Culture has always been an important part of our European identity. In this project we want to highlight the importance of our European cultural heritage and its ability to create social cohesion. Broader topics that will be dealt with are history, architecture, music, museums and intercultural learning. Schools from three different geographical areas are involved in this project (south: Spain, middle: Germany and east: Poland) and thus different working and living mentalities can get to know each other. By employing innovative approaches and practices, digital competence is increased and language skills are improved. Intercultural and self-guided learning are promoted and one of the aims is to enable the acquisition of intercultural sensitivity (Milton Bennett's model) as another key aspect of life-long learning. The project will be implemented in various classes and students, mainly aged between 15 and 16, will work on the project in History, Art and English lessons; about 60 students will be involved in the project. Other subjects and classes will contribute products as well and thereby increase the overall cooperation among teachers and students within our schools. There is a fixed Erasmus+ project team and these students will further participate in the short-term exchanges. Cooperation within in the tri-national teams will be done via a TwinSpace platform. Not only the students, but also several teachers (around 10 to 12) and parents are involved in planning and implementing the project. Finally, the whole school community should be actively involved or influenced by this project. Three short-term exchanges take place (one to each area): Heidenheim, Częstochowa and Pinto. During these exchanges, there will be several excursions to cultural points-of-interest and students work on their project in international teams. In these excursions and prior to them, students reflect upon their European identity and discuss similarities and differences with the other students. They get to know other cultures and tolerance is highly promoted. Eventually, every student should come to understand and appreciate our European cultural heritage. The end product will be an app as an intercultural travel guide for our regions highlighting our European cultural heritage. For this, students focus on larger topics in different phases of the project: history, architecture, music, museums and intercultural learning. Students stay closely in touch with their international partners in-between exchanges, share and work on their products and give feedback via TwinSpace. In general, the products that will be created include a mind map, a cartoon, a project logo, a presentation, an audio tour on our cities, role plays, posters, podcasts, a wall newspaper, a website, a flyer, a survey, a virtual reality expedition, a collage, a video, a leaflet and QR codes. Material for teachers (e.g. worksheets on various topics such as "How to create an app") will also be prepared and made available for everyone. All results will be shared within our school community and thus influence students and teachers who do not participate as well. The participation in this project will contribute to a positive development of the involved schools in the long-term. Students will benefit from the project as they acquire necessary academic skills and digital competences which are part of the process of life-long learning; they gain a confidence in their abilities, for instance in terms of language skills. Students increase their overall motivation for languages and foreign exchanges; they will get a Euro-Pass that confirms their participation and they can use it for their future applications; the teachers will be enriched due to the contact with new digital tools and methods (e.g. working on the app). Our results will be made accessible to a wider public via our homepages, TwinSpace, our project site, Youtube and the Erasmus+ Project Result Platform. Our app will be promoted by the tourist information of our city. Articles will be published in our local and our school's newspaper and thus awareness is created within our region. The teachers that are not actively involved in the project will be informed of results in various teacher's conferences and also parents and students will be updated on a regular basis. In the "Open Day" potential new students of our school will learn about the project by means of a leaflet and a wall newspaper. The outcomes of the project can be accessed in the future and the app allows further updates. Developing the app continues in the future and students will work on this assignment in projects. Every teacher and student can actively contribute something to this project which increases unity and cohesion within our schools. Therefore, the whole school and the community benefit from this project.
Culture has always been an important part of our European identity. In this project we wanted to highlight the importance of our European cultural heritage and its ability to create social cohesion. Broader topics that were dealt with are history, architecture, music, museums and intercultural learning. Schools from three different geographical areas were involved in this project (south: Spain, middle: Germany and east: Poland) and thus different working and living mentalities could get to know each other. By employing innovative approaches and practices (virtual exchange, padlet, virtual city guide), digital competence was increased and language skills were improved. Intercultural and self-guided learning was promoted and one of the aims was to enable the acquisition of intercultural sensitivity (Milton Bennett's model) as another key aspect of life-long learning. The project was implemented in various classes and students, mainly aged between 14 and 19, worked on the project in History, Art, Computer Science, English, some Physics and Maths lessons and their free time; about 90 students were involved in the project. Other teachers and classes contributed products as well and thereby increased the overall cooperation among teachers and students within our schools. There were fixed Erasmus+ project teams of which the students that participated in the short-term exchanges were chosen. Cooperation within in the tri-national teams was done via Email, Moodle and a TwinSpace platform. Not only the students, but also several teachers (around 10 to 12) and parents were involved in planning and implementing the project. Finally, the whole school community were actively involved or influenced by this project. Three short-term exchanges had taken place (one to each area): Heidenheim, Częstochowa (virtual) and Pinto. During these exchanges, there were several excursions to cultural points-of-interest and students worked on their project in international teams. In these excursions and prior to them, students reflected upon their European identity and discussed similarities and differences with the other students. They got to know other cultures and tolerance was highly promoted. Eventually, every student should have come to understand and appreciate our European cultural heritage. The end product is an app as an intercultural travel guide for our regions highlighting our European cultural heritage. For this, students focused on larger topics in different phases of the project: history, architecture, music, museums and intercultural learning. Students stayed closely in touch with their international partners in-between exchanges, shared and worked on their products and gave feedback via TwinSpace. In general, the products that were created included a mind map for the app, a project logo, a presentation, an audio tour on the cities we visited physically, role plays, posters, a wall newspaper, a website, a flyer, a survey, a virtual reality expedition, a collage, videos and a leaflet. Material for teachers ( "How to help students to create an app") was also prepared and made available for everyone. Results were shared within our school community and thus influence students and teachers who did not participate as well. The participation in this project contributed to a positive development of the involved schools in the long-term. Students benefited from the project as they acquire necessary academic skills and digital competences which are part of the process of life-long learning; they gained confidence in their abilities, for instance in terms of language skills and the usage of digital tools. Students increase their overall motivation for languages, digital competences and foreign exchanges (two German students are a year abroad now); the teachers were enriched due to the contact with new digital tools and methods (e.g. working on the app, video conferences, virtual exchanges). Our results will be made accessible to a wider public via our homepages, TwinSpace, our project site, Youtube and the Erasmus+ Project Result Platform. Articles were published in local and social media and the school's newspaper and thus awareness was created within our regions. The teachers that were not actively involved in the project were informed of results in various teacher's conferences and also parents and students were updated on a regular basis. In the "Open Day" potential new students of our school learned about the project by means of a leaflet and a wall newspaper. The outcomes of the project can be accessed in the future and the app allows further updates. Developing the app continues in the future and students will work on this assignment in projects. Every teacher and student could actively contribute something to this project which increases unity and cohesion within our schools. Therefore, the whole school and the community could benefit from this project.