AVO Pearls And Diamonds Sparkle

The jointly created and implemented training sessions and materials, webinars, Mobiili-kesäkoulu (Mobile Summer School), Matkatoimisto Some (Travel Agency SoMe), the Nettikansa (the Netfolks - Web-age civil society), the growth of Vinkkiverkosto (Hints Network). These are some examples of the outputs produced by the project Open Networks for Learning (AVO) during its three years of operation.

The project's peer productions have included the training concept for social media, the Mobiilikesäkoulu (Mobile Summer School), the AVO webinar series (about 40 of them), active and activating conference sessions (such as at Information Technology in Education ITK and Digital Competence and Learning DCL) as well as some social media environments and materials. Peer productions have been implemented among project members as well as for external participants.

The extensive project network formed a good test bed for the use of new service, especially collaborative communication services; this extensive national-level network has made it possible for more than ten organizations to work in the project, and for dozens of experts to participate in six subprojects in 2008–2011. More than 2000 persons have participated in training sessions and events organized by the project.

Read more: SeOppi Magazine.

More information about the Open Networks for Learning project in SeOppi-wiki.

AVO - Open networks for learning

The scope of the AVO-project is to

• strengthen the production of open content with high quality

• train and network the key experts

• create new networks of peer learning for experts of different fields

• develop school as a learning community of practice where teachers and pupils are learners

• generate open and multidimensional learning environment

• proceed media criticism

• strengthen active citizenship and democracy

The project consortium

Operating through national network there are a dozen organizations and tens of experts involved in the project. The main themes are mobile devices, blogs and wikis in learning and interaction, training and education on virtual worlds and online-conferences; piloting social media tools, open source solutions for schools and web-communities as the learning resources for teachers. Essential sub-project is the quality evaluation; how to define criteria for peer-production and open content.

The main outcomes of AVO are new networks and forums to facilitate web2.0-learning culture, handbooks and toolkits for teachers, decision-makers and citizens about social media, patterns for social networking and open content production, roadshows and online-conferences, hands-on workshops and seminars to train users to apply digital tools to their everyday activities.

This ESF-funded project lasts till the end of June 2012 and is coordinated by the Association of Finnish eLearning Centre. The project belongs under the scheme of Fostering active citizenship through open learning environments funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education.

AVO Links

• AVO in English in SeOppi-wiki

• SeOppi Magazine 2011