The rapid development of ICT (Information and Computer Technology) in the last years raises an important question concerning its role in education: "Does this technology provide the students with the appropriate tools to become actors in the information society?" The YouRA project addresses this question more specifically: "Can application of ICT in the classroom lead to implementation of ODL schemes to young pupil groups at the upper primary/lower secondary school level?" "Can this implementation lead to a qualitative upgrading of the teaching practices?"

"Young Researchers in Action" aims to the development and application of a pedagogical framework suitable for ODL's implementation to pupils aged 10-13 and in parallel to the provision of in service training to teachers in the field of ODL. It clearly focuses on a target group that hasn't been addressed up to now.

The YouRA project develops across two main parallel aspects:

1. Development and application of a methodology, which will help overcome the specific difficulties, related to the effort of implementation of ODL practices to young school students (such as lingual problems, familiarization with the use of ICT etc). The collaboration aims to the development of user interfaces based on non-verbal communication, the introduction of students to the successful use of ICT and their introduction to scientific inquiry techniques. Through "Young Researchers in Action" pupils will be gradually introduced to the idea that learning is the result of formulating questions, researching, investigating and finally sharing results.
2. Provision of in service training to educators and students of pedagogical departments based on a hands on experience of ODL application in school. Educators of the participating schools as well as students of the participating Universities will be provided with both the theoretical knowledge necessary for application of modern ICT in transnational projects as well as a hands on experience of ODL implementation.

The innovation of the project lies in the idea that both above-mentioned aspects will evolve in parallel. In-service trainees will influence the planning of the application in school and vise-versa, results from the application in school will affect the planning of the in-service training.

The duration of the project is two years. Its basic outcome will be a Handbook which aims to be a full, systematic, practically useful and directly applicable guide for the implementation of ODL at the upper primary/lower secondary school level. This Handbook will be disseminated in hard and electronic form directly to potential end users (students of pedagogical departments, teachers, curriculum developers and education policy makers).