Organiser: Javier Tourón
Discusant: Mojca Juriševič

We will cover from different perspectives the role of the technology in talent development. Not only from an online approach but from blended learning models. We will discuss as well how technology can affect the school organization to facilitate a personalize learning and an adaptive education. 

The Flipping classroom model can be an effective instructional strategy for differentiating instruction and the development of our students' talent. In this paper we will go deeper in the concept of flipped classroom & learning, we will describe a rationale for using this strategy with gifted and talented students. In a second part we will analyse different tools and resources for developing flipped classroom projects. We will mention, on the one side, the possibility of selecting and curating contents created by other educators or colleagues, on the other, we will distinguish between three different group of tools for creating ( both teachers or students themselves) our own educational content: computer programs, web 2.0 resources including authoring tools and finally, mobile devices apps. In this context, we will also insist on the importance of contextualising this model in a wider methodological framework. We will finish describing some possible problems educators might encounter, and practical tips for beginning the process of flipping the classroom.
 

Advanced learners in classroom settings, particularly those with very high ability in certain subject areas, may become bored and disengaged because the pace and depth of the material presented is insufficiently challenging to them. This presentation will explore opportunities and best practices for differentiating the curriculum for these students through online learning, drawing on research, theory, and extensive data on students enrolled in the CTYOnline program at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. The program offers acceleration and enrichment courses to students from around the world in preK to grade 12, with enrollments of about 13,000 per year. Instructors lead each course, but they do not lecture in the traditional sense. Instead, they guide each student through a variety of online resources and offline labs, texts, projects, and experiments, providing feedback, counseling, encouragement, and constructive criticism. The presentation will also explore the academic and psychosocial variables that relate to positive outcomes for high ability online learners in elementary, middle, and high school, identifying students who are especially likely to adapt to and thrive in an online course.

The development of the European Talent Support Network in the digital era will provide new dimensions to open up schools and to break the barriers of classroom walls. The European Talent Support Network will be built from European Talent Centres serving as hubs of the network, coordinating and organizing regional talent support activities, as well as from European Talent Points representing local traditions (or innovations) of talent support. The "philosophy" of networking is sharing and giving, which means here sharing and giving the best practices, expertise at the highest professional level possible.

Using the communication channels of the European Talent Support Network developing in the digital era talented young people will not only be able to participate in e-courses and e-projects allowing them a close cooperation with university and science research teams in European countries far apart, but they will also be able to build up their own social talent-e-network. This digital talent-network will enable young talents to find their on-line mentors, and to build up on-line communities acting as ad hoc task-forces to solve exciting projects including e.g. scientific problems

Talented people especially need these novel forms of social contacts, since their attention is often multi-focused; they are often more socially sensitive and avoid the possible humiliation of face-to-face contacts, and they often have a special schedule of daily activities (e.g. working 3 days continuously keeping a contact with new and new people awake around the globe). Importantly, talented young people need both a stable net of trusted contacts, and they have a continuous wish for new and new surprises. Therefore, we have to design the talent-supporting social e-networks of the European Talent Support Network giving both the “strengthen me with the joy of meeting those who think likewise” and the “surprise me with a new contact option, which gives me the excitement of novelty” options.

Talented young people should be taught and trained to plan their presence as a “professional e-personality” (their digital self, their web2.0 portrait or their personal e-brand). Digital presence and web2.0 networking requires excellent time-management skills. This should also be taught, as well as using the web to interact with non-peers. Educators face a dilemma when they are challenged to judge their students behavior in e-spaces. The digital gap here becomes more of a culture shock: the rules governing the communication and behavior patterns of the z-generation cannot be understood without having experience in the use of digital platforms and networks. However, there are no “two cultures”. Digital culture and the behavioral patterns characteristic of the digital world are part of our culture in general.