"<< Objectives >>The project ""Message in a Bottle - You are next!"" aims directly at supporting professional and voluntary staff in youth work - in art-oriented environments - to enable them to provide young people with engaging and innovative activities. Together we want to develop two hybrid forms of cooperation, collaboration and exchange:A shared storytelling method named ""message in a bottle"" and a hybrid gameplay called ""secret world"" that combines physical, analogue elements with virtual objects.<< Implementation >>The central activities of our project will be two ""future labs"", where independent groups of young people from Spain and Germany working together on two game-based learning/training formats. Creativity and exchange are the central elements of these activities.Besides necessary coordination and project management, we also plan to implement a joint staff training on the foundation of game-based learning and open-source augmented reality (AR).<< Results >>Our project will develop innovative learning/training environments for ""digital natives"" in the age group of 13-21 years. Two game-based creative activities will provide opportunities as well as needs for transnational cooperation. Our participants will learn to work creatively in a team and compete virtually with members of the same age group from a different country.Youth workers will acquire the skills necessary for guiding these creative activities."

"<< Background >>We applied for this project because we are convinced that our partnership will contribute to the goal of improving digital literacy within the EU. We want to develop a new and innovative approach to the teaching and training of basic digital skills for a target group that for different reasons is reluctant in entering the digital world. The continuous use of familiar game-based elements, combined with an interactive blended learning approach is innovative and promising.Elder adults are particularly negatively affected by the rapidly developing digital world. The digital gap is growing and digital exclusion is a very real danger for a sizeable part of the population in Europe. Digital competencies are becoming more and more a necessity for everyday activities. The European Commission has therefore acknowledged digital competencies as a ""transversal skill for life"" (Council recommendation on key competencies for lifelong learning, 2006 & 2018).Traditional approaches have not reached this group fast and broad enough. As of 2020, ""42 per cent of European adults do not have basic digital skills"" (EU-Commission: Digital Europe, p. 15). The availability of tailored learning opportunities is even more important for this group than for the rest of the population. The willingness to learn in this target group is significantly lower than in the younger population, while at the same time the need for the acquisition of digital skills and the achievement of digital literacy is steadily increasing.There are multiple reasons why elder adults have not taken up the existing offerings for training digital competencies. First, there is a traditional reluctance because of the misconception that elder adults cannot learn as good as younger people. Second, the fast-paced digital world is regarded as the realm of future generations. Because younger people (""digital natives"") are growing up with smartphones, apps and the internet, many elder adults tend to see everything digital as alien. Third, many adults struggle with the general concept of fast-changing knowledge. It devalues their own skills and competencies and their educational progress. 30 years ago a printed encyclopedia made perfect sense and was a valuable tool. Nowadays it has become an anachronism. But many elder adults have a mindset that is still stuck in this era. Therefore, an innovative approach is necessary that orients on the needs and abilities of elder adults and concentrates on the motivational side of learning. Gamified learning has proven to be a highly motivational method even in adult education. By bringing together traditional game forms like board and card games and digital content, we create an environment that is engaging and effective. Adult education in the field of digital competencies has to change its fundamental paradigm: less training of specific applications and platforms and more fundamental skills like problem-solving and evaluating information found on the internet. We will design our training material with this concept in mind.Elder adults with a sure attitude toward the digital realm regain their agency as active citizens and members of our societies. Thus, our project is contributing to the overall goal of active ageing, which does not only depend on the health and physical activities. In our modern world, it is imperative to be able to move independently in the digital world and make full use of the possibilities of technology in every aspect of our life.<< Objectives >>Our project aims to overcome the obstructing attitudes of many elder adults towards digital skills and develop a proven way for swift and effective training of basic digital competencies within this age group. The Erasmus Plus project ""GIRDA"" (www.girda.eu) has already shown that gamified training is highly motivating and effective among our target group. We will take this approach much further and take advantage of the long-term motivating and training mechanisms of gamified learning.OBJECTIVESWe want to achieve:1. a detailed and objective knowledge of existing digital skills of elder adults2. a working model for the assessment of digital skills3. a working model for the use of game-based blended training of digital skills3. guidelines for the development and implementation of game-based assessment and training4. a better digital inclusion of elder adults in the labour market and society5. a better acceptance of games as an educational method in the educational community and among adult learnersWe aim to develop methods and tools that are readily usable for teachers and trainers in adult education. At the same time, our project will show how serious games can bridge the gap between the needs and the attitudes of our target group.<< Implementation >>According to our project plan, we will carry out the following activities:A1. GAME-BASED ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING DIGITAL SKILLS (PR1)OBJECTIVE:- a detailed and objective knowledge of existing digital skills of elder adults- a working model for the game-based assessment of existing digital skillsACTIVITIES:A1.1. Review of game-based assessment A1.2. Design of a set of rules and guidelines A1.3. Selection of relevant digital skills in competence areas 1, 4 and 5 of DigComp (https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcomp/digital-competence-framework)A1.4. Development of tasks and examples C1. staff training on building a board gameA1.5. refinement of the game draft A1.6. use of the game for assessment of existing skills (within target group)A1.7.collection and review of the results of the assessmentA1.8.publication of a report on the resultsOUTPUT:- report on the design, implementation and results of the game-based assessment- sample of game-based assessment of existing digital skills in three competence areas (1, 4 and 5 of DigComp)A2. GAMIFIED BLENDED TRAINING OF DIGITAL SKILLSOBJECTIVE:- a working model for the use of game-based blended training of digital skillsACTIVITIES:A2.1. design of a training path for each competence area A2.2. choosing an existing open-source training platform A2.3. design of the game plan for each training path/competence areaA2.4. implementation of the game plan within the chosen platform A2.5. test of the three learning modules (staff) A2.6. improvement of the modules A2.7. translation into local languages A2.8. test with target groups A2.9. analysis of training resultsA2.10. creation and publishing of a reportOUTPUT:- report on the design, test use and results of gamified blended training- a working model of gamified blended training of digital skillsA3. GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSESSMENT AND TRAININGOBJECTIVE:- usable guidelines for teachers/trainers in adult educationA3.1. collection and analysis of the final reports in PR 1 and PR 2 A3.2. draft of the guidelines A3.3. coordination of the draft with the other partners A3.4.creation of the final version (in English) A3.5. translation into the local languages OUTPUT:- guidelines for development and implementation of game-based assessment and training of digital skills- a collection of most useful digital skills for elder adults- working models of an assessment and 3 training modules (competence areas 1, 4 and 5 of DigComp)A4. PROJECT MANAGEMENTOBJECTIVE- control the development process and the outcomes of the project- facilitate cooperation amongst partners- corrections as necessaryACTIVITIESA4.1 detailed planningA4.2 control and management of the progress of activities, timing, costs and technical performances, quality assuranceA4.3 facilitation and support in the cooperation within the partnershipOUTPUT- sheet of main activities constituted by detailed tasks, the expected quality of intermediate and final outputs, indicators of results, connected impacts, responsibility matrix, schedule- quality plan- quarterly reports of project progress (internal reports by partners)- intermediate and final project reports to send to NAA5. SHARING AND PROMOTIONOBJECTIVE- disseminate the results (intermediate and final) to beneficiaries and stakeholders (on a local, national and European level)ACTIVITIESA5.1 preparation of a strategy for the sharing and promotion and the design of the communication processA5.2 implementation of communication and dissemination activitiesA5.3 evaluation of the adopted strategy of dissemination and internal communication processOUTPUT- plan for sharing and promotion- tools and products of dissemination- report on dissemination assessment<< Results >>Our project expects tangible and intangible results. Concerning tangible ones, as detailed below, we expect to develop 3 project results:PR1 A game-based assessment of existing digital skillsPR2 A gamified blended training of digital skillsPR3 Guidelines for the development and implementation of assessment and trainingThese are tangible project results that we will describe in detail in the next parts of this application. To achieve these results, some intermediate results will be completed as well. For the final version of PR 1, we will accomplish these intermediate outcomes:- review of game-based assessment- set of rules and guidelines for the gamification of the assessment- collection of relevant digital skills in competence areas 1, 4 and 5 of DigComp- collection of tasks and examples - report on the results of the assessment (methods & findings)For the final version of PR2, these intermediate results will be accomplished:- training path for each competence area- game plan for each training path/competence area- translation into local languages- analysis of training results - report on the creation and testing of the training modulesThe final PR 3 will be the result of these intermediate steps:- collection and analysis of the final reports in PR 1 and PR 2 - draft of the guidelines- creation of the final version (in English)- translation into the local languagesWe will disseminate these tangible project results through the main sharing and promoting tools (including multiplier events). In addition to that, the project will produce further results exclusively for internal use within the partnership; they are essential to the project's progress. First of all, the whole set of management, communication and control tools and procedures that will be shared already during the transnational meeting n.1:- grant agreement (official partnership agreement)- a detailed plan of timing, budget and implementation- monitoring and evaluation plan- communication and dissemination plan- dedicated project website and official pages about the project on social media.These documents and rules will be compiled into a project handbook that will be the basis of our cooperation and a permanent reference."

<< Background >>Our consortium consists of partners supporting primary, secondary and VET education in the sustainability field. We work with and for schools on the Sustainable Development Goals. We often do this on behalf of school boards and municipalities, so that the impact we make takes place at regional or national level rather than just sticking to one school. We work on SDG 4 (Quality education), (Sustainable cities and communities(11), (Responsible consumption and production (12) and Climate action (13) by working with students and teachers on contributing activities. For this project, we want to work together to provide a new service to the educational field (primary, secondary and VET), which is to create what we call an amazon.com of providers and service providers to schools in the area of sustainability. As consortium partners we noticed that there is a multitude of providers of sustainable project for education. For example, there are already several labels that a school can achieve, such as ecoschools or the united nation schools. In addition, a multitude of challenges and separate projects exist. But there is no overview of providers, let alone a ranking of quality. We thought there would be a need for this and investigated it. The focus is on the provincial level, given that it is not realistic to map the supply at the national level in three years. We have done research at the provincial level per country among the schools to see if we are right and if there is indeed a need in this area. In the Netherlands we did this in North Brabant, where we spoke to all the schools. Of these schools, 90% indicated that they did not have an overview of sustainability offerings and had this desire. They also confirmed that they would make use of this platform. The other partner, GoodPlanet contacted primary and secondary schools in their network to ask similar questions to verify if this problem is similar in Belgium. This was the case. Declory is a private institute for vocational education. They recognize the issue from their own perspective. With this project we want to start a long-term cooperation with a consortium of European organizations; municipalities and the educational sector to work together on the development of an international platform including training that meet the needs of the sector and simultaneously the linking with the SDGs and other relevant tools.. We fill a needed gap with this platform. To ensure that the products are properly connected to the sector, it is important to examine the needs of the schools within this project. Which requirements are needed of the providers for a school to decide if this is a service that meets their needs? Associated partners of this project, the municipalities, play a key role in the project for input on these subjects. Based on this input the platform is going to be set up and flled. The partners in the project aim to work towards a systematic exchange of providers in the sector between the provinces and schools. In this project we focus on to raise standards of education in sustainability and improve quality of this branch throughout Europe with the goal of having 5 million young climate innovators trained by 2030 in Europe.The project will produce two core project results are:PR1 International online Platform with providers on sustainability for primary and secondary schools. (the amazon.com on sustainability) where they can find the service they need to work on sustainability.PR2 Trainers guide for users and providers<< Objectives >>The overall goal is to contribute to the European Green Deals target of being CO2-neutral by 2050. We achieve our contribution by supporting schools by building a quality online platform which schools can freely use to find providers of sustainability projects programs and/or labels. We're building capacity by capturing our working method which can be duplicated by other regions.We do this by-To organise focus groups in order to identify and focus on specific sustainability providers that best address the needs of the project’s stakeholders.-To map best practices and methodologies applied for schools in partner countries. (What works and why) -To develop a trainers’ guide addressed to the schools and providers that will work with the platform and will design, support and evaluate the platform - Monitoring framework for measurement of use and results.This leads to our two core project results.<< Implementation >>In this project we are mapping initiatives of providers of sustainability projects, programs and or labels for primary schools, secondary schools and VET institutes. This mapping is done in an to be developed International online Platform. A complimentary guide is developed in order for schools and providers to use the platform. When developing the platform we take into account what the end users (Schools) need on information to decide which provider they want to hire. We also take into account that providers can’t share all information because of the unique selling points. Further we build capacity on regional level to ensure our platform is adopted and used in order for our platform to grow.<< Results >>Our project produces two core project results:PR1: International online Platform with providers on sustainability for primary, secondary education and VET institutes (the amazon.com on sustainability) where they can find the service they need to work on sustainability.PR2: Trainers guideThe guide will be addressed to primary and secondary schools and providers of sustainable education in a varia of forms and will include a theoretical background, as well as practical methods on how to implement the platform. Moreover, during the implementation of the PR, seminars for trainers in schools and companies will be organized by project partners, which will contribute to the capacity building of the field. A more detailed description of the Project Results and their results is given in a later section of the proposal.Other results expected during the project:Awareness raising of the importance of sustainability in general. The project partners will carefully design targeted activities to companies in order to collect input for the platform.

"The changes in society as well as in the industry are accompanied by new requirements in teaching and learning. Especially in the traditional professions (i.e. handicraft) the number of trainees with learning disadvantages is growing. The level of education of the trainees has declined for about 10 years; furthermore, the majority of today's trainees are young people who come from educationally disadvantaged family structures. About half of the current trainees in the construction industry in Berlin have a migrant background. Current changes suggest that this rate will increase in the coming years. The existing education processes therefore meets no longer the requirements and demands of the vocational training of the youth in Europe.Therefore, effective educational strategies, concepts and innovative learning approaches, which are more target-group-oriented and up-to-date are required for a more efficient integration and inclusion of these groups. This also promotes securing skilled personnel demand on a regional, national and international level as well as the national and European economy.Innovative learning processes increase the motivation of the trainees and minimize the terminating rate of trainings, which is up to 40% in many sectors and is one of the major problem areas of securing skilled personnel.The learning contents conveyed in the former practice through teaching briefings are often not successful in reaching the cognitive understanding of especially educationally disadvantaged learners. Trainers are therefore regularly faced with the challenge of implementing alternative approaches to the teaching of knowledge and competencies in the teaching briefings.The European partnership between Lehrbauhof Berlin (leading partner), RegioVision (DE), Decroly (ES), Dundee&Angus College (UK) and INSTITUT INPRO (CZ) have been respond precisely to these challenges with this project to integrate more intensively digitalization into vocational education. A digital module-based and more self-organized learning in the sense of ""e-learning 2.0"", which is developed jointly by teachers and learners, made disadvantaged groups participating more in vocational education and training equally.This formed the basis for the increased development of self-directing competence by self-responsible design of the learning phases, the increase of communication and team competence by group work of trainees with trainers together as well as the increase of the media competence by the producing and realization of digital contents such as videos (some are included to the eBook) and online-quizzes.Such teaching and learning arrangements have led to changes in the role of the trainer as a learning companion and facilitator, thus expanding the competencies of the teachers.Teachers and learners formed the direct target group of the project in their joint work and interaction.The indirect target group has been include trainers in the companies and teachers of the (vocational-)schools (incl. vocational orientation) which participated in the project results as they could use the products and results as well. The developed digital contents do give a new insight into real learning situations and provide a more realistic picture of the professions, which gives the vocational orientation of young people an additional authentic information basis.A total of 5,000 people has been reached and did benefit from the project.Teaching and learning methods as well as training systems in the partner countries are different, but all are facing similar challenges. The comparison of different initial situations of the partner countries and the exchange of methods and experiences in the implementation of digital module-supported self-organized learning methods for educationally disadvantaged target groups, with a special focus on vocational education and training, guaranteed the successful implementation of the project (IO1).Through their complementary experiences and approaches, the partners ensured an efficient implementation of the project objectives.The various phases of the project (starting, preparation, planning, realization and evaluation) were accompanied and consolidated by clearly structured methods: regular online-questionnaires, self-evaluations, regular project reflection, control of the quality and completeness of the documents, optimized scheduling (e.g. via doodle), milestone plan of the project tasks, project meetings to minimize the risks (risk assessment), quarterly reports for the assessment and evaluation of the finances, compliance with the financial controlling, strategic plans, optimized planning of the meetings and transnational learning activities.Through the use of the results, the documentation of the partnership and the intellectual outputs (free available eBook in 4 languages and the most common formats) of the project, the transnational co-operation is established and invigorated effectively."

"The quality of modern engineering education is directly linked with the students’ ability to create and read the drawings of engineering structures. The development of spatial skills for engineering students is closely related with the success in their future professional career. Visualization of geometric problems helps students to understand and to solve the given geometric tasks. Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the many challenges of modern IT technologies which recently became available also for education purposes. Augmented Reality (AR) application enables faster comprehension of complex spatial problems and relationships which will benefit the students greatly during their learning processes. Augmented Reality is a new technology that lets you interact with the real world and virtual objects at the same time. It is supposed that AR will provide new possibilities to teach the contemporary generation of students in an attractive and more entertaining way. The use of AR technology facilitates the students to acquire better practical skills in much shorter time during their academic studies and improves the quality of graphic education.The objective of the project is to develop the didactic toolkit which include set of practical exercises with 3D objects prepared for the use into AR environment. The didactic toolkit is specified for vocational schools, colleges and universities where the graphical engineering subjects are compulsory. The didactic toolkit will allow to develop spatial skills of students of vocational schools and higher schools, to obtain practical experience in solving graphic exercises and will give an opportunity to enhance the quality of graphic education.Applying AR technology to support learning activities may become a trend for graphical engineering subjects. AR application was used to entertain the students during the studies. The AR didactic toolkit allows to create the attractive teaching methodology and increases motivation of students to study graphical engineering subjects.During the project the didactic toolkit which include set of practical exercises with 3D objects prepared for the use into AR environment will be created. The didactic toolkit will be tested in vocational schools and higher schools.It is planned to prepare the material in English, Lithuanian, Polish, Latvian, Spanish and German. Taking into account, the project partners need to improve technical and didactical competences of drawing (engineering computer graphics) vocational teachers, lecturers, instructors of vocational schools, colleges and universities; it is planned to do the following in the upcoming project ""Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content"":1. Investigate the methodology of teaching and content of the graphical subjects in educational institutions in the partner countries; 2. Prepare the material of:2.1. Cutting Geometrical Solids with Planes: Intersection of Planes and Prism.2.2. Intersections of Geometrical Surfaces:2.3. Orthographic projections:2.4. Construction of Elements of Machine Parts: 2.5 Architectural und Construction Drawing: 3. Software for AR 3D objects visualization.4. Prepare the website project ""Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content"" in all partners’ languages;5. After preparing the project methodological material and started testing, there will be organized 3-day training in partner countries P2. RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATE (Latvia) and DECROLY Centro Homologado de Formacion profesional (Spain);6. Perform testing of the interactive remote project ""Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content"";7. Perform spread/ valorization activities; 8. Develop a system for quality assurance of the project activities; The methodological materials of project will be prepared by the scientists and practitioners from the European Union countries: Lithuania, Polish, Latvia, Spain, Germany.Target groups of the project: - Students of vocational schools; - Students of higher schools and colleges; - Vocational teachers; - Lecturers of higher schools and colleges, scientists of that field.There are participating 8 partners in the project from 5 (Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Spain, Germany) European Union countries. All project activities are distributed among the partners according to their competencies and skills in order to give the project the best added value:P1. Public Institution Vilnius Builders Training Centre (Lithuania);P2. RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATE (Latvia);P3. Warsaw Technical University (Poland);P4. Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain);P5. Šiauliai vocational education and training centre (Lithuania);P6. SNEAKYBOX (Lithuania) Information technology company;P7. Jugendförderverein (Germany);P8. DECROLY Centro Homologado de Formacion profesional (Spain)."