Experience - with all the senses:Creating a digital toolbox for experiential learning, body and sensory experiences as well as nature and environmentIn this multilateral project the students from Finland, Germany and the Netherlands (between the age of 16 and 25), who follow a vocational education, will develop a multi-lingual `digital Toolbox´. The themes of this digital toolbox are experiential pedagogy, body and sensory experiences, as well as nature and environment. These areas are anchored in the respective educational programs – students in this project are trained to work in education (Germany), respectively in tourism / recreation (Netherlands, Finland). In a world that is dominated by technology, consumerism and effectiveness they can form a necessary counterweight through experiences such as: • empathy for yourself and others• the positive impact of group processes and• sensitive perception of nature and environment, respectively sustainabilityThe ‘digital toolbox’ will contain exercises in the above mentioned areas. These exercises will be described in writing in four languages (English and the respective languages of Germany, Finland and the Netherlands), including tips and checklists for implementation. Furthermore, the exercises will be illustrated and commented on in video sequences. Reflecting on, for example, group processes is extremely important in this area. Therefore, the Toolbox will offer a wide choice of reflection methods. A Wikipedia with technical terms of the themes in English will be available as a tool, as well an extensive list of links to other pertinent material. This digital toolbox will be permanently available to a broad public, in various formats (pdf etc.) as OER (Open Educational Resources = free education and teaching material within Europe), making self-development possible at any time. The target groups are in particular businesses and organisations in the field of social pedagogy (kindergarten facilities, educational institutions), youth work, tourism/leisure as well as other vocational schools. In order to fully enjoy and experience the subjects, three learning activities of each one week will take place at the educational institutes of the different countries, in the middle of nature.There, the students of each of the three partner organisations will carry out exercises and activities about the aforementioned themes. During each of those one-week activities there will be an ICT workshop (information and communication technique) in order to acquire the skills that are needed to create the digital toolbox, but also to communicate and share information during the working phase between the learning activities. The concrete themes of the ICT workshops are:• creation of a homepage, including work on the project homepage• making videos and editing technique• dealing with e-Twinning / moodle / making your own Wikipedia• creation of video blogsThe digital toolbox will already be useable after one third of the project and will grow with the progress of the project.Of each partner school one class of 25-30 students will participate, who will cooperate throughout the project (the means of communications is e-Twinning). From each class 10 students will participate in each of the one-week learning activities and will thereafter act as multipliers in their classes. Furthermore, there will be two cross-border project meetings: one at the start with the participating students and one at the end. During this festive termination of the project the results will be presented to partners, professionals, school representatives, politics and the industry. The background to the implementation of this project are the students’ need to gain higher professional skills for their future career, with regard to ICT as well as experiences from the experiential pedagogy, body and sensory experiences and nature and environment. What is more, an instrument as the foreseen Toolbox with this content, this complexity and for the chosen target group, has not been created yet The essential objectives of this project are to establish an advanced knowledge of language, social and self-competence. Furthermore it aims at a positive access to other European cultures, by creating news things together, learning from each other and cultural exchange. The long-term benefit is expected in the presence of the commonly available and elaborate digital toolbox, and in the good education of the participants in terms of lifelong learning.
Experience - with all senses: Creating a digital toolbox for experiential learning, body and sensory experiences as well as nature and environment In this bilateral project the students from Finland and Germany (between the age of 16 and 25), who follow a vocational education, developed a multi-lingual `digital Toolbox´ as a website (https://experiential-learning.info).The themes of this digital toolbox are experiential pedagogy, as well as nature and environment. These areas are anchored in the respective educational programs – students in this project are trained to work in education (Germany), respectively in tourism / recreation (Finland). In a world that is dominated by technology, consumerism and effectiveness they can form a necessary counterweight through experiences such as: • empathy for yourself and others• the positive impact of group processes and• sensitive perception of nature and environment, respectively sustainability. The ‘digital toolbox’ contains exercises in the above mentioned areas. These exercises are described in writing in three languages (English and the respective languages of Germany and Finland), including tips and checklists for implementation. Furthermore, the exercises are illustrated and commented on in video sequences. Reflecting on, for example, group processes is extremely important in this area. Therefore, the Toolbox offers a wide choice of reflection methods. A Wikipedia with technical terms of the themes in English is available as a tool, as well a list of links to other pertinent material. This digital toolbox is permanently available to a broad public as OER (Open Educational Resources = free education and teaching material within Europe), making self-development possible at any time. The target groups are in particular businesses and organisations in the field of social pedagogy (kindergarten facilities, educational institutions), youth work, tourism/leisure as well as other vocational schools. In order to fully enjoy and experience the subjects, two learning activities of each one week took place at the educational institutes of the different countries, in the middle of nature. There, the students of each of the two partner organisations carried out exercises and activities about the before mentioned themes. Both meetings were recorded in form of digital video-diaries. During each of those one-week activities there was an ICT workshop (information and communication technique) in order to acquire the skills that are needed to create the digital toolbox, but also to communicate and share information during the working phase between the learning activities. The concrete themes of the ICT workshops were:• creation of a homepage • making videos and editing technique• making your own Wikipedia. Of each partner school one class of 25-30 students participated, who cooperated throughout the project (the means of communications was besides eTwinning, e-mail and social media). From each class 10 -13 students participated in each of the one-week learning activities and acted thereafter as multipliers in their classes. Furthermore, there were two cross-border project meetings: one at the start with the participating teachers and one at the end. During this festive event of the project the results were presented to partners, professionals, school representatives, politics and business enterprises. The background to the implementation of this project was the students’ need to gain higher professional skills for their future career, with regard to ICT as well as experiences from the experiential pedagogy, body and sensory experiences, nature and environment. What is more, an instrument as the Toolbox with this content, this complexity and for the chosen target group, had not been created yet. The essential objectives of this project, to establish an advanced knowledge of language, social and self-competence, are reached to a large extent. Furthermore we achieved our aim to pave a way to positive access to other European cultures, by creating new things together, learning from each other and cultural exchange. The long-term benefits of this project consist in the presence of the commonly available and elaborate digital toolbox, and the good education of the participants in terms of lifelong learning.