Innovation in Language Learning

The integration of digital cultural heritage into compulsory secondary education has become quite topical in recent years. Several European-Commission supported projects have been initiated with the aim of improving secondary-school teachers’ digital skills. This study will focus on the results of qualitative research on the integration of digital cultural heritage in compulsory education at lower and upper secondary level schools. Our research cohort of 15 secondary school teachers involved in the Erasmus+Cherished project, participated in a professional development activity (LTTA – Learning and Teacher Training Activity) in Nicosia, Cyprus between the 6th and 9th July 2022. This workshop was organized by Synthesis (Centre for Research and Education) and attended by other EU cultural and educational institutions such as Matej Bel University (by Faculty of Arts´ members, one of them is the author of this article) - Slovakia, SPEL - Portugal, SDT - Belgium, Insituto Ikigai - Spain and Ki Culture - Netherlands. The LTTA emerged as one of the outcomes of Erasmus+Cherished project no. 1. 2020-1-BE02-KA226-SCH-083039, coordinated by Square Dot Team from Belgium. In addition to interviewing Slovak teachers, we also reflected on the views and opinions of teachers from other project countries such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. The study’s primary research techniques were interviews and online questionnaires. Using these techniques, we explored the secondary school teachers’ experiences applying digital cultural heritage in their teaching. We explored the challenges teachers faced as well as their strengths and weaknesses in incorporating digital cultural heritage in their classroom practices. Using the mentioned methods of qualitative research, we were able to reveal more about the secondary school teachers´ opinions on LTTA in Cyprus. We shone particular light on the benefits they gained in terms of their professional development, on the specific skills they improved, and on the needs they still have in integrating digital cultural heritage into their lessons. We built the article on the premise that using digital sources of cultural heritage can foster not only teachers´ digital skills, but also students' global skills, cultural awareness, and cultural intelligence.

References

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