'Re-think Heritage!' project was brought into being as a transnational partnership to answer the great need for new, innovative practices in the education of heritage management and protection of monuments. The partnership is made up of institutions of various profiles including non-governmental associations, a university, a municipal department and a web development enterprise, all being active in the field of heritage protection or in the development of digital-form educational materials. The project aims to assemble a Digital Handbook of European scope which operates with illustrative and interactive features for providing clearer understanding on complex technical details of traditional building technologies and on the debatable questions of historic preservation of monuments, while collecting together the most important principles and instruments of heritage management, their development throughout history and showcasing best practice examples in the management of heritage protected areas and monuments. This educational tool is also planned to be paired with a structured learning management system allowing distance learning technologies for the digitally elaborated training course of the project. The project initiatives will be also supported by the downloadable print-form version of the handbook and a guidance material explaining the usage of the e-learning platform and facilitating the implementation of the course material to the curricula of any educational frameworks of VET and universities throughout Europe. The project targets not only learners of architecture and heritage management studies, but also practising professionals of these occupations, who will be able to use the online accessible materials in their everyday work, while dealing with building contractors and craftspersons or negotiating with developers or decision-makers, using the Handbook as an essential store of knowledge, that can also help the reasoning process through its highly illustrative graphics and interactive methodologies. Further target group of the project are homeowners and lease holders of heritage protected properties who can get access to important but easily understandable knowledge for the proper and authentic maintenance of their homes. It is expected that the innovative and digital features of the new training materials will contribute to the greater acknowledgement of heritage management by providing more relevant and useful knowledge for architects and heritage professionals than that any former learning materials could previously offer, attracting a wider audience of the local communities and convincing more decision-makers on different levels about the importance of modern heritage protection of outstanding quality.
The programme volunteered for assembling an e-learing platform on heritage management for architects, heritage managers and learners of these topics at the level of VET (and universities as well). Innovative practices and technology applied in the project: + online digital-form educational material; + interactive features for navigating within the material; + highly illustrative graphics explaining the texts and leading to better understanding on the topics - as results of 3D CAD modelling; + interactive and animated features of selected illustrations providing deeper understanding of the different structures and the technology applied in them; + explanation of the subjects with a European (global) scope, allowing to use the material as part of a common European curriculum. We also volunteered to introduce the learning material to the education wherever it is possible and to popularise the results with heritage managers and architects Europe- and worldwide. It was also planned that the materials can be used by other educational frameworks and / or or extended with further languages. Most importantly the programme intended to provide a working example of a digital learning content which can turn into a prototype for the sector.
Based on the experiences of educators and non-profit actors of heritage management the consortium identified the great need for an illustrative-form digital learning material on heritage management topics that would summarise the main principles, evolution, instruments and best practices of heritage management on an European level and in an online, easily accessible form. The initiative was also supported by a Needs Analysis delivered in the countries of the partnership, resulting 115 feedbacks from the representatives of the target group: https://sites.google.com/view/re-think-heritage/needs-analysis/needs-analysis-results Target groups: + learners of architectural and heritage management studies in VET and in universities; + professionals of these subjects: practising heritage managers and architects, who can use the materials in their everyday work + heritage managers and heritage protection offices cooperating with building contractors, developers and decision-makers + homeowners, lease holders of heritage protected properties;