Digital Technologies in Introducing Traditions

<< Background >>The digitisation process is gaining momentum and schools need to be actively present in this process. This tendency was reinforced during the Covid 19 pandemic. To cope with online teaching, educators and pupils had to improve their skills in this area. Digital technologies are gradually becoming one of the important means of modern teaching. Digital transformation is manifested in all walks of life, and schools should empower and develop pupils' abilities in this direction so that they can succeed in their future life. Another motivation was that the partner schools are interested in introducing such methods into the educational process. National traditions are a common value of Europe. Many are already extinct, but many are still alive. Young generations will take them over but also transform them according to their own ideas and needs. The partner schools thought it was interesting and educational to use modern technology to present the past. The three schools come from different backgrounds with different experiences in international projects. << Objectives >>The main objectives of the project of the three partner schools from Slovakia (Pribeta), Italy (Carmagnola) and Lithuania (Šiauliai) were: to develop digital competences of pupils and educators in general, to implement digital technologies and resources in the educational process with innovative teaching methods with special regard to traditions and culture, to find differences and similarities, to increase attention to cultural heritage in an interactive way.<< Implementation >>The activities carried out at the partner schools focused on networking through traditional and digital postcards, searching for local, regional, national traditions in the field of tales, lifestyles, customs, festivals, traditional food and costumes. Then, after gathering information, activities focused on creating presentations and a Christmas concert. At the three project meetings in the partner schools, the activities focused on presenting the knowledge acquired during the home activities, learning about the culture and traditions of the people living in the Baltic area, in the north of Italy and in the Danube and mountainous regions of Slovakia. The activities focused on the development of digital competences of pupils and teachers through participation in classes, hospitalizations, exchange of experiences. Face-to-face or online meetings of the teachers focused on discussing innovative methods in teaching especially on digital technologies, on evaluating the implementation of project activities. The content of the final conference was a summary, evaluation and presentation of the project results. << Results >>Material results: teachers' guide with methodological material and recommended applications, video recording of the final conference, short film about the meeting in Italy, photo documentation of the project activities, collection of pupils' works (presentations, postcards, photos). Non-material results: pupils have received information about the culture and traditions of the partner nations, they are able to use digital tools at a higher level to acquire and present new knowledge and information, teachers have improved professionally, especially in the field of digital competences and international partnership.