Shining a Light On Fading Memories and Declining Crafts Erasmus Project

Project Title

Shining a Light On Fading Memories and Declining Crafts

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Post-conflict/post-disaster rehabilitation

Project Summary

The Erasmus + project ” Shining a Light On Fading Memories and Declining Crafts” was a partnership of three countries (the Czech Republic, Spain and Italy) and it was aimed at awareness of the importance of European Cultural Heritage, learning and comparing historical events, particularly during the period of the 20th century.

Although the topic of the project was the same for all participating countries, each of them focused on a particular field. Partner schools in Spain and the Czech Republic aimed at historical events and their impact on local people (Catalonia, North-East of the Czech Republic – former Sudetenland and around the Polish border) and unearthing almost forgotten places and pointing out their importance and beauty. The Italian partner school, on the other hand, focused on creating interactive maps through which can inform web users about points of cultural interest in the region that are not so well known but are rich in cultural heritage. This interactive map is published in the project web magazine. In the work, students and teachers collaborated on various subjects of the territory, with Municipalities, companies, associations and tour operators, to find contents and point out of the importance of crafts which are almost fading. All partners arranged interiews with witnesses and craftsmen and published their outcomes. The project teams collected old materials (photos, letters, diaries, recipes, documents) which were adapted into digital format (scan).

The aims of the projects were to awaken awareness of cultural heritage, to improve and develop language and ICT skills and to learn about crafts which used to be traditional in the area but are in decline. All these aimes were reached which can be seen in the project outcomes

Each partner school team had about 40 students (14-19 years old) and 3-5 teachers participating in the project. The students were divided into groups according to their preferences. Participating teachers arranged all the project activities, clealry explained the tasks to students and supervised their work.

The project activities were carried out in order to meet the project aims. The project work itself was divided into two stages. The first project year was focused on learning about the cultural heritage, excursions to places that witnessed historical events or are interesting from the cultural point of view, meeting witnesses of the 20th century events, meeting craftsmen and interviewing them, collecting old materials from our ancestors. The first mobility was planned and carried out at the end of this stage. The second stage was focused on the project outcomes (booklet, videos, maps, calendar, bookmarks) and two mobilities were planned as well. However, just before the last mobility which was planned to be a peak of the project activities, COVID pandemics caused cancellation of this mobility. Despite this probelm, all three partners agreed on completing the project activities and outcomes based on the plan. We applied twice for the extension of the project time. Unfortunately, the last mobility was not possible to carry out due to pandemic of COVID.

Participating teachers were in charge of the project and led students through all the activities and uploaded materials in due course. To ensure smooth work, the teachers gave the students clear tasks and arranged regular meetings of the project teams. Besides meeitings, pariticipants communicated via mail, whatsapp, Facebook. All interviews with witnesses were prepared in advance. Regrettably, a few witnesses died before making a video-interview, so we had to use written format based on the information students remembered. All the collected material was uploaded in Twinspace, labelled and processed. We also arranged permission for publishing those materials from their owners.

Apart from long-term project work, each partner school prepared a detailed programme for the mobilities which fully corresponded with the project activities and aims. Although the last mobility was cancelled, the programme was rich and partners were informed about it and moreover, they could actively participated in planning it.

The envisaged results were linked to the project priorities and aims. The main results and products are an e-book, virtual maps, and videos which were made by participating students who regularly collected the materials and learnt about important places and memorials. All the participating teams improved their language and ICT skills and they will share and compare their experiences gained through the course of the project work.

The impact was expected on all participating students and other students of involved schools who were more informed via school websites and within other school activities, while the wider public and other organisations, upon seeing the results of our work, were encouraged to cooperate with our schools.

Project outcomes are beneficial for partners´schools as well as for other institutions with the similar interests. They can be used in regular history lessons (a booklet of memories), geography (virtual maps), and art (photos adapted into digital format).
At the end of the project participating teams have a greater awareness of cultural heritage, they learnt to appreciate it, while improving their language and ICT skills. All of the previously mentioned factors may very well influence their future careers and attitude to life.

Project Website

http://www.erasmusplus.ga

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 79351,31 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnazium Olgy Havlove, Ostrava-Poruba, prispevkova organizace & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Liceo Scientifico Corradino D’Ascanio
• Institut Castell del Quer