Today, we live in the digital era when the social and cultural values are often forgotten. However, it is well known that cultural heritage deeply affects young people’s social and educational awareness. The mainstream trend in tuition in European countries is to emphasize vocational training at the expense of the academic education. The result is that students miss the general knowledge in the field of culture, history, and society. Since students spend a lot of their free time playing with computers, tablets, smartphones or social networks, it is understandable that they prefer teaching and learning based on up to date ICTs. Due to this fact, we have decided to take full advantage of using new technologies and making students change their attitude towards history, traditions, cultural wealth and inspire them to be proud of their countries, to the solidarity and friendliness to others. The significant purpose of this project is to enhance the teacher’s role in society by exchanging best practices and broaden professional, linguistic, social and personal competences of all project participants (students and teachers). The knowledge and skills acquired through project activities are supposed to be predominantly in the field of European cultural heritage, information technology and communication in English language. The project will be a great opportunity for all participants to get acquainted, work together, look for solutions, teach and respect each other. All these intentions will influence young people's attitude in the field of history, cultural heritage, social relationships, tolerance and mutual understanding. Throughout open educational process, project will provide direct access to the project results, methodological materials - their resources and learning activities to all participants . The number of direct participants supported by the grant is approximately 50 teachers and 200 students. Students and teachers from other schools will also be involved in the project 1,600 people by estimation, and from wide public over 1,100 people (parents, social partners, school friends). Students facing various social problems or other difficulties will be involved as well counting number approximately 165 people. All project activities will be focused on informal education in the field of history, culture, traditions, digital literacy and language competences.They will be held throughout mutual meetings, on workshops, discussions with experts and excursions to the cultural facilities. Moreover, teachers will take part in the special interactive education aimed at the development of their pedagogical and social skills. The job responsibilities of management will differ from student activities during the short-term training activities, thus they will be held separately. Management will monitor the pupils' work, observe the teaching process in the host school, exchange experiences and proven innovative practices with colleagues from the partner schools, they will participate in seminars, excursions, workshops and develop methodological materials. Each meeting will be held in another partner country and will be remarkable and innovative by using a different type of digital technology or its application.The project methodology is based on five fundamental pillars: 1. Building an international project team and setting the project objectives 2. Preparatory phase before the mobility and the promotion of the project 3. Implementation of project objectives through national and international activities 4. Evaluation of project results, their pilot testing and finalization 5. Dissemination and implementation of the project ideas and outputs New innovative methods will be applied through workshops, excursions, professional seminars, lectures and discussion. During short learning activities the students from host school will play the role of mentors to make learning less formal, spontaneous and effective. The tangible project results will be methodological materials, the web-page of project, on-line dictionary of cultural and social terms, photos, a short film mapping the project implementation, a photo-book about project, on-line test and a digitized game about European cultural heritage, promotional materials and small traditional handmade objects. The qualitative project outcome will be the newly acquired skills and information on the project topic and the change in attitude to the common European heritage. The reciprocal exchange of experience and good practices will contribute to the improvement of the application of modern ICT and widen general knowledge to all target groups. Taking part in the project will affect all participants from the long-term perspective. They will become more open minded, they will gain new skills, general knowledge, and digital competence. Eventually, they might even be affected in the choice of their future career, pastimes or further lifelong learning.
While writing the project, we realized that new technologies are essential in people's everyday lives. Students prefer education by using new technologies. However, it appears that they often neglect other social and cultural values. Through this project, we decided to motivate them and change their attitude towards history, traditions, and cultural heritage through modern technologies. Due to COVID, some activities were carried out online. However, all main objectives stated in the project have been accomplished. All participants had the opportunity to discover, document, and archive the cultural heritage of participating countries through ICT. The improvement in communication in English enriched the quality of teaching. Through the project, the teacher's role and social status in society were strengthened which ensured his personal growth even in the future.The project implementation and all its activities provided a creative environment for exchanging good innovative practices and increasing the professional, linguistic, social, and personal competencies of all project participants. Participants have taken the chance to get acquainted, work together and learn from each other while working on the project activities.Overall, the project ensured the transition in the student's attitudes toward cultural heritage, history, and social relations. Open education with the idea of "let's learn the traditional in a non-traditional way", the project allowed equal access for all participants to the activities, the project results, and the methodical materials. The priorities for students were to acquire 21st-century competencies, and communicative, media, and technological skills useable in the future. Each international meeting was innovative by using a different type of digital technology.During the implementation of short-term training activities for pupils in Greece, digital means were used to create a website, the Czech partners presented working on a 3D printer, in the Turkish school we learned how to create a digitized game, and in the meeting in Slovakia, we worked with digital photography. Manager teams monitored pupils’ activities and presentations. They observed teaching in the host school and created methodical materials by sharing experiences and good innovative practices with colleagues from the partner schools. All participants took part in professional excursions, workshops, and discussions with experts. All participants took part in professional excursions and workshops, seminars, and visits to cultural facilities.The project participants filled in the evaluative questionnaires at the end of the last project meeting. Based on the results of these evaluative questionnaires, we have concluded that the methodology and implementation of the project, were chosen correctly. We prepared all needed conditions for the execution of the mobilities and ensured the promotion of the project. We created appropriate conditions for Greek partners to participate virtually in activities C7 and C8 due to COVID.Through national and international activities, we implemented the project objectives. At the end of each project meeting, we pilot-tested new teaching methods, evaluated and finalized the project results, and ensured the dissemination and implementation of the project ideas and results.During the short-term pupil training activities, the students worked under the guidance of mentors like teachers from the host school, and tutors like pupils from the host school. This processing ensured the learning was less formal, spontaneous, and more effective. An important outcome of the project is also its qualitative value.All the participants have acquired new knowledge and skills in the subject, and their attitude towards the common European cultural heritage has changed.The project has also produced tangible results such as methodical materials, a project website, a digital dictionary of cultural and social terms, photographs, a short film mapping the implementation of the project, a photo book about the project activities, an online test, digitized game, promotional materials, and small items of folk creativity.The mutual exchange of experiences and good practices contributed to the increase of expertise in applying modern ICT and the general perspective of all target groups. In the long-term benefits, we can tell that all participants were significantly affected by participating in the project activities. For students, it was an inspiration for their choice of career, leisure activities, or further studies. We have involved approximately 50 educators and 200 students as direct participants.Indirect participants included other students of participating schools, pupils, parents, teachers from other schools, social partners, and the general public. We also created opportunities for students facing various barriers such as social disadvantage and risk of social exclusion to participate in the implementation of the project.