Digitalisation and globalization ever more determine people’s daily lives, offering a large variety of new visions and lifestyles and turning the world into “a global village”. Thus, there are increasing requirements in language learning as options of working and living abroad – especially within the EU. Even though English as the lingua franca is the most important foreign language, learning one or more of the other 23 languages spoken within the EU is advisable with regard to extended traveling/tourism throughout Europe as well as to the requirements in the world of work.Language learning, however, is largely restricted to schools, meaning that most students tend to become demotivated for the simple fact that it is mandatory. On the other hand, especially the younger generations, the so-called digital natives, have grown up with digital devices and games that usually require at least a minimum knowledge especially of English, usually hardly connected with learning effects produced at schools.Motivation can easily be hightened when relying on the “fun factor”, thus adding the incentive of voluntarily and by one’s own choice taking up the vocabulary and grammar of a foreign language needed to also get along in real life (intrinsic motivation).Combining the “fun factor” and the younger generations’ love of playing digital games with language learning, the project therefore aims at developing, testing and implementing an application for learning English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, on levels A1 and A2, as the underlying concept of an adventure game to be played on mobile digital devices.The app addresses young people aged between 12-17+, i.e. students at secondary level, using it both within the educational context and during spare time, as well as language learners of all ages who wish to learn any of the six most relevant European languages more playfully instead of or alongside ordinary learning at schools or courses.The project aims at developing an adventure game the contents of which include elements of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), creating a game setting at the turn of ages between the Middle Ages and modern times, based on well-known tales and our common European history. Players will create their own individual avatars on a gender neutral basis also taking into account individual preferences as to profession, life etc. (e.g. a trade person, a knight, life in the countryside or a town). Players will have to interact online with other characters in the game and master challenges that they are presented with via books (AR elements) in which they find further information, thus stimulating reading and immersing oneself deeper into past and present aspects of our common European history, cultures, societies and economies.Even though the adventure app will mainly aim at motivating self-learning approaches and flexible, individualized progress, it is also considered to be used at schools, offering an innovative pedagogical tool in language teaching, introducing/furthering low-level implementation of digital devices.On a technical scale, the app will present incentives for immersing with various aspects of digital programming, enhancing interest in STE(A)M, maker education, DIY programming etc. Teaching personnel will be offered a manual and teaching material for full integration of the app and its contents both in language as well as cross-subject teaching (e.g. history, geography).Each player may choose their own pace of learning, which allows for a far better inclusion of students with learning abilities below average. Highly motivated students and those with higher learning abilities will be provided with additional challenges and tasks within the game.The app will also widen learning space and time as it provides the possibility of learning “on the go”, wherever and whenever the learner decides, thus allowing a more playful learning with much greater motivation. It will also enable them to learn several foreign languages if wanted, together with a local, regional, national and international community of players.The aspects of playing the game on an international European level and of its being based on the common European history along with the notion that language learning throughout Europe needs to be given joint, focussed interest has brought the partners of this project together: The Goethe-Institut as the coordinating institution has already cooperated with the UK partners in this project in a project on language learning in primary schools (2015-2018), yet with very different priorities and aims. The coordinator from the Goethe-Institut in London has already taken part in an eTwinning project with one of the partners in Italy. All the other new partners from Italy, France, Germany and Portugal have been included both for their expertise and in order to widen the existing partnerships.

Silk was a major factor for progress in Europe, mostly along the Western Silk Road’s network of production and market centres. Silk trade also allowed for exchange of ideas and innovations. Punched cards were first used in Jacquard silk looms, long before modern computers were even imagined. Today, too, fashion and high-end textile industries have a huge impact in the EU, reaching €525 billion in annual turnover. Silk, however, has become a seriously endangered heritage. Although many European specialized museums are devoted to its preservation, they usually lack size and resources to establish networks or connections with other collections. SILKNOW aims to produce an intelligent computational system that goes beyond current technologies in order to improve our understanding of European silk heritage. This legacy will be studied, showcased and preserved through the digital modelling of its weaving techniques (a “Virtual Loom”). Users will access the resulting information through visual and tangible simulations, and experience vastly enhanced search tools, providing better results through automatic visual recognition, advanced spatio-temporal visualization, multilingual and semantically enriched access to existing digital data. Thus, SILKNOW will improve the understanding of EU heritage and its rich diversity, applying next-generation ICT research to the needs of various users (museums, education, tourism, creative industries, media…), and preserving an intangible heritage (ancient weaving techniques) for younger generations. Its research activities and outputs will have direct impact in computer science and big data management, focusing on searching digital content in heterogeneous, multilingual and multimodal databases. SILKNOW will be possible only with the close cooperation of a multidisciplinary team, including areas as ICT, text analytics, image processing, semantics, big data, 3D printing, art history, terminology, textile fabrication and conservation.

ObjectiveSchools: Future Labs aimed to increase the employability of young people, by increasing their interest and achievements in STEM and foreign language subjects.Problem statementThe problem we addressed was two-fold:• Low interest of students in STEM subjects, because these subjects were taught (and therefore perceived) in dry, theoretical, abstract terms;• Low proficiency in foreign languages, because classroom teaching was largely theoretical/passive, instead of participatory which would enable students to use and practice the language they are learning.Ultimately, these two subject areas were fundamentally linked in the sense that in theory, they appeared abstract and useless, yet once they were practiced, they opened doors to the world. Methodology, Activities and OutputsTo reach its objective, Schools: Future Labs developed and tested a teaching methodology based on Action Research, involving task-based exploration of STEM subjects during classes taught in tandem by STEM and foreign language teachers. Using mobile science labs that enable students to develop and implement their own experiments, this methodology was student-led, self-directed and included project planning and implementation skills: all essential to the development of transversal skills.The activities of the project implementation phase were primarily concern training of teachers, piloting of the methodology by teachers in their classes, further training and production seminars and on-line mentoring, resulting in the development of project outputs.The outputs of this project are:• A teacher training Course for the Schools: Future Labs methodology;• A series of “plug-and-play” STEM-CLIL lesson plans, applied to a variety of STEM subjects and applicable to any foreign language;• A virtual student learning portfolio which will document each student’s learning outcomes.Expected ResultsThe efficacy and effectiveness of this methodology was comprehensively evaluated, both in quantitative terms (did students test better than those not involved in this project?) and as importantly, in qualitative terms (were students more interested in STEM and FL than those not involved in this project? Did teachers and students find classes more interesting and motivating?)The evaluation demonstrated that as a result of Schools: Future Labs, students were more interested in STEM subjects, achieved a higher and deeper level of knowledge, developed better fluency in their chosen foreign language, and that these results were achieved in a cost-effective way.Based on this evaluation, the results were: - the participating schools will continue to use this methodology with their students;- the Schools: Future Labs Teacher Training Course have been accredited in most Partner countires as a teacher training course;- the participating teacher training institutes started offering this course as part of their new and in-service teacher training offer.We used these results to promote:- the adoption of the Schools: Future Labs methodology by public education authorities in the participating countries and its implementation in more schools, including in secondary schools;- the piloting and dissemination of Schools: Future Labs in more countries in order to extend its benefits to students (and businesses) across the European Union.Long-term impactsWe expect that as a result of this project, students will, as they grow older:- make a more successful transition into employment, in careers that are vital to the competitiveness of the European economies;- possess the skills that the private sector desperately needs. If these needs are different in 15 years' time, they will have developed the transversal skills necessary to adapt.ParticipantsThe project was piloted in 5th and 6th-grade classes (or local equivalent) in seven project partner schools in four countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and Romania. One linked secondary school also participated in each country as an observer, with a view to extending the methodology to secondary schools in the future. Participants included STEM and FL teachers who were trained in the Schools: Future Labs methodology, as well as their students who did benefit from this methodology.Two Teacher Training Institutes (BG, PL), a University (EL) and an Education Ministry department (RO) specialised in teacher training, as well as two national cultural institutes (Goethe-Institut (DE) and Instituto Cervantes (ES)) trained, accompanied and supported the teachers and ensured that their work results in effective project outputs. The Spanish Ministry of Education completed the partnership, bringing its network and know-how to project dissemination.