LET’S PLAY HERE is a project which brings together five High Schools from five different countries in the European Union, which strongly believe in the educational value of dialogue and comparison in an international context. They are deeply rooted in their respective territories and operate within varied, heterogeneous catchment areas. Some are set in urban geographic contexts (Mattildens Gymnasim in Helsinky - FINLAND and XXXIII Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Dwujezyczne im. M. Kopernika in Warsaw - POLAND), while others (St. Olav videregående skole in Stavanger - NORWAY, Lockerbie Academy in Scotland, UK and the Istituto Magistrale De Amicis - ITALY) operate mainly in a more rural or provincial environment. This results in a geographical variety that fully represents the versatility of the continent. One common point is the desire to discover and enhance the cultural and naturalistic richness of the respective areas, underlining the most interesting aspects for High School students aged between 14 and 20. The objectives identified by the LPH project can be divided into three distinct areas: • The strengthening of language skills of the students involved in the activities (improvement in learning performance) • the development of practises related to the possible synergies of technology and creativity for students (development of a telematic tool – a smartphone application) • support for the promotion of cultural and artistic resources in the area dedicated to the students’ world (an innovative, technological and sustainable creation). The total number of students and teachers involved in the project is as follows: - 250 people directly involved in the activities and mobility (225 young people and 25 staff members); - over 5,000 students and teachers who work in the five schools involved, who have the opportunity to directly and indirectly benefit from the initiatives envisaged by the project itself. As far as the first group is concerned, the students and the teachers are all qualified and specially chosen to take part in the foreseen initiatives, both during the planning phase and in the actual implementation phase, and will work with competence and enthusiasm, drawing maximum benefit from the experiences. The 24 –month LPH project activities have been planned to take place during five School Exchanges - one every six months. During these sessions, each of the schools in turn will host the other four delegations (each made up of nine students and one accompanying teacher) and will set up its own hosting team. The first week of the project will take place in Cuneo (I) at Istituto De Amicis (school organizer and general promoter of the project). This is where the overall presentation of the program, which is based entirely on the theme THE GAME, will be held. Thanks to mixed language student conference groups, the telematic platform, called LET'S PLAY HERE, will be built. It is a simple, previously adapted smartphone application which the students will be called to process in the first phase of the Italian session. The LPH application will function as a treasure map and as a database/treasure chest in which to collect and share experiences from subsequent activities. As in a technological and multimedia treasure hunt, the international teams of students will go in search of the cultural and artistic treasures of the territory on four different excursions. The idea of the treasure hunt will last throughout the entire project, including the visits to the countries of the other four schools involved. The LPH project focuses on the study and analysis of the impact and results: the technological tool of the application is student-friendly and aimed at building a database for the cultural promotion of different territories. By playing and experiencing the activities (visits and training), the project participants (teachers and students) will develop the LPH application (a tourist-cultural diary/guide of local sites). At the same time, the application allows the experiences to be shared with fellow students who are not personally involved or mobile (the computer program is open and accessible) giving rise to growth in basic skills and foreign languages. The data collected electronically facilitate the monitoring of short and long-term feedback.
The LET'S PLAY HERE project was born from the collaboration of five upper secondary schools from five different countries of the European Union that strongly believed in the educational value of dialogue and comparison in the international arena. The project developed over the school years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 (an extension was agreed for the emergency triggered by the contingent epidemic) and was mainly articulated around five exchange and meeting sessions. Also due to the epidemic emergency only the first three sessions were held in the presence of all delegations, the fourth saw the participation of only three partners, while the last (again with the participation of all schools) it took place in virtual mode with the support of videoconferencing platforms. Project activities remained faithful to the set goals of - strengthening of language skills and soft skills related to the stay experience - development of practices related to technology and creativity (telematic tool - chatbot LPH - EDDY) - support for programs to promote the cultural and artistic resources of the area but the onset of the epidemic emergency has reduced its substantial extent, making it extremely difficult to maintain the spirit and effectiveness of the initiatives until the end of the activities. The same development of the technological tool has been maintained, but it has not been possible to use it to its full potential. Despite the restrictions imposed, the total number of individuals involved in various ways by the LET'S PLAY HERE project is not significantly lower than that estimated: until the spring of 2020 the meeting and exchange sessions took place regularly and even after - despite the non-participation of the Polish and Italian schools to the Norwegian stay and despite the virtual stability mode for the Finnish appointment - the staff directly involved (students and accompanying teachers) were joined by working groups involved in welcoming and sharing classes of lived experiences. In summary - each school, during the turn of its hospitality, has set in motion a group of people (students, family members and staff of the school) involved in welcoming foreign delegations - each student and teacher involved in mobility was able to share their experience with classmates and colleagues upon return. The main activity sessions provided for the welcome of the delegations (each made up of approximately ten children and accompanying persons) by each of the project partners. Each time, according to the scheduled turn of the calendar, - the host institution identified the forty families available to welcome a foreign student for a one-week stay and - the guest delegations organized the transfer trips taking care of every aspect - the host schools have prepared the planned dialogue and exchange activities consisting mainly of school moments, tourist visits on the territory and family time. o Each operation could also be carried out with the help of the LPH - EDDY technological tool, specially designed and developed. It is a telematic platform that operates according to the logic of the chatbot, or rather a conversation simulator: in the presentation and visit to the territories, the participants in the exchanges were able to use the technology to learn about the spaces, orient themselves, play with small treasure hunts. and above all to implement the database with information, images and suggestions aimed at facilitating tourist experiences of their peers according to a principle of multilingualism and interculturality. The same technological tool (the LPH - EDDY chatbot platform) remained available to participants for the entire duration of the activities, becoming a sharing tool and for all interested parties: both those directly involved in the activities (students and guest and host teachers), and those connected in a less direct way (family members and schoolmates of the host and host students). Compatibly with user flows, the platform is still active and constitutes the main element of dissemination of the project itself.