"Winds of Change: A European Energetic (R)Evolution" (WoC) is a European project in which eight partners from Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, Austria and Spain participate. It focuses on the topic of sustainable energy sources in the areas where the centres are located, and on the improvement of the participants’ communicative skills in English thanks to the application of new and innovative teaching methodologies based on ICTs tools. The activities designed are committed to the spread of best practices and experiences among the countries involved in the field of the renewable energy each country stands out.WoC's main objectives are: 1) Promoting dialogue, respect, participation, knowledge and decision making among countries in the European Union;2) Greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity;3) Understanding of the use of sustainable energy resources and awareness of the need to switch to them among families, staff and students;4) Learning to work together and to share information with other educational institutions;5) Developing collaborative learning strategies and entrepreneurship among students and teachers;6) Increasing competence in English as a common language in the European Union;7) Increasing the level of digital competence.The schools participating are located in Massa (Italy), Winsen (Germany), Pafos (Cyprus), Mersin and Zonguldak (both in Turkey), Feldkirch (Austria), and the islands of Madeira (Portugal) and Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). Most of them have experience in the organization of European projects, or have participated in the former Comenius partnerships, except from Madeira, which is a new school. What they all have in common is the need to continue developing the valued added represented by the European Union in a multicultural context, paying special attention to the pursue of new sustainable energy sources. The Twin Space provided by eTwinning will be essential in order to develop common activities and share the results of our project. This will allow us to use chat rooms, email, and forum, as well as a make use of a collaborative space in which all the resources employed in the development of the project can be made accessible to all the schools involved. Some of the activities our students will share include designing the project logo; carrying out presentations about the renewable energies each country mostly uses;drawing a comic about the effects of global warming; and the elaboration of a manual about the know-how and good practices in the use of renewable sources of energy. For that, we will employ ICTs tools which allow working collaboratively, such as Glogster, Prezi, Pixton, as well as video reports, infographics, and podcasts. The students directly involved in the project are from 15 to 17 years old, and they would also take part in a students' exchange which will enable them to get steeped into the different realities of each of the partners, benefiting from the enriching factor of being in contact with educational systems and cultural and social realities different from theirs. The expected results involve the design of innovative didactic units in which the use of ICTs is essential and which will focus on collaborative and cooperational learning, as well as new teaching strategies. We also expect to achieve strategic goals, mainly the acquisition of new teaching methodologies focusing on the implementation of ICTs in the teaching and learning of English, the development of an environmental consciousness in our students, their families and our staff, and to raisen the levels of quality in each of the partners involved.The students involved in the project, who will be grouped with the other partners' students creating a "global classroom", will benefit from the opportunities of using English as a vehicle for communication in realistic settings, outside the ordinary classroom. They will be highly motivated and engaged due to the chance the project gives them to keep in touch with young people from different countries. It will also contribute to raise their environmental consciousness and their awareness of belonging to the European Union and the opportunities it provides them with. As for the teachers, they will have the opportunity of establishing professional networks and sharing ideas, beliefs and know-how with teachers from other educational realities. The development of an environmental consciousness will also be an important impact on the students' families, and will contribute to raising their awareness towards looking after the natural resources. The dissemination of the project's result will have a long-lasting impact upon the partners as well as in other relevant stakeholders, since the educational materials will be open and accesible to anybody interested in them.
"Winds of Change: A European Energetic (R)Evolution" (WoC) is a European project in which eight partners from Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, Austria and Spain participate. It focuses on the topic of sustainable energy sources in the areas where the centres are located, and on the improvement of the participants’ communicative skills in English thanks to the application of new and innovative teaching methodologies based on the implementation of ICTs tools. The activities developed were committed to the spread of best practices and experiences among the countries involved in the field of the renewable energy each country stands out. WoC's main objectives have been: 1) Promoting dialogue, respect, participation, knowledge and decision making among countries in the European Union; 2) Greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity; 3) Understanding of the use of sustainable energy resources and awareness of the need to switch to them among families, staff and students; 4) Learning to work together and to share information with other educational institutions; 5) Developing collaborative learning strategies and entrepreneurship among students and teachers; 6) Increasing competence in English as a common language in the European Union; 7) Increasing the level of digital competence. The participating schools are located in Massa (Italy), Winsen (Germany), Pafos (Cyprus), Mersin and Zonguldak (both in Turkey), Feldkirch (Austria), and the islands of Madeira (Portugal) and Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). Most of them have experience in the organization of European projects, or have participated in the former Comenius partnerships, except from Madeira, which have begun its internationalization process with this project. What they all have in common is the need to continue developing the valued added represented by the European Union in a multicultural context, paying special attention to the pursue of new sustainable energy sources. The Twin Space provided by eTwinning has been essential in order to develop common activities and share the results of our project. It has allowed us to use chat rooms, email, and forums, as well as to make use of a collaborative space in which all the resources employed in the development of the project are made accessible to all the schools involved. Some of the activities our students have been sharing include the project logo proposals; presentations about the renewable energies each country mostly uses; comics about the effects of global warming; and video reports on good practices in the use of renewable sources of energy. For that, we have employed ICTs tools which allow working collaboratively, such as Glogster, Prezi, Pixton, as well as video reports, infographics, and podcasts. The students who have been directly involved in the project are from 15 to 17 years old, and they also took part in short-term students' exchanges which enabled them to get steeped into the different realities of each of the partners, benefiting from the enriching factor of being in contact with educational systems and cultural and social realities different from theirs. The results have involved the design of innovative didactic units in which the use of ICTs is essential and which focus on collaborative and cooperational learning, as well as on new teaching strategies. We also achieved several strategic goals, mainly the acquisition of new teaching methodologies focusing on the implementation of ICTs in the teaching and learning of English, the development of an environmental consciousness in our students, their families and our staff, and a significant increase in the levels of quality in each of the partners involved. The students involved in the project have benefited from the opportunities of using English as a vehicle for communication in realistic settings, outside the ordinary classroom. They were highly motivated and engaged during the development of the project due to the chance WoC gave them to keep in touch with young people from different countries. It also contributed to raise their environmental consciousness and their awareness of belonging to the European Union and the opportunities it provides them with. As for the teachers, they had the opportunity of establishing professional networks, which continue nowadays (also with further Erasmus+ projects), and sharing ideas, beliefs and know-how with teachers from other educational realities. The development of an environmental consciousness has also been an important impact on the students' families, and it has contributed to raising their awareness towards looking after the natural resources. The educational materials are open and accesible to anybody interested in them, thanks to our website (www.windsofchange.com), contributing thus to promote their long-lasting benefits and dissemination.