MEDEA Awards 2009 Special Award: Traditions across Europe
Traditions Across Europe is a project within the eTwinning community, which is an EU programme that enables and encourages European schools to collaborate using ICT. Traditions Across Europe is based on an information exchange amongst 22 European schools about particular aspects, activities and traditions of the school's own country, a blog was set up by the schools to support this exchange. There, the 10 to 11 year old pupils of the Istituto Comprensivo Don Bosco-Francavilla in Sinni (PZ) in Italy shared what they experienced and made at school as they learned about their own origins, history and traditions. Through the project's blog, and with the help of their two teachers Gina Antonietta Mango and Carmelo Mario Martino, the Italian pupils could communicate and exchange materials about their countries' traditions.
The children were engaged in the search and discovery of local traditions: songs, typical recipes, festivities, games and particular activities (wine-making, cider-making, olive oil extraction).
It was a whole experience for the pupils, as they were confronted with the materials the other schools published on the blog and as they got to know more about the local, national and European culture. The most innovative and creative elements of the project were the confrontations that occured with foreign pupils and teachers, the analysis of authentic materials such as traditional objects, instruments, places, photographs, texts and of course the usage of ICT to search and communicate, the realization and the usage of the Blog and the usage of eTwinning twinspace.