Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – ITALY
Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – European Pole of Knowledge “Europole” is a non-profit public body with a huge amount of members; more than 4000 Schools and Organizations of Researchers, 3 Universities, 40 Adult Education Organizations, 2 Regional Administrations, Municipalities, 20 VET schools, 20 NGOs, 4 cooperatives, with more than 140.000 members in Italy. It is located in Verona – Italy and recognised as a Council for the European Educational Integration acting directly with all Educational Institutions at regional and national levels.
Europole’s main fields of activities are to promote the European dimension and integration through European and extra – European workshops, seminars, conferences, partnerships and projects. The network is planning „umbrella activities” involving in the projects the greatest possible number of institutions of the consortium. Polo Europeo della Conoscenza works in every field of education, from ITC to in-service training courses for teachers and kindergarten sectors to adult education in prison and in rural areas. It works also on social exclusion, fighting against xenophobia and racism, helping to break stereotypes around gender among different cultures and religions, training of students and drop outs, intercultural learning, youth workers’ and vocational training field. The 4000 institutions members of the network are working with learners at risk of social and cultural exclusion: immigrants, refugees, drop-out and learners with separated parents, social-psychological borderline situations, bullish, learners with disabilities and other special needs. Another field of activity is job strategies and economic researches. One of the main fields of activity of the network in the last years has been educational robotics focused on prosocial values and human rights.
Gazi University – TURKEY
Gazi University is one of the well-established universities in Turkey. It is one of the few universities in Turkey whose history dates back to the 1920s. Gazi University incorporates 22 faculties, 7 institutes, 1 Turkish music state conservatory and 10 vocational higher schools as of 2014. According to statistics of 2013 indicated in the performance program of Gazi University, there are 2065 teaching staff members, 400 lecturers, 240 instructors and 1170 research assistants. The total number of students is 77250. From this perspective, Gazi University is one of the biggest universities in Turkey. It is also famous for its educational researches in Turkey.
Consejería de Educación. Junta de Castilla y León – SPAIN
Consejería de Educación is the Department of Education of the Autonomous Government of Castilla y León (Spain). General Directorate of Innovation and Equity in Education is a principal administrative unit of Consejeria de Educación with responsibilities in the areas of monitoring programs, quality and evaluation; promoting Equity, equality and educative counselling; developing teacher training and promoting innovation in education; these areas of responsibilities conform the four branches of the General Directorate and the branch linked with equity, equality and counselling in education is the one involved on this project, together with the “Educational Counselling and multi-professional team for the educational equity in Castilla y León” that belongs to the named branch and whose experts develop activities for promoting education within an inclusive framework, support on training for the educative community and researches and innovations regarding educational needs and educational answers.
Panevezys District Education Centre – LITHUANIA
Panevezys District Education Centre is a public and non-profit organization established by the Council of Panevezys District Municipality in 1995 and located in Panevezys City, Lithuania. The purposes of the Centre are to develop the professional competence of the members of schools communities and promote the dissemination of perspective pedagogical innovations. The centre provides in-service training for 22 educational communities situated mainly in Panevezys District. The Centre strives to develop the professional competence of different community groups (youth, members of school communities, seniors) and promote the dissemination of innovations in education. The activities of the Centre respond to the priorities of national education, school needs and individual trainees’ and the vision of a life-long learning society. The team of the Centre offers research activities and learning projects, developing cooperation among different community groups, governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and foreign partners. It responds to the needs of the educational community, regarding qualification, professional and cultural aspects. Education Centre coordinates Panevezys district Third Age University as well as Panevezys district non-formal Adult learning.
Clementoni S.P.A.
Clementoni is a 55 years old company, the leader in Europe, in educational toys and games. With 500 employees in Italy and more than 80 abroad, the company supplies products in more than 70 countries around the world, producing 30 million products every year, of which 80% is made in Italy. With its long and wide experience in projecting (from the idea to the development and production) educational items, Clementoni knows very well what children like, and how they can enjoy and be surprised by a toy or a game. Clementoni, thanks to the Advanced Research Area, knows very well the educational needs of teachers and pupils of infant and primary schools. This info is shared with the R&D Dept. which develops a project aimed at the use of robots as educational tools to promote alternative approaches to STEAM subjects. There is also specific attention to design educational tasks focused on gender and social inclusion.
Since 2014 Clementoni has studied and created robots to help children of different ages to use coding and educational robotics in an easy and fun way at home or at school with a great value for money. In particular, our best product focused on a didactic use at infant and primary school, is Doc, the talking educational robot: adequate to children from 4 to 7 years (introduction of coding concepts, tangible Programmation by visual cards of instructions -ahead, behind, right, left- manual programming by keywords on the head of Doc)