The project with the title “Digital Green” is a partnership Project with a duration of two years (September 2016 – August 2018) that aims spreading the concept of sustainability throughout the six involved European countries (Portugal, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain and Turkey) turning it into a single purpose and uniting Europe under the same concept: promoting sustainability using digital technology. Our aim, and we mean every member’s aim, is to understand, appropriately, the concept of “sustainable development” and act as sensitizing agents in the communities involved in this project. Another aim is to create and implement practices that can be replicable and transferable to other contexts and even between countries; intensively use mobile technologies. The use of augmented reality combined with the georeferencing will give origin to an interactive map containing the locations that will be intervened under this project. The use of QR Codes also provides another type of more dedicated maps for a localized slope. Because the concept of sustainability can be applied to several dimensions, we chose three as our major purpose:-Social sustainability - a comprehensive approach to the theme heritage and in it we can see the importance of the social sustainability.-Energy sustainabilityWe will deal with the questions of energetic efficiency and understand the production of energy.-Environment sustainabilityThis line will treat issues related to environmental sustainability, identifying them in each country and sharing the different solutions.After stating our specific objectives, let us see which activities we intend to do in order to achieve our goals.The project will start with the development of a deeper knowledge of the local community as well as provide all participants with the skills to produce mobile Apps using augmented reality and QR codes. In January 2017, Portugal will held a training activity for teachers to provide the participants with the skills to produce mobile Apps and using augmented reality and QR codes. To increase the sense of belonging, it will be the students who create the logo and motto of the project which be the basis for the layout of the website and social media presence. At the same time, we will design of the website and create of logins for each country update with activities. There will be three themes around sustainability that will be worked along the project: energy, environment and social. The students will work around this themes and produce a Mobile Game (a quiz) about it. These APPS will be subjected first to a voting in each school. We also want local stakeholders to be involved in this process. The winners of these works will participate in the Blended mobilities. All the wining mobile APPS will be in Google Play and freely available to the world. Also, the students should produce texts, videos and photosalbuns about these themes in the local context. All these assets will be available at the website and will be spread using social media.There will be three blended mobilities: Spain (May 2017), Slovenia (November 2017) and Bulgary (April 2018). These mobilities have three moments: before (virtual mobility), during (Phisical Mobility) and after ((virtual mobility). The results of the mobilities are intangible (growth of team spirit, development of intercultural and linguistic competences, development of practical, artistic and motric skills, increment of schools visibility, language skills, environment and sustainability awareness, ICT and coding competences) but also tangible (Mobile APP, QR Codes linking to the website, drawings, exhibition, photos, videos, final report, evaluation).We plan two transnational project meetings (TPM): one at the begging of the project implementation and the other one at the end. On the first one, to be will be held in Turkey, will be the kick off, all the planning of the project will be done and the tasks and responsibilities will be distributed among all the partners. The last TPM will be held in Romania and aims assessing the whole project, preparing the final report to present to the national agency and establish an agreement to make this project sustainable.The results we intend to achieve can be classified in two big groups: direct and the indirect results. Direct results :> awareness of sustainability;> the improvement of the quality of the use of the ICT, collaborative online tools and, of course, the mobile technologies;> videos, presentations and other documents produced throughout the project;> Moblie APPs (Game- Quiz)> a training course for teachers.As indirect and intangible results we can name:>the rise of competences in English; the improvement of the soft skills,> the development of the sense of belonging to Europe > the intensive use of the communication technologies as well as the virtual collaborative methodologies;> Improve the student´s skill in programming;
The two-year project (2016 – 2018) “Digital Green” was a partnership of six European public secondary schools from Portugal, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain and Turkey. Nowadays it is essential to be an active EU citizen working towards sustainable development, and we wanted to focus on the development of iT skills which we considered useful and attractive for the students. The main objectives were: - to implement ideas with the purpose of uniting Europe using digital technology; - to understand the concept of “sustainable development” and act as sensitizing agents in the communities involved; - to create and implement replicable and transferable practices; - to intensively use mobile technologies including augmented reality and the use of QR Codes. The project partners dealt with: social sustainability including a comprehensive approach to the theme heritage. energy sustainability to deal with the questions of energetic efficiency and understanding the production of energy. environment sustainability to treat issues related to environmental sustainability, identifying them in each country and sharing the different solutions. The project started with the development of a deeper knowledge of the local community as well as provide all participants with the skills to produce mobile Apps using augmented reality and QR codes. > in September 2016 we held an e-conference during which partners met, shared their first ideas, and planned the first TPM. The tasks and responsibilities were distributed. > in October 2016, coordinators had a training session with their national agencies. A contest was in each school where students made proposals for the project logo and motto, basis for social media presence. This raises students’ interest, awareness and sense of belonging to the project. Furthermore, informative meetings with parents were held. > in November 2016, representatives from the six countries met at the first TPM in Romania to plan the activities to take place in the project, chose the project logo and motto and get acquainted with the Romanian partners, their educational system and local stakeholders. > in January 2017, Portugal held a training activity to provide the participant teachers with the skills to produce mobile Apps and using augmented reality. > in February-March 2017 the students worked on sustainable energy. They researched the topic and made Mobile Apps (quizzes) which were then subjected to a voting in a process in which local stakeholders were also involved. The winners were offered to participate in the Blended mobilities and the winning APPS were made available worldwide in Google Play Store. Three blended mobilities followed: Spain (May 2017), Slovenia (November 2017) and Bulgaria (April 2018) with different moments: before (virtual mobility), during (Physical Mobility) and after (virtual mobility). The last TPM was held in Turkey and aimed at assessing the whole project, preparing the final report to present to the national agencies and establishing the best ways to make the results of the project useful and relevant in the future. The impact of the project included direct and indirect results: higher awareness and deeper knowledge of sustainability, improved quality of the use of the iCT, collaborative online tools and mobile technologies, producing videos, presentations and documents throughout the project, developing Mobile APPs (Quizzes), teachers’ professional development through a training course; increased self-initiative, better competences in English and the languages of the partner countries, deeper understanding of social and ethical diversity, improved software skills, a higher sense of belonging to Europe, higher motivation and satisfaction in everyday working activities, promoting civil and intercultural competence as well as social inclusion and well being in the area, the intensive use of the communication technologies as well as the virtual collaborative methodologies. As predicted, long-term benefits have proven to be plentiful. We can mention: > strengthened collaborative efforts between partners > continuing teaching of app programming as it has proven to be an attractive way of learning for students motivating them to want to learn more and continue working on it > the continuation of the contact between students and their host families > better perception of the importance of learning languages > higher appreciation of the value of diversity, also by discarding certain cultural prejudice > improved student self-confidence as they have seen themselves able to be independent and to present themselves and their work in a foreign language > sharing experience with local stakeholders to be more active sustainability-oriented citizens raising of popularity of participating schools, making them attractive for potential future students