The DREAM project reinvents the museum experience and knowledge of cultural heritage

With the first face-to-face meeting held in September in Rijeka, Croatia, the project officially got underway DREAM extension – acronym of ddigital Reality and ANDeducational TOctivities in Museums – which promotes digital skills in school education and knowledge of cultural heritage, stimulating relationships and mutual knowledge between students and teachers of the European Union States.

DREAM, funded by Erasmus +, involves 45 teachers from four European countries, i.e Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Finland, and 900 students, 30 of whom have learning difficulties. The project aims to create immersive experiences of edutainment and quality open educational resources, thanks to the collaboration with the museums involved, with the aim of stimulating students to create a sort of digital transnational museum through European intercultural thematic itineraries.

As he explains Paul Russo Of States General of Innovation, coordinator and creator of the project: «The two days in Croatia was the first opportunity to get to know each other live and exchange knowledge and skills, we have laid the foundations for the future path which we hope will be stimulating and creative. We presented the draft of the DREAM methodology, which will have final approval by the end of September, a method that we want to be innovative and engaging for school and museum education, thanks to the use of new technologies and a new approach to knowledge and use of cultural heritage».

DREAM works using and applying the methodology developed with theArt of Crowddreaming, which connects young people and educators with cultural heritage and digitisation, in a unique co-creation process which contributes to a common understanding of European history and values, intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. «Crowddreaming has proven to be an effective tool to involve young people in co-creating, managing, learning about and safeguarding digital cultural heritage», as demonstrated by some successful projects such as “Crowddreaming: “Youth co-create Digital Culture – Piazza Europa”, “Quintana 4D: Widespread Didactic Digital Entertainment”, “Heritellers”.

DREAM revolves around the concept of “museater”, created in 2014 in the United States, this is the very first definition: “museater is an institution that curates and preserves a collection of stories (storyworld) of scientific, artistic, cultural or historical relevance, helps people to make them their own in contexts where their educational and emotional impact is maximum, facilitates their reuse and dissemination ”.

With Stati Generali dell'Innovazione the concept of “Museater” has further developed into “Educational Museater”, becoming an educational method to be used in a new context of informal learning: museums.

DREAM-ddigital Reality and ANDeducational TOctivities in Museums proposes a new methodology which will help primary school teachers strengthen the digital skills, awareness of cultural heritage and the students' creative and expressive abilities, collaborating with museums and cultural organizations for the construction of museeaters.

«These are stages in augmented reality, which transform the experience of the museum visit into a "museo-theatrical performance", i.e. a transcultural participatory event»explains Russo, in which students, digital natives, are personally involved and called to be creative and innovative, using the tools and methods that the DREAM project will make available to Croatian, Italian, Finnish and Portuguese schools.

In the next articles we will continue to tell you about the project and its protagonists, the Crowddreaming method and some significant experiences of innovation applied to the use of cultural heritage and the enhancement of culture and traditions. #StayTuned!

 

Sign up to our newsletter!