20 Years of Exchanges and Changes Erasmus Project

Project Title

20 Years of Exchanges and Changes

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; Creativity and culture; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project ” 20 Years of Exchanges and Changes” stems from the desire to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the long-term cooperation between the two school Institutions that have developed and grown up together in the context of a modern and changing Europe. This cooperation has already produced a definite and positive impact both on the language learning process (knowledge and use of vehicular languages) and on the intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and solidarity (such as exchanges, tolerance and acceptance, international dialogue).
The overall project was based on the enhancement of the average level of motivation in students belonging to different social backgrounds and it aimed to promote and increase self-awareness, moral values, cultural traditions and responsible, active citizenship for young people facing the modern challenge to open up and focus from local to international, European frameworks also highlighting the most remarkable developments in the last twenty years.
This research-project followed a two school years schedule and involved students from different classes that, through intermediate, cooperative steps, contributed to achieve the shared implementation of the final product.
In short, the project was based on synergies between the traditional educational approach to data research and processing and the modern approach to digital technology and computerized graphic design patterns (posters, weblinks, reports and newspapers) as well as digital information technologies (video making and padlet resources), to get to the final ducu-fiction.
According to European priorities suggestions as well as to close responsiveness to the mission, traditions and educational methods of the two schools, strong emphasis was laid on the key issues of the social, environmental, economic and political changes occurring in the last twenty years in Europe, definitely focusing on the peculiar and distinctive features of the two schools specific local areas.

In addition to the main topical and compelling issues, daily experienced and debated in classrooms, proper emphasis was placed on the awareness about the huge but not always negative changes occurred in twenty years both in everybody’s life and in the widening, expanding social context from San Ginesio to Cherbourg and to Europe.

Activities scheduling:

First year of the project: 2018/2019

Dealing with Society and Ecology issues and their development over time (production of reports, video interviews to students and their families).
The papers produced as a first activity were bilingual full reports, published on the project page included in the Italian school website.
All the activities were well documented by photos and bilingual articles written by the students participating in the project.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Erasmus + project was extended by one additional year (the two-year period 2018/2020 became 2018/2021).

It was not possible to carry out the travels and the activities already planned for the school year 2019/2020.

Second year of the project: 2020/2021

Virtual activities and video-conferencing concerning the planned program were authorized and carried out.
Lessons and considerations were organized and focused on some topics such as: Economy, Politics, Work and Society, in the last twenty years both in Italy and France.
As for the social analysis of the changes in the last twenty years, the theme of violence against women was analyzed through the video production of a docu-fiction by the Italian students and a short film by the French students about the male –female relationship.
Economic, political and social changes were also analyzed through the study of the UN Agenda 2030, with special regards to objectives 8-9 and 16, through power point presentations.
Italian and French students have published the collected materials either online by post-it padlet works and on the school institutional website.

Teaching activities/ Applied Strategies:

– Archive research / Action-research.
– Interviewing with people.
– experts/professionals conferencing
– sites visits
– Cooperative learning
– computer labs
– drama performance:

Target group: in total, about 140 Italian and French students, aged 16 to 19, belonging to different classes, and 6 teachers were involved both in physical and virtual mobility.

Specific project achievements:

• Promoting the development of a European perspective and frame of mind.
• Improving of the students’ communicative competence in foreign language through the school exchange experience and the creation of a final work.
• Improving vehicular languages through the analysis of newspaper articles and texts in a foreign language
• Analysing social, cultural and economic similarities and differences between the two countries.
• Soliciting a diachronic perspective about places, history, socio-economic changes, both on a small scale and in a European context.
• comparing skills in the context of the teaching activities and in the real life social settings.
• Promoting self-esteem and self-assertion through video-interviews and drama activities.
• Promoting intergenerational dialogue and didactic continuity among the students, alumni and parenting component.

We assume the project had a positive impact on the teaching process on a didactic level, both through the vehicular language communication skills improvement and the comparative knowledge regarding the main socio-economic and political events that characterized the two partner countries in the last 20 years;

in addition students mostly focused on the implementation and the enhancement of the specific historical memory as a leading element of the project and an extraordinary heritage and endless stimulus to the creation of cultural values.

The production of the final work through the use of new digital technologies and drama techniques not only represented the conclusion of the two school years activities, but also the achievement and enhancement of social and methodological skills focusing on the students’ future educational or working context.

Project Website

https://istitutogentili.edu.it/erasmus-2/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 57119,53 Eur

Project Coordinator

Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Alberico Gentili” & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Lycée général et technologique Jean-François Millet