According to #UNESCO documents, Cultural Heritage is ‘our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations’. However, we live in a very interesting period where cultural heritage is shifting paradigms by merging with the digital, thus becoming Digital Cultural Heritage. This implies the use of digital media in the service of preserving cultural or natural heritage, and much more.
Digital Literacy in Education - a necessity or a must!
In an increasingly dynamic and globalised world, where technology constantly offers new assets for a greater connectivity among cultures, groups, and individuals, we need to focus on developing the basic skills required for young learners to fully develop their potentials to be truly involved in the digital age that we, as educators, are preparing them for. English language skills and ICT skills are the main skills required for 21st-century literacy. By introducing a combined instruction between these two subject areas in order to produce a common intellectual output can create the necessary context for students' full engagement in the learning process, allowing individuality in their expression of ideas, with proper guidance facilitated by their educators.
Digital Literacy for EFL Students offers a step-by-step process in facilitating students' production of content for their blogs, websites, videos, and promote them on social media by advancing their presentation skills as well, focusing on networking and creating online communities, where they could share and exchange ideas. It is a unique opportunity for students of #EFL and #ICT to combine their skills in order to increase their visibility in the ever-changing digital world we live in.
Digital Cultural Heritage
"Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings." Walt Disney
The digital contents created every day have become the core intellectual outputs of humanity’s existence and therefore a potential and possible part of the future cultural heritage – a Digital Cultural Heritage. That is why Digital Literacy plays an important part in transposing Cultural Heritage onto another pedestal that would both secure its continuity, increase its visibility and impact in shaping the perception of young minds in relation to culture in general, and enable it to provide quality contents to serve as the groundwork for future expressions of cultural activity.
'Digital Meets Heritage' Contents
The 'Digital Meets Heritage' course is a PBL Simulation intended for EFL students (aged 12-19), who are willing to advance their language skills through the use of digital technology in the context of Cultural Heritage, and it is implemented in a period of 11 weeks (2 hours per week) through 5 stages:
Stage One - Blogging with Google Arts & Culture
Week 1: Introduction to Blogging - Setting up students' blogs; 1st Assignment: About Me.
Week 2: Introduction to Cultural Heritage Categories - Places, Historical Figures/Historic Events, Artists/Art Movements, and Women in Culture (students select one topic from each category to prepare blog posts about); 2nd Assignment: Places; 3rd Assignment: Historical Figures/Historic Events.
Week 3: Publishing Blog Posts & Blog Commenting (Places, Historical Figures/Historic Events); 4th Assignment: Artists/Art Movements; 5th Assignment: Women in Culture.
Stage Two - Visiting the British Museum with Google
Week 4: Publishing Blog Posts & Blog Commenting (Artists/Art Movements, and Women in Culture); Introduction to VR Technology in Education; Visiting the British Museum; 6th Assignment: My Time Travel Diary.
Week 5: VR Tours: Explore Google Arts & Culture, and select museums/sites to visit during individual VR Tours.
Stage Three - VR Tours with Google Arts & Culture
Week 6: Individual VR Tours to pre-selected museums/sites from Google Arts and Culture. 7th Assignment: My VR Tour to a World Heritage Site/Museum.
Week 7: Publishing Blog Posts & Commenting (Individual VR Tour impressions). Introduction to VR for Expedition - Group virtual tour to Britain's Heritage Sites with Google Expedition; 8th Assignment: Edmodo Quiz on Britain's Heritage.
Stage Four - VR Tours with Google Expedition
Week 8: VR Tour to Britain's Cultural Heritage Sites with Google Expedition (group work). 9th Assignment: My Expedition to Britain's Cultural Heritage Sites.
Week 9: Publishing Blog Posts & Blog Commenting (VR Expedition impressions); Introduction to Screen Recording Digital Tools; 10th Assignment: Transcript for the Screencast Video Tour.
Stage Five - Screen Recording, Video Editing, and Social Media
Week 10: Screen Recording and Video Editing - Individual screencast video tours of students' digital outputs; 11th Assignment: My Screencast Video Tour.
Week 11: Social Media Promotion - Facebook Fan Page, Instagram, Twitter.
Expected Outcomes
In order to find, one needs to seek! In order to lead, one needs to follow! Our mission as educators is to be the beacons of light - the contact point between those who seek the way and those who lead the way!
"Social media is an amazing tool, but it's really the face-to-face interaction that makes a long-term impact." Felicia Day
This PBL Simulation enables a significant amount of online interaction that enhances students' understanding of the concepts and ideas they acquire in the process, and are willing to exchange them with a community sharing similar interests. However, the most important part of this PBL Simulation is the actual interaction between all participants that takes place on the brick-and-mortar campus, which enables them to boost each other's confidence in the attempt to reach the summit of their aspirations together.
In this PBL Simulation, students explore topics related to the world's cultural heritage, and use digital tools to express their experiences of discovering new perspectives through VR tours and expeditions, which gives added value to advancing their English language skills, in relation to content creation for their digital outputs. Students are given a constructive, and diverse set of skills, as well as knowledge that helps them expand their understanding of the global cultural heritage. Moreover, they become aware of the importance of preserving it for the future generations.
There is nothing more satisfying then to see the faces of young people who feel confident while acquiring new skills and attaining results that give them a sense of belonging to a much larger whole, which is meaningful and opens new horizons - a much clearer vision for a brighter tomorrow!
And that is what we all, as educators, strive for!