“The house of the rising memory” Erasmus Project

Project Title

“The house of the rising memory”

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; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

“The house of the rebirth of memory” was designed to encourage the dissemination of history among children and the study of it through the search for sources (documents, videos, objects). The approach envisaged stimulating inter generational dialogue on relatively recent historical events, through the recovery of experiences and objects related to the more personal sphere (photos, testimonies, etc.). making the hidden family heritage coming out, otherwise destined for dispersion and oblivion over the years.
An experience of “Citizenship” and local “Community” which would then be confronted with communities of different nations, united by the desire for peace and the hope that the sharing of common experiences would support mutual well-being. The value of “memory” and “remembrance” in response to the need to identify virtuous directions at times when accidental events induce feelings of distancing and dispersion of the European experience.

The project, in fact, has focused on the parallelism between the most famous Normandy landing and the Avalanche operation, which took place on 9 September 1943, and which is the most important aeronautical military operation in history, in terms of number of men and means, ever carried out in the Mediterranean.

Project has been realized by the Comprehensive Institute “A. Gatto” of Battipaglia (Italy) and the Denis DIDEROT school, located in Tourlaville, 237 rue Augustin le Maresquier and directed by Guy Bertrand. Both institutes had already approached similar issues and the project was the venue for mutual feedback and for sharing methodologies and technologies.

The project has included meetings with historians with comments on the vision of sources, the collection and listening to testimonies as well as visiting places representative of the events.

During its evolution, project has increased the use of digital technologies more than expectations. In fact the confluence of all produced materials in a digital archive was already planned, collected for the free consultation thanks the xDams platform (www.xdams.org). It have been made available the memory and testimony of events. Further, thanks the collaboration of local associations and companies, we have realized an innovative, complete, cloud infrastructure that, adding new components, manages the entire chain, from collection to publication. A new platform “A memoria!” has been made available to the organization, a simplified way to collect heritage, a tool adequate to the capability of younger pupils. xDams OS has integrated digital contents, in compliance with international standard used for management of the cultural heritage. Finally all information has been published on a dedicated website, www .avalancheday.org, in which editorial contents has been added to the testimonies collected by the children. A point of excellence has been the publication of data in Open Data format, in particular in its most advanced format: the Linked Open Data, an initiative of international relevance.

Project has also provided for the re-enactment of the landing and the clashes in battle with historical groups in uniform and original military means.

Thanks this intensive use of technology, the project has well managed the limitations imposed by the lock down determined by covid19. The face-to-face meetings have turned into online events while the work of the children, already based on cloud applications use, has not been interrupted, on the contrary, it has been the opportunity to accelerate the technological literacy of children. The study of the bases of Internet connectivity has been supported by the creation of an e-Book (translation of en existing eBook). It will be a result of the project that will go beyond the project itself and will remain available to the activity of the training community (in Italian and English).

The covid emergency has made more evident the importance of one of the project requirements: the saving of testimonies and objects related to the family sphere (photos, stories, etc.). There is a need to bring out the hidden family heritage, otherwise destined to be dispersed and oblivious over the years. The covid has made the obsolescence process even more rapid and irremediable, while the children have shown that there is the possibility of collecting, organizing and enhancing the memory of the older generations. These generations are therefore more fragile and subject to the risk of dispersion, both naturally, for the time flow, both due to dramatic events such as the onset of epidemics, such as the covid19, or big drama as the second world war.

The project was organically included in the initiatives of the respective local communities

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 32675 Eur

Project Coordinator

ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO ALFONSO GATTO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Collège Denis Diderot