The University of Valencia, through the European Documentation Center of the General Foundation , has presented in the Faculty of Economics 'Montblanc, recursos educatius per a l'ensenyament de la Unió Europea', an electronic book write by José Díaz Lafuente to help teachers and students to learn about the functioning of institutions and the resulting policies of their activities. Its main purpose is to serve as textbook of the subject of the European Union established in the curriculum of Secondary Education in the Valencian Country.
The publication consists of 32 lessons structured in seven thematic sections for 298 pages, where are studied the principles and values of the European Union, History of Europe, the EU law, the EU policies and opportunities of study for young people. In the ellaboration of the book have been used 36 multilingual videos, 22 multimedia elements and almost one hundred photographs to accomplish an optimal balance between text and visual resources based in learning. Also, have been included 26 texts selected to reflect, 26 practical exercises to comment and 44 self-assesment questions which allow the reader to control of what is learned in the lesson. Moreover, have been added a careful selection of bibliographic resources or electronics, a kind of bibliography in each thematic section.
According to Alfonso Moreira, the European Documentation Centre of the General Foundation of the University of Valencia, “is a book, ex novo. It's not based in an existing text, but is an entirely new publication, addresed to teachers primarily, but also for citizenship because any person interested in European Union could access to this tool as a reference manual”.
In this respect, Montblanc, recursos educatius per a l'ensenyament de la Unió Europea, tries to be, both, a didactic tool about European Union and to serve as a reference manual to those people unconnected with the world of education and interested in the integration process of the European Union. The publication will have daily adviced service about the use and contents that will be managed by the European Documentation Centre of the General Foundation of the University of Valencia.
“Montblanc, is presented as an European step by step guide, from past, through its present and with future perspective” has appointed José Díaz Lafuente.
In the presentation, the author has figured out the content of the publication section by section: “It starts explaining what is European Union, analyses thoroughly its nature, the features which identified it, which composed it...” a second section focuses on European history and geography from the values of humanism that gave rise to its creation and its contributions to the present-day society; the third section examines the functioning of the Union, its institutions, what it's it function and which is the effect in the daily life of citizens; in the law section distinguishes between primary and secondary rules; in the one of citizenship goes into detail about the right to make requests in front of the figure of the Ombudsman, freedoom of movement, etcetera”; in the section of politics, the widest, refers to the European electoral system (why in Spain, people votes less and less), the system powers of the European Union, its budget, the single market, the cohesion policy, the CAP, the economic and monetary policy, international relations, cooperation and development...; and finally, in the chapter of opportunities, entirely new and of his own initiative, provides all the information about masters, doctorates, announcements, Erasmus scholarships, the European Voluntary Service, information points, the Bologna process and the current economic crisis, the program Eures to get the first job...” In essence, Montblanc has its own life: year after year will be updated and will evolve and grow as the European Union”, he has stated.
The version 1.0 of Montblanc is exclusively for iPad and will be available in February 2013 in iTunes Store. The plans of the publisher team are the launching of a Valencian version for May 2013 and a later version for Android applications in October 2013 both in Spanish and Valencian. Its updating will be annual and automatic, the month of February of each year for those users who have installed it on their devices. All versions will be free of charge.
The electronic publication Montblanc, educational resources for teaching the European Union is a product of the European Documentation Centre of the General Foundation of the University of Valencia and has been made thanks to a grant of the programme Jean Monnet of the European Commission to the team directed by the Full University Professor of Applied Economics of the University of Valencia, Cecilio Tamarit Escalona.
The presentation of the book has been carried out by the Vice-Dean of Training and Relations with Company and Economy, José Manuel Pastor; Isabel Sanchís, of the Directorate-General of the Generalitat Valenciana of Relations with the European Union; the director of the project Montblanc, Cecilio Tamarit; Alfonso Moreira, of the European Documentation Centre; and José Díaz Lafuente, author of the book. Also have attended the presentation, among others, the Head of the Communication Office of the European Commission in Madrid, Arantxa Zuberistain; the manager of the General Foundation of the University of Valencia, Cristóbal Suria; and the director of the European Documentation Centre, José Sorribes.
In the following link you can view a presentation of the product:
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/besgi6beuf/mont-blanc
Last update: 31 de january de 2013 14:22.
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