In this project, students from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece will cooperate in creating different online and offline multimedia products, allowing them to gain insight and experience in different fields. The participating schools are general secondary schools, with similar problems in learning a foreign language, as well as a quite important drop-out rate, difficulties in inclusion of immigrant students and lack of motivation from our students. Large differences exist between our countries as far as early school leaving and attachment to the European Union are concerned. We plan to embrace this diversity and use it as a motivator for our project participants, both students and teachers. The students will learn about the importance of research, of asking questions and develop an understanding of our regions’ heritage and environment sites. They will practice descriptive writing in their language and a foreign language (English), photography, graphic design, as well as ICT skills, when they have to create and edit audios and videos about those cultural, artistic or natural places. These activities will stimulate their creativity and innovation. The students will learn to access these materials from their mobiles applications. In this way, these videos can be useful to their local and regional authorities, because anyone would have access to that useful material, it will encourage a sustainable tourism, besides it would be a way to promote and stimulate tourism in our towns or regions. Our students will also get a chance to put their language skills into practice in authentic communicative tasks as well as meet fellow students in other European countries. Through the stories they tell each other students will learn about different cultures and countries in a way they wouldn't otherwise. Teachers will be able to compare school organisations, exchange teaching material, work together with different colleagues and improve their language skills. Several online courses will be imparted with the needed knowledges from the ICT teachers to the rest of the teachers and the students. And we will create clear and simple manuals with the steps to follow in each situation. The goal of the project is twofold. To introduce secondary school students from many different backgrounds and with varying skill sets to the exciting field of new technologies, especially those close to them, such as mobile applications, and media production, thereby giving them an introduction into a world they would otherwise see little of at school. In this way we hope to motivate and inspire them to continue their studies and dissuade any who might leave school early. While on their assignments they will learn about different tasks, and they will collaborate in small international groups, this will help to find inspiration and motivation. The learning by doing methodology will help to integrate immigrant students. On the other hand we hope to foster among the students a sense of attachment to Europe and the European Union, by understanding more about what makes them different and what makes them the same. The project OUR REGION IN A CLICK will grow in four phases, over a period of two years:PHASE 1. Creation of the different teams (research, writing texts and translation; photography; audio recording; video edition) and a schedule to prepare rotations in those groups. Another group will be settled to research and identification of elements/themes related to the history and culture of the participant countries and the making of a digital presentation by each of the partners (short documentary); Written and spoken contact between students/teachers. Teachers in each country will select eight outstanding natural, artistic or cultural places to prepare videos and look for information about them. PHASE 2. The groups will work with two sites during four months, they will prepare all the needed steps: texts, translations, audio recording, pictures, video edition. At the same time, teacher will coordinate them. PHASE 3. The groups will learn to link these materials to augmented reality applications and QR-code readers. Fostering a sense of community, interpersonal relationships, an atmosphere that encourages citizenship and pupil participation in decision-making. PHASE 4. They will create posters or signs to show them to the rest of the partners, as well as local/regional authorities. Creating video clips, short movies (role play), newsletters, logos, posters, blog posts, podcasts. etc. Creation of teaching guidelines and material which can be used by the teachers to develop a new way to learn. The project aims to help students better understand their own national identity and its significance in a greater European framework, making pupils aware of belonging to a community at a local, regional, national and European level.
This project was carried out between partners from southern Europe, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. We have a remarkable cultural and environmental heritage, with great tourist potential, insufficiently exploited and a great ignorance of our own students of their heritage. Our project has had clear objectives: improve oral expression in English in the student partners, reduction of high dropout rates, inclusion of immigrant students and lack of motivation. On the dropout rates, methodologies have been exchanged and the use of ICTs promoted. Small teams of students, supervised by teachers, have investigated monuments or surroundings. They have acquired ICT skills (photography, audio and video editing) or artistic competences (photography, art, descriptive writing), stimulating their creativity. They have linked videos with QR codes and augmented reality (AURASMA), accessible with mobile devices. ICT and collaboration in groups with foreign students and immigrants, has served to include and motivate students, promoting sustainable tourism, and at the same time increasing their ties with Europe. IES Diego Torrente of San Clemente, in Spain, has been the coordinator. It is a center located in a rural environment, in which most of the population is engaged in agriculture, with a high number of immigrants. The socio-economic conditions of the families can be classified as medium-low, their opportunities to know other countries are very limited. The Agrupamento de Escolas of Vendas Novas in Portugal shares the environment and students, primary and secondary, although they have been those who have participated in the project. The Geniko Likeio of Xylokastro in Greece is also located in a coastal rural environment, with active domestic tourism and that wants to attract foreign tourists. The Liceo Scientifico Giacomo Ulivi of Parma, Italy is an urban center that does not have the same idiosyncrasy, although they share the problem of ignorance of the heritage by the students, demotivation, early school leaving and communication in English. The project activities have been carried out in several phases: CREATION OF A COMMON ENVIRONMENT * Google users, repository in Google Drive (common materials), YouTube accounts and Blogger. * Creation of associated eTwinning project and blog. SELECTION OF MONUMENTS, STUDENTS AND TEAMS * Selection of monuments or environments of interest. * Participating students according to pre-established criteria in the preparatory conferences. * Creation of working teams: research, preparation of texts about monuments, translation; Photography; audio recording; video editing. * Assignment of students and coordinating teachers in the groups. Planning of rotations. PREPARATION OF PRESENTATIONS AND CONTACT * Videos of each locality and centre. * Video on EU visibility. * Contest-selection project logo. REALIZATION OF VIDEOS * Realization of photographs. * Research and texts on monuments or environments. * Audio recording. * Video editing. COURSES AND INFORMATION EXCHANGES * QR codes and your link to the videos. * Augmented reality and the link of videos to auras. * Video edition. * Artistic photography. * Europass Mobility / MT * Educational systems. EVALUATION * Questionnaires for the educational community. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES * Creation of brochures, posters. * Information on the centres websites, in local and regional media. * Informative days or galas in collaboration with local organizations. * Information on each activity through social networks (Instagram, twitter, Facebook) The results exceed the objectives. The students have improved their oral competence in English. Both in the academic results (all the participating students have passed English) and in the external exam (8 students have obtained the B2 level). The drop-out rate has been reduced, the positive impact of the experience has been undeniable, the desire to participate in students of lower grades has been enormous; the motivation of the students has been very high, investigating on their own about the heritage, collaborating in small teams. Art is not usually one of their favourite disciplines and in the questionnaires they value knowing about monuments. As for the impact, it has been very high. In each mobility we have received local and regional authorities, with echo in the press and radio. In the educational community, we have received congratulations from parents, teachers and teachers from other centres. The municipal authorities have been very receptive to the initiative, QR codes are already being placed on monuments. They have also helped to co-finance activities, such as printing brochures or paying buses for small trips. The long-term benefits will be visible when our localities can offer tourist information about each monument, quality and accessibility.