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DIG_IT : students and teachers’ efficient use of digital IT devices at school and at home.
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Teachers from four countries across Europe (France, Sweden, Belgium and Finland, all general secondary schools) made quite a surprising and paradoxical observation: while students all over Europe are “digital natives”, they are not always equally strong in critically and responsibly using e-devices. Thus, they acknowledged a mutual need (for their students but also for themselves) to be critical in the use of IT, in relation to both tools and information found. Hence the name of the project, DIG_IT, digging deeper for relevant information and learning to use IT tools effectively, not forgetting having fun at the same time, digging it. Students, aged between 15-18 and from different classes/groups, coached by their teachers, will explore, through the creation of Facebook and Twitter historical avatars, the Industrial Revolution in four European countries. These avatars will enable them to develop these four basic IT skills: looking ofr information, processing information, sharing information, and "unplugging". These skills are essential to become critical and responsible citizens in a digital environment. Thus, the project DIG_IT aims at emphasizing the fact that IT-based technologies (such as mobile digital devices) can become a means of remembrance while enhancing teaching and learning methods at the same time. Activities such as the writing of fiction through games, creating films, designing brochures, writing a charter, or students’ debating will encourage a sustainable change in teachers’ and students’ attitudes and practices towards their working environment in daily life. Technologies are changing the way in which society operates and there is a need to ensure the best use is made of them. Therefore, the students will look for information on the Industrial Revolution, share the information and work on it together transnationally through such activities as creating virtual characters from the past, shooting films, or debating. End products will include film presentations in English, artwork, games and fiction based on the actual events. In order to grasp what the European Union is today, as well as comprehend the lives and the history of the peoples that take an active part in the European construction, students will visit each other, teach each other, learn about each other’s cultures and “visit” (physically and digitally) important landmarks. Working on both ICT-based technologies and transnational European history should enhance young people’s sense of European identity and active citizenship. Teachers, for their part, will benefit as well. To coach students to turn into digital citizens, teachers get to test new methods and tools with a European group of students, discuss pedagogy with colleagues and learn from the good practices in other countries. The teachers will get new resources for their own development as pedagogs. The four partner schools will become more international and create new sustainable partnerships. We want to be able to spread our experiences among colleagues all across Europe. We want to learn to be more critical in our use IT tools, more aware of the potential limits and benefits of it. We want to be more able to collaborate in an international environment. We will learn more of other countries, of their history and present state, of their culture and language. All this will be achieved by a lot of different types of activities done online and during visits. Since some of the process and all end products, such as a charter and a pedagogical resource data bank, will be published on the Internet, our good practices and experiences will be open and available for everyone.
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