IMAGINATION and MOTIVATION through ART and GAME in INTERACTION with your NEARBY ENVIRONMENT

I.M.A.G.I.N.E - IMAGINATION and MOTIVATION through ART and GAME in INTERACTION with your NEARBY ENVIRONMENT - “Show me my (your) town”. This project meets together ten partners, either 9 schools (secondary schools and upper-secondary schools) and the Centre of European Culture (NGO) as the coordinator. The CEC was associated to the Lycée Léonce Vieljeux (La Rochelle) as an educational partnership. From September 2016, the general coordination has been transfered to the Royal Abbey of Saint Jean d'Angély, a public organisation of cultural cooperation.Teachers involved in the project already know eachother because of formers European project set up together. After a European project within visual arts (a movie “I LOVE GAIA”), they decided to work on heritage and digital thanks to IT. The purpose was to develop with students from secondary school and upper secondary schools a smartphone application of 10 original heritage journeys : Rovinj, La Rochelle, Saint Jean d'Angély, Monselice, Meda, Alarjavi, Elektrenai, Pau, Ponte de Sor and Sagunto. Various objectives: the development of transversal competences out of classrooms (such as civic competences, intercultural skills, creativity, spirit of initiative, autonomy); work on pupils’ motivation in order to reduce dropout ; to produce an interactive game on the theme of the city in the form of a treasure hunt enriched with new technologies (QR codes, tablets, applications); opening an innovative learning process; an initiative to the urban arts; benefit to broad knowledge on their own town’s History and the others (abstract heritage and intangible heritage) by showing the unexpected aspect of the cities by modifying their perception; promote the intercultural dialogue and an active citizenship (local and European level); to enrich the linguistic competences (writing and oral); develop the imagination and to make aware of the notion of European culture(s).Between 2014-2017, this project allowed to set up 2 transnational meetings, a training course about motivation and dropout at school, 16 long mobilities and 17 short mobilities meeting together more than 200 people (teachers, headteachers, students, administrative employees). Short and long mobilities have been benefit to promote the encounters with local partners and the involvement of parents (opening doors at schools, host families). The main activities have been organised within 3 parts, either three school years of the project. The first year (2014-2015) was about the creation of European quiz to discover his/her town (identifying places, collecting photos, defining questions, research about the history of town (tourism offices contacts), beginning to produce digital supports (website, blog, facebook rooms), writing the first newsletter. This year was also the beginning of mobilities between students and between teachers. The programmes included guided tours of cities and the schools, the discover of local heritage, initiative to traditional practices (danse, music,...), the IMAGINE journey in St Jean d’Angély (BETA IMAGINE), creation of a flashmob and the organization of the pedagogical coordination for three years. In December 2014, each partner received its tasks (website, facebook, blog, newsletters, education, infographie, goodies, logo and poster IMAGINE production). The second year (2015-2016) concerned the production of the smartphone application. Implementing of the QR codes basing on the quiz. Students experimented their ability to create QR code. It consisted to experiment the urban quiz and adapt them. Teachers trained during the 1st year to produce QR code, have trained themselves their students. This year allowed to finish the texts and photos using for the application. All schools organised photo competition in order to collect last photos, all introduced in an exhibition in each establishment (library space or main entrance). During this 2nd year, a seminar about motivation and dropout has been setting up with all headteachers. The last year (2016-2017), the application smartphone was already finished. There is still little modifications. The application has been experimented during short mobilities. Finally, the Lycée Honoré Baradat (Pau) proposed to produce a « BOARD PAPER GAME » of IMAGINE introduced during the last mobility.