Mr. Josep Miquel Piqué, managing director of 22@Barcelona, presented the 22@CreaTalent pilot program at the fifth annual ReNacer event organized by Infonomia on 16 October.

This event, which more than 300 professionals from different sectors participated in looking for inspiration from the latest developments, is designed specifically to meet the needs of an ever more complex world by constructing a new present that is a hybrid of the past and the future (Reinventing Reality).

The next presentation of the pilot program was given by Ms. Montse Charle, head of the 22@Barcelona Department of Networks and Talent, and Mr. Paulino Carnicero Duque, researcher in the Department of Teaching Methodology and Educational Organization at the University of Barcelona’s Pedagogy Faculty, on 29 October at ITworldEdu, which is the international meeting of the Education and ICT sectors.
During ITworldEdu, current and future applications of new technologies in education were analyzed through best practices by renowned speakers from the fields of education and technology.

The evaluation report on the effects and impact of the 22@CreaTalent program, carried out by the University of Barcelona’s Institute for Life Long Learning (IL·3), shows that the participants consider the program to be an effective tool for the improvement and progress of educational centers and the services they provide. Likewise, participants consider the workshops and activities to be very useful for training those involved in the program, as is the student learning process.

The study concluded that the program:

• Increased interest in science and technology.
• Fostered entrepreneuring spirit and creativity among participants.
• Offered activities and workshops that families and teachers found to be valuable spaces for growth and shared learning with other families and teachers in the center.
• Improved some competences linked to relationships and emotional intelligence, like teamwork, mutual respect and dedication to the group, among others.
• Encouraged participating professors to analyze and reflect on their own teaching, improving the quality of the center.

 
22@CreaTalent

22@CreaTalent is an initiative of 22@Barcelona and the Barcelona City Council, with collaboration from the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, to foster talent in schools. This program includes a number of events for students, families, teachers and professors that aim to encourage scientific and technological vocation among young people, linked to the five 22@Barcelona clusters: Information and Communication Technologies, Media, Energy, Medical Technology and Design.

550 students and 220 teachers and/or family members from the district participated in the pilot program carried out during the 2008-2009 school year. All the activities used innovative tools and methodologies for the first time in Barcelona and were studied in order to apply the results of this pilot program in other areas.

These tools were designed specially for this project by an expert team from LEGO® Education, which provided solutions to stimulate creativity, problem solving and teamwork. More than 25 years of experience have shown that the “do and learn” methodology is an essential tool to involve students in their own learning.