In this project, all teachers involved aim to gain new insights and knowledge in the fields of media competence and new technologies, especially in the teaching of art. The pupils shall be introduced to this knowledge in class and apply it. The teachers shall gather information on European artists and their works, and subsequently apply it productively through the use of modern media in art classes. The goals for our project have been clearly defined by all project partners: Further training of the teachers Dissemination of digital literacy to the pupils in art classes Dissemination of best practice examples A joint product (medi(a)rt encyclopedia) The project brings together five schools from France, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark and Austria. The Austrian school, having gained a lot of experience in other European projects, will take the role of coordinator in this project. All partners teach children of the same age group. Some have already considerable experience in the use of modern media in class, the others wish to gain this experience. All teachers are aware of the fact that the use of modern media is of high importance to the future of the pupils. This project will prepare the pupils for the intelligent use of modern media in the European context. The project shall also help to cover the ubiquitous need for a meaningful use of all modern media and technologies and thereby help to ease the pupils into secondary school and later on into the job market. The participating schools will use eTwinning as a platform for networking. Furthermore, eTwinning will be used to make available to the participants in the project (and later on to other interested parties) the resulting documents in the form of a medi(a)rt encyclopedia (information on the artists, their styles and works, reports on job shadowing, minutes of the meetings, evaluations, best practice examples, lesson plans, photographs, pupils’ projects etc.) via QR codes. In order to facilitate the dissemination of the project results on a regional, national and international level, a dissemination schedule has been set up (see appendix). All partners will adhere to it and see to its implementation. Meetings within the schools as well as regular evaluations shall document the progress of the project. The topic of our trips will be job shadowing, where we will visit art classes where modern media are used. The visitors will, however, also present their country, their culture and their language to the children in the host school. A clearly defined trip and job shadowing schedule explaining the format and the contents of these trips has been developed (see appendix “Format of Trips – Job Shadowing”), which enables well-prepared, smoothly run and efficient meetings. Being together, mutual exchange, discussions among equals and identical practical experience on the ground shall provide powerful stimuli for the key topic “art and modern media”. Two transnational project meetings will take place, one in the beginning in order to organise the project and one at the end of the project for evaluation purposes. The coodinators from all participating schools will be present at those meetings. The long-term benefits of the project can be seen in its international dimension. All participating schools will get to know new methodical approaches to the topics, they will compare and adopt them and finally merge them into a standard, European and transcultural methodology. The newly aquired competences regarding art and especially new media will be passed on to the pupils. This new knowledge will pave the way into the future for the pupils (choice of further education, job opportunities, choice of occupation, etc.) and shall counteract risks such as early dropping out of school and reduced career opportunities, caused by the lack of skills in information and computer technology. Only the cooperation between several nations ensures the transfer of expert knowledge (of teachers and therefore subsequently pupils – the future employees and employers) on a European scale and its integration into the relevant curricula.
In this project, all the teachers involved wanted to acquire new inputs and knowledge in the fields of media competence and new technologies - especially in the field of teaching arts - and thus to expand their competences. The pupils were able to experience and apply this knowledge in the lessons. Information on European artists and their works was acquired and subsequently applied productively through the use of modern media in the artistic field. The objectives for our project have been clearly defined by all participating project partners: .)Training of teachers, .)Transfer of digital competences in the field of teaching arts and art instruction to the pupils .) Dissemination of best practice examples .) a joint product (medi[a]rt dictionary) The project included five schools from France, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark and Austria. The Austrian School, which has already gained a lot of experience in other European projects, took the coordinating role in this project. All partners teach children in the same age group and in some cases they already had extensive experience in using modern media in the classroom or wanted to do so. All teachers involved were aware that the use of modern media is very important for the future of pupils. Through this project, the pupils were prepared for the intelligent use of modern media in a European context. The project helped to cover the ubiquitous need for a meaningful use of all modern media and technologies, thus paving the way for secondary schools and facilitating the future employment market for pupils. The eTwinning platform was used for networking the participating schools and furthermore, the project participants and other interested parties were able to access the resulting documents in the form of a "medi[a]rt lexicon" (information of the artists and their art forms and works, reports on job-shadowing, protocols of meetings, evaluations, best practice examples, hourly drafts, photos, works of the children...) and others. In order to facilitate the dissemination of all results of the project at regional, national and international level, a dissemination plan was drawn up (see annex), to which all project partners adhered and ensured its implementation. Internal school meetings and regular evaluations recorded and document the status of the project's success. The subject of our mobility was job-shadowing, in which art lessons with modern media were hosted. The guests were also able to present their country, culture and language to the host children. A clearly defined trip and job shadowing schedule explaining the format and the contents of these trips has been developed, which enabled well-prepared, smoothly ran and efficient meetings. Together, in exchange and discussion at eye level and through the same practical experience on site, the key topic of art with modern media experienced decisive impulses. Two transnational project meetings were held at the beginning and end of the project to support the organisation and evaluation of the project. The long-term benefit lies in implementation at international level. All participating schools learnt about other methodological approaches to the topics. Furthermore the partners compared, adopted and merged the different approaches into a uniform, European and cross-cultural methodology. The newly acquired competences in the field of art and especially in the field of new media were transferred to the pupils. This new knowledge helped to pave the way for the pupils future (further choice of school, career opportunities, career choice,...), to counteract risks such as early school leaving, reduced career opportunities due to a lack of competence in the ICT sector. Only through the cooperation of several nations was it possible to ensure that the respective expert knowledge (of teachers, and consequently pupils - the future employees or employers) was transported throughout Europe and implemented in the respective school curricula.