Tomorrow’s Teachers Training

1. Tomorrow’sTeachers Training Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency Lifelong Learning: Comenius, ICT and Languages REF: 511472-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP-simAULA

2. Tomorrow’sTeachers Training • Acronym: Simaula • Goal: Design & development of an innovative ICT-based simulation environment for virtual practicum training of teachers and future teachers in their pedagogical skills, • EU funding: 482,980 € • Website: www.simaulaproject.eu • ParticipantCountries: Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Greeceand theUK • Contract nº: 210-4073/001-001 • Duration: 24 months(1/11/2010 – 31/10/2012) • Keywords: e-Learning, Simulation, pedagogicalskills

3. State-of-art • All teacher education programs require teacher candidates to have in-school practicum experiences. Placing student teachers in schools is not always easy, however, and it is getting harder. It thus becomes more difficult to find proper schools for the teacher candidates to become teachers. • SimAULA will setup a virtual practicum in the form of a three-dimensional, online world adapted in the context of teaching-learning. • Both active teachers and teachers-to be will interact with avatars, develop lesson plans, and teach in the virtual classrooms. • This project will focus on the pedagogical side based on the knowledge of teachers and pedagogic and psychology experts to define the behaviour model of the virtual students and create simulations and situations that are both pedagogically and educational sound. • SimAULA output will be a training platform that will empower universities and schools with a very innovative simulation system to enable the enhancement of the teaching abilities of the students though result-driven classroom practices.

4. Serious games - Emerging Trends • Beginning of 2010 the games industry posted total sales of $1.17 billion for the month of January • Value of sg in 2008 was between $ 1 - 2 billion, recent reports circulating in us and Europe are talking about $ 9 -11 billion • 74% of those aged 16-19 considered themselves gamers (n=3000), 60% of those 20-24, 56% 25-29 and 38% 30-44. • 32% of the total UK population consider themselves gamers (n=3000). 31% of females described themselves as gamers and 34% of males. • Several studies demonstrating the efficacy of serious games for training in particular through behavioral change (sg-ets, hope lab’s remission, pulse project) • Wide uptake of social software (e.g. facebook, wikipedia) • Learning in multimodal ways: mixed reality, augmented reality, mobile learning (more flexible approaches)

5. SimAula – the main objectives: • To design & develop an innovative ICT-based simulation environment for virtual practicum training of teachers and future teachers in their pedagogical skills; • To design a model for expressing and integrating multiple levels of details, fidelity and simulation with learner-to-virtual-agent interactions that will enable students and in-service teachers to improve their teaching skills; • To test and evaluate the impact of the novel virtual practicum approach to teaching and pedagogical methodologies on the students’ and teachers’ learning outcomes in different EU states and educational levels; • To enhance networking between the teachers and professors across educational levels and EU countries through development of sound practice of coordination and cooperation between all concerned actors; • To disseminate the project results to other EU countries and their schools and Universities; • To exploit the potential of the project outcomes for further development and commercialization thus aiming to achieve sustainability and further development of the project results beyond the funded period.

6. SimAula – the project methodology strategy: Two objectives: • Implementation of user centered methodology involving users from the beginning of the project (gathering user requirements) to the end of the project (pilot test and evaluation of the results); • Insure seamless cooperation between IT and non-IT experts (pedagogues , psychologist, etc.)

7. SimAula – partner institutions:

8. SimAula – partner institutions:

9. Work package Duration Responsible WP1 Coordination and Project Management M1-M24 Indra WP2 Requirements definition M1-M4 Unisa WP3 Pedagogical Concept & Workflow Design M5-M10 Coventry WP4 Virtual Learning simulator development M7-M18 Indra WP5 Pilot realisation and End-user evaluation M15-M24 UOC WP6 Certification & Recognition M1-M24 EA SimAula –Workpackages: WP7 Dissemination and continuity of the project SU M1-M24

10. SimAula –WP 2:Requirements definition General goals: • Identification of functional and non-functional requirements • Understanding the context(s) in which practicum can be substituted by a virtual environment • Identification of the roles adopted by students in a classroom and their behaviours • Understanding the role that interactive technology may currently play in learning how to teach • Engagement with teachers to understand current teaching strategies and the role they play in a classroom • StoryBoards definition • Identify and derive valid requirements Through: ethnographic methods to assess teaching methodologies and teachers’ opinion of teachers’ approach to teaching; contextual inquiry and direct observation to identify students’ behaviour and the impact of the strategy adopted by teachers; definition of pedagogical strategies with a holistic approach according to pedagogical models (pedagogical objectives, Class Model, etc.)

11. SimAula –WP 3:Pedagogical Concept & Workflow Design Objectives: • Definition of the Virtual World platform • Definition of Theoretical Model • Student Model • Pedagogical Model • Teacher model, learning path, teaching practices • Class Model

12. Theoretical Model Specification Learner Specifics Pedagogy Associative Cognitive Social/Situative Profile Role Competencies Representation Context Fidelity Interactivity Immersion Environment Access to learning Supporting resources

13. SimAula –WP 4: Virtual Learning simulator development Development of 3 main components: • Virtual World platform, including both client and server modules, • Software agents for the simulation of pupils, teacher and classroom • Authoring tools for the creation of practicum environments by assembling 3D objects, educational contents, assessment quizzes. Development of the technology infrastructure for interactive teaching Development of the virtual world main infrastructure: 3D class design, teaching tools implementation (blackboard, books and slide beamer), • communication media (voice, textual, graphic, gestures) and avatar appearance: child, adult, male, female, etc. Prototype development of Virtual World with simAULAagents Prototype development of authoring tool for simAULA

14. SimAula –WP 5:Pilotrealisation and End-user evaluation • Organization of the Pilot tests: provide the platform and all the infrastructure, pilot tests preparation, user logins and data, planning, partners organization, training on the use of SimAula. Evaluation: to define the assessment methods, to train experts on evaluation issues, to run the assessment process, to evaluate the learning process, usability, technology, engagement, accessibility, to develop training materials and guidelines.

15. SimAula –WP 6: Certification & Recognition • Purpose: • Set up the procedures necessary to ensure that the qualifications and learning outcomes offered by simAULA project are recognised by all participating institutions while ensuring coherence with the Bologna process • Activities • To define learning outcomes in line with the Framework for Qualifications for the European Higher Education Area. • To establish recognition of simAULA virtual Practicum. This will be done through bilateral agreements between simAULA partners and where possible partners will seek accreditation through their national educational system • To define quality assurance procedures (QA).

16. SimAula –WP 7:Dissemination and Exploitation Objectives: • To disseminate the project information, findings and results to the appropriate communities • To ensure after-the-project sustainability of the project products and results • Monitor, lead and record dissemination activities • Encourage partnership to carry out dissemination activities • Develop and provide dissemination material