Technology from everyone to everyone and each one of us Erasmus Project

Project Title

Technology from everyone to everyone and each one of us

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The big challenge will be the creation of an mobile application (due to the possibility of using simple freeware to the development of the app) that allows everyone to communicate and transmit basic information in foreign language.
The project “Technology from everyone to each one of us” aims to create an augmentative communication tool, from which anyone, with learning difficulties or not, can communicate in countries other than their own, with the use of pictograms instead of written words. The group, through its vast experience, knows that it is much more difficult to make children or people with learning difficulties of different natures able to learn or to read, in opposition to learn a set of pictograms representing words, these pictograms are designed so that the user can intuitively select the desired word/expressions.The institutions participating in the project add different value and complement each others points of view. It was important to find institutions that present diversity, NGOs, Regular High Schools, Higher Education Schools and a Technological School. They will function as comparison elements, control groups at the time of evaluation of the developed outputs. Each give a different cultural perspective due to geographic disposition and social function. We intend to have the participation of different know-how, different approaches and ways to test the applicability of the application. One of the criteria to be accepted in the project was to designate a team of maximum 5 people, able people in the following functions (with experience or hyer degree formation in the case of communication responsible): local project coordinator, budget manager, graphic production manager, pedagogic responsible , responsible for the application development, responsible for communication between institutions (in english), and responsible for activities.
The institutions in the project are:
High Schools:
Agrupamento de Escolas de Aljustrel – PT
IES Juan del Enzina–SP
NGOs:
Bulgarian Development Agency – BG
Associazione N.E.T Networking Education & Training – IT
Association for Developing Voluntary Work Novo Mesto – SL
Professional Schools:
Escola de Tecnologias, Criação e Inovação do Algarve – PT
Universities;
Uiversity of Thessaly – GR
Collegium Balticum – PL
It is intended that this technological product created mainly for children, is also usable by the elderly, adults, people and children with special needs. The application can be used in any language of any country to communicate, it will use pictograms to translate feelings, emotions, questions, statements, etc. The partners, in collaboration, will develop technologies using pictograms that can activate the audio of the word represented in the native language intended by the users. The pictograms and layout will be common to all the partner projects. All the technology produced will be of free use to everyone interested in it. Any reader or non-reader can use the application.
Methodology
The meetings will happen monthly using distal communication with the development of the project in all the partner institutions. The learning acquired in the distal mode will be applied in the institutions and evaluated by the different groups of work.
The assessment of the applicability of the developed technologies will occur in each partner institution collaborating in the project.
Each partner will develop the technology in their own language, which will be used later on by the partners in monitorization activities in loco.
Objectives of the project:
• Improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the broad linguistic diversity in the EU and sensibility to different cultures;
• Promote improvement in terms of quality, innovation, excellence and internationalization in the educational institutions, namely through the promotion of transnational cooperation between the education and training institutions and other parts with interest in it;
• Develop projects in the institutions to optimize the use of ICT as mechanisms that allow the intercultural mobility and share.
• Promote the technologic inclusion as a facilitator.
• Promote projects developed by the institutions that use technological resources.
• Discover the words/expressions most needed to engage in communication.
• Create the European Pictogram Communication Language (EPCL).
• Create the EPCL Translator (Mobile Application).
The application has the ability to continue to grow, to update and to add content, it will never be truly finished, as it can be adapted and customized by anyone with average ICT knowledge.
It is expected to impact how we communicate and how young children and those with learning disabilities learn by the use of the application, starting the communication of each and every one in foreign language.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 166367,62 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento de Escolas de Aljustrel & Country: PT

Project Partners

• DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO
• Giz – we can train you, LDA
• BALGARSKA AGENTSIYA ZA RAZVITIE
• IES JUAN DEL ENZINA
• PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS
• N.E.T. (NETWORKING EDUCATION AND TRAINING) ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE
• Szczecinska Szkola Wyzsza Collegium Balticum