Asia Europe Classroom in Ireland

9th Asia-Europe Classroom Network Conference

2010-12-14T03:26:00.000-08:00

The conference this year was held in in Gurgaon NCR of Delhi, India from 12 – 16 November 2010. It was organised by St. Mark’s Senior Secondary Public School, Meera Bagh in collaboration with the Asia-Europe Foundation of course and with the support of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

As always the occasion brought teachers and teacher educators together from many countries and over 30 projects were proposed.

Ireland was represented by a representative of ourDepartment of Education and Skills, Mr. George Porter, by Ms. Angela Rickard coordinator of the GoCyberGreen project and Ms. Adrienne Webb, president of the Computers in Education Society of Ireland.

We were given a tour of St Mark's School and were astounded by incredible hospitality and warmth of the teachers and pupils who welcomed us to the school, to the conference and to India, that most incredible country!

The Irish delegation were paying close attention to the way the conference was run because we plan to bring it to Ireland in the year! More about that in future posts.

8th AEC-NET Conference, Denmark 2009 by Joann Durack

2010-05-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

During the October mid-term break I was asked to represent my school, Malahide Community School and Ireland in the 8th Asia Europe Classroom Conference which was being help in Sønderborg, Denmark

On arrival to the Comwell Hotel we registered our details and got a bag packed full of information which we needed for the next few days. The welcome dinner was being held in Sønderborg Castle where we were greeted at the entrance to the Castle by an actor playing the part of one of Denmark’s ancient Kings. The Conference was then officially opened by the Secretary General Danish National Commission of UNESCO, Minister for Education. Remarks were also made by members of the Asia-Europe Foundation.

After dinner was served we moved into another room where eight dancers showed us a number of traditional Danish dances. After dessert we also got to see two students from a local school performing four songs. During the night we also had a choir from a local primary school sing for us.

Tuesday morning came, this was the day we met HRH Princess Marie of Denmark. She arrived at 9.10am, when she was welcomed by Ambassador Dominique Girard. Princess Marie greeted us and welcomed us to her country, where she said she was happy that the conference was taking place in Sønderborg. We then started our conference with an overview on Climate Change and its impact. In the afternoon all six projects which were nominated for awards presented their projects to the conference. There were two entries each from Finland and Singapore, while Ireland and Greece had one project each. We also had our photograph taken with the Princess. Dinner that night was held in the restaurant in the hotel.

On Wednesday we began with a conference with each country which attended introducing their proposed new projects for 2009/2010. In the afternoon delegates visited either a local primary or secondary school. My group visited the Secondary School, where we were given an overview of the Danish education system, along with a tour of the school and lunch. We also got to go into some of the classes where students were presenting projects on “My Carbon Footprint” projects. After the visit to the school we visited a Science park where we were allowed to explore and then had to attend a talk, which gave us information about the park. Dinner was again served in the Comwell Hotel.

On Thursday I got to visit Sønderborg town with the Finish students where we did some shopping. In the afternoon we then set up a table which had information on our proposed projects for 2009/2010. Each country did the same thing and people came to your table if they were interested in taking part in your project. Ireland had about 15 countries interested in their “ Go Cyber Green” project.

A farewell dinner was then had where each country did a cultural performance. Every participant was rewarded with a certificate and champagne glasses which is in fact what all married couples receive on their wedding day in Sønderborg. This night was filled with great fun but unfortunately it brought an end to a great week. Personally I feel very grateful to have been chosen to attend this conference. I learnt a lot about different cultures and made some very good new friends and overall I enjoyed my trip.

Joann Durack
Malahide Community School

Local Industry and Enterprise Excellence Award

2009-11-05T02:02:00.000-08:00

We were very honoured to have been among the finalists in the AEC-NET awards for this year and delighted to have received a Certificate of Excellence at the 8th AEC-NET Conference in Sønderborg in Denmark.

Congratulations to the winners and the other runners up. Details of all those projects are available on the October 2009 issue of the AEC-NET newsletter.

The Asia Europe Classroom - Interesting international projects for Irish Teachers

2009-06-12T02:51:00.000-07:00

The Asia Europe Classroom (AEC-NET) is for teachers and pupils throughout the two continents to meet on-line and share work on curricular based projects. You can find out more on the AEC-NET website where it is possible to register your school for a new project, join an existing project or sign up to the mailing list and be kept up to date.

Ireland has been involved in this initiative for a good many years. Schools such as Sligo Grammar School, the Marist College in Dundalk and St. Michael’s Holy Faith in Finglas, to name but three, have run successful projects over the years.

Since 2005 the Education Department in NUI Maynooth has been involved as a partner with the Department of Education and Science, the National Centre for Technology in Education and more recently the Second Level Support Service under the LCVP (Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme) to develop and promote projects each year.

The AEC-NET holds an annual conference, alternating between Europe and Asia. Coordinating schools can present new projects and recruit participants at the conference. The AEC-NET cover the local costs of attending. Outstanding projects are given an award each year. Our Local Traditions and Ceremonies project (involving Sligo Grammar School) was one of the winning projects for 2005. (If you have a Google account you can view an article about the project presented at the 2008 Teaching and Learning Conference of the International Association of Scientific Knowledge).

In 2006 we introduced the Local Industry and Enterprise Project, based on Moodle software. Our principal aim was to embed the project within an examinable subject – in this case the LCVP. The Local Industry and Enterprise projec t like all other AEC-NET project aims to get students (16 to 18 years old) to communicate in a safe on-line environment and to promote inter-cultural links between Asian and European schools through curricular work. In it students first talk to each other about themselves, their schools, and their regions and they are encouraged to research a topic such as one of the following:

• Finding out about a business enterprise in their local area
• Exploring a community enterprise or voluntary body or NGO
• Researching a social or economic issue concerning their local area
• Presenting an entrepreneur from their local area

Irish schools involved in the project to date include Malahide Community School, Kilkenny College, Coláiste Mhuire, Askeaton, Loreto College, Crumlin, Moate Community School, North Presentation Secondary School in Cork, Woodford College in Galway and Salesian College in Celbridge. The project’s development over the past three years has also resulted in a growing number of international schools becoming involved and we hope to build on this success.

Relationships between schools have been established and the projects are an interesting way to fulfill the recommendations of the Department of Education and Science that schools to embed ICT in the curriculum, develop pupils social skills and enhance links with international partners in particular with Asian schools.

In the coming academic year we will focus on Green enterprises and the new project is entitled GoCyberGreen… More about this soon . ...