"Babel Tour" is a biennial project that involves the partnership of 6 schools in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France. The project starts from the discovery of our roots through the enhancement and promotion of the artistic and cultural heritage of our cities. Aiming to stimulate the spirit of entrepreneurship, the identity of the past becomes an opportunity to discover the personal attitudes of students for the construction of tomorrow's citizens from a European point of view. The idea is to support students with the right skills and knowledge for the creation of a European school travel agency with particular attention to cultural tourism for schools, including suitable paths for the disabled and environmental aspects to promote sustainable tourism. Each country will be partner and tour operator of this mock agency. The project involves about 150 students (between 16-19 years), 60 teachers who will participate directly to the mobility and other teachers who will participate on site and in the virtual exchanges of the eTwinning project. During the Learning Teaching Training Activities are programmed a staff training, 5 short term exchanges of groups of pupils and 6 long term motilities. In order to achieve the objectives of the project, students will be involved in many activities: after a first theoretical preparatory training through CLIL lessons, the planned activities are ‘The ideal customer’, the ‘SWOT Analysis’, ‘Business Plan’ and ‘Business Model’, ‘Communication and promotion’, ‘Storytelling’. The functional activities to support the project's core will be developed through the use of ITC and are: the creation of a project logo, the planning of tour itineraries including proposals for disabled people, the creation of a travel guide with multimedia applications; the promotion of marketing and advertising activities to "sell" the final products; the creation of e-brochures and e-books for the promotion of tourist itineraries using the learned digital tools as for example G-Suite for Education, twinspace of the eTwinning project, the Trello platform; the creation of a web site. The used methodology aims at promoting learning from real and contextualized problems. It is a Work Based approach aimed at teaching and learning the entrepreneurial spirit, which is based on learning by doing according to laboratory practice, on role play activities and cooperative activities for students; on a new way of teaching and learning through storytelling. In order to reinforce the partnership and collaboration between teachers and students, the continuity of the actions supported through the etwinning platform will be fundamental in its multiple possibilities, from the sharing of materials to the exchange of opinions and opportunities for meeting, even if virtual. The objectives shared by the partner schools are: to promote a sense of belonging to Europe and a sense of inclusiveness while exploring the different cultural heritage of Europe; to support the development of key European competences, in particular improving teaching and learning language and promoting the wide linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness of the Union; to promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for learning and related digital competences, the spirit of initiative and entrepreneurship, to explore the job opportunities guaranteed by the tourism activities of the territory and of the partner countries; to improve the training offer in order to integrate a working and experiential dimension into the educational path; to raise the levels of qualification and to face school and training dropouts and marginalization; to promote the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) ; to foster multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches taking into account the different cognitive styles of the students; to promote the professional development of the staff by acquiring project management skills through project work, sharing best teaching practices and getting to know different school systems; to reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, with fewer opportunities, including learners with special educational needs or disabilities. In the medium and long term, our schools will receive benefits: In the implementation of Work Based Learning within the training offer plans; In reducing the gap between high school and professional training and in promoting contact with companies. In the short and long-term mobility our school will have not only the opportunity to improve the internationalization plan, but also to monitor, evaluate and above all certificate competences through European tools and protocols.
"Babel Tour" is a project that involved 5 schools in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France. The project started from the discovery of our roots through the enhancement and promotion of the artistic and cultural heritage of our cities. With the aim of stimulating entrepreneurial spirit, the identity of the past has become an opportunity to discover the personal attitudes of students for the construction of the citizens of tomorrow from a European point of view. Students were supported with the right skills and knowledge to create a European travel agency with a focus on cultural tourism for schools, including environmental aspects to promote sustainable tourism. Every country has been partner and tour operator of a virtual travel agency. The project involved about 150 students (16 to 19 years old), 60 teachers who participated directly in the mobilities and other teachers who participated on site and in the virtual exchanges of the etwinning project. During the Learning Teaching Training Activities, 1 staff training, 5 short-term exchanges of pupil groups and 10 long-term mobilities took place. In order to achieve the project objectives, students were involved in many activities: after a first theoretical preparatory training through CLIL lessons, the activities carried out were 'The ideal customer', the 'Business Plan', Communication and promotion. The functional activities that supported the core of the project were developed through the use of ITC: the creation of a project logo, the planning of tourist routes, the creation of a tourist guide with multimedia applications; the promotion of marketing and advertising activities to "sell" the final products; the creation of e-brochures and e-books for the promotion of tourist itineraries using digital tools learned, twinspace project etwinning. The methodology used was intended to promote learning from real and contextualized problems. It was a work-based approach aimed at teaching and learning entrepreneurship according to laboratory practice, role-playing and cooperation activities for students. To strengthen the partnership and collaboration between teachers and students, the continuity of the actions supported through the etwinning platform has been fundamental in its multiple possibilities, from the sharing of materials to the exchange of opinions and opportunities to meet, even if virtual, especially during the period of the pandemic. The objectives shared by the partner schools were: to promote a sense of belonging to Europe and a sense of inclusiveness by exploring Europe’s diverse cultural heritage; to support the development of key European competences; in particular by improving the teaching and learning of languages and by promoting the wide linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness of the Union; promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for learning and related digital skills, the spirit of initiative and entrepreneurship, to explore the employment opportunities guaranteed by the tourism activities of the territory and the partner countries; improve the provision of training to integrate a working and experiential dimension in the training path; improve qualification levels and tackle early school leaving and marginalisation; promote the use of integrated content and language learning (CLIL); promote multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that have taken into account the different cognitive styles of students; promote the sharing of best teaching practices and the learning of different school systems; the reduction of disparities in learning outcomes affecting students from disadvantaged backgrounds with fewer opportunities. In the medium and long term, our schools have received benefits: in the implementation of work-based learning within the training offer plans; in reducing the gap between high school and vocational training and in promoting contact with business. Our schools has not only had the opportunity to improve the internationalization plan, but also to monitor, evaluate and above all certify skills through European instruments and protocols.