Europeana Workshop in the Cloud
Council of the Gods, Cornelis van Poelenburch, 1630, Mauritshuis PD“The classical gods have gathered for a cheerful meeting in the clouds,” says on the Europeana platform presenting the painting above. In November 2020 the Europeana Ambassadors, teachers and museum educators, European Schoolnet and Europeana representatives had their annual kickoff meeting online. Not resembling Gods, but having an enlivening workshop in the virtual cloud presented the beginning of this new year of the Europeana Education initiative.
The Europeana Teacher and Museum Educator Ambassadors and the European Schoolnet and Europeana representativesMotivating the participants after a long summer break with unclear perspectives of a face to face meeting can be a challenge. But the enthusiastic and proactive team of educators was ready to start the work on the Europeana platform and Teaching with Europeana blog.
Planning the year ahead
This Europeana online workshop offered feedback about the previous year and started planning for the year ahead, discussing new projects, opportunity to reflect on successes, results, failures, and what the next year should look like. One of the most interesting tools Europeana and Historiana developed together this year, is the eLearning activity builder offering an easy to use tool for the Virtual Classroom during the pandemic. Browsing the scenarios on the site, you will find lessons not only for History classes but for general use like this one about Coffee’s Consequences.
Connecting formal and non-formal education
A map of Europeana's partners across EuropeWorking with teachers and museum educators is based on a new strategy, focusing mainly on distance learning, diversity and inclusion. This year the Europeana Education Initiative is going to connect formal and informal education and will run a new MOOC in March 2021. The blog will be reorganized in order to be more transparent and easy to search and to prepare the transition to the Europeana Classroom.
It was an inspiring event that allowed everyone to bounce around ideas.
“We make it easier for people to use cultural heritage for education, research, creation and recreation. Our work contributes to an open,
knowledgeable and creative society” – Isabel Crespo, representative of the Europeana Foundation.
Having been filled with new ideas on how to diversify classes with digital cultural heritage content, the educators are ready to come back to their classrooms to provide students with high-quality educational experiences. We are all looking forward to meeting again in June, hopefully, this time in Brussels, to summarise this year’s accomplishments and celebrate together with the winners of the Europeana Education Competition 2021! It would be great to finish, what we started in the cloud, in the real Future Classroom Lab!
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By Kati Lőrincz and Katarzyna Siwczak, Europeana Education Ambassadors