<< Background >>The world is changing fast and it is vital that education keeps pace. Yet, at a time when innovation is most needed, the world of education is lagging: only 38% of recent entrants to the education sector believe their school/college is adept at adopting innovations, new knowledge or methods (Innovating Education and Educating for Innovation, OECD, 2016). InDo will support educators to rise to the challenge, helping them transform their teaching methods and bring learning to life through innovative and inclusive learning spaces.According to the Digital Education Action Plan (2021 – 2027), fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem and enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation are the strategic priorities of European Commission. Based on the above, the InDo project outlines this vision for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe by upskilling the digital skills of educators in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through high-quality learning content and user-friendly tools so as to have confident and digitally competent teachers to maximize students’ capacity in the 21st classrooms. InDo project underlines the need of fostering digital capabilities among academic staff of HEIs and academia representatives, so as to improve their teaching, through a blended Understanding by Design (UbD) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) teaching by obtaining essentials skills, attitudes and techniques, based on the development of a curriculum and instructional teaching model in the 21st century classrooms.<< Objectives >>The main objectives of InDo project are to build capacities of educators in the deployment of UbD and DI as a structured approach to proactively cater for student diversity and inclusion through the developed resources, to empower educators to put technological solutions at the service of pedagogy and boost their teaching performance and finally to optimize relevancy and effectiveness for educators across Europe through rigorously research and test each resource. To succeed in this, the project will increase the visibility of digital technologies in the Higher education and it will support the incorporation of new teaching methods and learning tools into the curricula programmes of HE Institutions. It will encourage the educators and the professors to be more confident during the teaching by incorporating learning materials which will finally develop the maximum capacity of each student. Professors will be equipped with new skills and fresh teaching methods, while learners will be attracted by new digital applications during their learning path. The stronger the educators are as professionals in each of these areas, the more successful the students are likely to be. We firmly believe that “the quality of an educational system depends upon the quality of its teachers” (Teaching in Focus Brief 2, OECD, 2012) and so educators are at the heart of our work.<< Implementation >>Many educators sense that both teaching and learning have been redirected in ways that potentially impoverishing for those who teach and those who learn. Simultaneously, they find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of learns who populate their classrooms. Educators need a model that acknowledges this gap so that young people develop powers of mind as well as accumulate an information base. The InDo project bridges that need and incorporated four (4) basic phases of implementation. Within this context, a number of activities affecting -directly or indirectly- the incorporation of the design and delivery of blended UbD and DI teaching and learning process, are being included in the InDo project. Our approach covers not only the training provision process of the educators (see R1) but also the practical application of the lessons learned (see R2, R3). Finally, the delivery of policy recommendations regarding ways of enhancing the digital competences of HEIs educators (R4) as well as a JST is going to provide a realistic testing of the blended UbD and DI functions and processes. • 4 Results and 18 Activities in total are foreseen, while a JST is going to provide a realistic testing of the UbD and DI functions and processes. • 3 TΜ (the first meeting will be organized with physical attendance. Ιf it is not applicable, budget will be transferred to other positions) • 5 MΕ• 1 Consultation with stakeholdersQuality classrooms evolve around powerful knowledge that works for each student. That is, they require quality curriculum and quality instruction. In tandem, UbD and DI provide structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction based on our current best understandings of teaching and learning.<< Results >>InDo project underlines the need of fostering digital capabilities among academic staff of HEIs, professors, researchers, trainers, HE practitioners, and academia representatives, so as to improve their teaching, through a blended Understanding by Design (UbD) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) teaching by obtaining essentials skills, attitudes and techniques, based on the development of a curriculum and instructional teaching model in the 21st century classrooms.On completion, InDo will have made it possible for educators in Higher Education to access training on inclusive and innovative pedagogic strategies which will help them create creative and differentiated learning spaces for their students. The long-term results will be improved learning outcomes for students from all backgrounds and more innovative, forward-looking educational institutions better equipped to address diversity and disadvantaged people. We will achieve this by working together to understand diversity and innovation best practice and creating accessible, engaging and practical training resources and tools for professors. We will work closely with specialists in pedagogic innovation, HE leaders and educators, generating results in two stages during the project: - stage 1 refers to tangible results that are produced by the partnership - stage 2 refers to the results generated when these results are used with the target groups, multiplier activities and the wider dissemination.Within this context, the following results (R) are going to be achieved during and upon the InDo project completion are:Stage 1: Tangible Results R1: One (1) Curriculum (available online as an interactive resource) covering the needs of ΗΕ for inclusive classrooms and fostering the educators with skills and attitudes R2: One (1) Compendium of experiential laboratory and Benchmarking for “Pedagogies for Innovative Classrooms” is going to be developed (available online for download)R3: One (1) App “InDo app for the 21st Century Classroom”R4: One (1) Policy Recommendation Report after consultation with representative stakeholders Stage 2: Results on participants and target group R1: 60 teachers and trainers assist in testing the resources and are immediately better prepared to begin implementing inclusive and innovative teaching and learning strategies R2: 400 teachers and trainers download/access the online course, compendium and app and develop: - improved awareness regarding the importance of addressing diversity and disadvantage in the classroom through innovation - increased knowledge of differentiated instruction as a discipline and of a wide range of specific pedagogic approaches that enable students to learn in their best way and develop 21st century skills and competences - strengthened ability to implement innovative and inclusive pedagogic approaches in their own classes R3: 150 mangers of educational organisations and education stakeholders download/access the online course, compendium, app and policy recommendation report and: - better understand and value differentiated instruction - explore new ways to empower and training educators to prioritise pedagogic innovation - commit to introducing InDo training and creating an implementation plan for innovative and inclusive education.R3: A strategic and differentiated dissemination campaign to ensure at least 550 educators, managers and stakeholders understand and use the resources in the short term.R4: A JST is going to provide a realistic testing of the blended UbD and DI functions and processes (12 participants)

Asian Family Businesses (FB) are the backbone of the Asian economy, however the specific characteristics of family businesses which can affect their longevity and their competitiveness remain unexplored. More efforts should be directed towards studying the contribution of family businesses to establish the proper institutional frameworks to support their longevity. In this context the project aims to create a new Master’s programme in the specialized academic area of FB Management in total 16 HEIs of Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, that is as much absent from HEI programmes in the Partner Countries (PC) involved as it is needed. The FAB curriculum will incorporate novel entrepreneurial theories, business models and innovative management tools fostering new family entrepreneurs, but also promoting entrepreneurial behaviour (including innovation) in existing family firms.Beyond coursework, the program will be structured around:- industry placement, in family businesses;- ‘FB Centers of Excellence’ in PC HEIs that will act as foci for research and innovation in the area;- country-specific VET online courses (MOOCs), introducing PC HEIs in the MOOC era;- digital learning, to allow modern forms of learning, as well as to enable contribution from experts across the globe in the development of the program;- promote cooperation, exchange of know-how and good practices in the subject area between EU and PC HEIs;-establish viable synergies and links with family businesses in order to address their needs in specialized personnel and enhance the employability of FAB graduates;-contribute to local economic growth, by providing to program participants the right knowledge/skills/tools to turn the local family-business sector into a driver of social and economic growth;-promote dialogue between the academic sector, family businesses and policy/decision makers in PC and help convey the concerns faced by FB into policy consultation processes.

The main objective of the project was to create a training tool capable of responding to the need todevelop intercultural interpersonal skills and abilities for operators and professionals who in their daily work do find themselves operating in multicultural contexts and with minority groups. As a result improve the quality of theirs intervention towards beneficiaries, not only in the context of youth organizations, but also in other contextseducational, such as school, and professional in general. This objective was fulfilled with the realization ofMOOC “Union of Minorities. Educational tools for the European Cultural Mosaic ”, a product with characteristicstechniques (its accessibility to a broad audience of learners) and content (theoretical and practical aspects on the topics ofmulticulturalism and the construction of inclusive educational pathways), stands as an instrument of education and trainingshared with an intersectoral approach, which combines methodologies, tools and knowledge typical of educationformal and non-formal education, coming from the public and private sector, and that, addressing the topic ofmulticulturalism in the broad sense (not only with reference to its most evident aspects linked to belonging to an ethnic groupor practicing a different language), offers a space for deepening professional and personal skillsdeemed necessary to understand and operate in European and national social contexts for which it becomes fundamentalpossess an intercultural approach based on recognition and respect for differences.The MOOC was the result of a path that saw the synergistic collaboration between the worlds of formal and non-formal educationformal, private and public and which was built throughout the project life cycle through specific contributionsof the work group and the study visits that took place during the first year, during which they werevisit various realities and it has been possible to observe, learn and evaluate different experiences and ways of working. TheObservation process established during the study visits allowed the collection of data used to identifythe topics found among the most important in the various areas and finalize the modular structure of the course following onepedagogical logic identified by the work group. It is for this reason that the MOOC includes chapters that they offerimportant theoretical ideas to better understand and reflect on topics such as multiculturalism, globalization,colonialism, the concept of minority, stereotypes and processes of stigmatization, whose mastery is fundamentalimportance not only when working with young people but in all those contexts in which different cultures meet andvarious differences, to create a more inclusive society, and at the same time functional. This theoretical basis represents thefoundations on which a pedagogical path was then built starting from the necessary personal skillsto learners to then be able to decline them in their respective professional fields, we continue towards the learning of methodologiesfor the management of groups, specific approaches and methods for working with minorities (applicable to different target groups, andreplicable in different contexts) to provide insights on the importance of implementing systematic and structured actions by workingon the web, and on the importance of evaluation as a tool to reflect on one's own activities / initiatives and then arrange oneselfto learn to increase the quality of their interventions in order to achieve more effective and responsive resultsreal needs of the target with whom you work.Through this project and the production of the online course, and its dissemination to an audience of users that goes beyond thethe world of youth and NGOs, therefore, we wanted to contribute in a concrete way to provide an additional tool forimprove the skills and individual knowledge of professionals engaged in work with cultural minoritiesgenerically intended to improve the quality of the services they offer to the beneficiaries, but also to spreadinterest and attention to the theme of intercultural education and recognition of the other as a source ofmutual enrichment and basis for building solidary relationships within non-monolithic societies and communitiescharacterized by an extreme variety of linguistic, cultural and behavioral codes.

DiCE.Lang – Digital Citizenship Education and Foreign Language Learning – is a transnational European project aiming to strengthen the profile of Digital Citizenship Education vis-à-vis Foreign Language Education.Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) has emerged as a supranational priority, as has been strongly affirmed through recommendations issued by the Council of Europe. This educational initiative seeks to empower younger citizens to participate actively and responsibly in a digital society and to foster their skills of using digital technologies effectively and critically. In order to facilitate the implementation of DCE in schools and in curricula across Europe, subject-specific adaptations are required which, at moment, are still lacking – despite being explicitly called for in available DCE publications published by the CoE. This would include a thorough adaptation of DCE principles and objectives into foreign language education (FLE) – a field at the heart of a unified vision of European education that involves the fostering of foreign language competencies needed for intercultural communication, mutual exchanges and civic action. Against this backdrop, this three-year Erasmus+ KA203 project aims at modeling the specific perspectives of FLE into available European initiatives of DCE. This entails: - the foreign language component necessary for digital citizens to communicate in the digital world, - an intercultural perspective to initiate cultural exchanges in digital environments,- an identity component to strengthen learners’ personalities with respect to their online lives,- a content perspective by relating current themes to digital transformations (e.g. migration or sustainability),- a critical component for reflecting on the increasing digital transformation of society. To reach this large-scale objective, DiCE.Lang will conceptualize how DCE can best be implemented in FLE by providing novel pathways into educational resources, professional development, and policy updates. These trajectories will hinge centrally on quantitative and qualitative research activities that yield the backdrop for the whole project. In detail, the project will produce four intellectual outputs:(1) a survey to research teachers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes related to DCE, which will later be turned into a tool for teachers’ professional self-reflection;(2) a comprehensive set of open educational resources available in English and additional European languages;(3) a teacher training package for DCE in FLE providing various scalable opportunities for professional development;(4) a new policy framework serving to guide adaptable implementations of DCE in FLE in local and national educational contexts across Europe. To ensure that all objectives and outputs are reached, DiCE.Lang will employ a rigorous methodology moving from a survey-based, state-of-the-art analysis to the cyclical piloting, improvement and implementation of all educational resources and teacher training elements, and then up to the research-driven conceptualization of a new policy framework. The project follows a sustainable open-access policy to ensure widespread European outreach, coupled with local, regional, national and European dissemination activities that address the following cascade of target groups set to benefit from DiCE.Lang on the longer term: - European and national stakeholders – with an expected impact of updating and transforming educational policies and curricula;- in-service foreign language teachers at schools and pre-service teachers in their teacher education phase at university – as involves their professional development and teaching practice;- teacher trainers as multipliers – who will in turn prepare other teachers for DCE in FLE;- ultimately, learners at school as the key beneficiaries of the project’s value chain and the recipients of the most up to date education involving digital citizenship while learning foreign languages. Additionally, the activities of this project group aim to directly impact 200 foreign language teachers equipped to teach DCE to roughly 4000 learners, as well as 50 expert teachers being trained to multiply DCE back into schools, and 40-200 student teachers per semester receiving DCE training for their professional futures. DiCE.Lang will be realized by a project consortium with experts from five European universities and research centers. Since digital citizenship at the intersection of FLE is truly a transnational European challenge, partners as diverse as Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Portugal will unite their various areas of expertise (e.g. foreign language didactics, citizenship pedagogy and digital education) into a shared project marked by both context-sensitivity and multi-perspectivity. This potential will generate educational innovations that strengthen today’s learners to become the citizens of tomorrow’s Europe in an era of digital transformation.

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