The AECM has been focussing on the development of its students’ comprehensive skills and competences, namely their ability to think critically, develop citizenship, democratic awareness and participation, get involved in their school and community life, as well as other 21st century skills. Simultaneously, we are aware of the huge influence of technology in our youngsters’ lives and of the extensive – and often misguided - use they make of technology and social networks. Thus, we thought it would be paramount to put technology at the service of the development of global skills and competences. In addition, former and ongoing Erasmus+ KA1 and KA2 projects have been helping us develop community, national and European awareness and this project appeared as a natural consequence of the school’s concern. Starting from key questions such as “How can we promote civic and democratic participation? How do we show young people the importance of their contribution to solve present and future issues? How can technology help develop the human and humanistic aspects and prepare youngsters for the challenges of the 21st century?”, we set our aims: i) to promote citizenship, democratic participation and sustainability within the technological world (for example, online security, source reliability and credibility, freedom of communication and expression vs the right to privacy, active learning, arguing for/against ideas vs tolerance); ii) to promote young people’s cultural and civic dimension; iii) to develop 21st century skills; iv) to put technology at the service of citizenship and democratic ideals. After establishing our goals, we looked for partners who had the same concerns. The group of schools which will be developing this project (Croatia, France, Poland and Portugal) all share an interest in the topic of citizenship and democratic participation and the adequate use of technological tools at our disposal, both at school and in students’ personal lives. Several teachers and 18-20 students from each school (aged 15-18) will be directly involved in the different LTTs; however, our project will involve a very extensive number of students and teachers from participating schools, as the levels of involvement in the project will vary according to the activities and their goals. The direct participants share an interest in the extracurricular activities in their schools and usually participate in citizenship development projects. The teachers are primarily from the areas of English, Citizenship Education and Social Sciences and IT. Special needs students will be included in the project, as well as students who are less able at English, in order to guarantee that less competent students can get involved and participate actively in this kind of project and benefit from its impact. Special needs students will be motivated to participate more actively in school life. To achieve our goals, we will do activities in each of the schools as preparation for the different LTT. Preparatory activities will include organization of the teams that will work on the project in each school, selection of the students that will take direct part in the LTTs, questionnaires about the different countries/languages, organization of working groups of teachers and students with a specific task, creation of an eTwinning project, communication among students and teachers using email, facebook, whatsapp, skype, eTwinning, creation of a virtual space for the project linked to the school website and of an Erasmus+ corner at each school, workshops and/or debates with MPs, NGOs, etc, research on citizenship topics that worry students, production of evaluating and disseminating materials. During the LTTs, the following activities will be carried out, among others: presentation of work done locally, teamwork to design games/apps/(teaching) materials/video spots/posters that can help raise awareness of democracy and citizenship issues, problem-solving, roleplays, creation of a project logo, activities for dissemination, such as writing news and press releases in local and regional means of communication, on the internet, excursions, visits to museums or places of historical, scientific or project interest in each country. After the mobility, all activities and impacts will be assessed through questionnaires, surveys, minutes of meetings, interim and final reports. Besides the development of global skills and competences in ICT, English and the subject matter, some of the results of the project will be posters and presentations, an eDictionary of democracy, games, apps, teaching and learning materials that help promote citizenship and democratic participation and the responsible use of technology. The sustainability and impact of the project in the different schools is guaranteed because the final products will be shared among partners and used in the different schools and communities, changing the learning environment of the schools involved.
The AECM school aims to develop students’ comprehensive skills and competences, namely their ability to think critically, develop citizenship, democratic awareness and participation, get involved in their school and community life, as well as other 21st century skills. Simultaneously, being aware of the huge influence of technology in our youngsters’ lives and the extensive – and often misguided - use they make of technology and social networks, we designed this project with a view to put technology at the service of the development of global skills and competences. After finding partners, we started asking ourselves key questions such as “How can we promote civic and democratic participation? How do we show young people the importance of their contribution to solve present and future issues? How can technology help develop the human and humanistic aspects and prepare youngsters for the challenges of the 21st century?” and together we set our goals: i) to promote citizenship, democratic participation and sustainability within the technological world (for example, online security, source reliability and credibility, freedom of communication and expression vs the right to privacy, active learning, arguing for/against ideas vs tolerance); ii) to promote young people’s cultural and civic dimension; iii) to develop 21st century skills; iv) to put technology at the service of citizenship and democratic ideals. The schools from Croatia, France, Poland and Portugal selected their teams of between 2-6 teachers and 12-19 students aged 16-18 per country (numbers varied due to Covid 19 travel requirements/vaccination situation, etc); however, the project involved a much larger number of students and teachers from participating schools (particularly in France and Portugal, because the mobilities were carried out at a time when Covid19 restrictions were less strict). The direct participant students were chosen due to their interest in the extracurricular activities and citizenship development projects in their schools. Two fewer opportunities students from Portugal participated, however, it was not possible to convince parents of speccial needs students to allow their children to take part in the project as had been planned. The student selection in each country was carried out according to inclusive criteria approved by the school bodies. To achieve our goals, we carried out physical and virtual activities in each of the schools as preparation for the different LTT. Preparatory activities included organization of the teams in each school, selection of the students, questionnaires about the different countries/languages, organization of working groups of teachers and students with a specific tasks, creation of an eTwinning project, communication among students and teachers using email, facebook, whatsapp, eTwinning, creation of a virtual space for the project linked to the school website, workshops and/or debates with MPs, research on citizenship topics that worry students, production of evaluating and disseminating materials. During the LTTs, the following activities were carried out, among others: presentation of work done locally, teamwork to design (teaching) materials/video spots/posters/films/ppts that can help raise awareness of democracy and citizenship issues, problem-solving, roleplays, debates, speeches, creation of a project logo, activities for dissemination, such as writing news and press releases in local and regional means of communication, on the internet, excursions, visits to museums or places of historical, scientific or project interest in each country. After each mobility, all activities and impacts were assessed through questionnaires, surveys, minutes of meetings, interim and final reports. Besides the development of global skills and competences in ICT, English and the subject matter, some of the results of the project were posters and presentations, an eDictionary of democracy, teaching and learning materials that help promote citizenship and democratic participation and the responsible use of technology. It is impossible to go without mentioning the enormous effort of the whole team to fulfill the goals of the project despite Covid19 impact and the invasion of the Ukraine: with several short virtual activities, one loger virtual activity and 5 mobilities, we were able to teach and learn, chat and share, watch and listen, work and play, visit and experience each others' and European's lives, values, beliefs, languages, schools, countries... The sustainability and impact of the project in the different schools is guaranteed through sharing of the final products among partners and on the EU Results Platform for use in the different schools and communities involved and other relevant organisations, changing the learning environment.