The aim of the project is to promote innovative educational practices that can transform the participant schools through the international cooperation between College San Francisco Jesuit High School, Tudela, Spain, Thisted Gymnasium STX og HF, Denmark, Kostka Public Jesuit High School, Krakow, Poland and Fenyi Gyula Jesuit High School, Miskolc, Hungary. Geographically, the four schools can build a theoretical bridge to connect the northern, the eastern, central and the southern part of Europe. This fact can promote dissemination at a larger scale. Each school contributes to the successful completion of the project by sharing their expertise. The final product which is the fruit of the mobilities is a board game with interdisciplinary and life skill exercises which will be created both in paper and a digital version. The board game will be shared locally and internationally. The board game will help develop vital learning skills and enhance other important social skills by making learning fun. We also believe that creating a board game is vital step to transform the school into an innovative laboratory and to initiate the focus shift in teaching so educators could become a facilitator instead of being only a ‘knowledge transferor’. During the planned project activities, we create a high-quality learning environment to develop students’ cooperation and practical skills. Both students and teachers are expected to work in international groups solving question-based, activity-based project tasks. We place a significant emphasis on advocating soft skills both of students and teachers such as creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and interpersonal intelligence.The workshops focus on non-formal educational methods. The new method, i.e. the application of non-formal teaching skills can function as a possible solution to the current educational crisis of Europe and an efficient answer all the needs analyzed by SWOT and strategic plans. As a result, teachers have better chance to avoid burn-out and can become a more content person who can set a positive example for students. Foreign language skills are promoted by using English as work language in the project and including teachers of academic subject contributes to the internationalization of the schools.The number of direct participants is 2 teachers and 5 students/country/transnational meeting. The age group of students is between 15 and 19. Each mobility is well-prepared and has a structured schedule with plentiful innovative methodological exercises. The risk factors are minimalized by different forms of mutual agreements. There is extra care on supporting students with a disadvantageous background (whose involvement a special focus is placed). We do believe that implementing project objectives also help to enhance academic performance and improve the students' learning skills (PISA results). The expected results - from students' point of view - is attached to the application entitled "Playground". Communication via online tools is constantly ensured. As a result of the project, i. e. the digitalization of the board game IT competences will also improve and thanks to the alternative methods students can also deepen their self-awareness. Dissemination has a significant part in the project planning, which means readiness to do extra work to share the outcome of the project. The project management is committed to doing follow-up work and ready to organize inner and outside teacher development trainings on a regular base. The teachers could apply and could renew the acquired skills in their everyday teaching practice. The long-term benefit is the new teaching approach, a freely accessible board-game with the possibility of further development. By the end of the project all participating schools will have made a measurable change to transform their instruction according to the needs of 21st century learning-teaching environment.
Although the project period had to be extended and the last phase of the project period was full of challenges due to the uncertainty caused by Covid19, we still could achieve the aims we formulated in the project plan. The international cooperation between the four participants /College San Francisco Jesuit High School, Tudela, Spain, Thisted Gymnasium STX of HF, Denmark, Kostka Public Jesuit High School, Krakow, Poland and Fenyi Gyula Jesuit High School, Miskolc, Hungary/ worked well and together we were able to tackle the difficulties and find solutions. Even the final product, the board game was created, its paper version was produced, and its online version was shared locally and internationally with the project participants Through the project period, each mobility was well prepared and followed the structure outlined in the project plan and as a flexible solution to the restrictions caused by the virus, the last mobility was successfully realised as an online mobility. Participants could enrich a lot by the international cooperation; both students and teachers could understand the different educational systems of the participant countries. As a result, we could merit from the good practices implied in the school's everyday practice, which was an additional result of the project. In each mobility, 21st century teaching and learning methods were applied. Parallel to creating the board game these innovative activities also made possible to transform the participant schools into a digital laboratory, which was exciting and fun at the same time. Students acquired critical thinking skills and promoted their media and digital literacy to a great extent. This outcome was achieved both as a result of the content of activities organised in the mobilities and as a result of the methodology applied there. Each school contributed to the success of the project with their own expertise, which made the mobilities colourful. Students learned a lot about responsible Internet use, the possible dangers of personal data misuse and could recognise how social media can alienate people while playing board games can build community and the fact that playing together can also mean learning together. During the mobilities also in the follow up activities, special emphasis was put on developing the soft skills of the students and of the teachers, which enhanced collaboration and communication. The evaluation following each mobility proved how much participants enjoyed the project work and the social and cultural activities, too. Families hosted students and this way everybody could experience cultural differences at close quarters and it worked very well, students and teachers made long-lasting friendships. The cultural and social activities were also organised in a creative, lively way, thus students could learn about different nations in a playful way e.g. in a treasure hunt. Cultural programs were integrated into the mobility timetable to gain insight into the cultural heritage of each country allowing participants to enjoy the colourfulness of Europe from south to north and from east to west. Creativity played an important role in each and every activity that also contributed to the success factor of the project and motivated teachers to renew their teaching practice and made students realise that learning could be fun. The teachers also created an activity bank via Google classroom. Another success factor of the project was that we could involve more students and teacher as we originally planned. It partly meant that the host country could activate at least five extra teachers to prepare and actively participate in the workshops and ten extra students could join the project team on the spot. In addition, we invited partly new students and teachers to the different mobilities. It also resulted that extra effort was made to prepare the participants and to provide needs for students from unstable background; it practically meant financial aids and language tutoring. Following each mobility we shared the results with the whole school by giving presentatios on the learning and cultural activities of the mobility. The project management worked hard to implement the project results and harmonise the different expertise participants had, we used various online tools to achieve this e.g. Zoom conference, Google classroom, eTwinning, etc. The final product, the board game shows the richness of the participant countries and the game promotes learning about the participant countries in a playful way and exhibits the creativity of the students, as it is totally the fruit of their work. They together worked out the design of the game by using different digital apps and put the questions and rules together. The product itself is a proof that collaboration is fruitful and you can learn playfully and play seriously.