FuturEU students as transmitters of cultural heritage Erasmus Project

Project Title

FuturEU students as transmitters of cultural heritage

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

FESTECH’s idea will act as a vivid reaction to today’s challenges of great linguistic,cultural,educational,economic,technological and ethnic diversity at local and EU level.The study of cultural heritage will give wider dimension to the concept of active citizenship as a living learning source in terms of cooperative interaction,sharing of ideas and understanding of cultural concepts.By raising awareness on our students’ heterogeneity,its our responsibility to focus in learning and cultivating skills,inspire others to develop new international partnerships for the common good and reinforce aspects of cultural identity and tolerance building.Over the years,TSC has welcomed students of different origin and diverse socio-economical backgrounds thus our multiethnic school tries to embrace these differences and improve all teaching practices,methodologies and strategies by urging all students to develop and foster critical thinking based on the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary model.By implementing the following approaches to volunteerism,social responsibility,community involvement,team development and team spirit cultivation,intercultural collaborative learning and by providing the same opportunities to all students,FESTECH will take a multicultural and transdisciplinary character,which should be funded and carried out transnationally.Unfortunately,lack of motivation and participation sometimes arises so it’s upon the teachers’ ability to inspire students and structure the learning environment in non-traditional ways,to merge ICT with new pedagogies and to develop socially active classrooms “without borders”.Combining teaching with multimedia tools will motivate the majority of the digital-born to take advantage of their digital skills and develop them more so as to encourage all its participants to become actively engaged in the activities planned and take actions in the community at local/national/EU level.In a project partnership consisted by schools from different countries,face-to-face meetings often help to find the best solutions possible to prevent potential misunderstandings and discuss all issues until a consensus is reached.Within our FESTECH project there will be 5 mobilities held in Poland,Lithuania,Greece,Romania,Cyprus,which will all fulfil the main objectives of our project.The number of participants travelling abroad will be 4 students aged 12-16 with 2 accompanying persons so as to ensure their safety on the trip and during their stay in the host country.From the 1st transnational meeting, every partner school will have a clearer view of the partnership activities and of what is expected by each participant so the schedule of visits will be discussed and organized in collaboration with all 5 partner schools.The implementation of tasks,by knowing that “what we do not know, what we do not understand and what we fear”,will change the mutual cultural perception,it will reduce isolation,increase tolerance and integrate the school community into the project’s idea of bringing European citizens of different cultural backgrounds to work together under the same task.This project will raise students’ and teachers’ sense of creativity,responsibility and ability to work in a team of different people and it will also raise their language competence in English,the project’s common language for communication and mutual understanding.By using a common language during the transnational meetings,online chats, e-mail conversations,short films/videos,postcards/letters, our students will also improve their written way of expression. In terms of school’s long-term potential benefits, FESTECH project will improve all teacher’s daily teaching practice in launching different models of work used in the various partner countries. Both students and teachers will be given the opportunity to approach the futurEU environment, facilitating the understanding of different forms of work in order to achieve better results and improve their IT skills, and enriching cooperative work under the veil of multiculturalism. We want to see that students of different backgrounds are more motivated,have more self-esteem,are able to live up to their capacity and have more confidence in education because we focused on their talents and helped them develop these competences even more.“Cultural assets and heritage are important consolidation and implementation learning means that make teaching less bookish and more alive,giving meaning to learning too”(Mendes, 2009) All those involved in the project’s activities planned will act as multipliers of the new knowledge, skills and competences gained throughout the project at their school and nationally, cultivating the notion that European Union’s cultural diversity can be an advantage and not a disadvantage and, of course, can lead to a multicultural unity.

Project Website

http://festechproject.weebly.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 64049,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

Terra Santa College & Country: CY

Project Partners

• Katolickie Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Romualda Traugutta w Chojnicach
• EKPAIDEFTIRIA E. MANTOULIDI SA
• Alytaus Panemunes pagrindine mokykla
• Scoala Gimnaziala Pietroasa