“Look back to move beyond and that is what is the present - it incorporates both the past and the future.” Amit Abraham Our duty as educators is to help our students to discover the identity that the past gives them, but also to prepare them for tomorrow. This is one of the aims of our project, to build a bridge between the past, cultural heritage, and future set of competences that young people need to find fulfilling jobs and become independent, engaged citizens who contribute to society. In order to accomplish this students and teachers involved in the project will carry out interdisciplinary research on cultural issues, to develop a deeper knowledge of different cultural traits and cultural heritage of Europe and more understanding and respect among the EU community members. All research will be published in e-journals, which can be used as Open Educational Resources. Another project aim is to integrate a number of students with fewer opportunities such as cultural differences (minorities), educational difficulties (learning difficulties) and economic obstacles (low-income families). The objectives envisage the students, the teachers and the schools involved in the project: -to encourage students to carry out interdisciplinary research on cultural issues, in order get a deeper knowledge of different cultural traits and cultural heritage of Europe -to enhance ICT skills in students, based on European Digital Competence Framework, to achieve the success in the future workplace and to play an active role as confident citizens -to develop in students life skills as creative and critical thinking, social, team work skills -to improve level of English in all competences –to improve teachers' design and teaching methodology and digital competences, by guiding the students in project’s learning activities –to become part of an international community of practice in European Framework for DigiComp, and a resource group for the other teachers from EU –to improve their teaching abilities by sharing good practices during the workshops from project meetings -to grow a creative and intercultural environment in schools involved in the project -to develop the institution’s European dimension and be interested in other cultures The main target groups of this project are students (from the age 15-20) and teachers from involved schools. The project will directly impact a total number of 180 students and 36 teachers, who will benefit from the project activities. Two more schools, one from Romania and one from GB, decided to join the project on eTwinning so around 120 teachers and 600 students will benefit from the project outcomes, after all the 6 LTTAs and eTwinning. At international level several Learning, Teaching and Training activities are planned: 4 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils and 2 short-term joint staff training events. During LTTAs students and teachers will attend trainings and workshops on the following topics: -What is culture? -Digital Journalism -How does one begin the editorial process -How to Structure a Story -How you carry out a research -Communication and collaboration platforms -The fundamentals of photojournalism. -Software used for editing photo and video -Cultural interviews -Digital Audio and Video Production -DigiComp Framework -SELFIE -How to run an e-journalism student club Also a number of local activities are planned in conection with project objectives. For the learning process we chose learning by doing, because educational theories and research proves that learning is best done through experience. Consequently our project aims to involve students in real world experiences. To incorporate the learning-by-doing method we will use Project-based learning, because it gives students autonomy/responsibility in the sense of choosing sub-topics, organising their work, and deciding on which methods to use to conduct the project. They will work in teams, all research carried out will have as result the e-journals. The learning process is a blended one because students will work both in real life environment but also in online learning environments in order to do research and develop the digital content. Project envisage both intangible and tangible results, as: Minimum 80 % of the students will: -develop ICT skills at a high quality level -gain new knowledge concerning their own and European cultural heritage -develop and improve their life skills, as creative and critical thinking and team work -80 % of the teachers will gain specialized and pedagogical knowledge and will improve their teaching skills -in all schools involved in the project the quality of teaching and the European dimension will increase -Management Kit of the project -a project website and logo -an e-Twinning project -4 issues of e-journals with articles based on the research carried out - an e-journalism club in each participating school - mobility and post- mobility workshops
The implementation of the project as originally drafted was not possible due to the COVID19 health crisis. Despite the request for extension and the new program of activities (cf PDF "reorganization of activities" attached), due to the degraded working conditions in the various schools and the demobilization of learners and staff teams, no mobility could take place outside of the 1st joint staff training meeting (C1) in November 2019. The 2nd joint staff training meeting had to be canceled due to the Covid19 crisis. It was decided finally to close the project on 17th February 2022 since some partner schools were not working anymore on the project at the end of 2021 and the Swedish school had withdrawn. The project coordinators in each country met regularly in 2020 and 2021 to consult on a new work plan around the themes of the project and it was decided during a transnational meeting in 2020 to lighten the program of activities initially planned and to transform the learners mobility C2, C3, C5 and C6 into virtual activities (cf Gantt chart attached). As a replacement for the mobility provided for in the project, online activities have been set up, the working language being English. One of these activities was to make videos presenting the different regions: https://view.genial.ly/5fc7277ffa215c0d1cc46db5/interactive-image-video-presentation-of-our-regions. These videos were developed during the Coronavirus crisis by different learners selected for the project in all schools and shared in a virtual presentation, replacing the cultural visits planned during the student exchange learning activities that were canceled C2-C3. This document, presented in the various establishments, enabled the learners to discover the culture of the partner countries. As the coordinating institution, we were responsible for organizing the 1st joint staff meeting in November 2019, the objective of this meeting was to bring project coordinators together and train them in tools such as Madmagz to the creation of electronic books, DigComp for the evaluation of digital skills in their schools. This meeting enabled the project to be launched and the work plan to be drawn up, in particular the sharing of tasks between the different partners, since a transnational meeting was held during this joint training event. We also supported the development of the 2 electronic books created, -https://madmagz.com/magazine/1682139 -https://www.canva.com/design/DAEvZBVZcS4/share/preview?token=r90Mjz7gQXY2TtDkrcm5Zw&role=EDITOR&utm_content=DAEvZBVZcS4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton The coordinator of the project in the French school being an Etwinning ambassador, she organized a presentation of the Madmagz tool thanks to the support of the CANOPE network of Reunion Island. This tool was used for the creation of the first ejournal and has also been used by other colleagues in the coordinating institution. The Lycée de Vincendo was also responsible for the virtual activities carried out to replace learners mobilities and which were elaborated thanks to the Etwinning platform ( https://twinspace.etwinning.net/85693/home): -production of culture presentation videos ( https://view.genial.ly/5fc7277ffa215c0d1cc46db5/interactive-image-video-presentation-of-our-regions) - Collaborative activities on the Twinspace, the coordinator of the project as an Etwinning ambassador has always tried to instil a dynamic of online work thanks to the Etwinning tool even if these attempts have not always been fruitful due to the demobilization in the partner schools. The expenses incurred as part of this project have, however, enabled our school to improve in terms of virtual work: creation of a room dedicated to videoconferences with the purchase of suitable equipment, purchase of the subscription to the "Madmagz tool, a camera, etc.