The Linguacuisine project addresses the future of equality of access and participation in learning linked to two core skills gaps recognised by today’s changing Europe: digital skills and language skills. The project will promote learning of digital literacy, languages, cuisines and cultures. It will do this by co-design of downloadable apps and social recipes by means of an authoring tool to develop an online community of practice. We aim for mass adoption of these learning materials with a focus on social inclusion.Whereas our previous very successful LLP-funded ‘Lancook’ project www.europeandigitalkitchen.com produced sensorised digital kitchen equipment, we will create for the new project free downloadable smartphone and tablet apps (android and Apple) using an iterative development methodology. These will enable users to be guided through cooking a range of recipes in 6 different European languages. The phone or tablet will speak to the users in the foreign language and offer multimedia help to users in terms of photos and videos. Users will be able to access different levels of help to support their language learning depending on their levels of competence. As no sensors are involved, users will let the phone or tablet know when they are ready to move to the next step. The main aim is to create a sustainable model for the production and use of multimedia materials for learning languages, cuisines and cultures based on user-generated content in support of a community of practice in those areas. We will take 40 digitally marginalized project participants with little or no digital experience. These will include migrant and refugees. We firstly provide them with digital, transferable and language skills. We will co-design the app and authoring tool with them, thus ensuring that the apps will be usable by most social groups in the EU. Then we enable them to use the authoring tool to author a multimedia social recipe for language learning. ‘Authoring’ here means a) writing an existing cooking recipe onto the system in short, simple stages using the authoring tool b) creating audio files for spoken instructions c) creating photos and videos together with subtitles as help facilities. The ‘authoring tool’ is a software system that allows both technical and non-technical people to programme content for use in the app. We will disseminate the social recipes through the development of online communities of practice in 6 EU languages which bring people together in sharing and cooking the recipes. Dissemination activities will ensure that people across the EU will share and author social recipes themselves.Objectives are: To produce a downloadable tablet and smartphone app (android and iphone) which will enable users to be guided through cooking a recipe in 6 official EU languages. Further languages can easily be added using the authoring tool. To create an online community of practice with access via the apps.Participants will learn aspects of a foreign languages, cuisines and cultures by using the apps.To develop a certification system for the digital competence which participants develop. The needs addressed are: improving basic skills, specifically digital competence, and engaging digitally marginalized groups (including refugees and migrants) with technology; certifying and assessing levels of digital competence; learning foreign languages, cultures and cuisines;The rationale for this project is that it creates a motivating way of learning digital skills together with foreign languages, cultures and cuisines, making engaging technology available and accessible to a very wide audience. We develop an inclusive approach to technology design by including users with low levels of digital competence in the design process. The project promotes active EU citizenship and promotes mobility within the EU by familiarizing people with other countries and cultures, engaging with the ‘Languages for social inclusion’ agenda. It promotes integration of migrants and refugees into the host culture. It combines internationalisation of education with digital learning. Anyone anywhere who downloads the app software will be able to write any recipe in any language and submit it for potential inclusion in the range of recipes available to play with the app. They will also be able to gain access to the online community created by the project, which will provide feedback on contributions and exchange of ideas. This should ensure sustainability for the project.
The Linguacuisine project has engaged and trained learners, including those who might be considered as marginalised, in the development of a digital platform incorporating a downloadable multimedia app (the Linguacuisine app) centred on cooking and languages. The ‘journey’ as well as the ‘destination’ stand out as key outcomes of this project. The project has provided opportunities for the creation of innovative and equalising learning experiences, including demystifying and diversifying the pool of ‘experts’ who can produce valuable learning content. Our goal was that the Linguacuisine experts would include the participants themselves and that their participation in co-design would validate their expertise in the culturally-linked issues of languages and cooking, while empowering them with valuable new digital skills. The project has brought learners together with experts in education, linguistics and digital technology to co-develop a digital platform to support task-based language learning through an online learning community. Through our nexus of good practice in task-based learning, digital learning, and language learning, we have created an innovative and engaging 'Learn as you Cook' mobile app. It has a web-based European language learning community using cooking in European languages and authoring capability as its unique selling point. This is a dedicated online community where users can create, share, and explore expert and citizen-generated learning content. Both the mobile app and the online community are freely available for download and designed for accessibility, supporting mass adoption of these learning materials with a focus on social inclusion. In this multi-sector project, the app was co-designed with a group of 40 digitally marginalized users with little or no digital experience, including migrants and refugees. We thereby ensured inclusivity in that the vast majority of EU citizens and migrants will be able to use the app and author a social recipe themselves. ‘Authoring’ here means a) writing an existing cooking recipe onto the system in short, simple stages using the authoring tool b) creating audio files for spoken instructions c) creating photos and videos together with subtitles as help facilities. The tablet/mobile apps developed in this project can speak to the users in 6 European languages, guide them through cooking a recipe, and offer multimedia help in terms of photos and videos. Users can access different levels of language learning help depending on their levels of competence. Transnational value was added by translating the app and we trialled social recipes in 6 languages in total. We have addressed the needs of European citizens, migrants and refugees by: improving basic skills, specifically digital competence; engaging digitally marginalized groups with technology; certifying and assessing digital competence; learning foreign languages, cultures and cuisines. The project has created a motivating way of learning digital skills and foreign languages, cultures and cuisines, making engaging technology available and accessible to a very wide audience. The project promotes active EU citizenship and promotes mobility within the EU by familiarizing people with other countries and cultures, engaging with the ‘Languages for social inclusion’ agenda, and by embracing the experiences and expertise of migrants and refugees as co-designers.