ICE and LINKgroup schools initiate international educational projects

Since the foundation of ICE’s Project Center in late 2019, notable results have been achieved with the aim of encouraging LINKgroup schools and institutions to partake in international and EU-funded projects. The foundation for launching international cooperation was the ICE Internationalization Strategy, an important step towards introducing European innovation to LINKgroup’s education system.

Project team and LINK schools embark on 9 international educational projects

LINKgroup’s International School, Savremena Gimnazija and the Information Technology High School (ITHS) are active participants in Erasmus+ projects. They are part of the Girls Go Circular project, which is a segment of the Horizont project called Skills for the Future. The ITHS team also achieved great results by joining 6 Erasmus+ projects, while the Institute for Contemporary Education (ICE) participates in two excellent projects, The Art of De-biasing (dBias) and Citizen 2.1. 

STEP 1: Professional development of LINK school employees as part of Erasmus+ projects

In order to introduce employees with the idea of European projects, the ICE Project Center organized several lectures and presentations of EU funds for teachers at the International School, Primary School Savremena, Savremena Gimnazija and ITHS.

STEP 2: Survey about KA1 projects for LINK school teachers

A comprehensive survey of teachers regarding their needs for professional development through international cooperation was conducted. The goal of the survey was to assess the teachers’ capacities to share their original working methods with colleagues in the country and abroad. Great attendance among teachers (111 out of 143 employees in four schools) showed that 80% of LINKgroup teachers were motivated to continue investing effort in enhancing the process of teaching talented students, digitalization and the use of ICT tools in teaching, media literacy and tolerance, through professional development and the exchange of good practices within the system and internationally through strategic partnerships. In addition, the survey identified talented students in LINK schools. Given that talented students have been recognized in all LINK schools, a special program for talented students will be launched in the upcoming period. The full survey report is available HERE.

STEP 3: Implementation of projects and extending international partnerships

The end of last year saw the completion of the pilot phase of the Girls Go Circular project which included female students from the International School, Savremena Gimnazija and ITHS. The project introduced students attending LINKgroup schools to the interactive Girls Go Circular educational platform, which provided them with functional knowledge about the fundamental principles of sustainable development in an interesting manner tailored to modern education trends and student interests and habits. In addition, the project encouraged the development of LINK students’ entrepreneurial skills, which resulted in finding innovative solutions for building a sustainable European society.

By participating in Girls Go Circular, which is a part of the wider Horizont program of the Skills for the Future project, LINK schools teamed up with numerous partner schools and organizations across Europe, thus opening the door for further cooperation aimed at enhancing student and teacher competencies and education in general.

The Citizen 2.1 project is aimed at exchanging the best practices in the field of digital competences. The project consortium comprises important European educational institutions from Germany, Belgium and France, and ICE from Serbia. During the five-day training program, LINK’s participants will learn about the projects Silva numerica and Learning About Forests Through Simulation, which respond to educational and professional development needs by creating a VR platform for complex system learning applied to a forest environment.

Also, they will see an example of a flipped classroom in the Vauban high school, and participate in the presentation of the Walter platform and a VR simulator for agricultural machines. An important benefit of the project is teacher training on Pix, a platform for the certification of digital skills of teachers and educators, AI training on the M @ gistere educational platform, and Pause numérique – Digital Break, a device that provides teachers with support in integrating digital technology.

The Jerusalema Dance challenge, part of the Together to a Better Technology project, contributes to student socialization by reducing the use of unnecessary technology and promoting traditional children’s games as an alternative to computer and online games. The project actively works on developing skills for tackling cyber violence by training teachers, parents and students how to safely use the Internet. The goal of the project is to reduce technology addiction among students and increase their participation in social and sports activities in school.

ITHS’s task in this project was to prepare handbooks for the safe use of the Internet which, together with other project apps, will contribute to increasing safe internet use at LINK and other schools by at least 10%.

All implemented activities and launched projects are important from the aspect of innovation and further development of the Institute for Contemporary Education and the LINKgroup system, which has been proactively introducing reform in the education system for two decades.

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