As we live in a consumer society, we have come to the conclusion that school trips are also part of this. A majority of pupils are true consumers and they only bring back selfies from their trips abroad -without any monument in the background-. They mainly flock towards restaurants such as “fast foods” without necessarily tasting local specialties and without taking time to grasp and be filled with the cultural components of the country they visit. This project first aims at the practical and modern achievement of a state of mind: the slow attitude of our guide will enable travelers from any country and heading to all kinds of destinations to consider their trip with new eyes and fully enjoy the wealth and open-mindedness offered by a school trip. On the one hand, our project will include the training of teachers and students to the digital tools required to make the guide and on the other hand, the organization of group activities (tri-national groups) to create the final product on various media : paper posters exploiting augmented reality ( First year) and video clips combined with a web site ( Second year) . The aim is to involve as many as 30 students from each country. The planned activities will include the training to digital tools and applications (eTwinning, Prezzi, Powtoon,Aurasma…). They will involve face to face meetings: two meetings in France (first meeting between teachers and students in December 2018 and a final meeting between teachers and students in May 2020), two meetings in Italy (first meeting between teachers in Italy in September 2018 and meeting between teachers and students in October 2019), a meeting in Czech Republic (meeting between teachers and students in May 2019). Collaborative exchanges based on digital platforms and tools will also be organized (Skype, Google Drive,eTwinning, Twinspace …). Besides, we will particularly focus on the promotion and dissemination of the final product: presentation of the various products during the official final meeting, support of social networks for the dissemination of video clips (Twitter,Instagram…). Concerning the methodology used to achieve this project, the challenge will be to involve as many students as possible, stimulating their autonomy and their ability to work in groups, their initiative, their ingenuity, a true competitive spirit during the votes and challenges during the competitions to select the posters and video clips. Moreover, in order to achieve our goals, it will be essential to create new relationships, less hierarchical between teachers and students. Thus,a project-based pedagogy breeds learning while fulfilling a concrete product. This pedagogy will also be combined with a cross-language work. As regards the results and expected impacts, a national and even international dissemination of the guide in its various media will be implemented. Similarly, a large dissemination campaign for posters in public and institutional places (museums, tourist information offices, touristic places, city halls…) will be organized. As for the video clips, they will be sent to schools organizing school trips abroad by The Board of Education. Besides, the project will also meet the needs of a sustainable approach (the selected tools will enable a large dissemination, reducing costs and more environmentally-friendly). During the two years of the project, the various teams will gradually be able to test the use and efficiency of the guide (for example during the mobilities) all along the process. Finally, concerning the long term potential benefits of this project, we would like to spur a sustainable evolution of young students’ behavior on school trips and also produce a resource document to which any teacher willing to organize a school trip could refer to.
The Erasmus+ EVLI project - Euro Voyageur Lycéen Investi - was born out of an observation: during mobilities abroad, whether it be exchanges, school trips or internships, students often show a consumer and passive attitude. They only try to touch the monuments, to take selfies, without necessarily taking the time to prepare their stay, without taking the time to meet the people who welcome them, or even without taking stock of the contributions of the trip in terms of knowledge and progress. Our European team, made up of participants from three countries, Italy, the Czech Republic and France, has produced a guide, throughout the two years of the project, declined in different ways to try to change this state of mind and train young European travellers who respect their heritage and wish to enhance it. This guide first of all took the form of posters, during the first year, produced in tri-national teams and illustrating 4 areas: Accommodation, City Life, Historical and Cultural Monuments, Natural Sites. Then, in the second year, the teams chose, in an eco-responsible approach, to produce the guide in the form of Powtoon video capsules. While continuing the work of exchange and consultation begun in the first year, the evolution of the mentality of our teams of high school students involved has made it possible to produce, in each country, capsules in much more than the three initial languages of the project in order to highlight the idea that our European richness also comes from our diversity. The realisation of our project involved, on the one hand, the training of teachers and students in the digital tools necessary for the production of the guide and, on the other hand, face-to-face meetings - during mobility - and remote meetings via Padlet, videoconferencing, social networks and e-mail in order to enable consultations, exchanges and productions. The mobilities, initially planned to be five in number - two in Italy, two in France and one in the Czech Republic - were not all able to take place. The health crisis due to the Covid pandemic19 led to the cancellation of the last mobility planned for May 2020 in Mérignac and the official presentation of the guide. However, the participants continued and finalised their work during the lockdown. They then carried out a virtual closure by videoconference and were thus able to bring this project to a successful conclusion in a constructive and benevolent spirit. This project enabled all participants to deepen or acquire numerous digital skills (creation of the website, use of eTwinning, mastery of video editing or presentation software such as Padlet, Powtoon, etc.), linguistic (both written and oral), communicative (exchanges on social networks, promotion of various productions), organisational (working in teams and autonomously, organisation of working time and definition/adjustment of objectives) and managerial (decision-making, caring, knowing how to delegate) skills. The productions produced, in particular the video capsules, have been the subject of institutional, local, national and international dissemination and promotion by the local press. The guide appears as a reference document for students and for any teacher wishing to organise a mobility abroad as part of an Erasmus project or a school trip. The participants were also able to evaluate, thanks to a questionnaire, the journey made during the two years of the project and to participate in the production of a video synthesis in English. This project also obtained the European Label in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and was a finalist - in the general and technological high school category - for the Hippocrène Prize for Education in Europe 2020. But above all, for all its participants, this project remains and will remain a formidable meeting of European teams who have seen a concrete change in the way they approach a mobility abroad.