1) Context/background “Off the beaten tracks – A Teenage Travel Guide to Europe” is a project involving four schools in diverse European regions: Greece, Portugal, France and Germany. Our work will lead to a unique travel guide written and produced by teenagers for other teenagers, a category the travel guide market hardly covers. We’ll cooperate with local experts, do research, examine each region’s tourist attractions, become familiar with travel guides as a literary form and develop categories for our own guide book. 2) Objectives The objectives are related to the four strategic objectives of ET 2020 and Europe 2020. We aim at enhancing basic and transversal skills. We promote empowerment, participation and the active citizenship of young people. The intercultural competences will increase. Students will become aware of their abilities and will build up confidence to cope with future challenges. The informal cooperation between schools and partners from the local area will help to bridge the gap between education and the world of work. All activities will target at stimulating creativity and entrepreneurship. We’ll focus on using languages (English, French) in an authentic way and experiencing Europe outside the classrooms. 3) Number/profile of participants We're four public school who involve local partners such as tourist offices and municipal Public Relations Departments. Within the cooperation about 25 students and 4 teachers in each school will be directly involved. The amount of people benefitting indirectly is much higher. A qualified estimate leads to about 170 people (students, parents, stakeholders from the region). 4) Description of activities An underlying principle of the work process is to progress from basic to more complex learning situations. - The participants will examine their own school’s region and its tourist attractions for teenagers and work as tourist guides for international guest during the transnational meetings. - The participants will get to know the partners’ regions by researching and creating e-books. - The participants will discuss and reflect principles of writing and producing travel guides and meet with an author of travel guides. - Research about current travel guide literature will enable the participants to become familiar with travel guides as a literary form and to develop categories for our own travel guide. - The participants will organize an exhibition to present advance copies + preview-results of our guide book and get feedback. - Finally, we’ll create our own travel guide for young people covering each region. Throughout, the participants will deal with technical aspects, questions of design and layout, legal matters and the printing process etc. 5) Methodology We’ll apply the systematic PDCA-cycle to keep our project on track. Our methodical approach included defining a main topic and subtopics, anticipating results, developing a schedule and a risk management. Moreover, we’ve taken evaluation, dissemination and budget control into consideration and have assigned responsibilities to each national team. 6) A short description of the results/impact envisaged Besides the travel guide, our project will result in a wide range of other products. The most relevant ones are: - project homepage: to spread info about the project, to ensure free access to our products for the public - twinspace (E-Twinning): our working platform; data protection - project logo: created jointly; used in different contexts; fostering a corporate feeling - "Erasmus+ Corner": an info-place in all participating schools - newspaper articles, info events and exhibitions at ‘open-house-days’ - e-Books: to compile the findings about the partner countries - the Europass/Youthpass - the exhibition of preview-results of our travel guide There will be a significant impact on the participants, such as improved skills regarding cultural and management aspects, increase of ICT-skills and linguistic proficiency. Additionally, there will be a motivation for learning, an encouragement to experience an extended stay abroad, an increased awareness towards the Erasmus+ program, better chances on the job market, a more nuanced understanding of European regions and a higher proficiency of teaching methods, forms of assessment, evaluation etc. 7) The potential long-term benefits We're confident to ensure sustainability. The benefits will outlast our cooperation. The above mentioned objectives are closely related to the idea of long-term benefits. - The travel guide will outlast our cooperation and give all participants a chance to keep a visible product. It will be made available for the local tourist offices to enlarge offers for visitors. - The project will contribute to the positive image of all partners. - Established contacts will be useful for traineeships of students. Teachers might aim at implementing further exchange programs.
1) Context/background The project involved four schools in diverse European regions: Greece, Portugal, France and Germany. Due to the Covid-Crisis essential aspects could not be carried out, such as the production of the travel guide, which was largely depending on the canceled final meeting in Greece. But our work lead to the creation of parts of a travel guide written and produced by teens for other teens. We cooperated with local experts, researched, examined three out of four region’s tourist attractions, became familiar with travel guides as a literary form and developed categories for our guide book. 2) Objectives Our objectives were related to the four strategic objectives of ET 2020 and Europe 2020. Despite the challenges of the pandemic we suceeded at enhancing basic and transversal skills, such as promoting empowerment, participation and the active citizenship of our students. Their intercultural competences reached a higher level. Students became aware of their abilities and built up confidence to cope with future challenges. We focused on the usage of English, French and German and gave the students an authentic experience of Europe. The informal cooperation between schools and partners from the local area was a complex and ambitious challenge that turned out to be only applicable on a lower level. 3) Number/profile of participants we aimed at directly involving 25 students and 4 teachers of each school. A qualified estimate lead to about 170 people (students, parents, stakeholders from the region). Those numbers were slightly surpassed because more teachers and other local and regional stakeholders particpated. 4) Description of activities Our work process progressed from basic to more complex learning situations. - The participants examined their own school’s region (with the exception of Greece) and its tourist attractions for teenagers. The local students worked as tourist guides for international guests. - The participants got to know three out of four of the partners’ regions by researching and creating e-books. - They dealt with principles of writing and producing travel guides and met an author of travel guides. - This cooperation enabled the participants to become familiar with travel guides as a literary form and with current genre trends. The students developed categories based on their acquired knowledge and ideas. - Since the meeting in Greece could not take place, the participants could not organize an exhibition to present advance copies + first results of our guide book and get feedback. Alternatives were not feasible due to the lockdown since March 2020. - Legal matters and some technical aspects were dealt with. Working on design, layout and the printing process fell victim to the pandemic. 5) Methodology We applied the systematic PDCA-cycle to keep our project on track. Our methodical approach included defining a main topic and subtopics, anticipating results, developing a schedule and a risk management. Moreover, we focused on evaluation, dissemination and budget control and assigned responsibilities to each national team. 6) A short description of the results/impact Despite not being able to produce the guide book, some relevant products were accomplished: - twinspace (E-Twinning): our working platform; data pool - project homepage: to spread info about the project, to ensure free access to products for the public - project logo: to jointly create a corporate feeling - "Erasmus+ Corner": an info-place in all participating schools - newspaper articles, info events and exhibitions at ‘open-house-days’ - e-Books: to compile the info about the partner countries - the Europass/Youthpass - a compilation of ice-breaker-games - a collection of receipes Even though the project was abruptly paused and for the students practically ended in March, we see a significant impact on the participants. Cultural, management and ICT-skills as well as linguistic proficiency have increased. We created motivating learning situations and encouraged students to consider an extended stay abroad. The students have a more nuanced understanding of European regions and the teachers reached a higher proficiency of teaching methods, assessment forms, evaluation etc. Working with twinspace had a high benefit for teachers and students. The wider school communities gained a deeper awareness towards the Erasmus+ program. 7) Potential long-term benefits Even though our cooperation could not be carried out as intended, we can state to have ensured sustainability and benefits that will outlast our cooperation. - The project added to the positive image of all partners. - All involved teachers and some colleagues are motivated to implement new projects or have already done so. - We have seen students coming in contact with literature and parts of the process of creating it. - This experience and the establishment of contacts will be useful for future traineeships of the students.