Question 1

Country & City

Accepted Answer

Greece - Kila
Ikaron 3, Kozani 501 00, Greece
Email: bratitsis@uowm.gr

Question 2

The team

Accepted Answer

Dr Tharrenos Bratitsis is a Full Professor at the Early Childhood Education Department, University of Western Macedonia, Greece and a director of the Creativity, Innovation and Technology in Education (CrInTE) Laboratory. He has participated in over 250 international conferences’ scientific committees; i
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s a member of the reviewers’ board of 47 scientific journals (3 as an associate editor) and publishes regularly, having over 210 scientific papers with over 1000 citations on his work. He has participated in over 50 research funded projects, 22 as a coordinator (global or for UOWM). His research interests include Technology Enhanced Learning, Game-based Learning, Digital Storytelling, STEAM Education, Educational Robotics, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and Learning Analytics.

Dr. Iro Koliakou is a member of the STEM team of UOWM and  the STEM Coordinator of Αnatolia College. She holds a Physics degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a Master of Science from the Biomedical Engineering Department of 				Imperial College London and a PhD from the Biology Department of Aristotle University Thessaloniki. From 2009 she has worked in the private biotechnology sector in laboratory quality management and research and development responsible for implementation and internal audits of European R&D projects. She has published 15 scientific papers in international journals and has 190 references in international literature. She has received teacher training from ESA Robotics and Automation Lab (2018), European Molecular Biology Learning Lab ( 2017 &am
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p; 2020 ), CERN (2019) and European Schoolnet Future Learning Classroom ( 2019). She is a member of the instructional staff of the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Greece and has developed the online course Biomedical Engineering and the future of Medicine. She is an ambassador for Scientix, the community for science education in Europe, a member of the executive board of European STEAM educators association and a member of Science on Stage Deutschland, developing STEM activities related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. She is a member of the Greek Women in STEM Association, a mentor for Real Science and a member of the Global talent mentoring program

Virginia Arvaniti, MSc, MBA, is a STEM instructor and coordinator who teaches Kindergarten and Elementary grade STEM courses and is responsible for coordinating after school STEM activities and developing STEM educational scenarios for Anatolia Elementary and High school. Furthermore she is responsible for developing activities for Anatolia College Erasmus projects related to STEM such as  "GREEN EDU- Green education for a sustainable future" (KA201 - Strategic Partnerships for school education, reference 2019-1-PL01-KA201-065695 )  and “Open Mini Labs” ( KA201 - Strategic Partnerships for school education, reference 020-1-ES01-KA201-082706). Virginia holds a Physics degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a focus on Atmospheric Physics, a “Master
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 in Business Administration” (MBA) from the American College of Thessaloniki and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems from the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). Since 2014 she is a member of the Anatolia College STEM team, while later on she also became a member of the STEM team of the University of Western Macedonia. She has completed several projects relevant to sustainability and alternative sources of energy with solutions that favor the environment. Furthermore, she is a certified Lego Education trainer for WeDo 2.0, EV3 and Spike (2019), and is certified as a STEM instructor from the Aegean University of Greece (2018). She has published 6 scientific papers in the field of STEM and participated in national and international STEM conferences and training.

Question 3

About the organisation

Accepted Answer

The University of Western Macedonia - UOWM emerged from the merging of two Higher Education Institutions in 2019 (both operated for over 20 years), expanding its educational remit. It consists in 7 faculties and 22 departments, offering over 20 postgraduate programs and 3 in collaboration with other universities.
One of the main objectives of UOWM and specifically the CrInTE Lab (which is led by the Early Childhood Education Department but includes members also from the Computer Science Department), is the creation of new knowledge through the promotion of scientific research. The research activity is supported by the human resources (postgraduate and undergraduate students, scholars, researchers, etc.) and by the appropriate infrastructure, constitutes the most important factor for the improvement of both the Teaching and Education level. Fostering fully incorporation of ICT in everyday practice, the UOWM invests in innovative educational programs and multidisciplinary fields of research that correspond to the needs of the modern world. Till now, UOWM has managed more than 200 projects (both, National and European), thus being able to fully contribute to this project.

As a laboratory, UOWM has a strong focus on educators’ training and educational policy – strategies deployment, by participating in National and European research programs. Being an educators’ training facility, it supports and promotes innovative teaching approaches, such as eLearning. The main research interests of CrInTE are: Digital Storytelling, STEAM Education, Sustainable Education, Computational Thinking and Game-based  Learning

Question 4

Why did you enter this project?

Accepted Answer

Digital Storytelling has been the epicenter of our research over the past 10 years. It has been combined with other approaches, including Blended Learning and STEAM (connected with Sustainable Development). Thus, the DDestiny concept of putting such elements into one project idea emerged as a dream come true for our research. 
We bring in expertise in Digital Storytelling by having a unique record in scientific publications on the subject. Being fascinated with the numerous application of this approach in various areas and contexts, this was one more challenge to face and conquer. 
Moreover, the our experience in all the areas involved in DDestiny but also Erasmus+ projects left no doubt for our participation in the project. 
DDestiny, yet another intriguing destiny, but certainly not the final one.

Who are we?