The project´s focus lies on online learning using new technologies and up to date freeware applications in class. To give the students a concrete topic to deal with, we decided to let them work on sustainability, i.e. resources and renewable energy. The acquisition of digital competences within Europe is a challenge, as in Europe there are differences in the progress of digitalisation. Thus, the project intends to balance the knowledge and accessibility of online learning with the partner schools. Long distance learning is emphasized between the LTTAs. Even ultra-peripheral regions like the Azores can collaborate with the European mainland. The LTTAs themselves focus more on direct personal interaction of the students to enhance the intercultural exchange and usage of English as a lingua franca. The use of webinars allows students and teachers to overcome distances in-between the project´s meetings. Therefore, all participants learn how to set up a webinar. To create a common technological platform for all participating students, we will be using freeware. All cloud-services and online applications will be free of charge. Even students with a very low internet speed can use these applications, as they are accessible in a browser. Most students have smartphones that will even allow them to use complex applications like video editing. The students will use a broad variety of free of charge online learning toolboxes and programming software allowing them to create online quizzes, geographical maps and vocabulary trainers, e.g.: Moodle: online learning platform Socrative: prepared activities or on-the-fly questions to get immediate insight into student understanding Kahoot!: a free game-based learning platform Plickers: tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices Scratch: free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations StoryJumper : Creates story books EBook creator: creates custom eBooks All students will be asked to download a free office software package like OpenOffice. All partner schools will invest in a green box studio to improve the quality of video productions. This box can be used in all partner schools after the end of the project for further activities. All student´s tasks and results will be documented in an ePortfolio and will be published on eTwinning as well as an online learning platform. The ePortfolio certifies the students' progress and can be used for other projects. During all activities and field trips the students will take photos and/or record videos. The material will be edited and published using freeware and the students´ devices ("bring your own device"). Further the students will produce online learning videos and do it yourself videos for their peers. Students learn about renewable energy and resources, strengthen their awareness for a sustainable development and are shown how to learn and teach online with other students via the internet. In the course of the project students will present regional characteristics in terms of using renewable energy. To give the project a more hands-on approach during the meetings, scientific experiments and creative activities are included: Creative work on the topic of "upcycling" (i.e. producing new objects from waste without processing the waste beforehand) Field trips to renewable energy plants (solar, wind and geothermal energy) Visiting a local organic farm and a garbage recycling site Experiments: water analysis Creating and building a useful appliance tool powered by solar energy The coordinating school will provide experimental boxes for all partner schools. This laboratory can be used in all partner schools after the end of the project for further activities. The project´s activities should increase the students` awareness of the present ecological situation and show options of what can be done to take over responsibility for future generations in terms of energy use and sustainability. The project intends to point out difficulties and challenges different regions in Europa are faced with to strengthen their awareness. The students will be able to put themselves into their partners' position and get mutually inspired of what can be done to meet the challenges of sustainability.
The situation of the current pandemic made clear that we are living in a more and more globalized world. Societies become connected and need to look at the planet as a whole. Europe plays a vital role and should act and contribute to a functioning planet in that globalized world. We now live in a more digitalized world than before and electronic devices determine our (students’) lives more than ever and the progress will still continue. Unfortunately, educational systems are struggling to keep up with the pace of the process of digitalisation and many schools have not used new media enough to reflect the students’ real world. Our project intended to make students as well as teachers use digital programs and programming to expand their knowledge in that field. We communicated between teachers using several online free conference applications. Students first communicated via email and after LTTAs using social media, mostly Instagram. During our meetings we helped each other to develop digital skills. Students learned how to use QR-Codes, several applications, video editing programs, greenscreen and finally four different kinds of video conference tools. The focus was to improve the digital skills in order to work on a common topic. We wanted our students to gain an awareness about the present ecological situation and take on responsibility for future generations in terms of energy use and sustainability. By combining the development of applications and the reflection on the topics dealt with, we also triggered action and a change in behaviour in using resources so that the project entails long-lasting effects (sustainability). A big topic was waste. During our first LTTAs in Germany and Greece we showed that waste causes environmental problems. Students also learned that waste still contains a lot of energy. We visited a plant which incinerates waste to generate electrical power. Furthermore, the students learned about problems with radioactive waste when visiting a final disposal site 1,000 meters underground. We also upcycled waste during our LTTA2 in Greece. Students visited different workshops where they produced useful things, like musical instruments and clothes, made from waste. Also we visited a “zero waste” laboratory where plastic waste with 3D-printers are upcycled to furniture. They documented this activity by producing videos which were uploaded to youtube and TwinSpace. The main goal always was to work on topics of environmental education. By doing this, digital ways of presentation and publication were developed. Consequently students improved their skills in editing and publishing videos. Another environmental topic was the importance of water which we focused on during the LTTA3 in Portugal. First of all, we learned how to get energy from water. At our LTTA1 in Germany, we visited a hydroelectric dam of the 17th century which was used to generate electricity. So, to illustrate the development in generating electricity, we visited a modern geothermal power plant in the Azores where electric energy was generated by water coming out of geothermal hot spots. To get an idea about how this modern power plant works, students produced presentations which we shared and listened to in a common webinar beforehand. The second aspect was water quality. All partners brought water from their countries in order to measure the quality. Students learned how to assess the quality by using water testing kit. They improved their digital skills by producing video tutorials. The videos were made for those students, who travelled before or after, in order to explain the measurement so that they could do it on their own. Our last environmental topic was solar energy. National teams produced a combination of role play and tutorials about the use of solar energy in their vicinity. It was planned to be our final LTTA4 but the SarsCov-2 pandemic thwarted our plans. It was possible only for the German delegation to travel. In Spain, all partners met in a big video conference where we also presented the videos of our role plays. We visited a solar power farm and learned how the energy generated is used by a nearby company. Moreover, we produced solar powered gadgets like ventilators, cars and robots. Students filmed the process of producing them and edited the footage into do-it-yourself videos. Finally, it was not possible to finish the project with a common meeting even though we received a prolongation of the project. So, we used the communication platform of “padlet” to exchange our experiences of the pandemic in the respective countries. Unfortunately, the final TPM had to take place online.