"In view of the Corona crisis and the associated increased focus on one's own living environment, the ""Roots: Learn where you live"" project should involve an intensive examination of artistic and other methods for imparting regional knowledge. The project starts in the participating regions and cities, which form the starting point for the respective examination of the local cultural heritage, history, traditions, legends and stories and the knowledge of the older population. Following on from the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, this discussion is a particular concern of the partners in the project. We want to train young people to become researchers who use a jointly developed method to deal with the structures that have evolved in their living environment. To this end, institutions from four countries with different backgrounds and approaches have come together. It is a museum, a political organization unit and two schools. We want to benefit from this mix, as well as from the networks that these institutions have. The focus is on learners who will appear as the main actors and who will implement sub-projects in their respective surroundings, which will be communicated to the public in the form of exhibitions, events and publications as well as on the Internet. Institutions that are professionally dedicated to preserving cultural heritage, i.e. archives, museums and libraries, also play an important role. They will represent an important basis for dealing with the topic. At the same time, this is intended to contribute to overcoming the inhibitions that young people undoubtedly often have towards such institutions.Local knowledge, which can only be explored through face-to-face conversation, is also of eminent importance. This intangible cultural heritage is to be collected as part of the project, in which old and young people are brought into conversation with one another in the respective schools and regions. At the same time, the young people make a very important contribution to preserving the knowledge of the older generation (whose living environment differed in so many ways from today's) for the future. With the help of smartphones, etc., it is now relatively easy to record and digitize and thus preserve stories. We would like to fall back on this and, especially in view of the experience with the pandemic, promote dialogue.The European cultural heritage is the theme of the project. We consider the preservation of the cultural heritage to be a central issue. However, it is just as important to convey the cultural heritage to future generations in a suitable form. Because one day they will also become decision-makers who are responsible for the preservation of the cultural heritage (as well as the natural heritage). We also consider the understanding of the different cultural, social, religious and ethnic traditions to be extremely important. This understanding is to be promoted through the examination of regional pasts and traditions and the exchange on an international level. Socially relevant institutions such as museums should also be used. In addition, cooperation with regional and cultural associations plays an important role. By participating in the project, we wanted to encourage young people to find out what defines a region and what significance the cultural heritage has in a city or region. At the same time, we want to make an important contribution to the digitization of cultural heritage and thus to its preservation for the future.The character of the project can be exemplary in many ways. Transferring research in their own living environment to young people, developing suitable methods, focusing on material and immaterial cultural heritage, promoting dialogue between the older and younger generations and at the same time engaging in a European exchange is, however, a must extremely innovative approach.As the applicant institution, the Klostertal Museum Association has endeavored to find a balanced mix of partner institutions. Different types of institutions (schools and NGOs) were taken into account. We see this as a clear strength of the project, because all partners should be able to benefit from each other's backgrounds."

"Project context: This European project will focus on the variety of the media landscape, the informational practices of adolescents, and the understanding of different information channels.Objectives: This project aims to contribute to the fight against the digital divide, so that this proliferation of media in our modern world can build an inclusive and civic information society. The objective of this project is to train informed users, creative actors capable of using media tools wisely. Together, the students will create a TV news and a charter for the right user of tomorrow's media. Number and profile of participantsThe students involved in the project are all high school students, aged 14 to 17. Overall, 95 students will benefit from this international scheme. For each short mobility, 7 students from each country will leave, accompanied by two of their teachers. In addition, 16 students will have the opportunity to spend 2 months abroad in one of the partner countries. Description of activities: During the various mobilities, students will be led to reflect on the processing of information in the media through conferences, editorial visits, exhibitions, and questions from information professionals.The tasks and finals of the mobilities will be: creation of radio programmes on the theme of media literacy in schools, transformation of a paper press article into an online article, creation of a timeline on ""the evolution of media from paper to dematerialization"", work on the various existing applications for detecting infox, development of a toolbox accompanied by tutorials in order to be able to offer turnkey tools to their high schools, writing articles on the same current events in different tones, photo exhibition and analysis of the journalistic image, writing the charter of the good user of tomorrow's media, creation of a television news. For students who are going on a long stay, a bi-monthly journalistic column will be required and published on eTwinning. The common theme of these columns will be: a critical reading of the host country's media. Methodology: The aim will be to provide students with authentic situations based on these digital media: holding public blogs, participating in debates through social networks, setting up and developing a European news programme, a radio programme or a common European charter for the good media user.Students will be able to appreciate the presence of the media and their use and importance and access in schools. They will question the evolution of media over time and project what the media and media user of tomorrow will be like. By discovering the difference in the way information is processed in other countries, they will take a fresh look at the way information is processed in their own country, or more generally in Europe. Thanks to the different productions made during the mobility, the students will become reporters and learn the tricks of the different information professions (journalist, photographer, technician, editor in chief...). Students will also learn to be actively involved in specialist conferences and ask the questions they need to ask in order to produce their final production.By participating in debates, students will be led to develop a reflection on the need to respect the ideas of others, their private lives, to ensure that they use an appropriate level of language, not to express themselves without a filter but to weigh their words before writing/saying them. They will become aware of the importance of respecting the right to an image through analytical work on the impact of an iconographic document. Throughout the project, they will develop transversal skills such as: image analysis, creation of a collection document, documentary research, teamwork. They will also develop skills in editing, information prioritization and communication by presenting their work and communicating with each other within international groups. They will discover good practices in other schools and they will be able to develop the use of media in their own schools.The variety of different activities planned throughout the project will allow students to become citizen media producers, approaching the media from different angles. These activities will raise students' awareness of the importance of critical thinking about information reading, but also of becoming creative actors who can use media tools effectively."

The present project united the schools of 5 European countries, which developed the mediation system at schools for the purpose of students' support in the educational process. School mediation supports those students who are at risk of dropping out from school due to conflicts, their cultural background, disadvantaged positions, etc. The pilot program for mediators was launched in Estonia and then the efforts and experience of different countries were combined for the primary purpose of the new project: create a free systematic methodical resource book (a model ) for motivation, training and practical work of school mediators, based on the experience of European countries, as well as the subsequent implementation of the model of mediation in the European Union as an alternative method of conflict solving in the educational institutions. The model and materials of the resource group were tested in all partner institutions: Narva Kesklinna Gümnaasium (Estonia), Escola Secundária Dr. Joaquim Gomes Ferreira Alves, Valadares, Vila Nova de Gaia (Portugal), Gimnazija Brezice (Slovenia), Bundesgymnasium und Realgymnasium Wien 21 (Austria), Kozgazdasagi Politechnikum Alternativ Gimnazium es Szakkozepiskola (Hungary).The participants were 3-4 adult specialists (teachers, management, social workers) and 10-12 students from each country who prepared meetings, actively implemented the project program in the schools, worked out materials, analyzed mistakes and best practices, organised seminars. Apart from the local work the project included 2 transnational partner meetings and 3 international short-term training activities. Indirect project participants were children from Form 2 to 7, their class teachers, who were interested in promoting mediation system, were in contact with their parents, received assistance in creating friendly classroom atmosphere, assistance in solving quarrels, and the parents of these children, who were notified and gave their agreement for their children's interaction with the mediators.The main result of the project is the logical culmination of the primary purpose - the creation of a manual (a model) for professionals on the preparation of school mediators and subsequent dissemination and implementation of the model n the EU.

ContextThe project addresses the needs to implement a competence based teaching and a competence oriented learning through practical activities, starting from an interesting historical topic: the Angevin dynasty. It aims to bring into structured and cooperative communication several European countries which experienced the Angevin domination between the XIII and the XV centuries. Since the Angevin dynasty had a great influence on regional and national medieval policies the projects aims to explore, discover and understand the cultural, political and socio-economic effects that such domination produced in parts of Europe that are distant from one another and very different in terms of language, history and traditions.ObjectivesThe project has the aim of promoting intercultural awareness, integration and active European citizeship. Its main objectives are to improve students’ linguistic and communicative competences and digital skills and to implement an intercultural knowledge that will make them more open-minded and ready to accept otherness. The project will allow students to come accross different contexts, to socialize through international meetings that will encourage a deep intercultural dialogue among all the participants who will have, as a consequence, the opportunity to acquire a deeper global awareness, to enhance their ability to respect differences and to exhibit a responsible behaviour, both socially and environmentally.The schools involved in the project will have the opportunity to enrich their educational values through the acquisition of a more European identity.ParticipantsThe project is carried out by 5 partner schools from Italy, France, Hungary, Poland and Croatia. Each school will involve 25 students, 5 for each mobility, aged from 16 to 18, belonging to the classes that study history and topics connected to the Angevin dynasty. For each mobility there will be two accompanying teachers from each partner school. All other teachers engaged in the project management, as well as all the other students of each school, will contribute to the arrangement of the planned activities and events in their own school.ActivitiesThe project features 5 student exchanges, one in each country involved, and a first mobility for the staff training that will involve two teachers from each partner school and will take place in Italy. During each transnational meeting, students will be guided to visit and explore each one of the territories chosen for the project in order to know the elements of the Angevin heritage and to get in touch with the material evidence of Angevin settlements in those areas. Photo collections, videos and research will be carried out by the students who will also take part in workshops and indoor activities in each host school in order to analyse and discuss their discoveries and opinions. MethodologyThe students will be introduced to a different way of studying history and art, in non-formal contexts and in more stimulating ways, outside the usual school walls. The methodology adopted will include practical activities which favour learning by doing: Project Based Learning, workshops, cooperative learning, peer to peer learning, flipped clasroom. Besides, the use of ICT in each phase of the project will motivate the students’ interest in the subject matter and foster learning and acquisition of digital skills at the same time.ResultsThe concrete result of the whole research carried out in all the territories visited will be a virtual museum with virtual walls, pictures and 3D elements, a sort of historical museum online, containing aspects of the history of all countries involved, with a focus on the Angevin dynasty, available to anyone who wants to know about the topic. The intended outcomes of the whole project will be the enhancement of students’ linguistic and communicative skills, an improvement of their social and civic competences, a stronger awareness of countries’ artistic and cultural heritage and a clearer understanding of the European citizenship. The project will also have an impact on the participating teachers who will acquire a better awareness about new methodologies and will have the opportunity to share good practices with teachers from other countries.Long term benefitsThe project results will be spread through a variety of dissemination channels, so to allow a great amount of people and groups to benefit from it in the long term. Pupils and their families will gain a greater intercultural awareness and a better understanding of diversity in general. Teachers will enrich their knowledge about teaching methodologies and their style through the comparison with other educational realities. The schools and the local institutions that will know about the project will have the chance to belong to a new network of relations that will allow cooperation and exchange between different countries’ institutions in various fields, not only the educational one.

CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDSchool community service and volunteering can offer solutions to several social and environmental issues in Europe, sharing the values of solidarity, social inclusion and active citizenship among young people.OBJECTIVESThe main objective was to promote solidarity, social inclusion &cohesion and active citizenship by discovering and exchanging Good Practices of partner schools and supporting teachers with the enhancement of social and civic competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of their students. We wanted to educate our students’ to become active European citizens, to develop their ability to work in multicultural groups, positive attitude towards European projects and tolerance towards different cultures.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSThere were 5 European schools involved in the project - from Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Spain and Turkey, which all had their extra-curricular programs for social inclusion via community service. They all provide general education at secondary level, the Belgian, Portuguese and Turkish schools are state run, while the Spanish and Hungarian schools are maintained by foundations. Each school has involved participants aged 14-17 with gender balance and English skills at least at B1 level who were committed to school community service.DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES1. Preparation – project management was set up, students were selected, their competences assessed and project workshops held in each school, while the project website was created and maintained by the coordinator school: https://comserv.poli.hu.2. There were 6 transnational project meetings to discuss management issues, to plan how good practices can be integrated to community service programs of partner schools.3. There was a staff training event in Turkey to learn about ESC and applying for Quality Label accreditation. Till the end of the project, each partner registered students on ESC platform, applied for ESC Quality Label, the Portuguese and Hungarian partners have obtained it.3. We organized 4 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils - one in Hungary, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, where both teachers and students took part in community service activities organised by the host school.4. We created our main products: a Teachers’ Manual - https://comserv.poli.hu/2019/12/26/1031/ and a video guide - https://comserv.poli.hu/2019/12/20/video/METHODOLOGYWe used a non-formal, activity and competence based approach in the project. Our main method was ’learning by doing’ and ’peer to peer teaching’, i.e. students worked in transnational groups, presented home assignments, took part in interactive workshops, discussions with representatives of NGOs and carried out community service activities.At project workshops between student exchanges, students worked in groups or pairs. They carried out school community service activities and prepared materials for the exchanges: made presentations, made and watched videos about community service, shared information about partner schools and countries. After each exchange, they reported to their peers: introduced the activities they had taken part in with photos and videos.RESULTS1.Main products - the project website for disseminating results, a Teachers’ Manual and video guide, uploaded to the website with free access for the public.2.The project TwinSpace has been awarded a European Quality Label: https://comserv.poli.hu/2019/11/10/european-quality-label/.IMPACT1.On partner schools - the project has enlarged their community service programs with new activities and their European network, the Portuguese and the Hungarian partners have acquired a Quality Label in ESC.2.On participating teachers – it has contributed to the development of their motivation, attitude, professional skills and methods, English and ICT competences.3.On participating students – they have gained experience in project- and activity based learning and school community service in European context – their knowledge, critical thinking, communication, social and intercultural skills, attitudes and commitment to solidarity and active participation in society has improved. The inclusion of students with fewer opportunities has helped their social integration.LONG TERM BENEFITS3 of the 5 partner schools have started another collaboration in a KA229 project in September 2020.Student participants might get involved in the activities of NGOs related to ESC.There can be other schools in Europe, taking over school community service programs developed in the project.