Andrej Nemec, Osnovna šola Prežihovega Voranca Bistrica, Črenšovci
The world today is a global village and that’s why it’s important for us teachers to guide students and give them insight into a world which, thanks to modern technology, is basically at their disposal. Students should be able to take responsibility for cooperating in the lessons. They should have the opportunity to learn about new technological possibilities, be creative, flexible and dynamic while recognising that physical distance does not limit communication and cooperation to borders of individual countries. With those aims I conducted so-called Skype lessons, basically lessons with Skype, among our Slovene students and foreign students from Finland, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain as part of the Erasmus+ Seek and Find Nature project. Students were active players in the development and implementation of the teaching and learning process under my guidance and the guidance of other teachers. Such teaching and learning process with modern ICT enables cross-curricular learning (foreign language, Slovene language, natural science subjects, geography, IT) and a high interactive and innovative level. The lessons demand good technical preparation and organisation of content, which has to be in line with the project goals, but on the other hand provide a high level of responsibility for the students. I also conducted some cross-curricular lessons with my colleagues. As a teacher I was responsible for guidance and networking as well as for providing technological support for the students with their individual or team work. The purpose of the lessons was to strengthen the students’ 21st century competences, like digital literacy and collaborative learning, while improving their language skills; since English was the official language of the project, the students had to communicate in English. This type of work is highly acceptable from a multidisciplinary view, for collaborative teaching, innovative and flexible implementation of the learning process. The technological aspect could sometimes pose a problem, since all involved partners need sufficient technological capacities.
