Projecto Interact na Escola EB 1 de Areias

Interact. Collaborate. These are two essential actions in the dynamics of Project INTERACT. INTERACT places its emphasis on initiatives that generate new interactive/collaborative learning environments and conditions for change in education, with the aim of promoting an oriented process of learning, variation in the modes of teaching, the development of new methods of evaluation and of new learning materials. It focuses on expectations from initiatives that may contribute towards new experiences in the development of learning supported by technology. Through pulling together efforts from several entities interested in progress, sustained development of regions and in a culture of cooperation/collaboration, we can substantially improve the teaching and learning processes in schools and the community, counteracting exclusion, school abandonment and the low rates of school success of the region where the project will be implanted: between the rivers Douro and Vouga. Technologies invade our daily life and are part of the lives of our young. Through them they can communicate, play, work, plan, and have access to an enormous amount of information. Taking advantage of the aptitude children and youths have for using these technologies, teachers can concentrate on a single tool in the classroom, and through this on all the resources necessary to develop activities of collaboration and interaction which are much more appealing. We believe that, together, in collaborative work environment, we will be able to counter social inequality, and this will have a significant impact on the level of education and in citizenship.

The Portuguese schools involved in the Interact Project are located in the geographic area of the Centro de Formação de Entre Paiva e Caima, northeast of the district of Aveiro. All of them are situated in an disadvantadged region, far from the big centres (OportoLisbon), and majorly inserted in rural environments. Almost all schools are connected to the Internet (Broad Band). In general there is some school abandonment and school failure. Teachers are willing to embrace new projects that motivate pupils, especially with the aid of ICT. Installation of Interactive boards is underway in these schools. Some of these schools offer teachers and pupils a services management system by means of a digital identification card.

In this video (almost 58 minutes) you can see some activities that we can do with interactive whiteboards in the classroom. This is a Primary School called "Escola EB 1 de Areias", in Vale de Cambra city: