Summary of the planned Partnership. This description may be used by the European Commission

and/or the National Agency when providing information on selected projects, so please be clear and

precise and do not exceed 200 words.

These are the goals of DIGS: 1)arouse students' creativity through digital photography 2)motivate

them to language learning and to a creative use of ICT 3)make them acquainted with the culture of

other European countries in order to pave the way for a broader European integration. All partner

schools have found this view interesting as it joins modern technologies of communication and

digital photography with topics taken from everyday life: nature, local area, hi story, people etc.

Beneficiaries will learn that through digital pictures they can express their feelings and thoughts

thus enhancing the learning process. The participants will work together in each school and

between schools through mails, instant messaging and videoconferences, besides personal

meetings during transnational visits. A positive side effect would be that of getting the students to

include the project in their own cyber world community (facebook, myspace etc). The final

products of the project are online photo-albums with photographs taken by students from each

school, exhibitions of photos organized in each school at the end of the first and the second year,

a calendar with the important festivals of all partner schools, and four billboards with the best

photos to be placed permanently in each school

specific context as for example: Are the institutions in disadvantaged areas? Do the institutions

have pupils, staff or other groups with specific needs, e.g. pupils at risk of social exclusion, pupils

with special needs, migrants, refugees? If so, please explain.

a) The Italian school is located in a semi rural area (the Mugello Valley) some 30 km from

Florence. Despite being near a world famous and culturally renowned town, the Mugello, still has

some traits of a backward area with lower incomes and lower cultural titles than other areas of

Tuscany and centre-north Italy. It is essential that our school take part in Eu projects as they are,

for most kids the sole opportunity to broaden their minds and to get into contact with people from

other countries. a) the Polish school is situated in a rural region. The village itself is located in the

suburbs of a town. there are many unemployed people and a lot of the students live in poor

conditions. However, our teachers make their best to educate and motivate the students, who

achieve very good results in knowledge competitions in our Podkarpackie Province. Taking part in

EU projects will be highly benefiacial for the students' achievements and motivation to learn a) the

Turkish School is located in the outskirts of Istanbul. It is a small general secondary school with

students ranging from 15 to 18. They have to sit for a university entrance when they are in 12th

grade. Joining a EU is the only way for most of them to have a possibility to go abroad. It's the

first time they take part in a EU project and are really motivated to work on digital photography a)

the French scool is located in Betton, a small town near Rennes in Brittany. Even though in the

area there isn't particular evidence of social exclusion, the school wishes to give its students a

wider EU outlook thus paving the way to a thorough future social inclusion b) All project

participants will benefit from this international cooperation by enlarging their knowledge about

other European countries learning about their traditions and their culture. The project will help to

develop language skills, positive attitudes towards cultural differences, prompt students to look

for different means of expression enhancing their creative skills and implement modern

communication and information technologies in particular those related to digital photography,

picture editing and video-instant messaging. The participating schools will also benefit on the

pedagogical level as the project involves the engagement of teachers of various subjects

(interdisciplinary approach); the inclusion of the project into the classroom activities (educational

program); the creation of a positive image and promotion of each school within the local

community..

09_PA_COM_00090 15 10.02.2009

- What are the concrete objectives of the partnership?

- Explain what subjects or problems you intend to address.

- What approach will you take to achieve your objectives?

The objectives of the partnership are:

- the improvement of language skills both for students and teachers taking part in the project;

- the improvement of the students' creative skills;

- the improvement of the students’ knowledge concerning the culture of their region and the

culture of other countries and of specific regions in those countries;

- the development of a European social awareness through the contact with peers from partner

countries;

- the improvement of skills concerning the use of modern computer technologies and

communication (e-mails, the use of a digital cameras, scanners and computer programs, videoinstant

messaging etc.)

- acquiring the specific knowledge concerning digital photography: its basic rules, specific advanced

developments, computer software used for photo editing, printing techniques etc.

We aim at addressing 7 subjects during the 2-year project work. The photographs during the first

year will cover the following fields: a) school life b)my region (sights and landscapes with highlights

of the world of plants and animals typical of each region) c)the history of my region through

religious and lay buildings and pictures of handicrafts and old trades; the photographs during the

second year will cover the following fields d)macro-photography (photos of small insects, plant

tissues, blooms) e)the four seasons of the year in each country (natural views and folklore

combined with the 4 natural elements water, wind, earth, fire and other meteorological phenomena

e.g. rain, storm, lightening, hail, snow) f)our hobbies, g) religion (buildings and traditions)

All partner schools will include the elements of the project in the school curriculum (especially

history, geography, biology, English and religion), in order to involve a greater number of students

and teachers in the project realization and to make the learning process a more meaningful event.

Moreover, special meetings will be organized for students and teachers belonging to the project

group. During the meetings the participants will discuss further tasks, set the details, choose and

edit the photos, learn about photography through lectures or meetings with professional

photographers and visit photo exhibitions within the country (these activities will be carried out

jointly with the associated partners where present). They will also have the opportunity to meet

with partners from other schools during online chat or videoconferencing session .

Please explain the distribution of tasks between participating institutions and the competences

required from each of them. Also explain how you will ensure the active involvement of all partners

in common partnership activities.

Each partner school will have to select the project group at the beginning of the project

implementation, set the time allotted for each activity and find the human resources to work in the

project. Participants will monitor and evaluate activities to complete them by their deadlines.

During the realisation of each topic the partner schools will have to fulfil the following tasks:

- discuss the topic with the students, provide them with necessary knowledge to understand the

topic well;

09_PA_COM_00090 16 10.02.2009

- divide them into small groups, or sometimes order individual work;

- students take photographs and download them onto the computers;

- analyze all photographs taken by students and choose the best ones during the project meeting;

- edit the chosen photographs using computer programs;

- discuss the work in transnational video chat sessions and possibly re-edit some photograps or

take more according to the feedback from the students of other schools

- provide the title of the photo in the mother language, and name of the person who took it;

- translate the title into English, e.g. during English classes;

- provide longer captions to the pictures so as to explain especially more general topics related to

history, geography, biology, art and religion. These brief reports will be provided in English and in

all the other languages of the partnership)

- send the photos to the school responsible for updating the website dedicated to the project and to

other partner schools.

The Polish school reminds the deadline for each subject and contacts the responsible teachers

and/or students to monitor the realisation of the project.

The Italian coordinating school prepares the Internet website(only first year), where all photos

from each school will be collected in one photo-album divided into topics, and also news concerning

the project will be pasted.

The Turkish and French schools will make sure contacts between students of different schools are

taken on a regular basis. All the partner schools will be responsible for writing news, summaries

from the visits and other information which will be placed on the Internet.

During the first year visits, a decision will be taken concerning the school responsible for updating

the website in the second and final year and checking that the final products will be displayed and

the result duly processed and disseminated. In the final year the coordinating Italian school will

remind the deadline for each subject and will contact the responsible teachers and/or students to

monitor the realisation of the project. Other distributions of tasks for the second year will be

decided during the first transnational meeting in Turkey (October 2010)

Please explain how effective cooperation and communication between participating institutions will

be organised.

Effective cooperation will be ensured by naming responsibles (both teachers and students). Each

responsible will communicate with his/her counterpart(s) using e-mail, instant messaging,

videochat, phone etc. Each school will see that teaching staff be able to concentrate on the project

and that teachers of different subjects will work on the project. There will be special online chat

sessions organised in each participating school, to exchange ideas, monitor work or chit chat with

friends in English. Moreover, the teachers from the Polish school will assure the flow of

information, by sending e-mails concerning the progress of work in each school.

What impact and benefits of European cooperation do you expect Partnership activities to have on

persons (pupils and staff) and on the participating institutions?

Students will greatly benefit form the project for various reasons: 1)they will get technical

expertise on digital photography and will enhance their creative skills boosting at the same time

motivation for the learning process 2)they will experience the benefits of teamwork and peer to

peer education thus paving the way to a new learning environment 3)they will get in touch with

different EU countries learning about their history, geography and traditions thus easing the way

into a new European identity. Teachers and staff will learn new ways of tackling the

teaching/learning process more based on monitoring, encouraging and sharing than on the

traditional teacher-centred approach. Teachers and staff will also benefit from what stated in point

09_PA_COM_00090 17 10.02.2009

3 above. The institutions in general will broaden their scope and mission fostering innovation and

creativity and getting ready to wear a mature Eu identity.

X To improve the quality and to increase the volume of mobility involving pupils and educational staff in

different Member States (COM-OpObj-1)

X To improve the quality and to increase the volume of partnerships between schools in different

Member States, so as to involve at least 3 million pupils in joint educational activities during the

period of the programme (COM-OpObj-2)

lifelong learning (COM-OpObj-4)

How will you evaluate, during and after the Partnership, whether the aims of the partnership have

been met and the expected impact has been achieved?

The evaluation of the success of the aims of the partnership will be carried out through the various

steps of the project. 1) the transnational project meetings are also a way to evaluate and possibly

correct what has already been achieved. 2) The constant communication between students and

staff of the 4 different countries will also subject the project to a continuous form of evaluation. 3)

At the end of each year there will be feedback from within the school and the local communities

which will serve as a further assessment of the project. 4) The final evaluation will materialize in

the form of reports and evaluation sheets/questionnaires distributed to staff, students and families.

5) the fact that students will possibly include the project in their personal pages within wider web

communities will be also considered as a form of evaluation of DIGS

If your partnership focuses mainly on pupil involvement, please explain to what extent they will be

involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of project activities.

And/or

If your partnership mainly deals with pedagogical or management issues, please explain how all

relevant staff will be actively involved in planning, implementation and evaluation of project

activities.

The students are the most active actors in the project. First of all the project planning derives to a

certain extent directly from the suggestions made by our students concerning exploring new ways

of learning and increase motivation in ordinary school work and the partnership has been formed

by grouping schools sharing the same learning ideals, ideas and practical goals. Students once get

acquainted with the overall aims of the project and after getting some formal training in digital

photography will have free reins to express their views and feelings and will also be involved in the

implementation of the various activities involved including ongoing and final evaluation. They will

be in charge with completing the topics with suitable pictures, edit them, sharing information with

their foreign peers, update the photo-album on the web site and even organizing the dissemination

not least by personally including the project in their own online data store/sharing facilities such as

facebook, mayspace, netlog etc

09_PA_COM_00090 18 10.02.2009

If the project focuses on pupil involvement, please explain how the project will be integrated into

the curriculum / learning activities of the participating pupils in each of the participating

organisations.

And/or If your partnership mainly deals with pedagogical or management issues, please explain how the

project will be integrated into the ongoing activities of the participating organisations.

It is planned to integrate into the curriculum the following elements of the project in each school:

computer classes – the learning of the software used to photo editing, the information exchange

between the partner schools, communication between the students taking part in the exchange,

the construction and functions of a camera; lens, shutter, diaphragm and pixels – what are they

and how they work; English – the improvement of language skills, the translation of all necessary

texts connected with the project and the communication between partner schools through chat

sessions; Art classes – acquiring of the knowledge about photography, preparation of the layout of

the calendar, coloured and sepia photos, special effects etc; Geography – collecting of information

regarding the most attractive places in local areas as well as in partner countries, the typical

symptoms of seasons of the year in our country; Biology – the environment of each partner

country, the knowledge about the morphology of animals and plants through macro-photography;

History – the information regarding the history of the partner countries and relations between the

countries in the past, the most interesting sights of our country; Physics - lights reflection, how to

measure the angle of incidence of light, Religious Education – the differences between the religions

and the religious buildings and religious traditions of all partner countries. In each school there will

be a special notice board with information concerning partners of the project, progress and photos

from the visits

How will you disseminate and use the results, experiences and, where applicable, products of the

Partnership?

- in the participating organisations?

- in the local communities?

- in the wider lifelong learning community?

The online photo-album with links from the schools’ web sites, will be available to the wider lifelong

learning community and will serve as a great material to get the knowledge of the four countries

and some other aspects of life. Each partner school will organize two exhibitions, each one at the

end of each project year. The second one will somehow sum up the project and will be a good

opportunity to show its results to local community, and other invited guests (other schools,

authorities etc). We will also try to have the exhibitions in showrooms in town thus reaching a

wider audience. Photographs taken by students may also be used during lessons by the teachers,

e.g. while teaching the history of the region, the environment etc.) There will be in each school a

selected area for the exhibition of the billboards and calendars from other countries as well as to

paste meaningful information about the project. Schools web sites and local media (newspapers,

radio and tv) will be used to voice initiatives related to the project (e.g. transnational meetings,

exhibitions etc). Teachers will take special care at prompting students to further disseminate the

project through the students’ own pages of community-sharing data as already hinted at in several

parts of the form