Project Aim
The aim of the ELF project is to provide tools for learning, teaching, and sharing knowledge in the context of outdoor education, addressing environmental sustainability and climate change. We do this through natural sciences education and geospatial information.
The tool promotes teachers’ and students’ creative and critical thinking skills and encourages both teachers and students to incorporate outdoor activities into their teaching and learning.
Outputs
The outputs of the project are both a website and a mobile application students and teacher can use to create routes and games that allow interaction with their own local enviornments.
The web platform will help to set up digital, interactive outdoor games where elves and trolls give information and guidance to students taking the games. As the aim of the project is to provide a possibility for students and teachers to create interactive digital outdoor information resources and games based on geolocation, then web platform is one of the main tools for creating such games and information resources. Website helps to foster the learning process of ELF project’s learners and to ensure better engagement with the tools developed.
The mobile applicationis easy to use for students and a practical tool to help with the learning process in outdoor education context. Interactive quizzes in the app will ensure a sustainable and outstanding learning experience for students allowing them to build and improve both their digital and soft skills. Innovative approach also includes content like video or quizzes made available by going to a particular place – location helps to unlock new learning materials and to compete with fellow students on speed and knowledge, getting praised by elves or warned by trolls.
Partners
The ELF project is the result of the cooperation between three different partners.
Creatrix ehf is an Icelandic organization. Our main activities are project management for development within education, culture, entrepreneurship and innovation. We have experience working with municipalities and educational organisations at all levels in Iceland, from pre-primary school to university level. Creatrix does project work for the regional office of West Iceland and supports entrepreneurs and artists. The organisation was established in 2016 but the owner has 20 years of experience in the field.
Djúpavogsskóli is an Icelandic primary school with students aged 6-16. The school operates in the sparsely populated area of Djúpivogur in Eastern Iceland, where the students and families have fewer opportunities due to remote location. The school is the only Cittá Slow school in Iceland and has a special focus on environmental studies and healthy living. In the surroundings of Djúpivogur one can find rich sagas of elves and trolls that are supposed to live in rocks and mountains. The sagas are part of the culture and will be useful for the Elves’ and trolls ́ App guides character creation.
Youth in Science and Business Foundation (YSBF) is an Estonian non-profit organisation that focuses on providing innovative educational technologies. We focus mainly on creativity and innovation, dissemination of informaion on science and technolocy and IT solutions development and research. We have 20 years of experience developing various IT solutions ranging from simple websites to comprehensive mobile applications. We have been providing educational solutions aimed at students from 12 years old. At the same time we have also been active in adult learning field, where our learners have been also 60 years old. YSBF works actively with a variety of partners from Estonia, so we can involve schools, educational institutions and sports organizations to our projects.