Using ICTs to preserve European craftsmanship. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Using ICTs to preserve European craftsmanship.

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The traditional activity of craftsmen and craftswomen is part of that valuable European cultural heritage that we must protect, promote and contribute to their future survival. Crafts are an important source of job creation in Europe, but many of these professions are at risk of being lost.
In the report: “Identifying Future Skills Needs in Micro Craft Enterprises up to 2020” the European Commission points to numerous reasons that undermine the competitiveness and ability of craft trades to thrive:
1) Lack of access to general technical and commercial networks.
2) Lack of entrepreneurial training.
3) Lack of entrepreneurial capacity .
With our project, we want to help conserve and disseminate this ancestral knowledge about these crafts, especially those that are in danger of disappearing. To achieve this, we propose two very concrete actions:
1) The conservation of craftsmanship as an element of our cultural heritage through the use of new technologies. To avoid losing the ancestral knowledge of certain crafts that are at risk of disappearing. To this end, we will develop an interactive virtual museum based on the use of virtual reality. There will be differents rooms, one for each craftship category. Besides, students will develop an Android APP using the open APP inventor Platform, which will complete the web.
2) Attract young people to these trades, in order to avoid the depopulation of European rural areas. To this end, we will help them to identify employment opportunities in this sector by integrating virtual reality, arduino and 3D printing into these craftships. We will do this by developing Interactive Didactic Units on entrepreneurship through the use of the Exelearning Software.
The association brings together 6 different countries. All relevant expected results will be translated into three languages. This action ensures geographical coverage, projection of dissemination and valorisation throughout the EU.
The objectives we set ourselves are:
1) To create a virtual museum of craft trades in Europe, with the aim of contributing to the conservation of European cultural heritage, to its enhancement and to ensuring its transmission to future generations.
2) To develop an app with “App inventor” to collect craft trades that are at risk of disappearing in Europe.
3) Encourage employability and youth entrepreneurship in the craft sector, based on the opportunities offered by new technologies, in order to attract young people to these professions in a way that guarantees their continuity.
4) To build an online collaborative network that connects schools with the artisans workshops
5) To design and apply innovative educational practices that give relevance to learning and facilitate the acquisition of key skills by students.
6) Development of a board game with 3D printing to eliminate gender stereotypes in the access to these ancestral trades.
The objectives of our project are fully in line with the priorities set by Erasmus +:
1) All the objectives are linked to the priority “Social and educational value of the European cultural heritage, its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion” because European craftsmanship is the central theme of our project. It is a collection of ancestral knowledge threatened by globalisation and the low-cost model of production. From the educational systems in general, and from the school in particular, we must contribute not only to preserve them but also to promote them and to guarantee their survival.
2) Likewise, from objective 1 to 6, they are linked to the priority “Open education and innovative practices in the digital age” because in order to reach them we will have to make a positive use of the new ICTs.
3) Objective 6 is intrinsically linked to the priority “Social Inclusion” since with this objective we intend to eliminate stereotypes in the access to certain ancestral trades.
We use a combination of methodologies that will vary depending on the execution phase of the project in which we find ourselves. We will use from Benchmarking to Project Based Learning. We combine academic training quality with a practical approach based on the real demand of the craft sector, which we will simultaneously complement with the use of Problem-Based Learning.
The expected end products will be in multilingual versions. They will be made available free of charge to all interested parties through the multichannel online platform under a Creative Commons licence. This open attitude allows our project to have an immediate impact on the target groups of artisanal micro-businesses, European educational centres, collaborating organisations and other interested parties.

Project Website

http://eucrafts.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 159335 Eur

Project Coordinator

I.E.S. Playamar & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Fjolbrautaskoli Nordurlands vestra
• Mendelova stredni skola, Novy Jicin, prispevkova organizace
• Saku Gümnaasium
• Fulston Manor school
• Vilniaus Karoliniskiu Gymnasium