Following a series of presentations on projects’ results and general actions targeting the educational community, CrAL has been presented at the last part of the event as a newly initiated European project. Its main aim, i.e. to enhance the digital skills, creativity, critical thinking and media literacy of both teachers and students via audiovisual creative writing and reading, as well as the project’s partnership, funding, structure, target groups, benefits for the educational community and all other main elements have been analyzed.

CrAL’s presentation received a most positive feedback from both the participants as well as the event’s facilitator, with a number of teachers’ even expressing their interest to learn more and participate at the trainings that will follow within the project’s context.

Professor Achilles Kameas, Director of the DAISSy Research Group and Scientific Coordinator of the CrowdDreaming in Greece, opened the event with a short greeting, briefly presenting the objectives and an overview of the results of the project as well as an overview of the activities and European cofunded projects of DAISSy while emphasizing on the ones relevent to the enhancement of digital skills and creativity, and addressed the importance of supporting the educational community.

Following, Ms. Elena Sarli, Promoter of European Programmes at the Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Greece, presented the active role of the Regional Directorate in terms of information, dissemination and promotion for all European projects, like CrowdDreaming, that aim to innovative educational practices, and highlighted the importance of CrowdDreaming for the educational community and for the promotion of digital cultural heritage among them.

The scope, the methodology and the impact of the project were presented by Ms. Eleni Georgakakou, Project Manager of CrowdDreaming on behalf of DAISSy in Greece. Ms Georgakakou highlighted that the project applied the good Italian practice of the “Art of CrowdDreaming” with aim to encourage young people to reflect and valorize their own cultural heritage and develop digital thanksgiving scenes to acknowledge another nation’s contribution to the European culture. She also noted that in Greece, 21 teachers, together with their students, were enthusiasticly involved in all piloting phases of the project, despite the restrictive measures and unforseen challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They researched the cultural contributions of other European nations to the Greek cultural heritage, learned about new digital tools and created digital scenes for the the virtual monument Europa Square.

Two participant teachers, Ms. Zeta Tsiga and Ms. Niki Efstathopoulou, shared their overall experience from the project, the workshops with their students as well as the story behind the digital scenes they created. How did this project affect them and their students? They realised that digital media can promote values and concepts such as multiculturalism, inclusion, critical thinking, co-creation, sustainable preservation of cultural heritage. Above all, a group of people together as a Connective Mind, can Dreamscape the Future, and thus create History.

At the last part of the event, two very interesting presentations of relevant European projects targeting the educational community with an aim, like CrowdDreaming, to enhance their digital skills and/ or creativity took place. Professor Achilles Kameas presented the project “STEAMonEDU”, which aims to the up-skilling of STE(A)M educators through online tools and a very active community of practice, and Ms. Katerina Nikolakopoulou, Coordinator of Educational Activities in the Regional Centre for Educational Planning of Western Greece, presented the project “Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy-CrAL”, which exploits audiovisual creative writing and reading towards the promotion of students’ critical thinking and media literacy.

The event closed with a short “thanksgiving” session by the event Moderator and CrowdDreaming project Manager in Greece, Ms. Georgakakou, addressed to all partners, tutors, teachers and students for their great work and cooperation, and to the participants of the event.

To register please click on this link by 23 March. A personal link will be sent to you closer to the event date with the access details to the event platform. This event will take place in English.

Cultural heritage was put in the spotlight in 2018 with European Year of Cultural Heritage that saw thousands of events and millions of people engaged across the European continent. But it didn’t stop there. Successes from 2018 and new policy document (e.g. New European Agenda for Culture) have strengthened other dimensions of cultural policy and also cultural heritage.

Here our story begins. Crowddreaming: Youth Co-Create Digital Culture (CDDC) is an Erasmus+ project that started 2 years ago. We scaled up an Italian good practice and developed a methodology to use digital cultural heritage as a mean for inclusive education and the promotion of European values among youngsters.

The online event will present how more than 1600 students from Croatia, Greece, Italy and Latvia under the mentorship of 90 teachers and support by tutors dived into their local history and explored how it connects to other European nations. The results of their work is a digital monument Europa Square. It hosts more than 80 digital thankyou scenes created by youngsters. You will not only learn about the Crowddreaming methodology that enabled this but also explore the Europa Square yourself.

The Conference will also bring together representatives of policy makers and representatives of the civil society organisations who will discuss why we need a stronger collaboration between cultural and education sectors and how to ensure it. The tone of the event will be set by aspiring keynotes from two renowned experts in innovation in digital cultural heritage. More information about the speakers is available here.

Programme of the conference

In the upcoming days, information will follow for the Greek national, also online, final event of the CDDC project, which is organised by DAISSy, in Greek. Both events are co-financed by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union.

For more information on CDDC and DAISSy and its projects, you can visit/ contact us at:

• Website   : https://daissy.eu/projects/cddc-project/ & www.crowddreaming.eu
• Facebook: @DAISSyResearchGroup, @crowddreamingEU
• Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter      : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email         : info@daissy.eap.gr

For your registration to the Europa Square digital monument: https://crowddreaming.eu/europa-square-registration/.

When

Where: Online

Registration: Mandatory – to register, please fill in and submit registration form

Deadline for registrations: 6 October 2020

Key words: digital cultural heritage; MOOC for teachers; co-creation of digital scenes; virtual/augmented reality; European digital monument; Europa Square; social inclusion; European history; European values; coaching circles

The art of Crowddreaming (CDDC) is a methodology that connects young people and educators with cultural heritage and digitalisation in a unique co-creation process that contributes to the common understanding of the European history and values, intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding.

Crowddream is a vision for the improvement of the society which comes to life when it is turned to a compelling story that captures the imagination of a crowd big enough to make it happen.

Workshop participants will learn about:

• Crowddreaming methodology (origin, objectives and results of its use)
• Curriculum and MOOC that empowers educators (teachers, trainers, coaches, facilitators) for use of the Crowddreaming with young people in schools, digital learning centres, etc.
• Experiences with implementation of the methodology in 5 European countries.
• Europa Square – a lasting digital monument dedicated to Europe as a transcultural laboratory.
• How to set up your own Crowddreaming activity and connect with peers across Europe.

Registration for the event is mandatory. To register, please fill in and submit registration form by October 6th 2020.

About Crowddreaming: Youth co-create digital culture project

“Crowddreaming: Youth co-create digital culture” is an Erasmus+ project implemented in the framework of the annual KA3 call on Social Inclusion and Common Values: The Contribution in the Field of Education and Training managed by Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission.

The purpose of the project is to disseminate and scale-up at European level a good practice in the field of the valorization of digital cultural heritage as a mean for inclusive education and for the promotion of European values among youngsters.

The good practice identified is “Crowddreaming: youths co-create digital culture” born as a contest for Italian schools and promoted by the Italian association Stati Generali dell’Innovazione, whose aim is to create a lasting digital monument dedicated to Europe as a transcultural laboratory.

The Crowddreaming project involves 5 partners coming from 5 European countries. The pilot action is being implemented in 4 Countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy andLatvia,) and addresses secondary school teachers (20 in each country) and students (400 in each country).

Learn more about the project at https://crowddreaming.eu.