Journey through Europe with Suitcase of Culture Gist ( of the project) : The notion is to procure the students to a volunteer act of visiting museums, exhibition halls, or art galleries as centers and institutions of cultural activities both within their countries and in their overseas journeys. We have noted that our students do not take much interest in their own local culture and that they hardly visit such centers of their own accord. The objective of our project for the youngsters is to arouse interest and awareness towards cultural activites and to motivate them to learn and get familiar to their own cultures. The students/youngsters should determine the way of displaying the exhibits in a more attractive way for the peer foreign visitors themselves by means of onsite observation and studying. In the course of our project ,first of all the essential information about the cultural activites of the cities involved in the project is going to be explored and collected. The centers such as museums, art galleries, or exhibition halls are going to be visited and then the digital frame of the project work such as film slides, commercial films, motion/audio videos is going to be determined. Finally the completed works are going to be shared on a common digital platform. The participant students of partner schools are going to determine the cultural activity to be done in the respective country. The participant students of the host country are going to accompany their visitors in their visits and prepare workshops for their foreign peers. At other times, the socialising activities such as dining out, or sightseeing tours are going to be organised by the participant school. We are seven participant schools from Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Greece( Krete and Athen), and Turkey. We all have many students from low socio-economic families to whom we desire to convey the multi-European culture. We intend to get them regard both their own cultural inheritance and others’ which they haven’t had the chance to acquaint properly so far, and thus make them feel as part of the European Union and appreciate the collective values. Another important objective in the long term is to motivate the youngsters for the commutual European future, to make them aware of their own responsibilities and take common action in the process of resolution. Another essantial point of our project is to present the dilettante European students and teachers with an “Open Education Resource” via web as an e-book in the form of an interactive suitcase form. In this way, sustainability of the project will be carried out.
Journey through Europe with Suitcase of Culture Gist (of the project : The notion is to procure the students to a volunteer act of visiting museums, exhibition halls, or art galleries as centers and institutions of cultural activities both within their countries and in their overseas journeys. We have noted that our students do not take much interest in their own local culture and that they hardly visit such centers of their own accord. Journey through Europe with Suitcase of Culture Context/background of the project; In our project we aimed for our students to gain a different and self-directed perspective of the cultural assets and institutions such as museums and art galleries both in their own countries and in their journeys to other countries as we had observed that most youngsters including our students did not take much interest in cultural matters and that they did not enjoy visiting such places. Objectives; The objective of our project for the youngsters was to arouse interest and awareness towards cultural activities and to motivate them to learn and get familiar to their own cultures. The students/youngsters were to determine the way of displaying the exhibits in a more attractive way for the peer foreign visitors themselves by means of onsite observation and studying. Number and profile of participating organizations; We have participated this project as 5 countries including Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Greece (Crete) and Turkey. Except for Estonia and Hungary, the other participant countries hadn't conducted a project before. We all had many students from lower socio-economic circles. We aimed to make these students acquire a new insight of the multilateral European culture and thus make them feel as part of the European Union and appreciate the collective values. Another important objective for the long term was to motivate the youngsters / students to feel and take the responsibility for the future of the European Union and act together. Description of undertaken main activities; In the course of our project, first of all the essential information about the cultural activities of the cities involved in the project were explored and collected. The centers such as museums, art galleries, or exhibition halls were visited and then the digital frame of the project work such as film slides, commercial films, motion/audio videos were produced. The participant students of partner schools voted online for the cultural activity to be done in the respective country. The participant students of the host country accompanied their visitors in their visits and prepared workshops for their foreign peers. At other times, the social activities such as school visits, ice-breaker activities, dining out, or sightseeing tours were organized by the participant school. Finally the completed works were shared on a common digital platform and combined in an “Open Education Resource” via web as an e-book in the form of an interactive suitcase form. In this way, sustainability of the project is ensured. The content of the activities were all about Culture and Art. In this way, not only the hosts but also the visitors had the chance to relive and introduce their own culture, to explore foreign ones and compare with one another's. The students always concluded that "despite all differences, we are the same". Results and impact attained; All the planned and stated objectives have been fully accomplished. The meaning and importance of culture and art has been emphasized not only by the students, but also by the public institutions like schools and municipalities. Students have overcome their biases. The project belongs to the participant school, so it has helped a sustainable change in cultural attitudes. We have also succeeded in arousing public interest on protecting our cultural values and handing them down to the next generations