Visconti Project
About
VISConti is a Strategic Partnership for Vocational Schools. The partnership is made up of 17 organisations including universities, schools, education authorities and other organisations from 9 countries under the leadership of the Norges Teknik-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet of Norway. It is in part financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ funding programme.
It was conceived to create a platform for creative and adventurous expression through project work for students following VET studies in science related subjects. It is also a space for structured and constructive networking between students, teachers and science professionals from industry who come together in a Community of Practice for innovation and scientific creativity.
Our Goals
- To generate a virtual community in which teachers, students, professionals and entrepreneurs involved in science, technology, IT and related subjects all become VISConti players, who propose ideas, carry out peer assessments thereof and build profiles in scientific creativity, whilst functioning as a community of practice;
- To experiment and create tools with which teachers in vocational schools may adopt a more structured approach to assessment of projects that students already create as part of their assessment and that later on these tools become common ground for peer assessment of ideas and concepts in the VISConti community of players;
- To produce a new generation of students and teachers in vocational schools having a culture of interactivity with professionals / entrepreneurs in the fields of science, technology, IT and related subjects, rather than occasional internships or sporadic job fairs and other events.
Our Concept
VISConti is all about creating a common area of discussion and active interaction between school and enterprise in a stronger sense than usual when one speaks of creating links between schools and industry. VISConti is a permanent space, very much in tune with the Generation Y natives of social networking and virtual profiles, that has now also gained ground in older generations. It will bring together students, teachers and science professionals working in enterprises in one social space for innovation and the validation of scientific creativity.
VISConti will not reinvent the wheel. VISConti will use the practice of project work and assessment that is used in most professional and vocational schools as its point of departure. We will create brand new on-line tools and criteria to assess project work and concepts in science and information technology. VISConti tools will enable the assessment and validation of the technical and economic viability of concepts behind projects. They will also enable the validation of scientific creativity based on a 360 degree spectrum of criteria for innovation and invention. We will use TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) as one means of assessing creative thinking.
Our Results
Project work assessment spectrum
A pan European panorama of the practices and tools that VET schools use to assess project work of students studying science related subjects and IT. It served to provide the partner organisations that contributed to its content and the general public to be aware of practices followed in other countries and what areas the VISConti project is intended to cover for better quality education in Vocational Education and Training. Click here to view it.