<< Objectives >>. Create 3 educational resources (board game, multimedia game, training plan) to tackle the topic of environmental sustainability; . Train 40 teachers on the appliance of game-based learning to teach serious topics in an entertaining manner.. Foster the development of green skills of 200 pupils through game-based learnin. Raise awareness among education professionals and young pupils regarding the danger in which our planet is, if we don't take proper action to protect it;<< Implementation >>. Daily management. Monthly online meetings. Quality control. Sharing and promotion activities (content creation for partners websites and social media; newsletters, article). 6 Multiplier Events (2 in Spain, 1 in Malta, 2 in Turkey and 1 in Greece). 3 Transnational Meetings in Spain, Turkey and Greece. Board game design. Multimedia game design. Training design. Training of teachers. Piloting of the games. Data analysis (feedback and impact)<< Results >>TANGIBLE . Board game. Multimedia game. Guide (containing a training and piloting plan, feedback and evaluation questionnaire, impact and feedback report). Promotional materials (newsletters, infographic, articles etc.)INTANGIBLE 40 teachers who develop their skills and knowledge on applying game-based learning and gamification to teach serious topics;200 pupils who develop their Green skills;Teachers and pupils are more aware of the danger caused by used plastic to the environment.

The demand for the quality increase in higher education institutions is a current issue. The need for innovative teaching methods is declared as the Ministerial Goals by the European University Association (EUA). In the Ministerial Conference 2020, it is also planned for the presentation of these principles and best practice examples. Similarly, the need for enhancement in learning and teaching by revealing poor teaching performance of academic staff had been underlined in Trends 2015: Learning and Teaching in European Universities report published by EUA. Existing literature showed that the main indicator of students’ learning is effective classroom management skills of teachers (Emmer & Sabornie, 2015; Kunter et al. 2013; Seidel&Shavelson, 2007; Wang, Hartel, & Wahlberg, 1993). Controlling a classroom can be overwhelming also for academicians (Sherer, 1991). Especially, academicians that don’t have necessary teaching experience before starting teaching in the university, suffer from lack of experience in the first years of their careers. However, most of the studies focused on classroom management issues are at the pre-collegiate level (Luo, Bellows, & Grady, 2000). There is a knowledge gap in classroom management strategies for higher education classrooms. Therefore, Teaching in Higher education Effectively via Eye-tracking -THEE- project aims to explore in-class interactions in university classrooms to present classroom management strategies by using eye-tracking technology with a holistic perspective. It is expected that THEE project will answer the necessity of new teaching strategies announced by EUA. THEE project will also contribute to technology integration attempts to university classrooms. It is obvious that academicians are stakeholders of successful technology integration and understanding how they use technology in classrooms is necessary to create innovative teaching strategies. Interactions between academicians and technology will be also analyzed and a set of strategies to enhance technology integration into higher education classrooms will be presented within this project. The project has four intellectual outputs and five multiplier events. During the first three intellectual outputs, eye movement data about classroom interactions from three different Europe (Turkey, Italia, Lithuania) countries will be collected and analyzed in collaboration with P1 and P2. The last output O4 contains the preparation of e-learning contents and pilot test of the project with P5. In the pilot study, the e-learning contents will be used for the education of academicians. The pilot study of output O4 which are the results of A18 will be used for the education of academicians from P5- Atatürk University- Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement. After being educated; the academicians’ eye movements, and behaviors (jests and mimics) before the activity will be compared with their eye movements after the activity. This will also be the evaluation of the overall project outputs. The last output O4 of the project will be disseminated by multiplier events in every participating country. Further dissemination will be realized from the project web site on the Internet. The development of the digital learning contents, project web site and hosting of those materials are in the Applicant’s responsibility. The outputs of the project; on-line course contents will be hosted on Bilgeis MOOC platform. Bilgeis.net is co-funded by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey. To reach a wider audience in Turkey, We conduct an association with The Council of Higher Education (YÖK). YÖK will have a role to the dissemination of the intellectual outputs of the project although it will not be formally partner of this project. Our Partner P6 UNICA is an institutional network of European universities and it has 51 university members from 31 different capitals of Europe combining over 160,000 university staff and 1.900,000 students. UNICA as a partner of this project will share outputs of this project with its members. At the end of the project, it is expected that the results of the project will be easily published in high impact journals and presented in high-quality conferences and on the Erasmus+ dissemination platform. Since the project is innovative in terms of several ways. First, the analysis of in-class interactions with eye-tracking technology is a novel practice in educational researches and practices (Yamamoto & Imai-Matsumura; 2013) and there is very limited research on this area. Second, the project differs from existing eye-tracking studies used to examine classroom- dynamics in terms of the varieties of interaction types that will be explored within the project. Third, exploring classrooms from different countries is another innovative way of this project. As a result, the project is innovative in overall it offers practical solutions to existing problems.(PS: References are given as a separate file)

The objective of the MenTalk project is to develop and offer a language learning curriculum, training material, didactic guidelines and platform directed to men in rural areas who are active in - or want to offer - alternative tourism services. The rationale behind the project is on one hand the need for promoting language learning within the EU, as a means for professional development and enhancement of employability skills, while on the other creating the conditions for job creation, growth and economic sustainability in rural areas. The project is based upon a previously successfully implemented project, Love Language, which aimed at involving men in language learning, considering their low participation and high drop-out rates. The approach to achieve this was based on men's interest as trigger for the used language learning material. The partners of the MenTalk project will apply the same learning approach but take the Love Language one step further by transferring the successful experience into vocational education and training with special focus on the application in alternative tourism in Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Norway and Austria. It is therefore believed that the needs this project will address go well beyond a series of project outputs which target a specific group of people or enhance a specific set of skills. It is the first step towards the development of outputs that tackle important EU issues on a multi-level way. The expected outcomes from the project implementation include, among others:- Enhancement of soft skills of the male population in rural areas;- The promotion of the importance of language learning to increase competitiveness;- The improvement of the quality of alternative tourism services;- The potential for more extrovert micro, small and medium enterprises active in alternative tourism;- The potential for development and economic sustainability in particularly the rural areas of the participating countries. The MenTalk set of outputs includes:- A situation analysis, which will identify the areas of interest of the final beneficiaries (men in rural areas active in alternative tourism) 'What motivates young male learners?';- A curriculum for language learning targeted to the profile of the final beneficiaries with Training material based on the curriculum;- Didactic guidelines for language teachers and- The MenTalk platform offering OERs. In parallel, the partners will carry out a set of dissemination activities, which will aim at informing the target group, final beneficiaries and project stakeholders about the outputs developed. They will also put much emphasis on the project sustainability after the funding period, but more importantly on the transferability potential to other countries and sectors. The already established networks of the partners will be addressed since the beginning of the project, to make sure that awareness is raised and sustainability is achieved.The partners are convinced that the MenTalk project will make a difference in the way language learning is provided, especially since they aim at involving both target group and final beneficiary members as early as the first output of the project. They are well aware of the necessity of feedback collected, being one of the advantages of the MenTalk Methodology.

"CONTEXTThe project aims to create a ""space on the European Union"" suitable for new generations with a series of interactive recreational-cultural-educational tools and activities in Europe with the direct active involvement of school students, encouraging intergenerational dialogue and the sense of active European citizenship using innovative gamification and digital products.This will allow to develop a better quality of work which, today, in the school sector is developed in relation to European citizenship because the project will generate the right tools to work with young people and will provide teachers with ""a new way to explain Europe and its values ""through ""serious games"" able to involve the students and make them learn by actively participating and having fun.BACKGROUNDThe reasons behind the project proposal are obviously very connected with the current situation of knowledge and mistrust that especially young people but also adults have towards institutions and in particular towards those that feel ""less close"" from the territorial point of view, especially in a period, like the current one, in which:- there are few job opportunities, especially in the South,- nationalist pressures increase throughout Europe,- the economic crisis seems to have resumed,- European rules are perceived a bit by everyone as perhaps too restrictive.OBJECTIVESThe goal of the project is to make everyone understand that we need to believe more in our current European institutions by investing in greater active participation in the social and political context: but this is possible only if you can excite people and make them live on the feeling of being a European citizen.This will also be a way to push people to go and exercise their right to vote with more awareness, for which the European Commission invested heavily in all countries in 2019 (election year of the new European Parliament) with the campaign #thistimeIvote. The project, therefore, following this trail of information/training will push future generations of voters even after 2019 to believe more in European institutions.The fundamental objective of the project is therefore to communicate the European Union and its institutions in a form that is at the same time simple, modern, innovative, immediate and aware.PARTICIPANTSThe target group will be composed of at least 1000 young students but also trainers and teachers who will develop together a ""path of active and pro-active knowledge"" of Europe and its institutions, increasing and giving importance to the founding values of the common Europe.The project activities program intends to involve as direct beneficiaries:1.Staff of partner organizations2. Students and young people3. Teachers and trainers4. Stakeholders and general publicACTIVITY DESCRIPTIONThe program of planned intellectual activities and products will be managed as part of a strategic pan-European partnership, made up of very experienced organizations in the fields of gamification and multimedia educational training with the use of 2-3-dimensional serious games and development of group and table teaching games.The project involves the development of 32 months of activity to produce a path based on the following 7 tools:1) THE ANIMATED HISTORY OF EUROPEAN UNION2) EUROPE HUNT3) WHO IS WHO?4) DISCOVER THE FOUNDING VALUES5) EUROQUIZ6) I AM ALSO A EUROPEAN DEPUTY7) RECREATIONAL-TRAINING PATHSThere are also several outcomes such as:- project logo- official website in Italian and English- project brochure in Italian and English- 5 newsletters in Italian and English- project Facebook page- Facebook group for the project staff- press conferences- video-spot to promote the Multiplier Event- activity monitoring- activity evaluation- dissemination activities.METHODOLOGIESIn order to effectively reach the various target groups, the project will combine different educational, multidisciplinary and operational tools, favoring the interaction of methodologies and techniques for intercultural education, mainly using the methods promoted in the COE and CE Training Kits.Furthermore the following methodologies will be applied:1) EXPERENTIAL LEARNING2) LEARNING BY DOING3) GAMIFICATION OF LEARNINGEXPECTED IMPACTThe many intellectual products envisaged in the project will therefore be able to involve a very large number of young students: it is estimated that, after the creation of the planned outputs (composed of various elements and tools), at least will be involved, in the last 6 months, 1000 young people who can actively participate in the innovative educational path created by the European partnership.20.000 are the indirect beneficiaries foreseen."

<< Background >>According to the European Commission report (2017) titled “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture”, education and culture play an important role for people to “(i) know better each other across borders, and (ii) experience and be aware of what it means to be European.” The reflection about the future of EU also entails a reflection on the strength of common identity and values of its citizens. Strengthening our European identity still remains essential and education and culture are the best vectors to ensure this. Moreover, one of the priorities of the Erasmus programme is to strengthen European identity and increase young people's participation in EU society which are considering critical for the European Union's future. It is clear that the politics of European identity in Europe has become more important following the recent economic and migration crises which have fuelled a rise in nationalist and anti-EU sentiment across Europe and exposed deep divisions among governments and citizens about the value, purpose and future of the EU – most strikingly evident in the Brexit referendum vote in the United Kingdom (Mendez & Bachtler, 2016). To add to this, the recent health crisis has affected trust in public institutions concerning the management of the health crisis. However, it is important for European citizens to believe more in EU institutions, feel connected and share the same values and understanding about the EU.But this is a challenging task given the EU’s territorial diversity and the current state of knowledge and distrust that young people, but also adults, have toward EU institutions. As for adults, across 10 European nations surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2019, a median of 62% stated that the EU does not understand the needs of its citizens (https://pewrsr.ch/3xzhwAl). As for students, a survey contacted by EUPlay partners revealed that students are not well informed about European matters.<< Objectives >>The aim of project EUPlay (Discovering the EU by PLAYing) is concerned with developing novel digital tools by which educators can attract, reach out and assist students to raise awareness on and understand the European Union context, the EU values and also to foster their cultural identity and cultural awareness. Moreover, educators will enhance their understanding on the importance of preparing students for a world where digital systems are prevalent across all industries. To achieve this aim, the following objectives have been set:OB1: To design and develop the Teachers’ Education 4.0 Guide OB2: To develop the EUPlay digital interactive bookOB3: To develop the EUPlay Treasure Hunt Digital GameOB4: To develop the EUPlay e-learning platform that will provide EU teachers with a set of tools and resourcesOB5: To test and evaluate the impact of the EUPlay e-learning platform and its resourcesOB6: To strengthen the professional profiles of educators, by providing them with freely available tools and resourcesOB7: To disseminate and exploit the results of EUPlay project, and in particular ensure that its results will be openly available to all across Europe<< Implementation >>The following activities are going to be implemented during the project lifetime:1. Development of the Project Results: Four (4) Project Results will be developed under project EUPlay: the development of “Teachers’ Education 4.0 Guide” (R1), “The EUPlay digital interactive book” (R2), “The EUPlay Treasure Hunt Digital Game” (R3) and the EUPlay e-learning platform which will house all the educational material developed under the first three results2. Face-to-face and online meeting3. Multiplier Events and Dissemination activities<< Results >>Through project EUPlay the following results are expected:-The Teachers’ Education 4.0 Guide which aims to provide a framework to teachers to understand what Education 4.0 is, how it is connected to Industry 4.0 and the importance of aligning teaching and learning methods with the skills needed in the future. In addition, it aims to prepare the ground for the implementation of the following results.-The EUPlay digital interactive book which will present the European Union's History explaining what EU is, what it does, the EU values as well as biographies of important leaders who were the driving force behind the formation of the EU.-The EUPlay Treasure Hunt Digital Game which will help students discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space.-The EUPlay e-learning platform which will host all the project results.-Development of the e-learning platform in which all the created material will be included. It will be a valuable resource for both teachers and students. The possibility of enriching the platform with more material created after the project completion will be open.Moreover, at least one Multiplier Event will be held in each partner country with the aim to raise awareness of the EUPlay project.