Last 25^th of March YouthProAktiv participated on the virtual event CDDC Conference “Crowddreaming: Youth Co-Create Digital Culture”, an event celebrated within the ALL DIGITAL WEEK 2021 campaign and introduced by Achilles Kameas, Chair of the Board of ALL DIGITAL. Achilles presented the Crowddreaming project and its aim to empower teachers and promote the inclusion of innovative methodologies for education and cultural exchange.

The event followed with two presentations from Matevž Štraus, founder of ID20 Institute for heritage innovations from Idrija and Heritage+ Lead at Arctur and Gunnar Liestøl, professor at Department of Media & Communications at University of Oslo who gave keynotes about the future of cultural heritage and the inclusion of augmented reality. “We are at the moment of the human evolution where roots can be lost (…) Digital technologies can tell some information and stories that are impossible to tell in oral ways of communicating.” Declared Štraus.

Gunnar Liestøl, professor at Department of Media & Communications at University of Oslo addressed the issue of augmented reality by explaining how and why to use it as a tool for education and valorization of cultural heritage. He has developed several hypermedia and augmented reality systems, including the award winning “Kon-Tiki interactive” and “Old Narva” and leads SITSIM project.

THE DEBATE: Cultural heritage, education and digitalisation: What lies ahead?

The topic of cultural heritage together with digital education were then addressed on a discussion with key stakeholders: Hannes Heide Member of the European Parliament – S&D Group; Michael Teutsch, Head of Unit for Schools and Multilingualism, DG EAC, European Commission; Marianna Marcucci, Co-Founder, Invasioni Digitali; Brikena Xhomaqi, Director of Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) and finally, Altheo Valentini, General Director, EGINA Slrl as moderator.

Altheo Valentini posed questions related to the future of the cooperation between education and culture.

Michael addressed the issue of the need of the quality on education: “The problem really is the quality in education, in the teachers. We need to think about supporting teachers to really solve the difference in the quality of the education.”- he declared. Brikena, on the other side, stressed the need of bringing cultural methodologies into education: “Education and culture enrich each other, and the cooperation between them brings always positive impacts. We need to continue to improve that cooperation at the earliest age possible.”

Mariana, on her behalf, emphasized the need to include the citizens in the digital transformation. “It must remain relevant for organizations that to embrace all the changes in society. It’s not just going digital, but much more than that, digital is people and virtual is real (…) Audience engagement is key and first, we need to focus first on the target.” Finally, Hannes highlighted the role of the Erasmus+ program on this issue: “Erasmus+ makes a significant contribution to cultural development and management. It enables young people to travel abroad and participate in cultural heritage”.

Crowddreaming: Youth Co-Create Digital Culture project

The last part of the conference covered the presentation of the Crowddreaming: Youth Co-Create Digital Culture project results and policy recommendations for education providers and policy makers.

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

Results and impact of the project have been the following:

• CDDC full Learning Programme (including MOOC for teachers and workshops with young people) delivered and tested in four project countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy and Latvia);
• 137 teachers successfully completed the CDDC MOOC;
• 1631 young people (13-19 years of age) involved in 210 CDDC workshops;
• 15 tutors supported teachers in their training, and organising and implementing the CDDC workshops;
• 236 digital thanksgiving scenes produced by young people supported by their teachers (80 selected scenes available on the Europa Square platform).
• Europa Square digital monument and online community involving over 2000 participants at the end of the project.

Next, policy recommendations were provided as a way to promote and support the transfer and further upscaling of the Crowddreaming methodology and exploitations of project results in the education, training and cultural sectors across Europe.

Policy recommendations to education Providers:

• Invest in teachers’ training to propel the use of new teaching methodologies and technologies for distance learning.
• Provide equal conditions for (distance) learning
• Interesting topics (digital tools, augmented reality, exploring cultural heritage, European values, co-creation) and captivating activities stimulate motivation and engagement in teaching and learning activities.
• Simplification of rules and procedures allowing and enabling teachers to gte involved in the extracurricular activities.

Policy recommendations to policy makers:

• Promote and support the STEAM approach in education
• Actively support development of a more flexible and interdisciplinary orientated curriculum
• Leave no one behind – provide adequate Internet infrastructure and equipment in schools. Support families and young people that can’t afford adequate equipment for distance learning.
• Provide greater visibility to the initiatives that use co-creation and peer-to-peer learning by offering more opportunities to present and share good practices.

Finally, the Europa Square Platform was presented by Paolo Russo (Secretary General, Stati Generali dell’Innovazione) a virtual reality experience now available online that has attracted more than 2000 users and intends to reach at least 5000 users.

Written by Maria Lopez