"CONTEXTCountries all over the world are beginning to introduce computer science, programming, and computational thinking into their curricula, even for very young children. With the rapid expansion of the technology market addressing Early Childhood Education, the usage of ICT in European preschools has expanded dramatically. For preschools and Kindergarten environment, this means taking control over the use of available ICT tools so that they enhance children’s learning, creativity and development of language and expression but also ensuring that the benefits this learning is carried through to other school education levels. The partners in #comake - 5 local school authorities/educational centers and 5 pilot preschools from Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Finland and Denmark - believe that computational thinking (a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could execute) is an very important area of learning and can improve the educational quality in Early Childhood Education. The introduction of computer science concepts in preschools however poses many challenges as few preschool teachers have received pre-service or in-service training to teach in these areas.OBJECTIVESThe overall objective is to SHARE AND EVALUATE MODELS AND APPROACHES FOR INTRODUCING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING AND ENHANCE DIGITAL COMPETENCIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE. By supporting educators and raising the quality of the educational offer in Kindergartens and preschools the project contributes to lay the foundations for later success in life in terms of education, well-being, employability, and social integration for ALL children, in particular children from disadvantaged backgrounds. PARTICIPANTS AND ACTIVITIESMore than 100 preschool teachers and preschool staff, 30 ICT educators,1000 children will participate in activities that will be disseminated and of benefit to more than 10000 preschool teachers and ICT educators, 60000 preschool children and 1800 policymakers across the partner countries.The project’s activities will involve 2 transnational meetings, 5 computational thinking learning and training activities and 4 learning challenges ""learnathons"" taking place across the partner countries and involving both children and preschool teachers/staff. The project will also create an international network through which preschool teachers and educators can work together on resources and documentation to support ongoing progression in their learning and collaboration around computational thinking.METHODOLOGYThe transnational nature of the project will enable each partners to apply methods developed in other countries’ contexts and to learn from best practice outside of their immediate environments. For example the programming expertise in the UK pre-school system, the practical 'maker education' approach in the Netherlands, the discovery and collaboration approach in Finland, the aesthetic and creative approach to using technologies in Sweden and the social pedagogical and outdoor learning approach in Denmark will be synthesised to produce documented innovative and practice-informed pedagogical approaches for the preschool environment. Tasks have been divided into 5 work packages ( PROJECT MANAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION, LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES, CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION and EVALUATION) and distributed democratically among the country coordinators on the basis of their expertise. The 5 pilot preschool schools will serve as local ""role models"" for all other preschools within the reach of each educational center.RESULTSThe project will result in establishing clear evaluated and documented knowledge, approaches and pedagogies for the teaching and learning of computational thinking in Early Childhood Education on both a partnership and individual level. Results will also include a shared website where all results and resources, materials and lessons plans will be accessible and disseminated to targetgroups at a local, regional, national and international level. .IMPACTA generation of European citizens growing up with these valuable computational thinking skills and high levels of digital competency will secure a successful economic and community engagement on a global level. The project will not only target the educational goals of the Erasmus+ programme, in particular by increasing access to affordable and high quality early childhood education and care, but highly contributes to the top priorities of the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (“ET 2020”) related to lifelong learning, mobility and the quality and efficiency of early childhood education and care systems."

CONTEXTThe outbreak of Covid-19 had immense consequences for education. The closure of schools forced teachers to rethink their approaches to education and how to adapt pedagogy to remote contexts. Not only did they need technology to contribute to effective student learning, teachers also needed additional knowledge and skills for digital pedagogy. In many cases, the digital skills of both students and teachers turned out to be insufficient. OBJECTIVESIn this project we want to: Exchange good practices and new approaches to remote and blended learning Investigate how solutions and practices from different countries work in different (national) educational settingsInvestigate the blended learning approaches which work best in different contexts; for example in upper primary and lower secondary schoolsInvestigate how positive results of distance learning can be maintained and sharedInvestigate how the characteristics of good teaching in the classroom are paralleled online in a remote or blended contextInvestigate what digital and pedagogical skills are needed for teachersDevelop training for digital skills and pedagogical approaches for blended learningConnect teachers and schools to exchange ideas and work together on these ideasPractice online teaching and communication between the participating schools and organisationsUse case studies and action research outcomes in the participating countries to improve our (digital and blended) educationApply learning from academic research and experiences of distance learning in Higher educationPARTICIPANTS Across the 5 countries involved, over 18 teachers (including ICT coordinators), 8 headteachers and 12 educators will be directly involved in the project. Beyond that, 100+ teachers will participate in the action research case study activities that will be disseminated to more than 10,000 school teachers and ICT educators and 60,000 students. ACTIVITIES3 transnational project meetings 5 blended learning teaching and training activities will take place in partner countries5 action research case studies The project will culminate in a final training and dissemination event to ensure that learning from the project is integrated into local practice and outcomes from the project are embedded into each region's professional development programme for local schools.METHODOLOGYThe transnational nature of our consortium is a core to our methodology. It enables us to apply methods and lessons developed in other countries’ contexts and to learn from best practice outside of our immediate environments.Project methodology will include:Action research projectsCase studiesTeacher professional development eventsRESULTSThe project will result in establishing clear evaluated and documented knowledge, approaches and pedagogies for remote and blended learning. Results will include an eTwinning page with shared resources, materials and lesson plans, and a website for dissemination at a local, regional, national and international level. Also teachers competences will be increased as a result of the training activities. IMPACT This project impacts the digital pedagogy and skills of teachers and therefore the way students learn by using digital technologies in the classroom and online. This results into a new approach to education, on a global level, in which blended learning is integrated. As the teachers in the participating countries get to know each other face to face and online, they will keep in contact also after the project, using eTwinning.