EVALUATION – SCHOOL EUROPOLIS
The basic idea of what would later turn into the project called “School
Europolis” was first discussed during a meeting between representatives from
Hampstead School, UK and Rissa videregående skole, Norway. The meeting was in London, UK in September
1999. The main idea was called “Collaborative Internet Project”.
In a project like this it is necessary to have at least three partners.
By use of EU’s search base we found that Vrije Handelsschool in Belgium was
looking for partners to an e-mail project. But it is wise to have more than
three partners, so Viborg Handelsskole in Denmark was also invited to join the
project.
The application for those four partners was sent in the beginning of
year 2000, and the project called “The ICT WebSite Project” was accepted.
The project was given its final form during the first meeting in
Sint-Niklaas in October 2000. Later the French partner school Lycée Privé “La
Providence” in Blois joined the project. They participated from January 2002,
but have been an official partner just the third year.
For all the meetings, ''Agendas'' and ''Agreements'' were drawn up by
the main‑coordinator in order to pass on information and to remind each
partner of what exactly they were supposed to achieve between each meeting.
A basic idea of the project is to use the Internet, so we decided to
create our own web-site for the project. We also agreed to have a competition
among the students to design a logo and a “snappy” name for the project, so the
name was changed to “School Europolis” and we got a logo that we are proud of.
When the new Comenius Program was launched in 2001 we got the
opportunity to have meetings that also included students. Therefore students
were attending two of the project’s meetings. By this a new dimension came into
the project and it was agreed jointly with students that they would create
their own web-site.
We learned that we should have given better guidelines for the students’
meetings so they could be better prepared and involved in the project.
At the final meeting in Blois, all the partners were present, the final
evaluation was on the Agenda and they were all given the opportunity to
evaluate the project personally. In addition all partners were given the
opportunity to send an official final evaluation to the main coordinator.
Agreements were sometimes not followed up and there have been some
problems with the students’ motivation. On the positive side, it must be said
that all the partners have participated in the project in some way or another.
They have contributed to work at varying degrees of quantity or quality. There
have also been differences in the involvement of the students from the
different schools.
Development usually is a key concept word in a project like this. Plans
have to be discussed, changed and all the partners have to agree to the
proposed changes. All the partners should then try to put into practice what
they have agreed to do.
Other problems have been:
1.
lack of communication between teachers, between
students and between coordinators and teachers (every school has, in some way
or another, been responsible for that problem)
2.
lack of motivation (teachers and students alike)
3.
differences in school organizations and schedules, the
result of this was a rather short working period each year
4.
access to computers with the Internet connection
The fact that not everything has turned out the way it had been planned,
has led the responsible persons to draw several conclusions. The original idea
of School Europolis may have been ''too rigid'', so that the partners might
have got a feeling of not being left with a choice or of not being involved in
the more creative process of the project.
Different educational approach of the different countries makes it
sometimes difficult to match curricula and the project and to integrate the
project into the curricula.
Another problem has been the changes of students each year and the
schedules of students and teachers as well.
When the different schools were invited to take part in the project,
they were perhaps not aware of the workload and the consequences. After all, it
has been a good experience of working together in such a project for all of the
participants. Maybe expectations had also been too high. Setting ourselves more
realistic goals would probably have made it easier for all of us to put our
ideas into practice.
However, we have all, teachers as well as students, learned a lot by
participating in School Europolis. And we have got a deeper understanding of
the different philosophies of education, the different types of schools and the
different ways of running those schools in the five countries that have
contributed to the project. We have also had the opportunity to visit each
other’s schools and appreciate education in other countries.
Rissa, 31.07.2003
Main coordinator
Norway