Activities of EEPEK
The actions of E.E.P.E.K. include workshops, conferences, seminars, trainings, competitions - festivals and European programs.
One of the main objectives of E.E.P.E.K. is the organization of workshops, seminars and trainings that lead to teachers’ awareness on issues related to innovation in all educational aspects and enhance the improvement of the educational process and the production of new learning resources. Additionally, E.E.P.E.K. aims at the dissemination of knowledge, the recording of ideas and the use of good teaching practices that have already been implemented, constituting innovative teaching efforts.
A number of workshops held so far involved novel teaching proposals for courses relating to philology, the use of the interactive whiteboard in education and innovative teaching interventions with the use of robotic systems. Thus:
• Workshops regarding the teaching of philology courses were held in two phases. The first one was held in Giannouli Senior High School and addressed all the teachers of the correspondent courses that worked in the region of Larissa but the teachers of philology of the province of Farsala and the Music School of the city of Larissa. Mrs Founta Aggeliki, School Advisor of philology teachers, as well as Mr. Ilioudis Ioannis were the co-organizers of both workshops.
• Similarly, a workshop for innovative teaching interventions with the use of robotic systems was carried out in Trikala (March 2015) and was attended by ICT teachers in the county of Trikala. Mr. Stahteas, School Advisor of Computer Science, together with Mr. Bontilas, head of KE.PLI.NET of Trikala, were the co-organizers in this seminar, whereas Mr. Rizos Chaliampalias was the assigned trainer.
• Furthermore, the first workshop that concerned the use of interactive whiteboard was attended by about 30 Secondary Education English teachers in the city of Larissa (March 2015). A second workshop was also attended by about 20 Secondary Education English teachers of regional schools of Larissa (May 2015). Mrs. Vassilopoulou Vasiliki and Mrs. Vaiouli Potheini were the trainers at both workshops, while Mr Fragoulis Antonios was the co-organizing English language School Advisor.
Additionally, a number of training seminars that concerned Educational Robotics (Joomla, Wordpress, and App Inventor) took place. More specifically:
• A training seminar regarding Educational Robotics was held in a computer laboratory of the 7th High School of Larissa (March 2015). It addressed Primary & Secondary Education computer science teachers. Throughout the training sessions, teachers were presented with all the components of the NXT models and EV3 (motors, sensors, programming environment, different models). Mr. John Baras and Mr. Dimovelis Peter were the trainers of the seminar.
• Another training seminar concerned the use of Joomla and Wordpress. This was held in the computer lab of the 6th High School of Larissa (January 2015). The seminar, implemented by Mr. Douvlis Theodoros and Mr. Mocha Apostle, aimed at teachers’ familiarization with the specific tools and their integration in the educational process. The seminar was held in collaboration with Dr. Dimitris Kolokotronis, School Advisor of Computer Science in the districts of Larissa and Karditsa , the ICT centre (KE.PLI.NE.T) of Primary and Secondary Education, the Computer Science teachers’ association in the region of Larissa and the national Computer Science teachers’ association (P.E.KA.P) – department of Thessaly.
• Furthermore, teachers were trained how to install and pedagogically exploit the programming tool “App inventor” in the computer science and ICT applications school lab. The seminar, which was implemented by Mr Karasimos Zisis and Arvalis Konstantinos, addressed the computer science teachers of Larissa and took place in the ICT school lab of the 10th High School of Larissa (March 2015) for 9 successive hours.
Further to the above, a seminar on Educational Robotics was also held by the Technological and Educational Institute (T.E.I) of Larissa, with the support of the Educational Robotics, Science, Technology and Mathematics Association (WROHELLAS) (October 2014-February 2015).
What is more, E.E.P.E.K. members cooperated with the School Advisor Mr. Kolokotronis Dimitrios to co-organize the 5th Festival of Digital Creativity. The festival, which was held for the third consecutive year by the Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Thessaly, took place in the city of Larissa. Fifty six schools, with a hundred and twenty-two teachers and seven hundred and fifty students participated in the festival, deriving from a variety of schools from Larissa, Karditsa, Thessaloniki and Ptolemaida.
Meanwhile, the 1st Regional Educational Robotics Competition was also organized in Larissa, Thessaly by E.E.P.E.K and the department of the Educational Robotics, Science and Technology Association of Thessaly (WROHellas) (February 2015). A hundred and twenty students, spread in twenty two school groups from four different Thessaly districts, participated in the contest by the topic "My City".
Last, E.E.P.E.K. members participated in the European Program of Erasmus + and attended a training program that was implemented in the first week of December 2015 in Prague, of the Czech Republic. The training program, which lasted for a week, enabled teachers from all over Greece, Cyprus and Turkey to be introduced to innovative teaching techniques and teaching methods as well as to cooperate with European peers, exchanging cultural elements and educational experiences.