The project “HEART : Heritage in Europe – appreciation, respect, tolerance” was initiated after an investigation about knowledge of and interest in European Cultural Heritage at our schools showed that our students had little or no knowledge of and interest in it. We had the idea for this investigation because of the launch of the Year of European Cultural Heritage (ECH). So we decided to create a project about that topic raising the interest of our students, gaining knowledge about ECH and changing attitudes: making our students perceive the value of ECH, initiating openness, tolerance and respect, interest in their own heritage and that of other countries and creating a lifelong- interest in ECH and preserving it. We would like them to develop a sense of belonging to their community but also a disposition to integrate others into their communities or themselves into new communities if need be. By understanding that cultural heritage always is subject to change and is frequently influenced by other cultures (and also by foreign people migrating) their fear of migration will be minimized.They will be more inclined to encounter strangers openly and reduce their prejudices. As our students frequently perceived ECH as boring we were looking for methods to arouse their interest. We decided to promote open, autonomous learning where students become protagonists of their work, take own decisions, organise, work in teams interactively and evaluate their work also through peer feedback as we think this will be highly motivating for our students. They prefer to be actively involved, finding answers and solving problems by themselves. We also want to introduce our students to new Apps especially those available as OER to work on the project. Our students use digital devices frequently we want to show them ways of using for educational purposes. Both open learning and innovative ICT practises will enrich our project work and motivate students, but will also prepare them for the labour market. Another focus of HEART is on the focus of skills and competences (linguistic, social, civic, digital). Six schools form six European countries take part in the project: Finland, France, Latvia, Greece, Germany and Spain. Students taking part are aged 13 – 17 and attend different kinds of secondary schools with different academic levels. Teachers involved are experts in different fields like languages, science, history, arts, music, vocational studies and are highly motivated. At every LTTA we will host 15 – 20 students and 10 teachers, so including students who host and others who are actively involved in project work the number of participants will exceed some hundred. Activities of the project are mostly about exploring and sharing ECH, at our schools between LTTAs and in international teams at LTTAs, e.g. we will explore monuments and towns, learn folk dances and songs, wear traditional costumes and prepare traditional food. For presenting and researching we will use several new apps (s. timetable) and put students in charge of organising their work, teachers being guides only. Research work will also involve contacting external stakeholders but also talking to older people in our communities to learn about our heritage which will make our programme not also an intercultural project but also an intergenerational one. Results we expect are on the one hand “real” products like educational units, video tutorials, booklets, stories, interactive maps. On the other hand we will work on changing attitudes and improving skills turning our students into tolerant, respectful, open-minded Europeans who appreciate their heritage and have a strong interest in it and who, for their attitude and knowledge. are not at risk of social exclusion. Teachers will learn innovative methods and will be inspired and even more motivated by their visits. They will also disseminate their knowledge to colleagues at home. “Real” products will be available on our twinspace and on the Erasmus+ results platform after the project so that European teachers can use them and be inspired by them so that EU money for our project is spent in the most effective and sustainable way. They will also be used at our schools. But there will be more long term benefits of our project: through innovative teaching methods we will strengthen our students’ intrinsic motivation, their self-confidence and independence, their key-competences and ICT and language skills and the development of a more positive view towards school and life-long learning. Also the attitudes they develop will outlast the project and make them tolerant young Europeans. To sum it up the acronym of our project is HEART and apart from the knowledge and skills the participants will acquire taking part in the project will be a precious and unique experience which will make a difference in their life and will also influence emotions, attitudes and in someway will also touch their heart.
The project “HEART : Heritage in Europe – appreciation, respect, tolerance” was initiated after an investigation about knowledge of and interest in European Cultural Heritage at our schools showed that our students had little or no knowledge of and interest in it. We had the idea for this investigation because of the launch of the Year of European Cultural Heritage (ECH). So we decided to create a project about that topic raising the interest of our students, gaining knowledge about ECH and changing attitudes: making our students perceive the value of ECH, initiating openness, tolerance and respect, interest in their own heritage and that of other countries and creating a lifelong- interest in ECH and preserving it. We wanted them to develop a sense of belonging to their community but also a disposition to integrate others into their communities or themselves into new communities if need be. By understanding that cultural heritage always is subject to change and is frequently influenced by other cultures (and also by foreign people migrating) their fear of migration was minimized.Now, they are more inclined to encounter strangers openly and reduce their prejudices. As our students frequently perceived ECH as boring we were looking for methods to arouse their interest. We promoted open, autonomous learning where students became protagonists of their work, took own decisions, and worked in teams interactively and evaluated their work also through peer feedback which was highly motivating for our students. They were actively involved, finding answers and solving problems by themselves. We introduced our students to new Apps especially those available as OER to work on the project. Our students use digital devices frequently we showed them ways of using for educational purposes (for example Action Bound, Flipgrid, Powerdirector,etc.) Both open learning and innovative ICT practices enriched our project work and motivated students, but also prepared them for the labour market. Another focus of HEART was on the focus of skills and competences (linguistic, social, civic, digital). Six schools form six European countries took part in the project: Finland, France, Latvia, Greece, Germany and Spain. Students taking part were aged 13 – 17 and attended different kinds of secondary schools with different academic levels. Teachers involved were experts in different fields like languages, science, history, arts, music, vocational studies. At every LTTA we hosted 12 – 20 students and 10 teachers, so including students who hosted and others who were actively involved in project work the number of participants exceeded some hundred. Activities of the project were mostly about exploring and sharing ECH, at our schools between LTTAs and in international teams at LTTAs, e.g. we explored monuments and towns, learned folk dances and songs, wore traditional costumes and prepared traditional food. For presenting and researching we used several new apps (s. timetable) and put students in charge of organising their work, teachers being guides only. Research work involved contacting external stakeholders but also talking to older people in our communities to learn about our heritage which made our programme not only an intercultural project but also an intergenerational one. Results are on the one hand “real” products like educational units, video tutorials, booklets, stories, interactive maps. On the other hand we worked on changing attitudes and improving skills and turned our students into tolerant, respectful, open-minded Europeans who appreciate their heritage and have a strong interest in it and who, for their attitude and knowledge. are not at risk of social exclusion. Teachers learned innovative methods and were more motivated by their visits. They also disseminated their knowledge to colleagues at home. “Real” products are available on our twinspace and on the Erasmus+ results platform after the project so that European teachers can use them and be inspired by them so that EU money for our project is spent in the most effective and sustainable way. They are also used at our schools. But there are more long term benefits of our project: through innovative teaching methods we strengthened our students’ intrinsic motivation, their self-confidence and independence, their key-competences and ICT and language skills and the development of a more positive view towards school and life-long learning. Also the attitudes they developed outlast the project and make them tolerant young Europeans. To sum it up the acronym of our project is HEART and apart from the knowledge and skills the participants acquired taking part in the project, for them it was a precious and unique experience which makes a difference in their life and also influenced emotions, attitudes and in someway also touched their heart.