Digital Solutions for Applied Heritage – Exploring Transnational Learning Opportunities
Digital Solutions for Applied Heritage – Exploring Transnational Learning Opportunities is a project funded by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership program. In this project, heritage institutions accustomed to time travel methods and roleplaying games will experimentally develop digital variants. The project aims at using digital solutions in order to transform the usually exclusively local time travel into a transnational experience.
The Nordic Centre of Heritage Learning and Creativity (Sweden) is coordinating the project, and project members are Kalmar County Museum (Sweden), Jamtli (Sweden), The Ostrobothnian Children’s Culture Network BARK (Finland), Estonian National Museum (Estonia) and Audentes School (Estonia). We will produce advanced pedagogical programs that we will continue to use and develop, which will have a long-term impact upon how we use time travel, roleplaying and other pedagogical programs in the future.
During Covid-19, museums that have worked for many years with time travel methods, roleplaying games and other pedagogical programs as a tool for social inclusion targeting school children, have started to consider whether the method can be packaged into a digital service or product. In this project, museums accustomed to time travel methods and roleplaying games will experimentally develop digital variants, and investigate to what extent these could become mediators of that method, and strengthen collaboration with schools.
The need of digitization initiatives within the heritage sector, including in museums’ pedagogical programs, has been recognized widely during the last years. However, a digitization of school programs is not merely the question of putting material online but demands development of methods suitable for online teaching which also makes use of the digital arena.
We recognize that digital solutions are not a hindrance in heritage learning, but can instead create new possibilities for a diversity of target groups that otherwise would not have access to museums’ outreaching work.
This project aims at using digital solutions in order to transform the usually exclusively local time travel into a transnational experience. A strategic partnership between Sweden, Finland and Estonia can set the foundation for transnational programs emphasizing European connectivities, which will strengthen an integrated and borderless Europe. Transnational storytelling will move away from traditional storytelling which is often focused on the story of the nation. We see such a development as a possibility to take roleplaying and time traveling programs aiming for social inclusion to the next level, and to be of great value to other museums and schools within Europe.
Contact Gustav Wollentz for more information.
