In strict compliance with the epidemiological recommendations and measures, the Center of Technical Culture Rijeka gathered representatives of the educational and cultural sector at the final event of the Erasmus + project “CrowdDreaming – Youth co-create digital culture” that was entitled “Virtual reality – the future of education and cultural heritage?!”
In one place, they gathered cultural representatives who tried to use virtual reality to bring cultural heritage closer to children, young people and other citizens, and to develop new educational methods. At the event a virtual tour of the Krapina Neanderthal Museum was introduced, a virtual language learning environment created as part of the Erasmus+ project VR 4 language learning implemented by Dante Adult Education Institution, virtual contents of the Natural History Museum Rijeka, and the results of the international project “CrowdDreaming – Youth co-create a digital culture”.
The results of the project were presented by Sanjin Smajlović, project manager at CTK Rijeka, who, despite the pandemic, achieved more results than predicted by the project application. The project aimed to scale up the good Italian practice of The Art of CrowdDreaming, which encourages young people to reflect and valorize their own culture and to create digital scenes by using digital tools, in which they thank another culture for contributing to the development of their own culture.
Across Europe, 236 digital scenes were created by 1631 students from Greece, Croatia, Italy, and Latvia, and 80 of them were presented in the virtual museum European Square.
Partners from Belgium, Greece, Croatia, Italy, and Latvia have prepared Policy Recommendations for decision-makers urging them to start or continue to promote STEAM-based learning through their educational and cultural policies, the curriculum that enables interdisciplinarity and flexibility, greater visibility of initiatives that promote co-creation and peer learning, pedagogical and digital advancement of teachers, better network infrastructure and equipment in schools and flexibility in curriculum to facilitate extracurricular activities as part of regular classes.
At the panel discussion, representatives of decision-makers and cultural and educational institutions discussed the potentials and challenges of virtual reality when it is used for education or promotion of cultural heritage. The event ended with a joint virtual walk through the Europa Square, which you can also visit on our website in the section Europa Square.
“Crowddreaming – Youth co-create digital culture” is a two-year KA3 Erasmus + project implemented by organizations from Belgium (All Digital – project leader), Italy (Associazione Stati Generali dell’Innovazione), Croatia (Center of Technical Culture Rijeka), Latvia (Latvijas Informacijas un Komunikacijas Tehnologijas Association) and Greece (Hellenic Open University). In addition to the five implementing partners, the project is supported by over 20 associated partners.