Greetings from the Past

This site was created as a result of knowledge and skills acquired during different EU projects.

Summary

This learning scenario is meant to be used with students who have no prior knowledge of Europeana and they are using it for the first time. It has been implemented with the seventh graders.

As the introduction, the teacher gave a short overview of Europeana, its history, function and collections. The students were divided into teams and their task was to find the specific information about the four vintage postcards and the shown landmarks following instructions in four respective worksheets. By answering questions, the students learned how to navigate through Europeana, how to find the key information and how to identify important facts in a text. After that, students in turn presented their findings in front of the class. The Kahoot quiz was used as the instrument to assess what they had learned and how they had felt about the activity. Using the four worksheets and basic information about Europeana, the informative poster was made for the classroom bulleting board. After the lesson, using Google questionnaire, the teacher collected information about how the students had felt during the lesson, what skills and competences they had acquired and if they would use Europeana again. All information and learning material about the learning scenario have been uploaded on the web site in order to ensure sustainability.

The aims of the lesson have been fulfilled: the students have learned how to use Europeana, how to find the key information about items, they have improved their team work, critical thinking, collaboration skills, their online research abilities, their presentation skills, digital, linguistic and civic competences. Finally, the students enjoyed the lesson as a welcome departure from the textbook-based lessons. The focus of the lesson was shifted from the teacher towards the students. They had the chance to take autonomous decisions and to take responsibility over their learning process.

Integration into the curriculum

The learning scenario was implemented in the 7th grade of primary school(13 year olds). During English classes teachers have flexibility to implement topics connected to cultural heritage.

The Aims of the Lesson:

  • The students will be able to navigate Europeana collections and get the key information about the items they work on. They will be able to work in teams thus improving their team work and collaboration skills. They will also be able to conduct online research to get important information about the landmark. They will be able to present their findings about the postcard they have researched. They will improve their ICT competence by searching, summarizing, categorizing and presenting information in the digital form. They will be able to name some of the most important historical landmarks in Croatia and thus improve their cultural awareness. They will take responsibility over their own learning process. They will also learn how to learn by doing part of the job individually and in teams. They will improve own autonomy by being responsible for the research parts of the project activities. They will learn how to collaborate with other students by working together on the presentation. They will give a presentation to the class thus improving own presentation skills.

Trends

Project-Based Learning: students get fact-based tasks, problems to solve and they work in groups. This kind of learning usually transcends traditional subjects.

Collaborative learning: a strong focus on team work.

Mobile Learning: we get access to knowledge through smartphones and tablets. It is learning anytime, anywhere.

Learning materials: shift from textbooks to web resources and open source books.

21st century skills

By working on this project, students will learn how to obtain information from the Internet, how to interpret and analyze it. They will work in teams thus improving their cooperation and collaboration skills. By having to find facts in a text, they will improve their critical thinking. Once they deliver an oral presentation in fron of the class, they will improve their presentation skills. The whole task contributes to the improvement of their literacy, ICT literacy as well as cultural and civic literacy.

Activities

Describe here in detail all the activities during the lesson and the time they require. Remember, that your learning scenario needs to use Europeana resources.

Introduction

Teacher explains Europeana concept, its history and how to use it

Implementation

Students are divided into four teams. Each team gets a worksheet with the necessary information and instructions on what to look for on Europeana and the Internet .

Presentation

Students present their work to the rest of the class

Assessment

Students solve the quiz (Kahoot) prepared by the teacher

Conclusion

Students create a class poster by attaching worksheet on a piece of paper


Following the end of the lesson, students do the questionnaire: https://bit.ly/2THqNRV