"""Between 50% and 80% of students in EU countries never use digital textbooks, exercise software, broadcasts/podcasts, simulations or learning games. Most teachers at primary and secondary level do not consider themselves as 'digitally confident' or able to teach digital skills effectively, and 70% would like more training in using ICTs."" (European Commission release on 'Opening up Education').As the European Commission has identified the digitization of the education and the necessity of modernizing the learning environment for the young Europeans as a top priority, the Digital Education Action Plan has been adapted including actions to support technology-use and digital competence development in education. These actions concern and lead to making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning as well as developing digital competences and skills of both teachers and their pupils. In that framework and based on the idea of introducing a new innovative e-tool accessible and open to all the schools in Europe, we have developed the “VR in School Education & Civic participation” project idea. This 24-months project seeks to expose both teachers and the participating students to a new experience of learning through a Virtual Reality Game. The aim of their participation is to enhance their digital and soft skills while at the same time enrich their knowledge on specific issues that will be explored during different phases of the project. The Virtual Reality Game that will be played by the students concerns a digital simulation of the European Youth Council where all participants will express their opinions and make proposals on the issues of:1.Safe use of Internet and social media2.Bulling at schools and Cyber bullying3.Human rights & Multicultural environment in the EU4.European Citizenship & Rights5.Environmental Behavior6.Sustainable Growth in EU7.Circular Economy in EU and abroadDuring the project, both participating students and teachers will follow physical workshops and MOOC on-line courses and will be given guides and information materials so that they get well- prepared before the real-time Virtual Reality game playing. The aim of the workshops is to familiarize themselves with the innovative and non-traditional learning tools which are being applied in the non-formal learning while the aim of the on-line courses is to prepare themselves on the topics that will discuss during the game. These seven topics have been carefully selected as they are trending in the daily life of the students and will also have an added value on their perspective as European citizens. Apart from the direct effect on the students in terms of enriching their skills, attitudes, knowledge and their European identity, the project seeks to influence the teachers as well by exposing them to new, innovating learning models. The project identifies and covers the need for accelerating the digitalization in the education field through an innovative way by providing an inclusive, costless and open tool for the teachers to use in their classrooms. However, the project does not target only the students and their teachers, but it aims to affect all possible stakeholders in the education and training field to acquire such digitalized methods of learning and include non-formal learning tools on their educational procedures. The consortium of the project consists of 8 partners, among which are Experts in the field on non-formal education and the educational activity of the simulation, Schools of secondary level from 4 countries, an SME expert in the digital tools of VR and the Laboratory on Bioeconomy and Sustainable Growth of the University of Piraeus, as an expert in the topics of sustainable growth, environmental behavior. From the project 100 students and 20 teachers from 4 EU member states will be directly benefited and engaged on the development of the module and/or will participate on the testing phase of the intellectual outputs. As all partners are from different countries and have a variety of professional backgrounds, they will bring to the project their expertise, their knowledge of good practices from their national education system ending up in outputs and materials that can – and hopefully will – be broadly used at European level. The project will develop methodology and material for an affordable and flexible way to acquire new skills, advance careers and deliver quality educational experiences for both teachers and students."

"The idea about the Project stem from the fact that seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. But this potential, called “Blue Growth “ strategy by EC, has not been understood enough in public . Europe faces many challenges today, but one, which is obvious and easy to relate to students living in sea-side towns is the issue of the sea impact on their lives. The six partner countries will explore the “The Blue Growth” from the perspectives: Fishing and Aquaculture, Blue Biotech Underwater Mining & Sea and Maritime heritage, Coastland Tourism, Marine Energy, Blue Jobs.As teachers, our goal is to enhance students’ motivation and provide the necessary skills to handle future challenges. In order to achieve it, we need to ""transfer"" school learning to real-life situations.This project enables teachers to find methodologies that will help in that transition and makes schoolwork relevant for the students. We think that working in an international context is a benefit for all the stakeholders: teachers will grow personally and become proficient in their teaching methods and students will play a more active part in their own learning process.We face a Europe – a world – where attitudes to environment seem to develop in a more negative direction. A relevant aim for us is a better understanding of how to preserve the maritime environment and as a consequence our cultural heritage according to a sustainable development.The partner schools will deal with this topic in many subjects such as English, social studies, geography, history, biology, navigation, ICT, electrical engineering etc. We will also engage students on different level, the total number of students taking directly part in the project will be about 120 each year + the teachers teaching these subjects.A major goal is student activity, engagement and motivation: learning by doing. To reach this goal we will use a variety of activities such as excursions, interviews with fellow students from other countries, interviews with people who work in the maritime sectors and coastal tourism etc. Students will be encouraged to try to find their own answers to their own questions. In this process, the contact with European students will make them more open to different solutions and views and it will also give them a motivating possibility to practice the foreign languages they learn at school in realistic settings.The outcomes of our project will be shared on a project face book page and on E twinning and by keeping our colleagues informed about our experiences.The main final product of the training meeting in Crete/Greece will be: a shared co-operated interactive google-map presentation of the participating countries, full of marked points with multimedia information (images, videos, texts) about environmental matters. The involved students, will fill the map with colored spots, showing places of interest, presenting their history, how tourism affected them, the environmental impact of development, the blue flags earned and so on. In addition, they could upload on google store, an android application with quizzes on coastal tourism.In Iskenderun/Turkey meeting products will be a digital dashboard web page narrating the workshops and video products about the subtopics of fishing and aquaculture, a blog page including pictures in meeting and information about subtopics and ""blue growth"" part of 2020 strategy , a leaflet about sea foods. In Constanta/Romania products will be : JOURNAL with pictures and videos uploaded on project web site ; presentations will be done both in English and in mother tongue and they will be gathered in a BROCHURE entitled: MARINE ENERGY, which will be charged on project web site or will be printed after the conference; POSTER – ways of saving energy uploaded on project web site; 5 business ideas for business environment or public authorities; JOURNAL “Renewable energy” with pictures and videos uploaded on project web site.In Sicily/Italy products will be a digital book , cointaining all the activites' results in the form of images, videos, text, questionnaire. The pics and videos will be taken by mobile phones, The questionnairies will be carried out by google moduli, the videos will be created by very simple movie maker app uploaded on the mobile phones and used habitually by the students.In Valencia/Spain products will be :a product of the film of all mobilities and publishing the schools' social media pages and on you tube platform .In Gdansk / Poland products will be : ""The Blue Growth Strategy"" digital book to be created by referring to the European Union Blue growth strategy of which all sub-topics described in the meetings held in all partner cities ."

"In 2016, the EC published a new Skills Agenda. It recognises the rise of “parallel universes” between formal and industry-based education. A component of the Agenda is the EU e-Competence Framework (e-CF) which is the first sector-specific implementation of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), another is the Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp). Both insist on the fact that future demand for skills goes beyond basic ICT skills and beyond basic economics knowledge to advanced and e-Business skills and will continue to grow as most staff is expected to possess them.In upper secondary education, the students are motivated young people who arrive to class with many ICT user skills already exercised through non-formal and informal education (at home, with friends, on internet). Their motivation decreases when they become aware that the school´s curriculum does not improve the knowledge & skills that they already possess.The students of upper secondary ask themselves ""Why not go further and make that the ICT and/or economy subjects serve me to undertake something and that my e-entrepreneurship capacity will be exercised & assessed?”In upper secondary, main ICT learning is focused on ICT user skills and not so much on e-business skills, the subject of economics is not oriented to the digital economy and the teachers are not supported in developing innovative teaching & assessment methods for e-business competences.e-business skills are the capabilities needed to exploit opportunities provided by ICT, notably the Internet; to ensure the more efficient performance of different types of organisations; to explore possibilities for new ways of conducting business and organisational processes; and/or to establish new commercial activities. One such advanced e-entrepreneurial competence is Digital Marketing: DM is one of the most demanded e-Business skills.6 secondary schools from Spain, Greece and Spain plus an SME, an HIE university business school and two local authorities for education, declared the ambition to create synergy of expertise and innovate through a powerful tool: to construct a digital marketing itinerary for teachers & students of K11 & K12 levels, and new assessment mechanisms by means of digital OERs and pilot them within ICT or Economics curricula in upper secondary schools.An EdTech SME from Spain, several SECONDARY SCHOOLS from Spain, Greece and Sweden, a prestigious UNIVERSITY from CYPRUS and 2 LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR EDUCATION in Greece & Sweden want to make high schools ‘principals, students, teachers, policymakers more permeable to the acquisition & validation of e-competences aligned to the needs of the entrepreneurship world and the ICT labour market: project DIMAS - DIgital MArketing in Secondary.One of the most effective ways to introduce digital marketing in high schools is through a Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach. Part of DM fluency can to a certain extent be taught, the other part cannot. Skills needed to plan DM strategies can only be developed through practice. Teachers cannot teach how to do DM without themselves being “digital marketers”. DM competency & skills can be built only through hands-on real-life learning experiences. The DIMAS project will develop actions based on real-life scenarios, problem-solving, learning by doing and connecting the formal education and the business labour market. Students and teachers will acquire and validate digital marketing skills by conducting real activities within the same channels that their schools use to communicate with society (websites, newsletters, blog contents and social media).The project aims to invest in teachers & students to start and lead their DM venture taking advantage of their own schools’ digital channels.The partners will develop several IOs, such as an innovative Digital Marketing Competence Profile, a new DM curriculum, the corresponding elearning materials and the adaptation of an eportfolio to evaluate & recognise the students learning achievements, guidelines, implementation results report, and a strategy to implement the outputs of the project. Two rounds of local classroom project work with students & teachers - engaging the upper secondary schools and experts belonging to the world of business - are a source of input for the improvement of outputs. Multiplier events in different conditions will enable the strategic partnership to truly disseminate the results.DIMAS activities make a unique combination between the potentials of students and the opportunities offered by the entrepreneurship world and the ICT labour market, by means of improving the curricula.Supporting teachers in adopting a collaborative & innovative practice will strengthen their profiles to embrace teaching for e-business.DIMAS ensures the real impact on upper secondary education, as well as the impact on the mindset of the teachers and schools ‘principals involved, on the regional, national & EU level"

"The NAME OF THE PROJECT aims to promote the potential of peer learning is designed as a way of moving beyond independent learning to mutual learning. The project is the result of common work of teachers from Italy, Turkey, Poland, Portugal and Greece and is addressed to students aged 15-18.The core motivation of our project is to develop our students’ social competences in terms of social, emotional and cognitive skills necessary for successful social adaptation. The need to carry on such a project at an international level appeared from the fact that working with people from other cultures will develop participants’ ability to have another perspective when confronted with a situation, learn from others’ experiences and apply learning during social interactions. Students will work together with their EU peers to create project products; this will promote active learning, feel more comfortable and open when interacting with European citizens.We believe that peer learning is an underutilized resource especially in our times when students seem to be one more step ahead of us. It is our duty as educators to reduce the gap generation because we should keep up the pace with the new trends and our students’ needs. This project should be funded because it uses an innovative approach to the peer to peer learning topic using the digital tools and direct interaction with peers from different countries. Gathering participants with a different social and cultural background, engaging them in activities that stimulates the social and educational value of European cultural heritage will foster social inclusion and group cohesion, values promoted by the ET 2020. The EU values mentioned in the Article 2 of the Treaty on the EU are promoted at an international level. The project main aim is to boost social competences in terms of social, emotional and cognitive skills among 450 students from 5 European countries during a 24 months project. The objectives we are looking to achieve are:-to raise awareness about social competences among students from 5 EU schools-to support students social adaptation during 2 years project-to encourage peer to peer learning -to foster the students' integration in a globalized world The target groups to which our project is addressed are:-570 students (12-14 years old)-110 teachers-80 students and 44 teachers from all partner schools will directly attend the project mobilities-15 school staff (librarian, accountant, psychologist/ school counselor)-120 families-50 representatives of the local communitiesThe concrete results we are looking to produce are questionnaires, project logo and website, eTwinning project, presentations/ audio visual materials: ""Countries and schools"", “My culture”, “Great people. Great communities”, “What is social learning?”, “How to combat social exclusion?”, brochure: Study buddy: Shared experience, dictionary, calendar of great people, 3D postcards, coloring posters, exhibition “Cultural diversity”, theatre play ""EU heritage of Italy, Turkey, Poland, Portugal and Greece"", book swap station centers, project DVD, e-guide: Practical example to support peer to peer learning.The activities will be integrated in the programme of 5 international reunions, 4 of them being meetings with students. The project activities are based on peer to peer learning and cooperative learning approach. When designing the project and its activities we followed the line how students think, feel and grow. Social-emotional development encompasses students' experience, expression and emotional management, as well as their ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with their peers. We are going to organize workshops for our students to encourage them to work together and dare to express their creativity.The core features of social and emotional development include the ability to identify and understand the own feelings, to manage personal emotions, to express them in a constructive manner and to develop empathy for others. As it will be necessary to support each others in acknowledging that each person is responsible for his/ her own learning process, we planned interactive activities to support students in developing their social and emotional perspectives.The project will bring benefits in the long-term because the school curricula will be developed, teachers will gain hands on experience in using peer-to -peer learning and the ready made project materials (presentations, toolkit, calendar, etc.) will remain available as teaching resources in all partner schools. All schools will improve their institutional development plans and improve the quality of teaching. Teachers will gain an insight about other EU educational systems and update their teaching styles. The experience will offer an international dimension to the schools, developing the network of contacts with EU schools and increasing schools' visibility at an international level."

"IntroductionThe main goal of this project is to respond to recent modern world needs—building adequate skills in our students to help in their successful adaptation and realization and raising students’ awareness of being active European citizens through the help of creative learning and creative teaching.Six European schools will participate in the project, united around the idea that drama can be the shortest route to shaping young Europeans' future — raising their creativity, awareness, responsibilities and building an active attitude toward world problems. The project aims to promote open education and innovative practices in a digital era, as well as social inclusion and supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences. This project will contribute to promoting equality, social cohesion, active citizenship, and enhancing creativity and innovation in European education.Project outlineWe live in a globalized, competitive world relying on new technologies and unlimited information where STEM education plays a major role in the 21st century. In a modern world without any “soft” skills, any individual, no matter how technologically skilled he/she becomes, will be at a disadvantage having no ability to easily communicate and collaborate. These “soft” skills acquired in drama education can support and even improve the “hard” skills learned in STEM subject areas. This project will integrate art, especially drama, into STEM. Students and teachers will be exposed to 6 drama training sessions to train their “soft” skills – communication, collaboration, creativity – needed for their future successful adaptation and realization.Workshops for teaching and learning creatively through drama will be held during the partners meeting in every participating school. Students and teachers will be exposed to 11 workshops to learn how to integrate drama in STEM school subjects. All forms of drama, including pantomime, role plays and improvisation will be used. Participating teachers will observe and discover different ways to be innovative, creative and to improve their performance in the classroom during their daily work. The best teaching model is one which develops skills in the practice of creative teaching. We want to equip teachers with different drama techniques to be applied to education as a creative method of teaching of different school subjects and effective emotional management in our classrooms. All participants in every LTTA will share the learned creative drama approaches with the rest of the students and teachers in their schools. Local and regional seminars will be organized in order to share the project results and creative experience with more teachers. An e-book ""Using Drama in STEM teaching and learning"" with teacher resources of creative drama approaches and techniques in STEM school subjects in 7 languages will guide teachers in Europe through the project website end the eTwinning platform. Integrating drama methods, drama techniques and drama games into teaching and learning in all school subjects will develop skills of native language communication, learning skills, public and civil competencies, cultural awareness and creativity. Students will participate in 21 theatrical performances, one concert, three competitions for the creation of a project logo, an original song-anthem of friendship between young people in the EU, and the creation of an original play related to bullying at school. The students will show their talent through writing plays, songs, creating booklets, trailers and posters for the plays and through participating in theatrical performances and flash mobs.With the project we want to open a window to different cultures, languages, people, and cultivate students' European identity. The students will translate national comedies in English and perform them on stage. A friendship dictionary with basic words in 7 languages- English, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish and Greek will be created by an international team. An e-book with all project plays will be published on the project's website and the eTwinning platform. Furthermore, we want to establish with students the concept of social responsibility. Students from all partner schools will create 6 plays related to the UN Global Goals and perform them on stage in international teams. Students will practice active citizenship in action through six flash mobs which will spread the word about the UN Global Goals in all partner towns- Kazanlak, Seville, Bari, Krakow, Rethymno, Solingen. Six Learning /Teaching/Training Activities for students and teachers will be held in Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Poland, Greece, Germany. The project involves schools which will set up a parallel eTwinning project, which will be used to support the sustainability of the project.Conclusion We believe that Drama can be the shortest way to shape young Europeans' future ."