Participation in an international learning community of young people itself is an important part of Europe’s cultural heritage. With the foundation of the first universities – starting in Bologna in 1088 – learners, using Latin as lingua franca, got the chance to study all over Europe, to become acquainted with new theses and, discussing them with each other, to develop innovative new thoughts. The project „From Latin text to European context” wants to pick up this idea, regarding both content and method. The central idea is “learning from the past – exchanging in the present – preparing for the future” and means that our students will work on medieval and renaissance documents to explore their common cultural base and to discuss its significance for challenges which Europe faces today, and that they, at the same time, will improve their digital and communicative (English) skills. The project answers needs, common and special ones, of both schools of our partnership: “Neues Gymnasium Wilhelmshaven” and “Liceo XXV Aprile”, Portogruaro-Venezia. These needs are: strengthening of transversal key competences (digital competence, learning to learn, cultural awareness), of the European dimension of learning and teaching, of enhancing creativity and interdisciplinary thinking. Thus, the project is within the frame of strategy “ET 2020”. Starting with one subject (Latin, class 10-11), we create various cross-curricular lessons in order to foster methods of open learning, students‘ commitment and self-assessment and practical pplication of digital technologies. For this, we use the method „WebQuest“. During PHASE 1 (1st project year) three modules (“Man and creation”, “Being young in Europe”, “Education between tradition and revolution”), mostly with 2-3 unities, are drafted by binational teacher teams. The method “WebQuest” is introduced and our students test the units, the learning platform and methods of self-evaluation of their learning process. Collaborating in binational teams on the learning platform and on the project meetings, they explore thoughts of a past which partly resembles our modern way of thinking, partly differs from it. For this they investigate socio-historical background and material heritage, influences from / on other cultures, contact experts (historians, architects etc.) and compare the socio-cultural reality of their past with their own reality. They present their results in a creative way (e.g. collage, fictive dialogue) in their schools and on the learning platform, create an “Interactive European Latin book” (website) with their results and evaluate their own learning process and that of their partners. During PHASE 2 students choose from a “pool of topics” (planned: “Contact with the Islamic world”, “Musical heritage”, “Architecture”, “Cultural exchange in research and commerce”) and, still working in binational teams, create their own WebQuests which (national) teacher/student teams try out with other student groups. They add new pages to their “Latin book”. PHASE 3 reunites the single topics to the main theme: “Chances of an international learning community”. The students discuss the topic "Learning for mastering future challenges – how much cultural learning can we afford?” They present their theses in a product of their own choice (role play, panel discussion with experts, etc.) which they agreed on and for which they plan, carry out, document and evaluate the process. Teacher teams at both schools act as advisors. In addition to this, a binational teacher team discusses strategies to recognize and assess the individual learning process of the students. Their theses will be implemented in the curricula of our schools on a trial basis to be developed further. Results and impacts we expect of our project are: concrete lesson plans with a clear European dimension; improvement in the use of open learning and teaching methods, in the planning of interdisciplinary units and in the integration of ICT into our lessons; improvement of strategies for recognition of individual learning progress at our institutions; growing cultural awareness and greater motivation of our students; more cooperation with other sectors (institutes/persons) from research and culture; stronger focus on cultural diversity, also within our school communities; continuation of our partnership.
Participation in an international learning community of young people itself is an important part of Europe’s cultural heritage. With the foundation of the first universities learners, using Latin as lingua franca, got the chance to study all over Europe, become acquainted with new theses and, discussing them with each other, to develop innovative new thoughts. The project „From Latin text to European context” picks up this idea, regarding both content and method. With the central idea “learning from the past – exchanging in the present – preparing for the future” and starting with medieval and renaissance documents, the participants explored their common cultural base and reflected exemplarily its significance for challenges which Europe faces today (e.g. responsibility of men for the environment). At the same time, they improved their digital and communicative skills (English) and broadened their cultural competences (including language skills in Latin as common language of culture). The project answered needs, common and special ones, of both schools of our partnership: “Neues Gymnasium Wilhelmshaven” and “Liceo XXV Aprile”, Portogruaro-Venezia. These needs were: strengthening of transversal key competences (digital competence, learning to learn, cultural awareness), of the European dimension of learning and teaching, of enhancing creativity and interdisciplinary thinking. Starting with one subject (Latin), we created various cross-curricular lessons in order to foster methods of open learning, students‘ commitment and self-assessment and practical pplication of digital technologies. For this, we used the method „WebQuest“. During PHASE 1 (1st project year) three modules (“Man and creation”, “Being young in Europe”, “Music”), with 4-5 unities, were drafted by national and bilateral teacher teams. The method “WebQuest” was introduced and our students – first in local, then in bilateral teams - tested the units, the learning platform (eTwinning) and methods of self-evaluation of their learning process. Collaborating in binational teams on the learning platform and on the project meetings, they explored thoughts of a past which partly resembles our modern way of thinking, partly differs from it. For this they investigated socio-historical background and material heritage, influences from other cultures and compared the socio-cultural reality of their past with their own reality. They presented their results to the school communities and on the learning platform (eTwinning: semi-public TwinSpace), transformed some of them in a creative way (e.g. dance choreography, escape room), created a “European Latin book” (pdf and website) with their results and evaluated their own learning process and that of their partners. Selected units of this part were implemented in the curricula of our schools on a trial basis to be developed further according to the special needs of the Latin department of each school. During PHASE 2 students chose from a “pool of topics” (“Busbecq: Contact with the Islamic world”, “Beethoven: Musical heritage”, “Palladio: Architecture”, “Marco Polo: Cultural exchange in commerce”) and, still working in bilateral teams, provided digital overview of information (commented and illustrated online maps) and created their quizzes (actionbound); these results are meant to provide knowledge about cultural heritage, which is documented in Latin texts, to other groups of students of our schools. They „updated“ their “European Latin book”, too. A PHASE 3, starting end of March 2020 with a discussion on the fourth and last short term exchange of students, was planned to reunite the single topics to the main theme: “Chances of an international learning community” by a a product according to the choice oft he students (e.g. panel debate, role play, movie). This phase, however, couldn’t be realized as planned due to the closure of schools and cancellation of the exchange meeting. As a alternative, the participants created a virtual pinboard with the title „What cultrue can do in difficult times“; here, they presented regional and national projects, by which artists and cultural workers maintained the contact culture / audience in a time of isolation due to Covid-19. At the same time, the participatimg teachers used the methods (WebQuest; use of collaborative online-tools) and competences (accompanying and assessing individual learning progress) - which they had developed for the project - to arrange online lessons, to give feedback and to assess individual learning progress of their students in a time of distance learning. Results and impacts of the project were: units with a cultural and European dimension; improvement in the planning of interdisciplinary units and in the integration of ICT into our lessons; growing cultural awareness among our students; better motivation and responsibility of our students for their learning activities and progress; greater interest of our students to learn Latin as language of culture; more security of students and non-English teachers to use English as language for communication; continued interest of our institutions to carry out European projects and exchanges (especially eTwinning and Erasmus+ KA 1 and 2).