Career Counseling

Career Counseling is a lifelong process starting when individuals choose an occupation -or even earlier-, prepare for it, and make progress in it. It emphasizes exploring the individuals' interests, values, skills and personality characteristics so as to support them to progress in those subjects and activities that will contribute to the attainment of the ultimate aim of shaping a good career as they wish it. The chapter starts with a brief presentation of career counseling and decision making as well as career management development in a contemporary context and continues with an exposition of the Model of Personal Career Management adopted by the “STEP” Career Counseling Department at Doukas School. An overview of the services provided is presented with a focus on the use of the “global net cloud.” Finally, the need for engaging the parents is stressed and additional activities, including handling students' exam anxiety are discussed.

From Ground to Cloud

As technology has become an agent of immense change, it has forced upon the education system Cloud Computing, which in the form of School on the Cloud will have significant future ripple effects. In moving from ground (present conditions) to Cloud (future conditions), there is a need to examine the educational enhancements and the future ramifications of this technology. The description of these effects represents the goal of this chapter, by reviewing the major aspects of the future of Cloud Based Education and by presenting the approach and the results of a foresight exercise, which have led to the development of a series of future scenarios related to the future roles of the major education stakeholders.

Cloud-Based Personalized Movement Student Learning

This chapter presents a case study related to the development of an in-school framework that is concerned with the identification, assessment and interventional management of children with developmental coordination disorder and motor learning disabilities. The aim was to use reliable and tested procedures of identification and assessment as well as to adopt teaching methodologies that discover, reveal and use the individual characteristics of each child to reduce the limitations and to make in-school movement situations accessible to all students. The initial goal was not necessarily the immediate improvement of motor dexterity of the child, but the improvement of the psychological and socio-affective.

Teacher Professional Development for Twenty-First Century Literacies

Preparing teachers to effectively integrate ICT in their literacies teaching, requires well-designed professional development based on sound learning design. This chapter presents the component of teacher professional development based on a blended mode of training through the integration of online tools, as it was designed and implemented in three European-funded projects that dealt with the promotion of literacies. The authors present the projects, their synergies, discuss lessons learnt and provide recommendations on how teacher professional development can be enhanced, so that teachers can be better prepared to address the evolving trends of ICT in teaching and learning.

Learning and Teaching Methodology

This chapter presents the ‘1:1 educational computing', a methodology in which each pupil in the class has their own computer, which they use to participate in the learning activities. The continuous creation of new interactive multimedia digital material is an important effort that aims to enrich the resources available to the teacher, the student and the parent so as to transform learning into a creative, enjoyable, useful and efficient process. Lessons become more interactive and stimulating, while, at the same time, helping students to learn at their own pace. Educational Organizations that adopt the ‘1:1 educational computing' methodology should begin with a set of clearly defined goals, including the expected outcomes. In closing this chapter presents two surveys that were carried out at an Educational Organization which implemented the project (2009 and 2017).

Story Mapping in Primary Education

According to the twenty-first century skills framework and the outcomes of the School on the Cloud European Network, education engages new dynamic learning environments with the use of Web2.0 tools and Cloud Computing. This chapter presents the implementation of a story mapping project in geography classes during the last year of Primary School. Sixth grade pupils worked in groups and created an online map with ArcGIS Online of the major straits and seas of the world. They selected a web mapping application and created a map journal embedding presentations with narrative texts and images. The purpose of the project was the development of map reading abilities and spatial thinking and the creation of content selecting appropriate web tools. The strong engagement of pupils in the project and the produced maps indicate that online story mapping is a useful tool in geography education that combines and promotes spatial and digital literacy.

Flipped Teaching

The current methods of teaching and learning are changing. Emerging technologies that focus on maps, aerial images and the Internet offer Cloud-Based GIScience (Geographical Information Science) learning enhancing geography lectures and lessons in the twenty-first century. Two selected cases are presented focusing on world conflicts, the Spanish humanitarian action and peacekeeping missions in Africa, and the Spanish agrarian landscapes. These were utilized in the pre-service teacher training compulsory year, which provided initial training for future teachers on the Geography syllabus. The two topics presented demonstrate the utility of collecting information from different sources, using different technologies and methods, and combining flipped teaching, collaborative work and Cloud-Based GIScience learning in creating a final product: an interactive map on a particular topic that increased both teacher and student motivation. Students can learn how it is possible to take advantage of the Cloud-Based GIScience in terms of spatial thinking and digital competencies in Higher Education.

Models of Competences for the Real and Digital World

The majority of countries and educational organizations have introduced the concept of learning outcomes and the related key competences or skills into their policy, programs, instructional planning, curricula and activities. The chapter, after an overview on knowledge processes, personal-social competences and significant related models (Frameworks of Twenty-First Century Learning, Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Approach to Learning), is focusing on digital literacy models (Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, ICT Standards for Students), and finally is synthesizing two new 3D competency-based models: a specific one for the individual children's rights for the digital world (“Open Sesame”) and a general one for the educational community (“School of the Future International Academy”), respectively accompanied by examples.

School on the Cloud

In order for the educational system to meet its future needs, several requirements must be fulfilled. There is a need to be an efficient and effective teaching and learning operating system, an appropriate to the future conditions teaching environment, an acceptable set of methodological tools and, because of these, a suitable classroom environment. These requirements represent the major components of the education paradigm been in effect every time, which, in the last few years, has shifted from the Individual/Traditional, to the Group/Progressive, and finally to the Community/School on the Cloud paradigm. In addition, changes in the components of each paradigm have resulted in changes in the corresponding school model, from the Traditional, to the Progressive and finally to the School on the Cloud model. The goal of this chapter is to present and evaluate all these shifts, which are of paramount importance to future teaching and learning.

New Systems for Children's Learning

The chapter describes the author's work on self-organizing systems in children's education and what lessons can be learned from this for a possible future for education. Starting from the ‘hole in the wall' experiments of 1999, the work goes on to describe the development of “Self-Organized Learning Environments” (SOLEs) that can be created in schools and the role they can play in unsupervised learning by children. The role of the Internet in children's education is described and extrapolated to a future where “knowing” itself may have a different meaning and role. The chapter contains a question and answer section where the author's views on frequently asked questions are contained.