The year 2018 has been chosen to be the year of European cultural heritage. This special occasion should be used to make students learn about their own as well as foreign cultures and to give them an understanding of the terms importance. During the project the students deal with the term "culture" and try to define it for themselves. In addition, they analyse the forms of culture given in their own environment, in their country and finally in Europe. Furthermore, the project's participants work out the correlation between culture and the economy of the target area. The students recognize the value of cultural assets and thus culture's power to connect people and enrich a country's economy. Not only foreign countries should see Europe as unity, the project's participants should do so, too. They should altogether feel like Europeans. The project's purpose is to update the fusty image of "culture" which especially young people might think of. Within the project, five participating countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France and Germany) and thus approximately 125 students as well as 30 teachers will have the possibility to swap ideas, knowledge and experiences about/with culture while getting to know one of the member states abroad. Besides the number of participants already mentioned, there will be far more people who benefit from the project since the results will be developed with the help of local students and published in the hosting school. The partner schools from Bulgaria, Croatia and Estonia, which provide general education, are geared on internationality by several projects. The areas around Pravets, Zagreb and Tallin are full of cultural sights and traditional values are deeply rooted as well in school as in private life. Roughly speaking, these countries are used to share their culture. The French students are doing a vocational training in the field of economy that is comparable to the Germans' profile. Both groups are rather not familiar with their country-specific culture. The participants will learn and benefit from each other not just because of the culture-related differences mentioned above, but also because of the different foci the partner schools provide and at least because of the very differing countries and regions they are going to see, which don´t belong to the top 10 countries most people want to visit. During the project's first year the term "culture" shall be explored and defined by visits to theatres, museums, different kinds of markets etc. The aim of these activities is to recognize the variety of culture and that it needs to be saved and protected. Furthermore, the participants shall investigate culture's impact on quality of life and thus - in the beginning of the second year - its importance for an area's economy. The last aspect shall be investigated with the help of tourist offices, theatres, museums or municipality e.g. At this stage, the students should have realized that digitalization has alrady found its way into culture. Hence, they shall deal with the term "digitalization" and work out its benefits as well as its risks while creating the "cultural guide". Amongst others, this guide shall contain cultural events the students have planned and realized together with a corresponding organization of their home country (e.g. digitized guided tours of a town focussing the interest of young people). Finally, the students shall find out in which way they themselves can save and protect cultural heritage. During the whole project, the students work on presentations (power point), video clips, flyers, evaluation sheets and other outputs they produce and share mostly digitally, so that a continuous exchange between the students of the different partner schools is guaranteed. The "cultural guide" combines these results and allows their digital use with the help of QR codes, thus finally a considerable overall result is created that can be used far in excess of the project. The guide shall be published on the project website. In addition, it shall be displayed in the partner schools as well as in the tourist offices of the cities they belong to, so that a large number of young people can benefit from the project and learn about culture.
Animated by the European Heritage Year 2018, we felt motivated to bring students closer to their own and European culture. As part of the project "Encouraging Europe through Culture and Commerce", the students were asked to define the term "culture" for themselves and to experience culture in their personal environment. As an extension of this, the term was to be placed in a European context and the connection between culture, commerce and digitalization was to be considered. The ultimate goal of the project was to improve the dusty image that young people may have associated with the term. Other goals were: - Learning about and appreciating cultural assets - Preserving and promoting cultural values - Recognizing the connection between culture and economy/prosperity - Promote competencies in the areas of: intercultural understanding, digital media, reflective action - Recognizing the "ME" as a European - Learning to understand the culture of the home country as a part of European culture - Commitment to culture As a result of the project a "Cultural Guide" should be created, which should be accompanied by the projects website. (https://euthruculture.jimdofree.com/) Unfortunately, due to the Corona Pandemic, the participants were not able to create the Cultural Guide. It should present the project results and introduce the cultural assets of the participating countries. It should be modernized with QR codes to link videos and presentations. The results so far, such as videos, presentations, etc., can be found on the homepage. 3 modules were worked on until March 15, 2020 when it had to be abruptly stopped due to the Corona pandemic. The first module C1 "Getting to know each other" took place in Bulgaria, Pravets. Its purpose was to allow all participating country groups to get to know each other personally. For this purpose presentations about the partner countries, cities and schools were exchanged via PowerPoint. Each country created a project logo. Bulgaria won the competition. Furthermore, there were surveys among students about the concept of culture. A workshop on the onion model and iceberg model showed that culture is not only obvious. Activities in Pravets: visiting cultural institutions such as museums and churches, stalactite caves. National dances and songs were learned. An international evening took place. The second module C2 "What is culture" took place in Tallinn, Estonia. Team-oriented project work motivated the participants to get involved. The students worked independently with PowerPoint, Prezi, video apps and the like. In advance, they studied the various cultural assets of their cities and created a video about them. In the subsequent workshop, the students then worked in groups on various cultural topics to identify differences and similarities. Activities in Tallinn: Visit of the National Park Laheema and the Estonian National Museum in Tartu which was awarded for its digitalization. A team training in a Velcro herald and a farewell dinner in a replica Viking village rounded off the meeting. The German school took two students with mild autism. Both have been able to integrate. The teacher meetings were also very positive and constructive. Module C3 "Importance of culture for the quality of private and job life" took place in Osnabrück, Germany. The students had made surveys on the above mentioned topic in the city centers of their hometown and presented them e.g. as a video street interview. There was a "scavenger hunt" through Osnabrück to get to know the city. The highlight of the week was the implementation and analysis of a cultural activity. For this, the German students chose the company Zeitseeing, which works closely with the city of Osnabrück. Activities in Osnabrück: a historical guided tour of the city, a visit to the theater, typical Sunday coffee, a visit to the Christmas market, a visit to the cathedral, decorating the Christmas tree and an international evening. Modules C4 and C5 could not be held due to the Corona Pandemic. In regular online meetings, the teacher teams of the partner countries gave a lot of thought to how things could continue digitally. The different regulations of the governments, the preconditions at schools or also the private equipment with technology prevented a progress. Despite the premature end of the project, it should be noted that the participating students have a more versatile view of the concept of culture in the long term, which was confirmed by a survey. They were able to strengthen their linguistic and media skills. Friendships have been formed. They have discovered that young people in Europe have similar interests and values.