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AppMentor; Introducing mobile technology as a tool..
AppMentor; Introducing mobile technology as a tool to strengthen the mentoring process during work based learning.
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Aug 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
AppMentor project continues the work that began during the Leonardo da Vinci Project WorkMentor (2011-1-IS1-LEO05-01263) chosen to be a "success story" by a panel of experts from the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission and WorkQual (2014-1-IS01-KA202-O00180). The need for AppMentor in VET has arisen as an increasing partof the learning is conducted during work based learning and during workplacements away from the VET provider. Sometimes it is impossible to travel to the companies and have mentoring sessions on the spot. Many work mentors & mentoring teachers already see the benefits of using mobile technology in mentoring. Also reporting and registering is already done online in many sectors of industry and service. In order to do this work mentors and mentoring techers need tools and encouragement to guide and support them to start using mobile technology when mentoring. They don’t want to be made feel inferior to the students who use different forms of mobile technology and social media. By implementing the outcomes of Appmentor we will give work mentors and teachers the tools needed in order to start using mobile technology when mentoring. This will make mentoring more flexible and it will create a learning experience which is user friendly, meaningful and up to date with the working environment.Students used to using mobile technology (blogs, facebook, Instagram, chats etc) use it because it is useful, flexible, instant and a way to keep track on what is going on. Students might however need support and encouragement to use these forms of mobile technology in a “new” way, a way that encourages and supports learning. Appmentor will provide teachers and work mentors with tools and ideas on how to guide students to use mobile technology and social media as a tool for learningAppmentor aims to: 1) transfer & implement mobile learning to work placements. 2) encourage work mentors to use mobile technology (e.g. apps, social media, virtual learning platforms) when mentoring students/apprentices during work based learning 3) deepen the cooperation as well as information and data sharing between work mentor and mentoring teacher during placement by introducing tools for mobile technology. 3) ensure that all students regardless of where they have their work placement receive continuous mentoring & feedback through mobile technology and thus raising the quality of learning received during work placements.4) introduce tools, methods & materials that support the work mentor and student during work placementsThe project lifespan is 24 months and Appmentor partners will host five transnational project meetings during this period. Each meeting will last for 3 days. In order to ensure time to work on the intellectual outputs there will be 1 meeting held every 5-6 months, the first meeting will be held in September 2016. Throughout the project each partner will cooperate closely with a local Steering group that consists of employers, work mentors, teachers and students. The steering group will meet between the transnational projects to work on the following intellectual outcomes (=tangible results): 1) Online Micro Learning mentoring course, 2) Manual of mobile technology and social media that can be used to facilitate and strengthen the quality of the mentoring process and 3) Guidelines for mentoring students online using mobile technologyAppmentor will result in the following intangible results/impact 1) Better cooperation between the work mentor and teacher, 2) Improved communication between student, work mentor and mentoring teacher, 3) Raised quality of work based learning abroad, 4) Flexible and qualitative mentoring fit for the 21st century and 5) A cultural attitude change towards the idea that learning and training is a copperative task.Dissemination is an important part of the project and all partners will be active in disseminating the project though social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. This will also serve as a training for the teachers taking part in the project to use the social media for work . Appmentor will also have a project web page where all intellectual outcomes will be available by the end of the project along with the up to date info on the project work. Appmentor project partners are:P1 = Axxell, Finland (coordinator)P2 = Broadshoulders, UKP3 = IFSAT, NetherlandsP4 = Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School, NorwayP5 = Nantes Terre Atlantique, FranceP6 = Verkmenntaskolinn a Akureyri, IcelandP7 =Education and Mobility, Spain