CONTEXT The project was created in response to two basic needs identified at the level of the schools involved - the need to boost students' motivation and consequently their school results and the need to promote intercultural dialogue among people from different countries and backgrounds, in a European context which is now facing great challenges. Therefore, the purpose of this project consists of two apparently distinct directions. On the one hand, we want to get students more involved in their own learning by having them use the computer in their studying, thus improving their results and performance. On the other hand, we want them to experience what it means to be European, to expose them to different ways of thinking, values and beliefs. The partnership includes 5 schools – SE, PL, IT, RO, TR. AIM: to improve students' motivation, involvement and school results and to promote intercultural dialogue. OBJECTIVES The objectives we envisage are: 1. to involve students in their own learning with a view to attaining better results and becoming more motivated; (at least 40 percent from the target group will improve their school results) 2. to develop students' transversal skills - numeracy, computer literacy, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability; (at least 30 percent of students will improve these skills) 3. to develop intercultural understanding and acceptance; (at least 60 percent of students will have better knowledge of other cultures) 4. to develop communication skills in English; (the 100 participants, students and teachers, will improve communication skills in English) 5. to promote European values and develop cohesion among European citizens. (measurable by analysing students' and teachers' attitudes to other cultures, as seen in the post-LTTA feedback) MAIN ACTIVITIES C1 - Feb 2018 - IT - Topic: Using software to create fun lessons; Customs and traditions C2 - May 2018 - PL - Topic: Using online tools to create quizzes; Maths C3 - Oct 2018 - RO - Topic: Using online tools to create booktrailers; Literature C4 - March 2019 - SE - Topic: Digital tools for artwork; Religious Studies NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS 64 students aged 13 from the 5 schools, selected from the target group of 250. The students come from very diverse backgrounds - urban and rural - and have a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, which makes the project even more appealing. 36 teachers of ICT, English, Maths, METHODOLOGY The project is designed to cover 5 main areas: A1. Project management – includes monitoring and evaluation, risk management, financial management, cooperation and communication strategy that will be applied throughout the project. 2 TMs are included, 1 at the beginning, and 1 at the end of the project. A2. Implementation of activities - involves selection of participants, preparatory training sessions, participation in exchanges A3. Ellaboration of ICT lessons - done prior to the exchanges by each partner institution A4. Dissemination - dissemination will be a continuous process that involves the sharing of both tangible and intangible results at local, regional, national and international levels, using a variety of channels and addressing school and non-school audiences A5. Follow-up and sustainability - each school selects a group of teachers to implement the new methods during regular class work. The success is measured comparatively against the results and level of satisfaction of students who learned the same contents without digital instruments. Then another school in each area will be supported to include digital tools during class work in the next year. RESULTS AND IMPACT Students will improve knowledge in terms of ICT tools for educational purposes, practical skills related to designing mini-lessons, storytrailers, digital projects, online quizzes, digital artwork, motivation, school results, experience another culture, increase adaptability, self-awareness and awareness of cultural differences which make Europe so diverse, and yet unitary. Teachers will have the chance to exchange good practices, teaching methods, opinions and will improve English and digital skills, organisational skills, teaching methods and tools. Schools will promote a positive self-image and become more visible in the community. They will gain project management experience and will set examples for other schools to apply for projects. They will also become more cohesive and a positive atmosphere will be created among the members.
The summary is divided into five different aspects based on the result and effect part, which is described in the application. The background to the project is to take students' perspectives on using new technology around their upbringing as digital natives, find ways to increase motivation and achievement in school, learn new things about foreign cultures and how we can reduce the number of students who drop out of school. Practical skills in the design of classes Throughout the project, students and teachers have designed classes together for the digital context. In retrospect, you can see that the students have gained as much influence as they thought from the beginning, they have participated and designed lessons yes, but not always and not fully. The teachers should have been even more interested in learning from the students and their views on new technology and what they think can work in a modern school. The lessons focused on mathematics, religious studies, stories and art. The advantage of designing classes together as a teacher student has been to let the teacher explain the classroom to the students. This has made both students and teachers more aware of how to design classes and understand the teacher and student aspect of the activity. Throughout the project, it was shown how the schools were equipped with ICT tools and how these were used and evaluated by teachers and pupils. Although some schools had less advanced equipment, they used it to and sometimes beyond the full potential. Cultural awareness The background of the participating students has been different. In the project, the students met and interacted with students of different heritage and religious background, an important part of being European today. All visits during the meetings have included guided tours, cultural classes such as the European Day in Poland where the whole school participated. The participants talk a lot about this just after the end of the project, after they have come home from their journey or time they had with new acquaintances at their school where they have shown around, how much they have grown during the project. How their language developed when they had to use their school English to understand themselves among the other participants. How they themselves feel that they dare and move in new countries, new cultures more freely and unimpeded than before and how they learned new things. Language Performance Throughout the project, students have been motivated to speak English and make themselves talkable among themselves. During the project it was noticed early on that the language performance was different in the different countries, the Swedish students' English was generally high quality, while other countries had difficulty communicating fully verbally, using digital aids, other ways of communicating such as body language and imagery. At the end of the project, they noticed that the participants practiced during the project and that they got better and better at communicating with each other, which led to friendships across the previous language boundaries. Platform for collaboration and exchange of ideas The meeting and activities have served as a platform for students and teachers to learn from each other and exchange ideas. Between the meeting, we chose to use Google's collaboration platform that included websites, documents and presentation. This collaboration between the meetings has been sporadic, one can now see in retrospect. If we had done about the project then from the beginning there would have been more from each country involved so that the workload could be spread among themselves. What we see now at the end is that it stopped during the course of the project even though the project rolled on. Results and impact The results show to some extent increased goal achievement around the students who participated in the project when it comes to grades. Some have not elevated others. The project has also created a good start for a new lesson bank full of lesson plans where new technology is used in a natural way by both teachers and students. However, our problem is that the result of the project's impact on the students' goal achievement has been difficult to see when it has not been saved or worked with sufficiently during the project. But to some extent this is evident, especially in the interviews with the participants where they themselves experience a higher goal achievement, motivation etc. In other words, it seems that the impact on the participants was greater than the actual result around the goal achievement. And it might rather indicate more lifelong education than short-term educational efforts on new technology and digitalisation.