Our Common Future based on our Common Cultural Heritage - the Vikings and the Normans, (VINO), is an Erasmus KA2 project prepared by Auraskolen and Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Viovanni Verga”. Both schools are aware of teaching and preparing our students for an unknown future on an international job market. We apply for this Erasmus KA2 project – VINO – because we, Denmark and Italy, want our students to strengthen their academic level, and improve their intercultural and 21st century skills; communication (in English), collaboration (cross-border), creativity (the various tasks they have to solve), critical thinking (the facts and information they are introduced to). By working with the VINO-project, the focus will be on our students becoming aware and conscious of their common cultural heritage through the activities they will meet and become active participants in. The awareness of their common cultural heritage will be their base for the activities which will scaffold their intercultural skills and prepare them for their common future as European citizens. Thus, our students will become conscious of the past and the current communities in Europa and aware of the changes in life, which have formed our present. The target group of the VINO-project is our 50 students from Denmark and Italy, aged 12-14 years old. The objectives are for the students to become aware and conscious of their common cultural heritage working with activities concerning the Vikings and the Normans, to become familiar with their European citizenship, to develop oral and written English skills, to teach and learn in an international context in order to prepare the students for an international job market. The activities will be both outdoor learning (for example in connection with visits to sights) and classroom teaching. Here the students will be presented to analogue and digital materials including some of the EU produced learning materials (role-play about common European issues). Our common platform for communication and collaboration will be the TwinSpace, which we create. Considering technology comprehension (in a humanistic and science perspective) will be included in order to make the learning and teaching about the Vikings and the Normans present and contemporary. Presenting and preparing the different activities will be done by using cooperative learning structures, flipped learning and inquiry based learning. Meeting other European students face-to-face, staying at each other’s homes during the mobilities will boost their self-confidence, vitality, make them prepared, engaged and motivated for further education and strengthen their personal skills and ability to create relationships. This will also provide our students with an opportunity to discover similarities and differences in our common cultural heritage now and then. Our VINO-project will allow our students to be open to the world and present them for the importance of being part of an international community (the EU) and the benefits and responsibility this implies. Working cross-border and cross-curriculum in an international context using English as a common foreign language with a topic to make our students conscious and aware of their common cultural heritage will scaffold their intercultural skills and prepare them for their common future as active European citizens on an international job market.
The application for the Erasmus KA2 project "Our Common Future based on our Common Cultural Heritage - the Vikings and the Normans", (VINO) was prepared in 2019 for 2 school years. The project concerns Auraskolen in Esbjerg, Denmark and Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Viovanni Verga” in Sicily, Italy. The project has been a success and has been completed in spite of the Corona pandemic, which delayed the project and its activities by 1 year. The original focus was on and has been on teaching and preparing our students for an unknown future on an international job market. The mobilities have been completed but differently to the original plan described in the application. Thus, 2 mobilities were changed from physical meetings to online meetings. More than 50 students, 8 teachers and the 2 headmaster.have been involved in the project. The mobilities have been successfully completed by 42 students and 6 teachers. The first staff meeting was is Sicily and involved 3 participants from Esbjerg and 4 participants from Sicily. The final staff meeting was in Esbjerg and involved 3 participants from Esbjerg and 4 from Sicily. The objectives have been met and completed. The students have met both online and face-to-face, have worked together, stayed together during home-stays and developed their oral and written English skills. The completed activities have made the students aware and conscious of their common cultural heritage. The VINO-topic, the Vikings and the Normans, have opened their eyes and their minds to our common past and our common present. The mobilities and the genuine cultural encounters have made the students aware of differences and similarities supporting their European citizenship. This also prepares and scaffolds the students for their future on an international job market which requires foreign language and intercultural skills. Different learning environments (outdoor / class room), teaching structures and especially the mobilities have been engaging and motivating for all students. Also the mix of analogue and digital teaching materials have supported the objectives of the project. The activities, the mobilities and the online meetings have strengthened the students’ academic level and improved their 21st century skills (to be seen on the evaluations): communication (in English), collaboration (cross-border), creativity (the various tasks being solved cross-border), critical thinking (the facts and information they have been introduced to). The common communication platform has been eTwinning during school hours, but also social media (after school hours). The whole project and its results can to be seen on the TwinSpace https://live.etwinning.net/projects/project/198817 This Erasmus project has allowed both the Danish and the Italian students to be open to the world. Being part of the European community has also become present and relevant to them. The similarities and the differences form us and make us all aware of our European citizenship. The 2 schools have worked together, met online and met through mobilities, completed activities, held professional discussions and reflected on the VINO-topic. The longer-term benefits are, that both schools have applied for and received Erasmus accreditation till 31.12.2027. Thus, our cooperation will continue and in future we will still be working with and focusing on teaching and preparing our students for their future on an international job market. When this Erasmus project was prepared and applied for, we aimed at making the Italian and the Danish students conscious and aware of their common cultural heritage, scaffold their foreign language and intercultural skills and prepare them for their common future as active European citizens on an international job market. We consider this project a success.