Cultural participation is recognized as a human right and as an important element for personal development, increased creativity and well-being. However, the cultural perspective provided by publicly funded institutions often benefits only a small segment of the population. This requires the identification of strategies to increase the participation of the young public in order to guarantee the equitable and efficient use of resources. Visiting museums, exhibitions, libraries, theaters is considered a very important educational tool to make our students aware of national and European cultural heritage. At the same time, familiarity with such experience ensures the development of a permanent relationship between students and these institutions, a life-long relationship. Only in this way will the teaching materials be the subject of heritage and a very good teaching method that will spark their curiosity, which means that students will learn by self-discovery. These places of non-formal education help to renew education by developing their own pedagogical approaches. These pedagogical tools can be used during a visit to a museum or creative workshops by the museum guide, teacher and students, these being tools that maintain a well-thought-out strategy to help young people and the young audience know the content of the institutions. As a result of the learning activity discovered inside the museum, students and teachers will be accustomed to respecting traditional values and will understand that they prove the relationship between man and nature, time and space.The concept of this project is to collaborate and help our students explore Europe's cultural heritage in a new way by using web tools and interactive methods to train and integrate students with disadvantaged backgrounds, learning difficulties. The project will be addressed to students aged 11-15 years, will also involve students with different disabilities, health problems and students from other disadvantaged groups.During the two-year project, partners will participate in project meetings. There will be an opportunity to help individual schools develop and share good practice that is particularly relevant to their own school. During the visits, both students and teachers will attend various informal learning workshops. The objectives of the project are as follows:1.Integration of cultural heritage into pupils' life as a learning resource through interactive activities, carried out in the framework of effective partnerships between schools and cultural organizations during the development of the project; 2.Developing teachers' capacity to transform cultural institutions into resources for social inclusion of disadvantaged people through exchanges of experience and best practices with project partners on the use of non-formal education methods, (for two years); 3. Cultivating students' respect for the national cultural heritage, preserving and promoting cultural identities as an element of cultural diversity for participating in the European cultural values circuit through extracurricular activities, organized in collaboration with cultural institutions from the participating countries, during the course of the project;Motivate students who are at risk of social exclusion, improve their creative skills, improve their language skills and ICT skills, and integrate them into society. 4. Familiarize students and teachers with current ICT trends, acquire social media teaching skills, with the digital story as a social inclusion method, with creative use of ICT (web site, e-mail, digital photo, wiki, app, Twinspace), and communication skills in English, for 24 months;Teachers will prepare lesson plans with the help of informal learning that will be uploaded to the site in the teachers' corner.Students will work on a project website and present their everyday life, culture and country traditions through art. The website will contain the doors through which a visitor will discover different areas (region, music, art, dance). The results will be: logo, student presentations, blog, site, jigsaws, digital story album, movies. Most of the results will be based on the use of ICT (Prezi, Padlet Audivity, Glogster, Google Art project, Twin Space). This project is necessary and useful for the institution because students will be equipped with intercultural components: respect for another culture, acceptance of differences, intercultural dialogue and civilized tolerance. Intercultural education means, in fact, interaction, exchange, open mind.
In parallel with the process of globalization of the world, we have a duty to focus our attention and action on consolidating the perennial elements, the identity values of the nations that make up humanity and give it expressiveness and richness. The concept promoted in this project is the integration of museums, historical monuments and other institutions for the preservation and conservation of cultural heritage in the area of interest of children and young people. We believe that the current need is to more closely link the educational objectives of the school with those of cultural institutions: museums, libraries, cultural centers, exhibitions. This education-heritage partnership has meant, as in any partnership, support and benefits for both parties. Teachers and students have discovered infinite resources and teaching materials in the non-formal space of cultural institutions. And these institutions have benefited from the increased interest in culture and, implicitly, from the number of visits of students and teachers in their spaces, as well as from an increase in their respect for the heritage preserved and preserved in cultural institutions. The project took place between September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2021 and included students between 11 and 15 years old, from 5 European countries: Romania, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey. Some of them were students with social and economic problems, special educational needs or disabilities. Their social inclusion, through the use of non-formal methods in the non-formal spaces of heritage conservation institutions was a priority target of the project, which was achieved. After leaving the formal spaces of the schools, with their specific rules and being stimulated, encouraged and helped to achieve success, the students performed and on their faces appeared the smiles of success. There were 5 mobilities, of which 4 with physical activity: Râmnicu Sărat (Romania), Tuzla Istanbul (Turkey), Torremolinos (Spain), Felgueiras (Portugal) and an online mobility, the one in Thessaloniki (Greece). During the activities, special emphasis was placed on the use of web 2.0 tools by students to create useful digital products (digital stories, audio guides, a collaborative e-book). Also, the development of the capacity to use web 2.0 tools and applications, to use them during formal and non-formal activities, was a target for teachers participating in the project. They participated in specific courses and workshops on creating and using useful digital products.The multitude of activities carried out by students, together or separately, in their schools, the multitude of quantitative and qualitative results obtained (more than projected), proved professionalism, enthusiasm, determination, passion, mutual respect of all involved: students, teachers , parents, communities, museums, libraries, cultural centers, exhibitions, but also associations, NGOs, experts, decision makers. All initial objectives have been met.