There is an expressed intention in the County of Møre and Romsdal, Norway that students should have the opportunity to take part in international exchanges. At our school we do have an international class, with a goal that the students through three years at school should increase their capacity within, not only language-learning, but also their intercultural competence. This project is meant to bring positive and long-lasting effects on the persons invlolved in the project, both within the use of ICT in the classroom, as well as cultural awareness and increasing the students language capacity. The project will be mainly about comparing the ICT use among students in the two partner's countries, and will cover different subjects like how is ICT used pedagogically in the classroom, ICT as a learning material, presentation tool and netiquette, but we will as well look into ICT used politically, as a tool to make friends/virtual friends, blogging and how ICT is used in working life. We want to be a more modern school with a professional environment by integrating good practices and new methods into daily activities. Also we want to give a more attractive eduation through the use of ICT. Internationalism and globalisation is common today, both in private and in public business, and ICT is widely used all over the world in different ways, both for communication accross boarders and within the company itself. We want our students to increase their capacity, not only within ICT, but also in language learning and their intercultural competence. The best way to increase the students' capacity in intercultural learning is to let them live with a family in a host country, with a culture different to their own. They will be challenged in different ways, but we will prepare them in advance with a course in intercultural learning. Hopefully all the students will experience growth and improve their skills in dealing with people from another culture, with other values and attitudes than temselves. This competence will again be valuable for our students in their future job, as well as for their future employers, having in mind that we are more and more internationalized and globalized, and search jobs across boarders.
Context/background of the project: There is an expressed intention in the County of Møre and Romsdal, Norway that students should have the opportunity to take part in international exchanges. At our school we do have an international class, with a goal that the students through three years at school should increase their capacity within, not only language-learning, but also their intercultural competence. This project was meant to bring positive and long-lasting effects on the persons involved in the project, both within the use of ICT in the classroom, (this topic was also expanded to cover ICT use outside the classroom), as well as cultural awareness and increasing the students language capacity. The project was meant to mainly be about comparing the ICT use among students in the two partner's countries, but we saw the necessity to expand it to cover ICT use in different areas in the society. Internationalism and globalisation is common today, both in private and in public business, and ICT is widely used all over the world in different ways, both for communication accross boarders and within the company itself. We wanted our students to increase their capacity, not only within ICT, but also in language learning and their intercultural competence. It was also a challenge for both countries´ students to meet a different culture when staying with a host family. We are experienced in mobility projects. Every year we try to organise class exchanges with another European country. We also use ICT a lot in the classroom. All our students have their own portable computer, financed partly by the government. Our 1st year students on general studies, also use the schools Ipad, where all their teaching materials (books) are uploaded. We have teachers with skills within both ICT and intercultural competence. We wanted to improve the knowledge in areas such as ICT use among students, both in classroom and outside class. Also we wanted them to learn a foreign language and use English as a lingua franca, and improve intercultural competence and knowledge of European diversity. •Objectives: - to improve the students awareness of use of ICT in the classroom, as well as in the communication between them - to learn a foreign language, and improve their English language as a lingua franca - to increase students self-confidence and development by coming into contact and socializing with foreign students and gaining a greater knowledge of European diversity •Number and profile of participating organisations: There were two participating organisations, Fræna videregående skole in Elnesvågen, Norway, and 127 SOU Ivan Denkoglu in Sofia, Bulgaria. In total a number of 20(19) students ( the number changed during the 2 years of project) and 5 teachers from the norwegian school attended the project. •Description of undertaken main activities: During the exchanges the students have been working in workshops according to the main theme of the project ICT use in classroom. We expanded the theme to incorporate ICT use among students, both in classroom and ourside school. The following topics where worked on in Norway during the 1. exchange: - Statistics - changes in the youth habits concerning the use of ICT - Netiquette – how to behave on internet - ICT – possibilities in peace and war - Use of mibilephones - Source Criticism - Ict as a presentation tool - ICT as a communication tool - Virtual friendship - Searching for photos - ICT as a learning platform - Surveys - Journalism In the 2. Exchange the students worked on these topics in Bulgaria: - Blogging in general - Searching for photos on internet - Digital competence as basic skills - Ict used politically - ICT as learning material, internet and software - ICT as learning platform - Use of ICT in different subjects - Journalism The students also had history and language lessons, as well as we realized some excursions to nearby areas(Ålesund and a mountainhiking) to learn about our nature, scenery and culture. We also had a tournament of volleyball between the Bulgarians and the Norwegians. The last working day the students also presented their findings using power point presentations. •Results and impact attained: We have updated the school`s homepage All the students were uploaded in eTwinnings, we also uploaded the presentations here, and the first contact was made through eTwinnings. We have gathered all the presentations made by the students together. No brochure have been done, due to lack of people working with the project. The evaluation (questbacks) given to the students were answered by just a couple of students. It is therefore hard for us to say anything about the impact the project have had on the students. There have been changes in teachers(different causes for that), and none of the teachers have fully got into the project. We hope that the students have become more open-minded and more responsible when meeting people from different