Short Profile
Ellinogermaniki Agogi (EA) is an educational organization of private law, officially recognized by the state, covering primary and secondary education. It is an institutional member of EDEN (European Distance Education Network) and of STEDE (Science Teacher Education Development in Europe) network. Since 1998, the organization has established a devoted department, the Research and Development (R&D) Department, for the design, development and implementation of research activities in education, expanding the collaboration with Universities and Research Institutions across Europe. The R&D Department acts as interface between the pedagogical research, the technological innovation and the school community. The work of the R&D Department focuses among others on: a) development of methodologies and empirical research to investigate processes of learning and knowledge acquisition in various subject-matter areas (physics, environment protection, biology, science, etc.); and b) design of technology-supported learning environments. The emphasis of EA is to enhance teacher creativity, supporting staff through targeted professional development and opportunities. Collaborating with outstanding European institutions, EA has acted as a test-bed for innovative approaches for teacher and student training. EA also runs a training center certified from the Greek Ministry of Education since 2000. During the last years the R&D department has coordinated and supported more than 100 European (eContentPlus, ICT-PSP, SiS in FP7 and FP6, IST in FP5 and ACT in FP6, LLP-ACT, Natural Europe, Agro-Web, Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci) and National projects. In most of them, the main role of the research group is the design of the implementation of the proposed activities in real school environments.

Key People

Vassiliki Markaki (EA project manager, coordinator) holds an MA in Arts Management (2006), and an MA in Museum and Gallery Management (2007), both from London City University. In the past, she worked with various Natural History Museums in the UK and in Greece, and with the Hellenic Office of the European Parliament on the design of educational activities. Her areas of expertise include the creation of learning activities that effectively connect formal and non-formal learning, as well as environmental education and use of technology in the design of interactive exhibits and unique ‘edutaining’ experiences. She is currently working at the R&D department of Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Athens, Greece), managing research projects that focus on the connection between formal and non-formal education, as well as on environmental education.