Implement service learning in schools TO GET digital cultural HERitage enhanced Erasmus Project

Project Title

Implement service learning in schools TO GET digital cultural HERitage enhanced

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

OBJECTIVE
TOGETHER aims to foster digital creativity of young generations by leveraging on the “service learning” methodology and applying it to secondary schools, with the aim to engage students in community-valuable activities of digital transformation for cultural heritage resources, protecting and enhancing its value as community’s cultural assets. The project will develop a training path for secondary school teachers on how to provide significant creative digital skills through the application of service learning oriented to the design of a motivating learning environment, aiming to engage students in real-life initiatives in collaboration with key local actors for the promotion of their cultural heritage.

CONTEXT
What is service learning?
SERVICE-LEARNING MEANS TO CREATE A LINK BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND ACTUAL NEEDS FROM THE COMMUNITY THEY ARE LIVING IN, THEREFORE LITERALLY TAKING LEARNING OUT OF THE CLASSROOMS AND INTO THE REAL LIFE. SERVICE LEARNING DIFFERS FROM COMMUNITY SERVICE BECAUSE IT IS NOT SPORADIC OR MADE ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS, BUT SYSTEMATIC AND INCLUDED IN THE SCHOOL’S SYLLABUS, DEVELOPED IN A CLOSE AND LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COMMUNITY’S STAKEHOLDERS.

Why cultural heritage?
Because cultural heritage lays at the heart of the creative economy, seriously hit by the COVID-19 emergency, and it plays a fundamental role for ensuring the continued development of societies. Therefore, there is an increasing need for the young generations to take over a role of responsibility towards their current and future cultural wealth, through the deployment of new competence frameworks where hard (digital) and soft (creativity) skills should be prominent. The process of digitisation and digital transformation of cultural capital that is currently underway is providing a great help for its long-term preservation and valorisation, while at the same time contributing to close the gap with younger generations, that are today fully digital native.
The application and deployment of digital technologies, together with opportunities for their personal commitment presented as a challenge, provide a valid opportunity to close this gap
and lead to higher degrees of involvement. As a matter of fact, digitisation might turn Europe’s cultural resources into an important pillar of the digital economy, while making heritage
more accessible and open up new ways of enjoying cultural content.
An innovative use of cultural heritage has also the potential to actively engage people, helping to secure integration, inclusiveness, social cohesion and public/private investment, all
necessary ingredients of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The digitization of cultural heritage, whilst initially relegated to institutions, is now increasingly a collective process
involving community access and collective sharing of knowledge. For this reason, the project TOGETHER aims to raise the engagements of secondary schools in cultural heritage management and preservation through a bottom-up approach, in order to build on this emerging practice and provide new pedagogical opportunities.

The project TOGETHER has been designed in order to deliver the following tangible results:
IO1 Teacher’s Handbook and Competence framework
The first thread of activities will be aimed at delivering the Teacher’s Handbook, i.e. an instructional resource for secondary school teachers in the field of humanities to guide them
towards the design and implementation of Service Learning-inspired initiatives addressed to the promotion and digitisation of local cultural heritage through digital creativity. The Handbook will mix theoretical contexts and rationale with practical insights.
IO2 TOGETHER Digital Creative Academy
The Academy will be an open online environment that will be useful for secondary school teachers and leaders to integrate the learning path taken with the Handbook. It will host a set
of complementary resources (i.e. the Toolbox) like proposals for activities, project concepts and strategies, templates, assessment sheets and digital resources, delivered in a variety
of formats. Elements of gamification will be adopted to improve students’ engagement. The Academy will be designed as a Social Learning Environment, thus encouraging co-creation
of materials, participation and the formation of a European-wide community of practice.

TARGET GROUPS
The direct target group envisaged for the TOGETHER project are secondary school teachers and leaders, that are going to benefit from a new and innovative opportunity of Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The role of the teacher is broadening and becoming more demanding, as they are expected to use a wide variety of methods, tools and approaches and to tailor them to the students’ needs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 279019 Eur

Project Coordinator

EBS Europäische Bildungsstiftung gGmbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• EUROCREA MERCHANT SRL
• LINK GROUP
• POLITEKNIKA IKASTEGIA TXORIERRI S.COOP
• Agrupamento de Escolas José Estevão
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• EUROGEO VZW
• “BUDAKOV FILMS” EOOD