Archives of the European Schools Project (ESP) is devoted to the History, Information and Resources of the European Schools Project (1987-2016) in which students and teachers used Internet for international ICT-based collaborative projects.
ESP spans almost thirty years of activities worldwide. In these years we went through many developments, as technology itself kept developing at a rapid pace. So under the header History you will find a Timeline, a list of Conferences, and an introduction of Persons that have had an impact on the birth, blossoming and eventual closure of the ESP-community.
In the section Information you will find Theory in which the backgrounds of CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) are sketched, Practice highlighting do’s and don’ts, and Guidelines for collaborative design, realisation and evaluation of projects.
ESP as pioneering collective of educators and researchers left learning and teaching materials for use in collaborative projects. These materials are available on this website, under the header of Resources. You will find materials for Projects among which the well-known ‘The Image of the Other’. Also links to Articles are provided, as well as Pictures.
Use anything from this site however you wish, just make sure to follow the Creative Commons license.
History
The European Schools Project (ESP) was a community of teachers and other educators under which aegis from 1987 onwards many international collaborative projects were designed, executed and evaluated. These technology-enhanced possibilities for learning and teaching were partly rooted in psychological and educational theories on the profoundly social nature of learning, in which interaction with others and the world, collaboration and knowledge construction form the heart of the learning process. In addition they were informed by sociological theories based on the concept of the world increasingly becoming a global village, in which distance is a state of mind, and in which the overcoming of cultural and language-related challenges become of paramount importance for a peaceful and sustainable earth.
Information
The main focus of ESP has been on collaborative projects, often referred to as ‘electronic fieldtrips’, ‘teletrips’, or ‘teleprojects’, which utilize technology to foster collaboration between teachers and learners. At their core is computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This section outlines theoretical backgrounds and shares practical experiences in designing and planning such projects. Additionally, it provides guidelines for starting similar projects. In the Resources section, you can find concrete teaching and learning materials.
Resources
ESP has always been known for offering learning and teaching materials. One of its most successful initiatives was ‘The Image of the Other,’ originally created for German as a second language under the name ‘Das Bild der Anderen.’ It provided students with content to write ‘letters’ to ‘other’ students in other countries via email, along with teacher support materials. Topics included My Home, My School, My Hobbies, My Hometown, My Country, and ‘Do we really know each other?’ Over time, language versions were developed for English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Italian, and Slovene, to be used by native speakers or in international partnerships using the foreign language as a second language. Later, many more lessons and project ideas were introduced on various topics.