Envi – Mobile: Integration of mobile learning into environmental education fostering local communities development

Project summary

We live in unsustainable World, although the Nature is inherently sustainable – the most of the needs to bring the challenge have been specified on international level, but haven’t been efficiently applied into real life on local level. Proper support and information are one of the most important factors to lead forward a change – we have been taught to think globally, now we should learn to act locally. The environmental education basically doesn`t comply with its elementary mission and it`s more symbolical or theoretical than practical or real. Young people are not able to undertake the responsibility for their own impact on local environment quality, because they are missing the linkage between general information and knowledge presented at schools and real life in local community. One of the key roles of environmental education should be not only to deliver the knowledge about the environment but to change the attitude of people and to increase their activities towards sustainability and local communities’ development. Envi - Mobile project will bring more innovative activities into environmental education and will lead the project participants towards increased interest in local communities’ life. Project involves 5 partners active in the area of environmental education from 4 countries – SK/Strom zivota (NGO active in the field of environmental education and cultural heritage preservation) , SK/INAK (civil association providing educational support activities, developing methodologies, running trainings focused on lifelong learning), IT/IBIMET-CNR (institute with approach in several research fields, such as rural development and environmental conservation), ES/VITA XXI SLP (SME providing consulting services for environmental education) and CZ/HB Modry Kamen (NGO focused on exploitation of principles for sustainable living). All of them have strong experience in the field of environmental education. Project will focus on development of innovative learning materials for environmental education targeting teachers and students at schools, while integrating foreign language learning (Content and Language Integrated Learning concept) into teaching process, with the aim to: - Provide teachers of primary and secondary schools with innovative teaching materials, nowadays missing on the educational markets, combining general subjects and foreign language teaching (CLIL), while integrating cross – subject environmental education concept into the teaching process, and at the same time, - Improving the level of key competencies and skills of target groups in science and technology as well as ICT skills. To fulfil the specific project objectives the project will produce the following outcomes: - Study on needs analyses to specify key areas of environmental education linked to particular local communities, - Open educational resource - database of the minimum of 500 interactive environmental exercises, downloadable through mobile application, providing also learning resource for environmental education in foreign language (EN) - Informational leaflets, posters, - Project web page with the linkage to the online database of exercises - Pedagogical material - 50 methodologies for cross - subject teaching of environmental education fostering local communities development through pro - environmental thinking and supporting the development of science, language and ICT skills To effectively deliver the project outcomes towards the target group and other potential beneficiaries, following events will be organized: - 2 transnational meetings - 4 international conferences - 3 educational training events for teachers and educators involved in project outcomes` development Through development of innovative teaching materials, project will help to: - Increase the environmental awareness of students and to improve their language and ICT key skills, relevant to their future careers in local community or other areas - Guide students and teachers to understand the impact of their actions upon the landscape, the latter being a constituent part of everyday life; - Improve people’s understanding of the landscape character in terms of natural and cultural values and enhance their capacity for being engaged in policy development and implementation decisions - To develop innovative approaches to sustainable development that builds the capacity of schools (and organizations working with youth) to prepare students to take an active role in building the green economy and society - To support the students` self learning in the field of environmental issues and foreign languages via providing them with open access to innovative learning materials Also, project will support sharing of best practises, enhance ICT uptake in teaching and learning, enhance international dimension of education and training through promotion of mobility and cooperation between countries and targeted capacity building in the area of environmental education.