Manuals for teachers
  • IO 6: Short-Term Curriculum

All the outputs combined will provide a low-threshold approach (no costs, didactical support, ready-to-use content) to CT that can be integrated in regular school lessons. By offering the possibility to create and share task sequences, more and more content will be available to teachers which will help accelerate the dissemination of CT.

Technical Outputs

The Outputs 1 and 2 focus on the technical development of the learning environment COLETTE based on the successful idea of a two-component system (web portal and app) which is also used by MathCityMap ( developed during the Erasmus+ projects MoMaTrE and MaSCE³. Therefore, we are able to use all the experiences and expertise we gained for the creation of COLETTE. Using the web portal, teachers will be able to use existing exemplary tasks and modify them so that they fit their indivdual needs. The tasks can be arranged in meaningful sequences catering to the students’ individual abilities. Moreover, the sequences can be shared with other teachers. By sharing task sequences, a European community of interested teachers can emerge in which educators inspire each other and create more and more content for COLETTE. The functionality of the so-called Digital Classroom (developed during the MaSCE³ project) as a tool to communicate with students and to create an e-portfolio, will also be adapted and modified for the use in COLETTE, offering the teachers a powerful tool to organize the teaching of CT, support the students and track their individual progress. Although some of those features are similar to those in the plattform used by MathCityMap, COLETTE offers completely new task and answering formats where for example algorithms can be designed and executed and the core skills of CT algorithmic thinking, automation, debugging, abstraction, decomposition and generalisation get puposefully fostered.

The app will also provide the possibility to use Augmented Reality as well as create and run algorithms. Using the camera of their mobile devices, students can analyse the behaviour of algorithms they implemented themselves and how they influence objects in the virtual space around them. The typical workflow will be as follows: the teacher creates a sequence of tasks in the web portal, based on the provided generic tasks (IO 3 and 4), possibly adapt them and assign them to the students. The students work on the tasks and submit their solutions in accordance with the respective task format using the features of the app, e.g. submit a short program inside the app.

Content-based Outputs

To provide teachers with plenty of didactically well-funded content, a set of so-called generic tasks (IO 3 and 4) will be created. A generic task is a task which can easily be transfered to and modified for different settings and subjects and which is applicable to frequently occurring situations. For example, from a generic tasks revolving around an algorithm given in block code, many sub-tasks can immediately be derived like its straight-forward implementation, a puzzle where the parts of the algorithm are not in the correct order or a piece of erroneous code where a mistake has to be corrected. The generic tasks will provide the teachers with various different tasks and thus make it easier for them to use COLETTE in regular classes. IO3 will focus on the needs of younger children in lower secondary school whereas IO4 will produce content for upper secondary students, i.e. up until the pre-university level. The generic tasks will be listed in a digital catalogue, giving the teachers the possibility to choose which tasks to include based on the needs of their classes.

Educational Outputs

The provided manual (IO5) will explain educators how to use COLETTE and embed it in their classrooms, making it possible for teachers to learn about the basic functionality on their own. The manual, which will be available in the languages of all partner countries as well as in English, will also serve as a means of disseminating the project results. Output 6 will result in different modules of teacher training courses and provide a guideline for educators. A teacher training based on the short-term curriculum will be offered the associated schools in all participating partner institutions.