Let's learn about our heritage through ICTs

Despite the fact that our cultural traits and heritage are different and enriching, Europe has been growing since the European Community was founded and has become a kaleidoscope of cultures and people which live and collaborate together with a view to the future without losing sight of the common past. So taking advantage from our differences, the main goal of our project was to provide and engage the partnership participants in situations that led to a better command of digital skills by means of different technological devices and software, and, at the same time, raised awareness of our heritage and developed other 21st century skills like collaboration and teamwork, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving,within safe and engaging learning environments.The partners that took place in this strategic partnership, with the purpose of developing and fulfilling the aforementioned objectives, were Spain, as coordinator; Portugal, Belgium and Cyprus. It was the first time that all these partners worked together in such a school project of innovation and exchange of good practices, although some did not have previous experience in Erasmus+ KA2 projects before,but most of them had expertise in eTwinning projects.We designed a two-year project (2018-2020) whose activities were mainly focused on transnational short-term exchanges of groups of pupils and there was a specific task,bound to each activity. Initially the project consisted of five learning,teaching, training activities detailed below:1) Art Message: famous local or national artists were selected, creating and sharing information in different formats through QR codes and chat shows about the artists were recorded in video by the students. 2) A Journey Through the Museum: relevant local museums were chosen and the students researched about them, explaining its contribution or relation to the town/country heritage; then digital interactive presentations were created to publicize them among partners. Also, virtual tours were made where VR glasses could be used.3) Urban Sketching: Sharing Views: students learnt to use apps like Autodesk and Paper, practised on location drawing and developed their digital and artistic competences from the local architectural heritage from their towns.4) Stories & Authors: New Ways of Storytelling: literature forms the inner part of our heritage, reflecting our evolution. So each partner selected stories, fables and myths, involving students in its selection, translation and recording to finally create a podcast. Some partners included a video, performing the fragment through audiovisual resources. 5) AR Artifacts: students had to find out about European historical figures who contributed to the design of contemporary objects and create their own objects and artifacts by using AR apps as a response of future human being needs.Regarding the last two activities, they were hampered by the coronavirus spread and confinement measures, making its development and participation extremely difficult and the short-term exchanges were cancelled due to that. Concerning participants, both students, teachers, families and other local authorities were involved and the designed activities were somehow adapted to cover a wider range of students’ participation, fostering families collaboration and support, whom also hosted pupils during the transnational activities in their homes. It was a great experience for all of them.As far as results were concerned, these could be summarized as follows:- knowledge of well-known artists through the generation of QR codes to share information in different formats- video recording of chat shows by using chroma key technique- knowledge of relevant museums closely related to the participating schools, creating digital presentations to raise awareness about them- creation of digital walled museum exhibitions and virtual tours with VR glasses- Artsteps interactive tour compiling: Kortrijk marathon, chosen museums, and Magritte workshop (chroma technique)- on-location computer drawing (urban sketching)- children's stories podcast recording and other multimedia formats And eventually, concerning the impact achieved, the families and local communities of the participating schools were highly involved during the implementation, appreciating the chances to learn foreign languages, promoting the value of cultural heritage, and interest in continuing learning about Europe.Sustainability was a key aspect from the beginning, so all the knowledge and experiences acquired in relation to cultural heritage and ICT would be integrated within the pedagogical framework of our schools, including the methodologies and resources used in our teaching action and educational processes. The results are available on eTwinning (established as a common working space for teachers and students) and Erasmus+ Project Results Platform to share information and disseminate to whom ever is interested.