Implementation of “Our City on Europeana“ (SOI-HR-283)
Author: Maja Dumančić-Rora, English and German teacher
School/Organization: Primary School “Dobriša Cesarić” Osijek, Croatia
Implementation of „Our City on Europeana“ (SOI-HR)
Currently, in German class, we are learning about life in the city, about its positive and negative sides. This learning scenario “Our City on Europeana” helped us to show the changes in our city.
The implementation context
Osijek-Cathedral, Selzer and Rank, Osijek, 1910 Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, Croatia
Learning scenario „Our City on Europeana“ created by Marcin Jabłoński (LS-PL-530) was implemented by Croatian teacher Maja Dumančić-Rora with the 8th grade students during the German lesson.
Living in the same place for a long time, we often don’t notice the changes, so we decided to carry out an activity of searching for the changes in our city Osijek, to see whether our city is changing and whether the changes are positive. The implementation took 2 x 45 minute lessons.
The narrative
Introduction
In the first phase, the students were introduced to the Europeana homepage, what it is and how it can be used. The students independently explored the contents of the site. The students listed several activities that could be done with this learning scenario, such as making postcards or collages of our city, which represent the progress of our hometown. We decided to make a collage of our city.
Activities
In the second phase, students mostly worked in pairs, but some of them also worked alone.
The task was to look for areas or buildings that have mostly changed. Divided by city
districts, they searched for changes in our city on the pages of Europeana and from other sources, paying attention to the copyright. Some students used their own private photos. While looking for it, some students were very surprised when they came across photos of empty landscapes from 15-20 years ago, knowing how it looks today. In the third phase, each student chose one area or a building to show the change, with the selected photos they created a collage in Canva. The collage contains the name of the city district, pictures of antiques and the new / restored building. In order to introduce the sights and changes in our city, special attention was paid to titles that were in Croatian, English and German. Students had to look for some credible translation tools or a dictionary.
Conclusion
In the last phase and the most important phase, we had a discussion. Students used their work to present changes in their hometown. While presenting and discussing the positive and negative changes in our city, they developed critical thinking, acceptance of different points of view and improved their communication skills. We came to the conclusion that the changes in our city are very positive and that our city is a city of great possibilities.
Learning outcomes
The aims
Students have learned how to use Europeana, other sources and find information, they have improved their translation skills to English and German, critical thinking, communication skills and digital skills. The aims of the lesson have been fulfilled.
Outcomes for the educator
My thoughts as a teacher
There are many sources available to students, so it is a great advantage to know one very sufficient and expert source, like Europeana, with provable information that is very easy to use. That is a reason why it was a great advantage for my students to get to know the source of Europeana. The usage of digital skills, translation skills and at the end the discussion played a major role in this task. It was very exciting for the students to search for information, organize it and talk about their hometown.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? Our City on Europeana (LS-PL-530) by Marcin Jabłoński
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like:
- Time Travel Agency implemented by Sonja Jankulovska
- Europe and Me implemented by Maria Antónia Bran
- Historical Heritage of My Town implemented by Katalin Lorincz
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
CC BY-SA 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Musem of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb.