he project provides sustainable, low cost, community based and community generated informal learning opportunities to promote the inclusion of particular disadvantaged groups of children and young people using mobile technology. The project will develop a mobile app that will enable towns, villages and communities to create learning challenges based on their cultural, physical and natural environment so that the whole town becomes a learning resource. The challenges can be written specifically for one locality, it can be a challenge adapted or localised from an existing app on the database or it can be an existing challenge from another locality that can be reused without modification. To support towns wanting to use the project will establish a database of 400 interactive learning challenges that can be accessed through QR codes and Augmented Reality images . The learning challenges are organised geographically into learning pathways, by subject into learning trails and by language - all of which are identified by using different colours and symbols. Participation and completion of challenges is recorded and recognised using Mozilla Open Badges. There will be learning trails related to numeracy, language & literature, science & technology, art & music, history & geography, community & citizenship and a specialist trail in finding out about jobs. These will be plotted and annotated on Google Maps or available as printed copy. Learning challenges will relate to the location of the access code and will be created in the first instance by the project team. Community groups, businesses, societies, clubs and charities will then be shown how to create their own learning challenges and add them to the database. The project will operate in four different communities , 3 of which are in Objective 1 regions, to establish whether it is a model that can cross contexts - a rural village in Romania, a rural town in Portugal, a small industrial town in Wales, a neighbourhood in a city in Greece with a high migrant and refugee population. Each context has problems in terms of improving the inclusion of particular groups of young people. These include rural isolation, lack of informal learning opportunities in their first language, poverty and multiple disadvantage, children of immigrant and refugee families. In addition, research has shown that lack of parental involvement in children's education has a measurable detrimental effect on their performance. For reasons of time and money, the least engaged parents are single parents and those on a low income. Participation in the learning challenges is free, fast and can be accessed by children on their own or as a family group at a time and place to suit them. In the second phase of the project young people will create a range of multimedia digital artifacts and use the same technology to enhance the physical environment of their town by adding virtual content. This improves the digital skill levels of the young people and benefits residents and visitors by enriching the cultural capital of the town. As well as creating informal learning opportunities for several thousand children, the major project impact is in creating self sufficient learning towns and villages in which the whole community is engaged in creating and accessing learning opportunities using the physical environment as a stimulus and learning resource. Apart from localising the learning challenges, once the technical platform and the pedagogy has been set up, the project can be rolled out at little or no cost to other communities with the long term potential for joining them all together. A key project output is a multimedia Roll Out Pack for other organisations in how to set up a similar project and access the MyTown network.
The project provides sustainable, low cost, community based and community generated informal learning opportunities to promote the inclusion of particular disadvantaged groups of children, young people and communities in using mobile technologies. The project has developed a platform which enable towns, villages and communities to create learning challenges based on their cultural, physical and natural environment so that the whole town becomes a learning resource. The challenges are accessed via QR codes. In order to increase accessibility to the project, any generic QR code scanner may be used to access the challenges, however the project has developed an app which provides enhanced features for users and user groups such as schools. The project has established a database of 670+ interactive learning challenges that can be accessed through QR codes. When accessed via the dedicated app, the learning challenges can be organised geographically into learning pathways, by subject into learning trails and by language - the pathways can be filtered at the click of a button. Participation and completion of challenges is recorded and recognised using digital badges. There are learning trails related to a variety of topics including Arts, Culture and Tradition, Careers, Health, Wellbeing and sports, and Languages. The trails can also be viewed as maps online or printed. The learning challenges relate to the location of the access code. The project is keen to stress that even the most mundane of outdoor sights can be augmented into a rich learning experience. Many of the codes have been created by the project team which consists of teachers, trainers and specialists in education but many community groups, businesses, societies, clubs and charities and schools have also contributed challenges and showcases to the database. The project initially operated in four different communities, 3 of which are in Objective 1 regions, to establish whether it was a model that could cross contexts - a rural village in Romania, a rural town in Portugal, a small industrial town in Wales, a neighbourhood in a city in Greece with a high migrant and refugee population. Each context has problems in terms of improving the inclusion of particular groups of young people. These include rural isolation, lack of informal learning opportunities in their first language, poverty and multiple disadvantage, children of immigrant and refugee families. Over the course of the project further communities became involved, two former mining villages and a small village in Northern Greece. The project has created a digital handbook to help others to get involved with the project and going forward will offer participation to new communities through a multi-level offering ranging from the free app and access to the platform up to a premium model of bespoke platform and consultancy. In the second phase of the project young people and community groups created over 40 digital artefacts for the showcase section of the project. This content augments the physical environment with virtual content, sharing stories, photographs, poetry, paintings, costumes and events. This both serves to improves the digital skill levels of the young people involved in content creation and benefits residents and visitors by enriching the cultural capital of the town. As well as creating informal learning opportunities, the major project impact is in creating self sufficient learning towns and villages in which the whole community is engaged in creating and accessing learning opportunities using the physical environment as a stimulus and learning resource.