CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND Being aware that European schools are confronted with the pressing new digital era, teachers are bound to educate students according to the new demands, in terms of ICTs, new methodologies and pedagogical approaches. We have to get used to tackling this imminent pedagogical innovation in our classrooms. These approaches determine a more active and meaningful learning process, inviting students to participate in their learning process more actively and applying their knowledge and skills in real life. This project aims at making the participants aware of some useful possibilities in the immense digital market, binding them into the process of the project, applying the techniques in different subjects, working in a cross-curricular way and crossing borders to make lessons motivating. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS Students taking part in this project are between 10 and 15 years old. Some of the partner schools will involve the whole school in this project, which will be working with new technologies and new methodological approaches since they are small schools. The Romanian, Czech and Spanish schools will also involve pupils with economical and learning difficulties in some activities in their countries; Italy will involve pupils with special needs and Germany will involve migrants and refugees. We aim to involve the school community through events, workshops, debates, videos etc. and to create an open school with this project. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES, METHODOLOGY TO BE USED We will be working in an interdisciplinary way by applying new methods of teaching-learning skills, implementing new pedagogies by means of ICT, CLIL, PBL, STEAM activities in which not only teachers and students are involved, but also parents and the whole school community. The activities will be developed into cooperative learning-teaching methodologies. Students from all school classes will be working with parallel classes from other school forms, primary or secondary, general or vocational school, promoting permeable learning from each other on the basis of equality. Older students can not only teach the younger ones but also work as a mentor. Talented students will teach digitally-challenged children. Students will have the opportunity to get involved in planning different activities to improve their knowledge in all subjects. School staff will be involved in the activities that children will develop. The motivational key: When students are given the opportunity to deal with real situations, they will learn to handle all the techniques and skills, including oral skills to express themselves and convince others of their ideas in a very competitive economic market. All partner schools will carry out the same or similar activities, adapted to each age group. However, the results and the final products can be different. This is one major aspect of the project: a similar activity can be developed in different ways depending on students' characteristics. RESULTS AND IMPACT Expected results: - advancement of digital competence for students and teachers, didactic units that include ICT tools and apps, educational units adapted to children's skills, also inclusive, - changes in lessons: apps, ICT, project, - acquirement of teachers’ competences on PBL, CLIL, E-CLIL methodology, - acquisition of knowledge by working on STEM subjects. - increased learning motivation for the young generations of students, - improvement of the students' and teachers' communicative skills in a foreign language, - dissemination of cooperative work between our student and teacher teams and between any students or teachers from abroad, - promotion of a conscious approach towards peers without any prejudices or stereotypes. POTENTIAL LONGER-TERM BENEFITS 1. On teachers and schools: - introducing new and innovative teaching methods, in accordance with the new digital era - establishing cooperative work with the staff of partner schools, - strengthening teamwork and integrating ICT in lessons. 2. On a European and at international level, this project is the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation between our schools and any new school. The expected impact this project will have on parents is fostering parent participation in school activities and projects. We also want our project to have an impact and influence our local community, region and country.
CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT As teachers are expected to educate students according to the new demands of the digital era, they are faced with a multitude of challenges. We aimed at making project participants aware of some useful and creative apps on the immense digital market, binding them into the process of the project activities and inviting students to participate actively in their learning process so as to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills in their regular lessons. The apps were applied in different contexts and goals: to work on the process, present results, cooperate, organise, evaluate and in a further step, be used in regular lessons. MAIN OBJECTIVES: -Improving digital competence and developing new methodological approaches for creative lessons by means of using different applications to work and teach, thus promoting teaching and learning in an interdisciplinary way -Cultivating communicative competence and fostering self-capacity to learn a foreign language, thereby developing communicative skills (verbal and non-verbal) and experiencing the importance of collaborative work -Fostering vertical competences: project-based learning, cross boarding -Promoting permeable learning on the basis of equality -Fostering inclusive education: encouraging the awareness of cultural diversity and European dimension, promoting democratic values such as understanding between people, respect, tolerance, legacy, solidarity and fundamental rights -Developing cooperative and collaborative work between teachers in different schools, examining learning methods applied in European schools -Creating an awareness of the importance of preserving cultural heritage -Involving the school and local community (parents, representatives of institutions concerning education in a child's learning process) in the project ACTIVITIES: -We launched the project activities, first the Erasmus Club in each school and in cooperation with other school staff -Developed products (digital) involving other school staff and under the supervision of a mentor -Organised video calls and meetings via Twinspace -Engaged older students as mentors; talented students tutor digitally-challenged children, getting involved in planning different activities, improving their knowledge in all subjects -Developed activities related to diverse subjects (History, Social Science, STEM subjects, Music, European matters, Gender Equality topics…). Students applied new or different apps and skills (language, oral, ICT- skills) in different activities, beginning with easy-to-use apps and successively increasing the degree of difficulty, gradually using all these apps in different contexts for various goals: to work on the process, present results, cooperate, organise and evaluate. The entire management process took place in our Twinspace. POTENTIAL LONG-TERM BENEFITS: -Improving digital competence for students and teachers -Advancing teaching competences on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and PBL (Product Based learning) methodology -Increasing our knowledge by working on STEM subjects -Motivating meaningful learning among students -Improving students’ and teachers’ communicative skills in a foreign language -Disseminating cooperative teamwork between our student and teacher teams, strengthening organisation skills, improving intercultural competences, comprehending European ways of teaching -Promoting permeable learning from others, with equality and without prejudices -Encouraging awareness of cultural diversity in its international dimension. -Creating the consciousness that preserving cultural heritage is a way of promoting understanding among people For teachers and schools: -introducing new and innovative teaching methods, in accordance with the new digital era -establishing cooperative work with the staff of partner schools on a European and at international level -fostering parents' participation in school activities and projects -improving organisation skills -acquiring knowledge by working on STEM subjects