Project information
| Status | Finalist |
| URL | Go to website |
| Category | Education Lifelong and informal learning |
| Country | Italy |
| Operational areas | Rural |
| Target groups | Children |
| Fixed connection | DSL |
| Wireless connection | WiFi n/a |
| Access points | Home, School |
| Interact | Desktop Computer, Laptop , n/a |
| Software License Types | Proprietary |
Project location
Random images Challenge 2008
Living in Europe: on highlands and lowlands
- Brief description
- An Italian primary school with Dutch, German, Danish and Romanian school have worked together as shown on line at www.europe4kids.it, a site that has no telematic barriers.
This site got the first prize in the e-Learning Awards 2006.
The starting point is water.
The communication technologies in our project are a real web that links countries and traditions. It brings nearer students, teachers and families. It connects past and present time, legends and knowledge in this friendly sea that we, simple water drops, call Europe. - Vision, Objectives and Goals
- The project aims to
- Strengthening the European dimension of education at all levels
- Increasing knowledge of European languages
- Promoting cooperation and mobility through education
- Encouraging innovation in education
- Promoting equality in all areas of education Classes participating in the project are involved regarding their own level of competences. Of course, the commitment required is related to them.
- How does ICT contribute to the organisational objectives
- The project responded to the needs of innovation and respect for tradition (new technologies, foreign languages, European dimension, rediscovery of traditions, relationship with the civil society) to which the Plan of Education of our Istituto Comprensivo pays particular attention. Pupils monthly work on the project individually, but mostly in small groups or pairs, with greater attention to disabled pupils. The materials produced by students of various schools in Europe are sent to the teacher webmaster, who puts them in the site. The use of new technologies was crucial to fulfil the project. In particular pupils have learned:
- To know and use simple programs of word processing
- To know and use Paint
- To use the Internet. In fact pupils navigate easily, collecting various information about countries and partner schools. Periodically, in pairs, pupils navigates our web site to be informed about the latest updates. This is done in our multimedia lab, under the supervision of a teacher
- To know and use the major search engines
- To use e-mail to receive and send questions of the month via e-mail
- To participate in the activities of a forum
Teachers have refined their skills in order to drive pupils competently. The teacher webmaster has worked almost daily updating the website.
- Transferability
- The project can help
- To make lively and motivating to learn many school disciplines
- To overcome the difficulties in learning a foreign language
- To facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities
- Overcome, in collaboration with others, our own limits
- To use in vivo new technologies
- To innovate the method of teaching
- To overcome prejudices and stereotypes
- To grow and mature in comparison with others
This experience, really motivating, could be adopted by any school, with awareness of the energy that it entails.
- Project summary
- An Italian primary school with Dutch, German, Danish and Romanian school have worked together as shown on line at www.europe4kids.it, a site that has no telematic barriers. This site got the first prize in the e-Learning Awards 2006.
The starting point is water and its related topics: water as resource (water power, Romania), as danger (living below sea level, Holland), as environmental problem (Italy), as a scientific aspect (circle of water, Germany) as a legend ( all the countries). At first all the partner worked about these specific topics, getting in touch by ordinary mail and e-mail.
The pen friends are 8 - 1O years old, but they have already participated in common life in an European dimension. This is an extraordinary opportunity, especially for our school that is located in a small town with no more than 7000 people.
The starting products were a pop-up book, a CD-rom with stories, drawings, games, exhibitions pics and reports. Then, using the website, all the students have shared their knowledge about their own country (see the “question list” in the website) and everyday life (question of the month) with their European partners. On the website are also available the materials made in the first part of the project, so all the partner schools and the parents too can look at their kids’ work.
At the end all classes have made a research on local traditional legends about water for publishing a real book: “European Fairy and Water Tales”, written in mother tongue, in Italian and English, as an international option. All the stories are available on line, too at www.europe4kids.it (water tales).
Some classes have shown the website and this European teamwork to the local community in a public meeting. The communication technologies in our project are a real web that links countries and traditions. It brings nearer students, teachers and families. It connects past and present time, legends and knowledge in this friendly sea that we, simple water drops, call Europe.
Essential Element is knowledge of the English language, at least in its essential aspects (Level A1 of the common European framework).
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