Welcome to the ODS Summer School 2014 community!

This  year's Summer School takes place on July 13-18, at Marathon, Attica, Greece. Its aim is to support school innovation and to train teachers and school leaders to promote the development of their schools into open learning communities, and thus improve the quality of all aspects of schooling. Also, the course is intended to promote more flexible and creative ways of learning by improving the way educational content is produced, accessed and used, by fostering sharing and collaboration, and by making the teacher the core node and change leader of a developing community. The overall approach is to promote educational change and modernization of school education by empowering school staff to monitor the school's needs and to take initiative for bringing innovative practices in all areas of schooling, which respond to these needs.

This year's course focuses on:

• Equipping teachers and school heads with competences and skills that will support them in acting as change agents in their schools and thus foster sustainable innovation.
• Introducing participants to the concepts and skills of universal design for learning, authentic learning and assessment, learning styles and learners' variability
• Exploring parental engagement in schooling as a key aspect that can foster innovation and facilitate school development and quality of learning and enhancing teachers' skills that can promote partnerships with parents.

We will use this community before, during as well as after the completion of the course to upload preparatory materials for the Summer school participants, updates and news, practical information as well as educational scenarios that have been created by the participants. Please feel free to upload relevant news, resources, comments or posts.