"""Enhancing ICT skills through Exploring our European Cultural Identity"" is our proposal of a project from the school education area within the Erasmus+ programme which numbers five organizations from the European Union with common identified needs that can be stated, in short, by mentioning the urge to face successfully the constant progress of digital technology, the necessity of adapting the learning process to the increasingly culturally heterogeneous groups of pupils, the placing an emphasis on instilling in our young collaborators the European values such as: tolerance, understanding of other cultures or human rights. After having identified those desiderata for our schools and communities, we deduced the objectives and they are also worth being revised: To raise awareness and communicate on the importance of the cultural diversity to combat social exclusion and discrimination;- To introduce new teaching and learning methods based on ICT techniques and tools;- To recognize and assimilate the values of national culture in the European context.Then, we showed the reasons why our project should be funded and stated that we were going to highlight, explore and exploit for educational purposes the similarities and differences related to our cultural values, and that it was possible only through this partnership, not being the kind of work to be done solely. One partner only would not be going further than the surface of things, we are not talking about impersonal reports, we are proposing real experience, feelings and people interactions to be fostered. Furthermore, we divided the two year project span into four stages corresponding to four project stages of activities, each having subdivisions which were detailed in the timetable:1. SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES2. OUR CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE EUROPEAN FAMILY3. ICT - THE BEST CULTURAL AMBASSADOR4. LET'S SHARE OUR TREASURE All partners expressed their will to contribute to the project progress by taking responsibility for chunks of implementation, coming to the following distribution: first stage- responsible Romania and Cyprus; second - Latvia and Finland; third - Portugal and Cyprus; fourth - Romania and Finland. Cyprus is the main coordinator, experienced, and former partner of Romania in a previous project, an important aspect when talking about group cohesion.As a most important target group we estimate five hundred students and teachers to be directly involved in activities and the corresponding communities for support, these being made up of parents, local authorities, school inspectorate representatives and different collaborating bodies such as cultural centers or Europe Direct centers. As results, we want to create substantial learning experiences for students, mainly, with a view to preparing them for the successful approaching of job market and living as reliable and decent citizens in the multicultural society. The outcomes will range from theoretical knowledge about other cultures and educational computer applications to enhancing abilities and changing attitudes towards culturally different peers, if we mention the intangible outputs. The tangible ones are: brochures, newsletters, eTwinning journals, teaching approaches focused on using ICT tools and culture elements, project sites. There will also be a smartphone application containing the most representative materials, quizzes, stories and other links.The results are the way to reaching our objectives, steps towards our aims. By working on similarities and differences of our cultures, the students become more aware of the cultural diversity and more able to to combat social exclusion and discrimination. Also, teachers will introduce new teaching and learning methods based on ICT techniques and tools having as raw material the student work on cultural items. Throughout the activity implementation, all participants will become better connoisseurs of the values of national culture in the European context as they will be searchers and promoters of such assets.Finally, there is a well-discussed dissemination plan and an outcome exploitation plan provisioning the benefit from new materials, teaching methods and digital tools i.e. to be utilized within our organizations and for sharing. These will be used both during regular classes and in making up proposals for optional courses. Our plans are to exploit the project outcomes in various future Erasmus collaboration programs: eTwinning, KA1 and KA2, depending on opportunity, convenience and partner."

"""Environmentally Friendly Cranberries and Innovative Tablets"" was an innovative transnational project for the students aged 13 - 16 and teachers from 5 different countries: Latvia (Rigas Igauņu pamatskola), Finland (Kiukaisten yhteiskoulu / Euran yhteiskoulu), Italy (Istituto Comprensivo della Val Nure), Poland (IV Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. I Dywizji Kosciuszkowskiej) and Estonia (Võru Kreutzwaldi Kool). This was a project with the big cultural diversity in which each country brought its different experiences and competences. All the partner schools found the utmost priority to purposefully integrate non-formal learning, ICT and digital devices like smartphones and tablets with the knowledge that our students receive via formal learning. *One of the main objectives of this project was addressing an open and innovative education. Despite the fact that the schools involved in the project ""Cranberries and Tablets"" were situated in different parts of Europe, they had to tackle the same problems with the students concerning the age group 13-16. Our teenagers possess various new digital devices (smart phones, tablets etc.), but they lacked the skills for using them on educational purposes. *The second objective was closely connected with the first one and was addressing underachievement in the basic skills through more effective innovative teaching methods. As cranberries means pure natural environment around us and tablets represent innovative methods of studying, the focus of the project was put on field trips to learning sites outside the school in order to integrate formal and non-formal learning in different subjects (math, science, literacy, art, craft, English, IT). This project met the objectives set by the Erasmus+ Programme. *Specifically, the following objectives were fulfilled: 1. to provide more competence for students and teachers in ICT and to encourage using more ICT tools in everyday learning and teaching process. 2. to arouse students` interest towards basic subjects and achieve better results in them 3. to integrate formal (in classroom) and non-formal (other natural environments) learning 4. to promote teachers` and students` communication, language and cooperation skills at regional and European level 5. to supplement curricula in our school systems 6. to broaden the knowledge of natural and cultural heritage of home country and partner countries in order to learn to recognize and respect similarities and differences. *During the first project year the focus of tasks was on teaching our students how to use to make videos and sound recordings of nature using smartphones or tablets during the field trip. We also focused on teaching our teachers how to use Open Educational Resources (OER). We also organised one field trip with integrating formal and non-formal learning in different subjects (math, science, literacy, art, craft, English, IT) and some pieces of creative writing (poems, tales etc) inspired by nature was produced for eBook. *During the second project year the focus was shifted to rehearsing and performing plays based on environment, videoing the plays and having a video conference. We also organised a Photo Hunt which activities were connected with ICT. * The last year focused on one more field trip. This time we also used smartphones, tablets and ready-made apps in the nature. In the 3rd year more attention was paid to project products. Contributions of new learning resources were uploaded in Open Educational Resources and a multilingual eBook was designed, edited and uploaded in free e-books environment. eBook also contained photos made during the field trips and photos of art-work inspired by the field trips. * During project students´cultural awareness was raised (Kahoot game, learning about partner schools etc), their basic skills were improved by integrating and using innovative methodologies; their transversal skills were enhanced. Teachers professional skills were promoted. Of course the project was important also to improve all participants English language skills and using digital devices in formal and non-formal studying has become part of everyday work. Overall feedback of partners was good - project was interesting, demanded a lot of work, but as a result it made school life more interesting and gave opportunity to integrate IT and non-formal learning into learning process."