Preserving European Cultural Heritage in the Era of Digitalization

"<< Background >>""To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child."" This quote by Cicero illustrates how important it is to remember your ancestors, their way of living, customs and history. True development is possible thanks to properly established roots. Moreover, expanding knowledge about the motherland and getting to know the region of the project partner broadened students’ worldview, sensitized them to otherness, built tolerance and European unity. Each partner school had the objective of enhancing the quality of education in their institution. Developing key competences such as digital competences, communication skills, intercultural learning and interpersonal skills contributed to our students for their entrepreneurship and employability in the future. The project involved many students with social, economic and geographical obstacles as well as those who faced unsuccess due to the standart assesment criterias. A small scale cooperation project with real mobilities was a great chance for them to become active students in their schools.<< Objectives >>There were four main objectives of the project which were integrated and related with the priorities of 2021-2027 perspectives: -Internationalization of partner schools; -Enhancing the quality of education in our schools; -Developing a sense of European unity; -Raising awareness on local and European Cultural Heritage. While reaching above objectives we prioritized with digitalization, inclusion of students with fewer opportunities and developing key competences. We also focused on topics such as foreign language learning, intercultural learning and communication skills. << Implementation >>We implemented virtual and real mobilities as well as management, including evaluation, promotion and dissemination tasks. The project started with an online management team meeting, which resulted in a good cooperation plan for the upcoming months. The ice breaking students online meeting took place within a months. Students introduced themselves and presented their research on their partner’s country and local culture. They set the direction for further cooperation and clarified the expectations regarding the planned mobilities. Real and virtual mobilities were held alternately: real, virtual, real, virtual. The real ones allowed to gather information and digital material about Warmian and Samsun cultural, history and nature heritage as well as develop digital skills during classes and workshops. Local community and institutions were involved in the fullfilling the activities’ objectives. Virtual mobilities focused on development of the project's digital results and their dissemination.<< Results >>The concrete outcomes of the project:- models of local landmarks printed in 3D and the display in a form of Miniature Museum;- a padlet with ready to print 3D models created by the students;- VR tours round Olsztyn downtown and Ankara Castle;- an interactive e-book about Warmian, Poland and Samsun, Turkey cultural heritage;- a video report of students’ mobility;- dissemination presentations;- long-term cooperation with partner schools.Soft results:- increase of language competences both of students and teachers involved in the project implementation;- increase of tolerance and awareness of cultural differences among students; - developed key compenetces: communication, IT, social and entrepreneurship skills; - experience in travelling abroad."