The workshop will equip teachers with a toolkit developed to support talented students and not only, aged 8-18 years old in STEAM education, using the ‘Learning by Design’ Approach. This toolkit was developed within the Erasmus+ project GIFTLED, that aims to develop innovative methods and approaches for including talented students in STEAM education, using digital and augmented reality (AR) tools. 

Participants will gain hands-on experience and insights into the following components:

• Teacher’s Handbook, which provides advanced methodologies and strategies for STEAM education and suggests the use of AR and digital design tools to increase learners’ engagement. 
• Zappar Application: participants will be able to discover the potential of AR in education through case studies demonstrating innovative interactive learning approaches.
• E-learning Platform, which provides access to raw resources and materials that teachers can modify and easily attach for their students’ learning needs and interests. 
• Curriculum: Participants will be able to explore on how to use the “Learning by Design” method in STEAM education using digital and AR tools, exploring modules that focus on the STEAM areas. 

Equipment needed by the participants: Participants are required to bring their own device (phone or tablet).

This teachers’ workshop on Metaverse and Learning Scenarios is part of the first European initiative about the metaverse use in civic education for primary school-aged children (MetaCivicEdu Erasmus+ project). Teachers will be provided with training material on metaverse features, design of learning scenarios that will use metaverse/XR in civic education. The aim is to engage teachers and empower them to create metaverse enriched learning scenarios for civic education in primary schools. As a result, it contributes to the digital transformation of teachers by providing them with technical and pedagogical training, support and guidance by instructional designers and educational technologies as well as material for the creation of engaging metaverse enriched learning scenarios. It also supports teachers to enhance their education in terms of implementing metaverse based scenarios in their pedagogical practice for Civic Education. Currently, there is a need for the availability of metaverse learning scenarios, which can be utilized by teachers. This will positively affect their digital readiness and capacity and will support innovative learning and teaching practices.

The workshop aims to support teachers towards the designing engaging learning scenarios for civic education that will benefit from the affordances of metaverse and extended reality (XR). Metaverse enabled extended reality (XR) can be a powerful educational tool as it enables students to experience a learning environment combining real-life physical and virtual objects. This combination not only augments what is possible with physical learning material alone but also makes use of the real world as a frame of reference for the digital content. Nonetheless, creating a metaverse enriched lesson requires specific digital skills expertise that can be very challenging for many educators who have no or little relevant background. During the workshop the teachers will build upon current “traditional” effective practices of civic education in primary education that teachers/practitioners will share. During the day we will establish a community for in-service teachers to discuss/debate and improve learning scenarios in civic education using metaverse. Teachers need to be actively present as creators of the scenarios.

Equipment needed by the participants:  Participants are required to bring their own device (phone or tablet).

This workshop will focus on Extended Reality (XR) technologies and their integration into the Cypriot education system. XR technologies offer, among other benefits, the possibility for students to “travel,” experience, and explore various spaces and three-dimensional (learning) environments in an immersive way, which they would not easily be able to access physically (e.g., microcosm or macrocosm). These emerging and innovative technologies also contribute to enriching the user experience by transforming students’ “third-order experiences” into “first-order experiences.” Through immersive 3D representations, students are given the possibility of free navigation and exploration, enhancing their interest and motivation for learning by offering a more “lively” and attractive learning environment.

During the workshop, we will explore the educational use of “interactive virtual reality tours – 360° learning environments” and the capability of creating them using the Project-Based Learning method. Examples of such projects, implemented by students and teachers from primary and secondary schools in Cyprus, will also be showcased. Finally, there will be a brief discussion on the use of Artificial Intelligence tools in the field of Extended Reality and the creation of these 360° virtual tours and environments.

Equipment needed by the participants:  Participants are required to bring their own smartphone device.

The driving question of the workshop is: how can we engage students using AI and sustain motivation? Can we achieve this by bridging the gap between traditional practices and the demands of a rapidly ΑΙ data-driven digitalized world, empowering students to become proactive learners and creators of their own intellectual development? The workshop aims to equip educators with an AI ecosystem structured around the following key principles: 

• Integration of Collective Human Intelligence (CHI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI): CHI & AI complement each other in the design and implementation of educational processes. 
• Resource Utilization and Educator Training: Leveraging essential sources and generic resources to integrate AI into teaching methodologies, fostering an enriched, interdisciplinary, and peer-to-peer learning experience. 
• Evolution from “Objects-to-Think-With” to “Agents-to-Think-With”: Facilitating a gradual shift from traditional educational tools to contemporary intelligent assistants that support various thematic areas and interact with educators and students. 

Based on a well-documented AI Educational Framework of Ethics, the workshop focuses on the essential skills that educators and interested parties need to effectively utilize the most significant and up-to-date free AI tools to boost student engagement in class. The list of AI environments and tools, recently tested by the educational community, includes:

• Recognition and Generation of Audiovisual Material, Faces, Objects etc. (Prompting),
• Natural Language Processing and Avatars (any kind of oral-written transformations),
• Machine Learning (training with public or personal data),
• Generation and Optimization of Educational Material (e.g. Lesson/Learning Plans, etc.)

Equipment needed by the participants:  Participants are required to bring their own device (phone or tablet).