“How can students develop and show social and cultural competence under the influence of new tecnologies?” Erasmus Project

Project Title

“How can students develop and show social and cultural competence under the influence of new tecnologies?”

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The majority of students managed the integration and adaptation successfully in very short time. After some insecurities at the beginning, all students from all partner schools worked well hand in hand. The common knowledge and usage of English helped to get conversation and communication going and flowing even though the proficiency level varied.
Early on at the first moment of contact the preferences for communication became clear. Students chose to stay in contact rather via Facebook, Snapchat or WhatsApp, some even chose email. The teachers themselves used Skype and email in the beginning but soon also switched to WhatsApp especially during the journeys and stays abroad. This proved to be quicker and more efficient for exchanging information and making decisions.
The three learning activities and their relation to the three major topics (cyber mobbing, fake news and critical research of sources) were discussed and planned during the transnational meetings in Gronau and Murcia. At that time the excursions to the out-of-school learning experiences were also decided on.
By staying in a host family, the students were able to gain insights in the daily life of a German/ Norwegian or Spanish family and to learn respect and tolerance for traditions in those countries. In their families as well as in their free time, the students were given the opportunity to further their language skills in both English and the respective native language. The friendly contact has led many students to keep in touch after the end of the project and to plans to visit each other in the future.
Attending school and classes was a great opportunity to compare school systems and in a final group discussion the observations were discussed and evaluated. Students created a survey in order to measure the frequency of the use of new technologies both at school and at home for the partner schools to use.
The collaboration of students of different nationalities in the group work furthered the discussion and problem solving approaches to the main topics mentioned above. This was once more an opportunity to practice foreign language skills and to gain insight into the varying degrees of information on the topics and how the different institutions tackled these issues. This not only promoted the social competence with regard to interaction with people from other cultural backgrounds, but also to acceptance of cultural differences between European countries. All results of the group work activities were presented to the whole group and showed progress in cooperative learning techniques. Here are some of the results which were also partly achieved through the use of new technologies:
• Creation of a project logo
• Text documentation of the visit
• Publication of all documentation of the project on schools‘ websites
• Development of a digital survey for recording individual and classroom us of new technologies at home and in school
• Photo and video documentation
• Reporting for local and regional print media
• Poster designs
Next to actual classroom work, various workshops (media guides, MOT, source research, „Breaking the ice“ dance) throughout the project helped to school the participants in the use of digital sources, social online platforms as well as the important soft skills of respect and acceptance of cultural differences. Especially the training and presentation of the dance performance asked a higher level of tolerance and discipline from all participants involved.
In order to broaden the students cultural horizons various excursions were organized and led them to points of interest in the vicinity of the host schools:
• While staying in Gronau, all students visited the Christmas market in Hannover and took a tour through the capital of Lower Saxony. The Christmas market is one of the most important German Christmas traditions. In contrast, the visit to the former concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen showed a defining part of German history of the 20th century.
• In Murcia, the visit of the old part of town and especially the cathedral showed the Spanish culture. The trip to the historic town of Cartagena made this experience complete.
• During the visit of the museum „Maihaugen“ in Lillehammer all participants gained insight into the history of Norway and the special architecture of historic houses and churches. As the city of the winter Olympics of 1994, Lillehammer offered the opportunity to learn about the importance of winter sports in Norway at the Olmypic museum.
• Finally, the concert of the music and dance department at Vgs Vinstra gave the opportunity to get know the typical Norwegian folk music and ddance. During this concert the students presented the „Breaking the ice“ dance which they themselves created. At the end, all participants received their certificates.All results and experiences collected in the final evaluation meeting June 2019 will be integrated in the next project by the three partners involved.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 82310 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vinstra vidaregåande skule & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Kooperative Gesamtschule Gronau (Leine)
• P.E.I González Valverde S.L.L