ERASMUS+

Okt. 2015 – April 2018

The project is titled, Building a Culture of Social Innovation in Higher Education, and is a three-year project supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme. The project partners are Collegium Civitas (Poland – project coordinator), Ashoka Poland, the University of Iceland’s School of Education, and the University of Northampton’s Institute for Social Innovation and Impact.

The purpose of the project is to explore ways to equip higher education institutions to tackle contemporary social challenges. The project aims to develop and diffuse innovative instruments for implementing social innovation into higher education institutions’ (HEI) mission, culture, identity and educational programmes. Social innovation has been defined as (Phills, Deiglmeier & Miller, 2008):

“A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.”

To support these ambitious goals, the project will develop innovative learning activities to promote and support sustainable learning communities dedicated to the advancement of social innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education. Learning activities will include site-based training, massive online learning communities (see for ex. MOOCs), and project-based learning activities involving learners from all of the partner countries.

Sept. 2014 - Sept. 2016

The purpose of the FLIP - Flipped Learning in Praxis project is to develop guidelines for the implementation of blended learning environments in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to enhance students' learning environments. 

In particular, the project will seek to identify common factors across school levels and European contexts that promote:

• Effective use of information technologies to support students learning
• Student-driven learning environments
• Student collaboration for project-based learning

FLIP - Flipped Learning in Praxis will focus on workshops and training activities for teachers in and development of guidelines for educational institutions interested in implementing flipped learning methodology, with special emphasis on schools in rural and remote areas, as well as small and special needs schools. Additional focus will be on VET teachers, providing them with the capacity of extended hands-on and practical work during school time.

By implementing flipped learning in these schools we aim to create an equal opportunity for students to receive education, battle dropouts, strengthen rural communities and use innovative and new methodologies in ICT in the educational system. The benefits will be lower material costs in the long run, better access to quality teaching materials (especially important for rural areas) and focus on individual learning (whereas they can access the teaching material according to their own progress and speed).

Sept. 2016 - August 2018

The purpose of the PEAT-EU project is to provide a progression model for assessment in entrepreneurship education built on existing knowledge and experience and suggesting potential applications. This project will present an overview of innovative and adaptable assessment tools, including digital tools, for different school levels aimed at enhancing innovation and resourcefulness of all students from the lowest to the highest end of the academic spectrum. It will build on the collaboration of leading specialists in EE, their experiences and research learning from each other and harvesting the latest relevant European reports in the area.

The EntreAssess consortium consists of six institutions from four European countries. Our partners complement each other by bringing together universities (with connections to schools on different levels), training establishments also with close connections to schools and in-service training, a VET school with long experience of entrepreneurial learning and an IT company experienced in evaluating entrepreneurship education (EE) with online tools. All of our partners are involved in cutting edge projects to evolve EE and assessment which will help us cater to the needs of modern educators. Each partner includes staff that have written and researched on the subject of assessment in entrepreneurship education, and are considered experts in the field.

University of Iceland

The University of Iceland (UI) is a leading specialist in EE and has done extensive research in the area. They provide expertise in training teachers and have good connections with schools at all levels. Founded in 1911, the university has grown to a modern comprehensive university, providing instruction for 14,000 students in twenty-five faculties. Teaching and research is conducted in social sciences, humanities, medicine, natural sciences, engineering and teacher education.

The School of Education (SoI) is the UI’s representative in the project. SoI educates teachers for preschools, primary schools and upper secondary schools, sports and health scientists, social educators and leisure professionals. Academic programmes at the School of Education are strongly linked to the workplaces of those professions the school educates, such as schools and other societal institutions. At the SoI diverse research is carried out in the fields of education, pedagogy and training, for the purpose of creating new knowledge for the benefit of Icelandic society. Academic programmes at the School of Education are offered in three modes: on-site, as distance education or as flexible education.

The University of Iceland has participated in numerous projects under the 6th Framework Programme and in 53 projects under 7th Framework Programme, both as a coordinator and as a project partner. 17 of these projects are Marie Curie projects, either ITNs or Individual fellowships. The SoI has participated in several European projects some focused on EE such as: InnoEd, SEET and ADEPTT. In addition to EntreAssess, SoI is currently taking part in SOCENT (Social Innovation), FYII (Find your inner inventor) and MakEy (Makerspaces in the early years: Enhancing digital literacy and creativity).

As Coordinator, the University of Iceland will lead on project management and the project website as learning centre.

Jan. 2015 - Des. 2016

The REFLECT project aims at developing new concepts and means for pervasive-adaptive systems. REFLECT researches ways of sensing users and their mood and intentions. Different aspects are taken into account: emotional state (e.g. annoyance), cognitive engagement (e.g. high mental workload) and physical conditions and actions (e.g. temperature and movement). All these together with human behavioural patterns form the personal awareness of the system. Additionally, information about the surroundings is gathered and used to establish environmental awareness.

Augmenting these results, REFLECT investigates ways of realizing pervasive-adaptive environments. A software framework with a set of practical tools is developed which can be used for building pervasive, adaptable, self-organized systems that seamlessly collaborate with users and control their environments.

The resulting REFLECT system will be able to derive, suggest and perform actions to optimize user comfort and performance, assisting people in their specific activities, for example, in driving a vehicle. To illustrate the pragmatic orientation and results, the REFLECT project includes a number of case studies and a prototype from the automotive domain that shows how such systems can be deployed in practice.