Technology into European Historical Architecture TIEHA is an 18-month project between Institut Joan Segura i Valls -from Catalonia, Spain and Střední průmyslová škola strojnická Olomouc, from the Czech Republic, both small schools and experienced in projects abroad who wish to start a collaborative adventure called Erasmus +. We want our schools to open up new horizons and add a social and educational value to our historical and cultural heritage, as representatives of the European Union. We would like to learn from each other schools’ strengths: The Catalan town, county and region have important monuments with rich architecture, and the Czech school is very technical with rich ICT resources. History helps us understand the past and technology leads us to the future, a perfect combination that shapes our lives. Moreover, both schools work on inclusion to integrate all students and this project is a great challenge for the ones with lower opportunities.
One of the main goals of the project is the exchange of good practises which will also lead students to improve their English language skills, as great tools to communicate around the world.
But TIEHA project has other ambitious objectives to achieve:
- Promote the cooperative work through projects.
- Work transversely across linguistic, social and technological fields, fostering creativity in a comprehensive teaching-learning process.
- Encourage networking through ICT to strengthen the bonds with Europe within the contact between the two countries.
- Improve academic results and increase the motivation by raising students’ interest towards what is different in a global world.
The design of the project has some responsible teachers: Both schools’ driving teams, formed by the history, technology and English teachers. The secretary will also belong to this team as responsible of the financial duties.The participating Spanish students were born in 2006; they are a group of 32 students who will study 3rd ESO at the beginning of the project, but only 16 will participate in the mobility. There are 5 teachers from which 2 will travel with the students.
In the Czech Republic the participants were born in 2005 and they will study 1st grade. They are a group of 30 students from which 16 will participate in the mobility. The involved teachers are 6 from which 3 will travel with the students. The teachers who will participate in the mobility will be the coordinators – English teachers – and the technology ones from both schools, and from Olomouc, a teacher of civil education will help students with the cultural part of the project.
The planned activities will be included in the curriculum of the involved subjects. Most are focused on the study of the architecture of important monuments and buildings (churches, castles, monasteries, cathedrals,…) with a technological contribution, and will be competency-oriented learning activities: students’ presentations, video recordings, online meetings; scaffolding activities to get a digital timeline, a photography contest, models construction, leaflets and cards designs, all of them related to the historical heritage; local events in each school like exhibitions, mechanical enterprises visit, Erasmus corner displays and the essential tasks of project management meetings, dissemination and evaluation activities such as KPSIs, assessment rubrics and questionnaires of satisfaction. We have also planned the activities for the short-term exchanges of groups of pupils in Santa Coloma and Olomouc during 9 days to get the most of the visit to our European partner’s heritage.
We would like to highlight the CLIL methodology where language, thought and culture are linked, and this way it offers students the opportunity of interacting with other cultures, improve language competence and increases motivation, as well as working in cooperative groups from the same school and even mixed groups from the two countries working online. We plan to use the eTwinning platform (TwinSpace) as a communicative tool, as a material store and to spread our project.
About the expected impact and results, the project will provide some elaborated materials of the European cultural heritage, innovative teaching practices and evaluation instruments, new ideas and ICT tools to implement in each school; it will open the minds of all the community including enterprises that can accept a future internship for the Czech students, and all the students will improve their English, their History knowledge and their use of new Technologies.
After the project, some actions will be consolidated in the schools: New key cross-curricular contents taught in English and cooperative work with a view to Europe and always within the framework of inclusive education. The Erasmus + experience will be on the media, what will give schools prestige and students immersed in international projects will improve their skills and become more resilient.