EU Code Week Summer School 2023
Publication date: September 22, 2023
Flying over Brussels, I thought about what awaited me at the EU Code Week summer school and why I signed up to study and work during the annual vacation while my colleagues were lounging on the beaches and enjoying the shade of the pine trees, of course without a laptop in front of me. Mine was next to me, or rather on my back in my backpack. The very next day, I got answers to my questions by meeting wonderful people, enthusiastic teachers who are eager and willing to share their knowledge with others, learn and improve their knowledge and skills, and by listening to the lectures of mentors Arjana, Eugenija, Tommaso and Eirini.
Years ago, participating in various MOOCs, I had the opportunity to virtually stay in the classroom of the European Schoolnet Academy, which provided a different dimension of learning, and now I had the opportunity to see it live and understand the concept of a multifunctional classroom. Surrounded by micro:bits and robots, I listened to interesting presentations on how to teach students about coding and computational thinking in a safe online environment and what different resources to use, what are the benefits of using AI in teaching, implementing coding in the curriculum, and the importance of (teaching?) unplugged coding in early childhood age. The emphasis was on encouraging creativity and developing 21st-century skills in students through coding.
During the five days, different lecturers took turns with different topics. In addition to the mentors already mentioned, we were also visited by STEM education experts from Lenovo, Luca Scalzullo and Marine Rabeyrin, who spoke about how we can transform Lenovo packaging into new STEM discoveries, from electrical circuits to simple machines, with our students.
We visited the FabLab in Brussels, played, programmed, and created various products with 3D printers. During the Teach Meet, teachers participating in interesting lectures, in three parallel sections, had the opportunity to show their examples from practice, and at the end of the panel discussion, we agreed on the strategy for the development of the EU Code Week as well as the holding of the coding week in the tenth month of 2023. What activities to implement and how to bring value to the pedagogical offer of EU Code Week, were the questions to which we found answers.
And here I am back from Brussels, the annual vacation is in progress, I’m sitting under a pine tree and listening to the crickets, and the laptop is still in front of me because I had to write a few words about this wonderful experience and the wonderful people who left a mark in my life.
Simply, so that we don’t forget.