The participants of the POEME project want to make education easier and more interesting for the teachers as well as for the students. The creation of digital eBooks and worksheets is one of the main purposes of this project in its early stage. But what are the advantages of using digital worksheets in the education process?
- Many students are digital natives
Nowadays, many students are used to using digital tools in their everyday life, and the presence of these tools is obvious for them. That’s why using digital worksheets in the POEME project can facilitate the acquisition of the subjects aborded. The medium is well known to them, and learning becomes a pleasure!
- Digital worksheets are a perfect example of blended learning which presents a lot of advantages to traditional learning, both for teachers and for students.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, blended learning is a style of education in which students learn via electronic and online media as well as traditional face-to-face teaching. Digital worksheets prepared by the POEME project partners from Cyprus, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, and France use online and offline resources for their creation. Students and teachers can improve their knowledge of a wide range of subjects prepared by partners.
- Digital worksheets can be the source of specific information about the culture and arts of partner countries, but not only
The starting point in the worksheet creation is broadly defined cultural heritage. During the development of the worksheets, we focused on four main angles of the subject:
- tangible heritage
- intangible heritage
- digital heritage
- natural heritage (if you want to know more about cultural heritage, read this article)
This broad view on the question of heritage allowed us to present its various interpretations to the students and educators. We talked about Belgian architecture, Parisian museums, Greek mythology, Cypriot wine, Mediterranean diet, or Portuguese traditional cuisine (yes, food is important to us). Each worksheet is extremely valuable in terms of information and its role in the construction of one’s proper cultural identity, which doesn’t have to only contain the culture of one country. With our POEME worksheets, we want to spread diversity.
- Digital worksheets are the definition of learning through play
The completion of POEME worksheets necessitates using multisensory methods (visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic): not only can this variety be entertaining for the students, but it can also facilitate migrant students’ integration in the learning process. Different tasks involve different senses and different cognitive skills. And in the end, educators and students know so much more about the world that surrounds them!
- Different language levels allow all students to profit from the worksheet completion
POEME worksheets can be fun for students with all levels of English. During their creation, we tried to adapt the different tasks to different levels of English. Therefore, beginner students, as well as advanced students will be able to improve their grammar, comprehension, and speaking skills, but also their vocabulary from various subjects.
- Digital worksheets can be completed online and offline
Digital worksheets that will be available to download on the website of the POEME project will give the educators and the students the possibility to complete them online, without necessarily printing them (which also is an advantage for the wellness of our planet in ecological context), but also offline with the possibility of printing. What’s more, the completion of the worksheets will necessitate the use of different tools accessible online – sometimes the students will have to look for specific information on Google, sometimes participate in an online 360° tour, which will also develop the eventual missing digital skills. They can also improve their knowledge thanks to bibliography resources indicated in the worksheets.
POEME worksheets can play an important role in improving students’ language skills and their confidence, as well as helping them integrate into the learning process. They can be an important element in language acquisition and an interesting alternative to more traditional teaching methods. What’s more, they are a type of educational material that mixes knowledge acquisition with entertainment, therefore making the learning process more interesting – we can even talk about worksheets having an edutainment value (education + entertainment).
