The project: "Reading and writing in Europe in the context of digital transformation" With the arrival of digital technology, our society is experiencing an unprecedented transformation. This is a global cultural revolution that affects all of us and impacts all areas of the society. The main questions that arise in connection with this phenomenon are the following: Which reading and writing learning methods should be developed in order to integrate recent evolutions? What can be done to strengthen the struggle against early school leaving and illiteracy, to restrict the widening gaps and promote professional integration? How can we anticipate these changes in the cultural and educational venues? We are going to work according the following objectives : - Approaching in the innovative way the evoked problems in order to find more appropriate solutions. - Creating a synergy between all the partners to become strength of proposal. - Experimenting on new practices of reading and writing with a variety of audiences, young people in particular, through mobilities of secondary school students. Enable them to act within the project as European citizens. The participants Our project is structured around 10 complementary partners: MEDIATEM France, a network of 10 multimedia libraries, the leading element of which is Saint Raphael library, containing 5 reference sections with Numerilab in the vanguard. Le Lesezentrum Austria, an association which supports public and school libraries in Styria and whose employees work in the training of librarians on regional and national level. Book’s House Belgium, Brussels association which organizes meetings and workshops of written expression and federates national actions against illiteracy. Pelplin High school Poland, which provides young people experiencing difficulties at school with secondary and professional education, training apprentice printers who will exchange with apprentice graphic designers from High school Golf Hôtel de Hyères France. High school Petru Rares Romania, which creates a platform for students specializing in new technologies around a project of digital media with a class at High School Saint-Exupéry Saint Raphaël France. The project team in France consists of three associations : Wings of wind, promoting writing around the world, at the origin of the project ; Maltae, enhancement of cultural territories ; Ariana, engineering and management of international projects. Activities 1. Creation of a web site, launch of the project, exhibition, workshops 2. 4 main events, organized from 4 transnational meetings, consisting of Round Tables, debates, experimental workshops, meetings with artists 3. Meetings for closure and synthesis of all work 4. Circulation of Words and Letters Caravan, dissemination of the contents and created objects. The methodology To remain rigorous, we have chosen to concentrate on a simple and clear organizational methodology of the communication and the patterns based on : 1. the location of the program and its highlights 2. the management of the specific features resulting from the advanced actions and from the progress of the objectives to reach 3. the tools and resources to be available Cooperation is based particularly on constant remote communication and transnational meetings: time devoted to the exchange of information, experiences and challenges faced by each partner, planning phases of collaborative work. An introductory seminar is planned to launch the project in order to define the roadmap for each partner, as well as the construction of the common backward scheduling. The project leader has commissioned the Ariana Association to implement a real policy between the partners and a mediator. Impact, expected results and potential long-term benefits The project will affect several target audiences: groups of young people, learners, trainers and organizers, participants of the project, book publishing professionals, who thanks to the undertaken collaborative work will acquire a new culture focused on innovation and exchanges of good practices. About 100 000 people have been estimated to be affected by this project. Common areas of interests opening on concrete medium and long-term proposals, assessments of experiments which provide direction of the development strategies and reflection on tools to reduce the digital divide and early school leaving, a modelling approach of common programs should be emerged. An example of a result : the Saint Raphaël multimedia library is going to expand its section Numerilab and to create a tool for collaborative exchange between partners in each country. This sphere of activity could be transformed into a long-lasting platform of exchange between all European partners.
Project: “Reading and writing in Europe in the context of digital migration” - “From script to screen” With the advent of digital technology our society is going through an unprecedented change; a global cultural revolution that affects all sectors of society. As professionals in the field of books and as education specialists, we wanted this project (which brings together five European countries - Austria, Belgium, France, Poland and Romania) to act as a vehicle for conducting studies and investigating the issues in order to have a better understanding of the challenges brought about by this complex evolution and thus be able to better provide for new reading and writing practices. With this in mind, we invited specialists from various disciplines to participate in several round tables and give their philosophical, economic, scientific and pedagogical viewpoints. We also asked artists to address these issues from a sensitive and creative perspective and, finally, we initiated sociological and neuro-cognitive studies to look at these new realities with the highest degree of precision. We have worked according to the following objectives: - To approach the issues raised in an innovative fashion in order to come up with solutions from the field that can be adopted by the different establishments concerned. - To create synergy between the European partners in order to develop a joint driving force. - To study new reading and writing practices with different target audiences and notably with young people and, through high school exchanges, allow them to participate in the project as European citizens. Our cooperation took several forms Firstly, professional exchanges between three sectors dedicated to books: Mediatem - a network of 15 media libraries in France, Lesezentrum Steiermark in Austria and the Belgium-based Maison du Livre (House of Books) association. Communication between the different partners made it possible to build hitherto inexistent links. Secondly, creative exchange programs between four high schools: two French, one Polish and one Romanian. In order for young people to take part in the digital revolution as acting citizens, we launched several projects enabling them to ponder their education and become familiar with the fundamental skills associated to reading and writing in both traditional and multimedia formats. Initiatives 1. Development of a website, a webdoc, 4 exhibitions and several artistic workshops. 2. 4 key periods consisting of round tables, high-school pupil debates, workshops and artistic residencies. 3. 1 neuro-cognitive experiment and 1 sociological study. 4. 1 teaching kit. 5. 1 white paper. 6. Circulation of the Scripta Numerica mobile exhibition around each partner country in order to disseminate its contents and created objects. Methodology We chose to base the project on a cooperation-centered approach organized around constant distance communication between the partners via the basecamp tool and 7 transnational meetings dedicated to the exchange of information and experience as well as the scheduling of collaborative peer production per phase. Confluences and Europe took charge of managing the methodological tools and any interpersonal issues. White paper At the end two years of shared and assessed multi-field research, we are able to set forth a forward-looking perspective of the expectations of the different target audiences, notably that of the younger generation, with regard to education and media libraries; the “Third Place”. This field of action has now developed into a sustainable platform for exchange between European partners who became acquainted and worked together during this project. We do not claim to have the answers to all the questions related to digital technology but we have gathered together different perspectives, laid out new expertise and, by taking both formal and informal approaches, we have been able to develop acquisition tools. Insofar as the meetings and exchanges concerning common issues have led to the opening up fields of investigation, this partnership has proved to be deeply significant. The project team : The town of Saint-Raphaël- project coordinator. Les Ailes du Vent Association, France MALTAE Association, France La Maison du Livre, Brussels, Belgium, Lesezentrum, Graz literacy Center in Austria Pelplin high school in Poland the Golf-Hôtel vocational school Hyères, France Petru Rares high school from Piatra Neamt in Romania Saint-Exupéry High school in Saint Raphaël, France Confluences & Europe, France