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<< Background >>Nowadays, in order to design new educational orientations and resources to develop innovative environments in education, efforts are being made to provide education in the form of formal, informal or non-formal aiming at disseminating e-life cultures from pre-primary education institutions to tertiary education and to ensure its continuity.In addition, computer-based education practices and internet-based projects have been developed in schools to develop student-centered teaching transfer studies from teachercentered instruction. Decisions and implementations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly taking place within the educational policies of our country, which is in the process of the European Union Council's 2020 Strategic Targets and the process of accession to the European Union. EU countries transfer huge financial resources and implement practices for integrating ICT into education in order to strengthen their economic and technological development. The implementations and projects such as the introduction of smart boards, computers, internet facilities in schools, the development of school network and management systems by Info pack, SEPIE National program of reforms in Spain projects, etc. the realization of e-learning applications by providing digital literacy of all students and teachers, etc... have taken place within the educational policies of both the EU and our country in various time periods. Teachers, who are the stakeholders of education, are at a key position in achieving the highest possible benefits of using technology in schools. In the light of all these developments, what is expected from today's schools is to educate individuals who are equipped with the skills of using and accessing information effectively. The function of computers is increasing day by day and this influence both learning-teaching processes and economic and social functions of education. Additionally, new developments across the world such as the limitations brought by COVID-19 pandemic have shown us the necessity to improve teachers’ know-how in using technology in instruction because they will need it during such times.<< Objectives >>The aims of the project according to the priorities above:• To develop cooperation between the community, school, teachers and students through the use of advanced information technology tools.• To support learning environments with educational software, electronic references, application software and educational games.• To integrate information technology tools into any learning environment.• Providing access to all sorts of advanced information technology tools throughout the life of each student.• To provide all students with the ability to use the right information technology tool at the right time and in the right place, contributing the a school education more inclusive.• To ensure that computer teachers use lesson plans, improve assessment tools, prepare educational materials and improve themselves.• Additionally, new developments across the world such as the limitations brought by COVID-19 pandemic have shown us the necessity to improve teachers’ know-how in using technology in instruction because they will need it during such times.<< Implementation >>The activities under the management are as follow:Project management – leader DESES 3Evaluation, Valorisation, Quality Management – leader URBANDissemination and exploitation – leader KOCATURKCurriculum & Training scheme - leader DESES 3e-Learning Platform and Open Education Resources - leader UPTEducational game – leader KARDITSAPilot evaluation - leader TOROSLAR and BRAINLOGPROJECT RESULT 1Curriculum & training that will be define based on the conclusions of panel of experts activities, but in general we expect following topic for the Curriculum:I. Virtual Reality - how to write learning scenario;II. Virtual Reality - how to design virtual world;III. Design of interactive animations and 3D modelling;IV. How to code mobile application;V. Principles of gamification and how to design educational gamePROJECT RESULT 2The e -Learning Platform and Open Education Resources represents one of the most important output as will provide real valuable learning resources for learners, with attention to teachers and ICT.PROJECT RESULT 3Educational game is the main output of this project and together with the e-platform will give the access to all the OER (textbooks, presentations, multimedia, 3D objects and constructions) developed as well as the training schemes. The environment will be freely available for users to visit and use for self learning purposes.<< Results >>• During the project activities we will develop three Project Results:R1: Curriculum & Training scheme - in this material, the suitable techniques, learning approaches and learning content used in the online courses and game will be identified.R2: e-Learning Platform and Open Education Resources - Within the platform, a training course with 5 modules will be available all users interested to the topic.R3: Educational game - the main output of this project and together with the e-platform will give the access to all the OER (textbooks, presentations, multimedia, 3D objects and constructions) developed as well as the training schemes.There will also be intangible results in terms of improving the skills of the people involved in carrying out this project. Staff: they will improve their skills to design new educational processes adapted to different situations and contexts. Stakeholders will be in contact with new perspectives and tools that they can use in their respective areas.Teachers: they will have the opportunity to have resources that allow them to teach the contents and continue the teaching-learning process regardless of the context. It also allows an improvement of digital skills to update their didactic methodology.Students will have the opportunity to access information, learning content and therefore to continue learning.

High-quality teaching is determined to a great extent on what teachers know and are able to do. In its Communication on School Development and Excellent Teaching For a Great Start in Life, the European Commission underlines the importance of teacher education for teaching quality, pointing out the role that collaborative work and career-long professional development can play.The Commission highlights the need for CPD to be accessible, affordable and relevant, and underscores the positive effect of involving schools and teachers in defining CPD policies.There are some challenges encountered while providing CPD to the teachers. The first one is the way it is perceived. Teachers often see CPD as a top-down process normally run by school management. Indeed, recent surveys would tend to back this position with head teachers generally dominating the decision-making process within schools (Friedman and Phillips, ibid). In this way, the benefits are often viewed in terms of management goals rather than for the individuals concerned. There is a growing awareness that it is imperative to tailor CPD to the needs of employees and make it much more about the personal development of individuals within an organisation and not just for the benefit of the organisation itself (Dent et al., 2008).The second problem is the trainers themselves or rather the information provided to the trainers in preparation for their courses is another matter. Since some organisations do very little to highlight where training is required and what skills their workforce lack or need, it is hardly surprising that outside trainers are not able to respond to genuine needs of the participant teachers.The third problem is the outsourcing of CPD is that trainers come in, do their training and then disappear; the training tends to be superficial (Weston, 2013). There is no back up, no planned system of evaluation of impact. The problem of evaluation is critical from the employer's perspective and a lack of demonstrable impact means that some organisations perceive CPD as an additional expense with very little return.In order to overcome these challenges with the help of this project we will focus on improving teachers’ competences in 9 competence areas which are necessary for teachers in 21st Century. We will work with teachers to develop, deliver, evaluate and adapt content in each region ensuring that any of the final outputs are relevant, targeted and suitable for each context.

The projectAcross countries, we were aware that the impact of cultural heritage upon economy, environment and society is large (Horizon 2020; “Getting cultural heritage to work for Europe”). The aim of this project was to support students and teachers in developing skills in order to research their own culture and become proud of their heritage. We were also eager to develop their ability to engage with the heritage of other cultures and the confidence to discuss culture differences confidently and openly. We also hoped to provide students and teachers with a range of tools in which to measure attitudes to different cultures and map their development through different activities and projects.The project we designed had four goals that we aimed to attain. 1.Supporting the students on the project to engage in critical thinking about their previous ideas regarding stereotypes and prejudices about other countries, whilst also reflecting upon their relationship with their own culture. 2.Developing a teacher training programme that would empower teachers to open up classrooms to cultural conversations that were not merely celebratory: allowing students to reflect on which aspects of cultures (their own and others) they enjoy and which they merely tolerate. 3.Using this rich intercultural dialogue to set up a series of “tried and tested” lessons to teach culture within the classroom. These lessons would be generated and tested out by different partners, who would feed back on their value in an honest professional exchange about best practice for cultural teaching and learning. 4.Bringing students and teachers together using digital means (including a Model United Nations format) to enable them to practice and share the skills they had learned in the sharing of and negotiating with different cultures and use these varying perspectives to engage in innovative solutions to global problems. Our hope was that, through engaging with this project, we would observe an observable growth in the knowledge, skills and attitudes outlined by the Oxfam guide for Global Citizenship. Below you can see a breakdown of how these knowledge, skills and attitudes related specifically to our project: Knowledge Diversity - participant can describe the impact of prejudice and stand up for equityEquality – participants can describe the value of different countries to the collective, that each are diverse but equalSkillsCritical thinking – Participants can identify stereotypes and ask honest questionsSelf-Awareness – Participants are aware of how their culture allows them to see the world from one perspectiveAttitudes Identity and self-esteem - Participants can explain their identity and is open to those of othersRespect for human rights – Challenges prejudice and believes in integrationThese definitions have been taken from the Oxfam Education for Global Citizenship Document. For a full reference, please go to https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620105/edu-global-citizenship-schools-guide-091115-en.pdf?sequence=11&isAllowed=yWhilst the definitions above references the intended outcomes for students, we also aimed to see teachers develop both in their ability to start conversations with students and in creating a classroom that looks thoroughly at culture. The Oxfam guide breaks down the themes described by age, and the hope was that teachers would work at the higher levels of the same themes, where they would develop in their own practice of critical reflection and engage in a rich and multi-cultural professional dialogue which would enable their teaching and learning techniques to become richer and more thoughtful for future years.The progression shown by students, teachers and schools on the My Place, Your Place, Our Place project have demonstrated that it is possible to engage students in thinking critically about their cultural development but that we must revise the way that we teach and learn in order to do this. This may come from giving schools more time to teach this subject discreetly or in reflecting on the value of what we currently provide for students. In supporting teachers, we need to continue developing and sharing tools that allow for controversial conversations and first-hand experiences, whilst also offering time to collaborate critically with other cultures and reflect on their own practice. In this way, we can begin to allow students to build their own cultural relationships and connections through a series of first hand experiences, including student exchanges with new, unfamiliar practices, people and languages, a practice that will introduce them to a world that is only growing more globalized.

At the start our intention was to encourage children and families to cycle more to reduce congestion, air pollution and to make our towns and cities sustainable attractive places to live in. Throughout the second half of this project, Covid-19 has dramatically impacted the things we wanted to do. For example, pupil and staff travel has not been possible since March 2020 and school closures have made in-class teaching difficult and often impossible because of lengthy school closures.Indeed, many of our other Erasmus+ projects have found it difficult to keep everyone on board and keep the project going. In the case of this project, however, the reverse has happened. The results have been incredible with lockdowns providing parents and young people the opportunity to get on their bikes and explore. Parents and carers have engaged in school led projects to get their children fit and healthy whilst they, themselves, have enjoyed time with their children and rediscovered the pleasures of getting on a bike.As planned, our young people have campaigned and encouraged more pupils to cycle to school, thus reducing traffic around schools and improving pupils’ health and wellbeing through more physical activity.Teachers have worked collaboratively to develop lessons to support campaigns and further encourage the use of bicycles by pupils, parents and staff, and successfully embedded the promotion of using bicycles across school curricular.The project plan needed dramatically altering as a result of the Coronavirus, however, we have continued to work towards meeting our 3 project strands:1 - Upskilling Teachers, Pupils and Engaging the Community2- Encouraging more pupils to ride to school3 – Action- Community ProjectWe have produced a number of Intellectual Outputs including classroom materials and case studies as part of a thorough impact review. Other activities have included study visits. We managed to achieve 3 face-to-face Transnational Project Management meetings (TPM), 3 Learning Teaching and Training opportunities (LTT), 2 FOR staff and 1 for pupils. After that, all subsequent visits were cancelled because of the pandemic.Also cancelled were the multiplier events. Although dissemination has taken place and some multiplier activity has taken place, the full multiplier events could not be completed as planned.The participants in this project were:14 Schools4 Local Authorities/Regional Public Bodies2 Education/teacher/research centresThe vision of the project was ambitious but has not been unachievable despite Covid-19 restrictions, for which all participants can be very proud.