myEUROPE

myEUROPE uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and face-to-face contact to involve children and youth - at the primary and secondary educational levels - in European citizenship and intercultural education. Online activities and classroom practice examples are used to create a network of schools in Europe by enabling contact between teachers and their classes from Member States, new Member States and Candidate Countries, and by involving students in collaborative educational projects and activities.

A core communication strategy is developing a flexible learning platform in terms of language and content. The myEUROPE website offers web-based classroom projects in 3 languages (English, French and German); contributions to activities are available in all European languages. The project can take place over a day, a week, a month, or longer. Its subject is usually flexible and easily adapted to teachers' requirements, needs, expectations, and the national curriculum. In general, however, the myEUROPE activities focus on the European citizenship, cultural diversity, European geography and history, and the environment. Specifically, online paedeological content is offered in the areas of:

• Citizenship - Two examples of activities detailed here include:
  1. "Local Treasures": schools identify unique features of the local community such as food, dance, festivals, crafts, ceremonies, music, architecture, customs and traditions. The goal is to teach students how to preserve local customs, traditions and festivals, and to respect their own culture and other people's cultures.
  2. myEUROPE chats: teachers and their pupils engage in online exchange around a specific theme (e.g., "Enlarging the EU: How to inform Citizens?"); a common language and time are announced beforehand. A guest is invited to address participants' questions.
• Culture - Two examples of activities detailed here include:
  1. "Water Tales": Pupils look for, and then rewrite, a tale or legend from their local oral culture - in the process learning how "Water connects people to cultural elements through tales and legends." They are encouraged to "Find out how - from one country to another - similar connections are made."
  2. "Discover Europe": Schools collect and prepare information about their community to be published on a web page. The outcome may include a letter inviting others to visit a particular town/village or a mini travel guide that offers reasons why visitors should discover that region's history and geography.

The internet is also a tool for sharing project and teaching strategies and for fostering networking among educators. The interactive myEUROPE website offers guidance in carrying out the above-mentioned (and other) activities in the form of paedagogical guidelines, a submission form to upload content on the website, a list of outcomes, and related teaching and learning resources. Furthermore, "ICT stories" offers practice examples, and "Inside Schools" offers an overview of the various cultures, languages, and countries represented by myEUROPE through portraits from the network that also highlight specific classroom and school practices. Teachers may engage in collaborative projects with the help of a forum that offers opportunities for colleagues to join or coordinate web-based classroom projects such as theatre groups or "talking tactiles". A guide to collaborative work is also available (in 13 languages, as of this writing). Network members from such diverse places as Greenland are highlighted through portraits. An interactive poll is another means of fostering exchange from diverse - yet still European - contexts.

Education, Intercultural Understanding, Environment, Children, Youth.