The main objective of this project is to improve teachers' and students' digital competencies in order to make them able to use digital technology and its products (software) during their foreign language teaching and learning. Foreign language competencies as a means of international communication are basic skills for both the staff and the students (future workers) of partners while digital competencies and linguistic skills are also transversal skills acquired through formal education at school and with the help of the implementation of this project through non-formal learning as well (students using applications on their IPhones, PC-s or tablets in their free time). With the help of professionals and our research activity we hope to find the most innovative forms of studying foreign languages at different levels of secondary education and enhancing our digital competencies at the same time. As a result of the project implementation we can guarantee that the quality of learning opportunities will increase and we can integrate modern technology into the learning process (provided all partners are able to equip its teachers and students with the required technology). There are six participating secondary schools in the project (applicant: Hungary, partners: Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Turkey) and all schools find foreign language proficiency an important focus of the teaching and learning process in their schools. The project topic announced by Hungary on Linkedin provoked huge interest, more than fifty applicants wanted to join. We have chosen a team showing definitely positive motivation and determination towards innovation and improvements in ICT supported education. During project implementation we plan to involve professional help (the lecturers of the University of Pannonia), teachers (mostly ICT and language teachers) and learners of foreign languages. Our common activities are planned to be launched by a week’s staff training in Hungary with an overview of the recommended fields of possible ICT tools and visiting some classes as samples of ICT supported teaching and learning. During the project implementation teams of participants (4 students accompanied by 2 teachers) visit their partners in order to study and continue common practice of particular fields of ICT tools the given school took responsibility to do research. They can choose from the following fields: Sharing and exchanging ideas on the NET, monitoring activities: Ways of contacting partners and teachers and peers Google apps for education In-class online learning solutions, basics of establishing websites Applications supporting self-study, podcasts Interactive whiteboards Asssessment on-line tools, evaluation and monitoring on-line ITools provided by publishers Presentation technique YouTube videos Between 2 meetings the students involved in the project improve their language learning experience using the new ICT supported methods they have learnt. The management of the project (2 teachers per partner) plans to meet after contracting to make detailed plan for the project activities, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination. They also meet after the first year to evaluate the activities, results and impact and plan the second year. Their last meeting for final evaluation and preparing the report is at the end of the second year. The main idea for all schools is to become aware of the importance of good command of foreign language proficiency in order to communicate with other nations, to develop a positive approach and tolerance towards different cultures. As this project focuses on ICT supported language learning and speaking the teachers will improve their teaching methods through getting acquainted with innovative ICT based language teaching. Students will be more motivated to study and learn first and foremost foreign languages but they can also use the methods they have integrated into their learning strategies to improve their other skills. In today’s Europe it is school teachers' responsibility to search and find effective ways of teaching which can fit in with the young generation's way of life either at school or in their free time. Digital technology is built into our students' life. Realizing this fact it is a good way to involve electronic devices into the learning process and make them part of their daily learning activity. ICT based educational methods provide a more attractive way of (language) learning in line with personal needs and interests. Its competitiveness can be strengthened by exchanging good practices between schools throughout Europe. Participants can also compare greater employment chances built on better language proficiency in the labour market.
Digital technology is built into our students' life, so it is a good way to involve electronic devices into the learning process and make them part of their daily language learning activity. It's teachers' responsibility to search and find effective ways of teaching, because ICTbased educational methodology provides a more attractive way of language learning. Having a better language proficiency, participants in the labour market can obtain greater employment chances as employees of the future Europe. There were six participating secondary schools in the project (applicant: Hungary, partners: Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Turkey) and all schools found foreign language proficiency an important focus of the teaching and learning process in their schools. So the project topic announced by Hungary provoked huge interest at each institution showing positive motivation and determination towards innovation and improvements in ICT supported education. Here is a list of software solutions students used at the meetings (partner’s country is in brackets), and later taught their mates at their own schools. They managed to share ideas with Microsoft Publisher (Hungary), Madmagz (The Netherlands and Italy), Flyers (Italy, Poland) and Collage (Spain). They used Google Apps for education with the help of Hungarian teachers and created Apps with the assistance of Turkish teachers. The students and teachers practiced searching for information at the American Corner in Hungary and prepared interesting PPT-s and Prezis about their experiences in different partner countries (Italy, Hungary). Producing Powtoon (the Netherlands), Wevideo (Poland), Youtube, goanimate-4schools, padlet videos (Turkey), audio files and comics, Timeline (Spain) the students studied how to demonstrate interesting topics in a foreign language in a fascinating way. They also studied various assessment and evaluation solutions by creating Redmenta and Kahoot tests for each other (Hungary) Quizlets, Kahoot (Poland) and using Google Drive (Italy, Poland and The Netherlands). They also enjoyed some extra topics like working with lego robots (in Hungary) and taking part in an online competition (with the assistance of Turkey). We also motivated teachers to use more ICT tools made by publishers (OUP, MM Publications, Pearson). During project implementation we could involve professional help (the lecturers of the University of Pannonia), teachers (mostly ICT and language teachers) and learners of foreign languages. Our common activities were launched by a week’s staff training in Hungary with an overview of the recommended fields (for teachers mostly) of possible ICT tools and visiting some classes as samples of ICT supported teaching and learning. The lecturers from the University of Pannonia organised workshops at Bródy Secondary School. Due to technical difficulties it could have been more effective to organise these workshops at the university in Veszprém and transform them to a more practical, “secondary school” level. In the first year of project implementation teams of participants (4 students accompanied by 2 teachers) visited their partners (in The Netherlands and Italy) but in the second year after the students’ exchange in Hungary in early autumn partners decided not to visit Turkey (because of unstable political reasons) and take more students (6) and teachers (3) to other partner countries (Spain, Poland) instead. The Turkish partner conducted the planned workshops at these visited schools and online. The partners studied and continued common practice of the above mentioned particular fields of ICT tools.The main idea for all schools was to become aware of the importance of good command of foreign language proficiency in order to communicate with other nations, to develop a positive approach and tolerance towards different cultures as well. During the students’ exchange all participants were able to take part in cultural events as well. It can be considered the weakness of the project implementation that we couldn’t work out more definite control or instructions for students how to use their Iphones or other smart ICT tools for improving their language proficiency on their own. We also tried to exchange good practices between partner schools mostly at the students’ exchange while visiting classes. Evaluation and dissemination was an evitable process after meetings and project events.