Primary Schools from five European countries join in the project “And …action!”. In this project we aim to let the children create and exchange videos on various topics concerning themselves, their home, their interests etc., thus using the genre “film” as a platform for intercultural dialogue and to discuss the topic of diversity in our European community. The medium “video” in its central position serves several purposes: For one, the exchange of films creates a tangible connection between children in the various partner countries; they can actually see and hear each other and can then create products targeted to an audience they can relate to. In videos a great variety of motivating subjects and contents can easily be visualised and exchanged. Altogether about 2100 children aged 5-14 years are involved, the focus is on the the year groups 4-6, pupils aged 9-12. All schools teach children with special educational needs and from disadvantaged families and sufficient support will be given to enable these children to participate in all project activities. All schools have a high interest in developing their ICT/media literacy curriculum. Many children spend a lot of their free time in front of a screen, consuming videos. But only few have access to the tools to creatively work on and with videos and so the gap between media literate and illiterate children is continuously widening. It is within the schools’ responsibility to close the digital divide and in our project we aim to systematically build digital skills, enabling the children to eventually produce their own films. During the two years of the project the children will engage in a number of activities: In the first semester they will make video documentaries and news shows about their schools and their neighbourhoods, thereby learning about these genres and acquiring the necessary literary and technical skills. In the second semester, all schools will dance and film a flashmob dance, designed by children and taught trough a video tutorial recorded by pupils. A video of all flashmob dances will be put together by the children. The second year of the project will be dedicated to a short film festival addressing the topic of diversity: Here the children will explore techniques for animated films and the making of a soundtrack, putting their own stories about diversity on screen. After a school competition, finalist videos from all schools will eventually enter in the film festival in all countries where juries will give out points for various categories. In all activities the methodical focus will be on group work and peer teaching, fostering social and collaborative skills. Class partnerships and meetings between students are an essential part of the project in order to develop friendships throughout Europe and promote Foreign Language Learning. So, each class will have a partner class to communicate with, and 6 classes will meet their partners, getting to know each other, exploring their partners’ home towns, presenting their work and documenting these meetings together on film. The videos resulting from all these activities will be exchanged and put on a project website liked to the schools’ homepages. Student communication will take place in an eTwinning twinspace to ensure safety and easy access for all. DVDs of the films and documentations will be published and made accessible to the wider school communities. The teachers will collaborate at 4 transnational meetings, planning and specifying project activities, evaluating results, exchanging teaching methods and ideas and gaining insight in each others’ schools and school systems. The whole project is reliant upon close cooperation between the different schools. It aims to make children aware of their place as members of a wider European community which flourishes more when all members work together. Travel to partner schools will raise awareness for mobility in Europe and encourage the children to cooperate and communicate with people from other nationalities. Foreign language learning and intercultural communication skills are developed throughout the project in both, adults and children. The possibility of discussing teaching methods and curricular issues on a European scale is a great asset for the teachers and is a step towards common European educational standards.
Five European primary schools from Greece, Germany, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Portugal joined in the project “And …action!”. The projects’ focus was on developing ICT and media literacy skills through creating and exchanging videos on various topics, using the genre “film” as a platform for intercultural dialogue and to discuss and appreciate the topic of "Diversity" in our European community. In student exchanges the children and their teachers developed their foreign language and intercultural skills. The projects’ approach was highly inclusive as there were children with special educational needs and those facing obstacles otherwise in all classes. The children in the partner countries connected through the medium “film” and the technical possibilities motivated them to be creative, share information about themselves, their views and interests, and their home town or city, and in this use their English language skills. Throughout the two years of the project (with an extension of 7 months due to Covid19) the classes produced videos: in the first year documentaries about their schools and home town/city, and a film about a flashmob dance that was danced in all schools, filmed in each and then edited as a final video for the whole project group. News shows from all schools, updating the partners on current local events, were exchanged twice in the first 18 months. The second year of the project was dedicated to the making of animated short films on the topic of “Diversity” with a competition and short film festival which unfortunately had to be shortened because of Covid19. Every 6 months the group of teachers met, in order to further plan, specify, and evaluate the project activities. These meetings also included workshops designed to learn to work with the necessary tools and apps for the respective project activities. The workshops were held by local experts and teachers from the project group who had special expertise in the particular field. During the planning and evaluation sessions, teaching methods were discussed and then put into practice in each school, the focus being on group work and peer teaching, fostering social and collaborative skills. Teaching resources like notes for teachers for carrying out the main project activities, and checklists and self assessment sheets for children were designed during the meetings. Student communication and mobilities were an important part of the project. Every class involved had a partner class they communicated with and many of the classes were able to meet in person during a student exchange. Throughout, the groups involved in the exchanges were whole classes, aged 11-13. This aspect was important to us because in a project focussing on inclusion, everybody must have the chance to participate in all activities. So, for children with special needs, special provisions were made, financially or by way of special personal support. During the mobilities the groups visited their partner classes and stayed there in host families, experiencing the hospitality of their friends, getting to know their country and – above all – communicating in English. They documented these exchanges in photos and films and shared the documentation – together with all other project results – on our website: https://andaction2018.wixsite.com/website/ We are proud to have reached our project objectives, above all the inclusion of children facing disadvantages, and the development of ICT/media literacy skills, in spite of the situation due to Covid19. All student exchanges could take place, and although the final teachers’ meeting could not be held, we managed to discuss the relevant details for the final project steps in a series of online conferences. The big film festival event that was planned in all schools could not take place, but the final voting was carried out with the help of online tools and the results communicated to all. The benefits for all are obvious: Teachers and students alike have made friends in other European countries and many of these friendships are bound to last. They can make use of tools and apps in order to film and edit a variety of types of videos, can communicate through the internet with others and have improved their English noticeably. They have gathered an understanding of how people in Europe can work together and of the opportunities Europe has to offer.