1st project meeting: Losehill Hall, Derbyshire, UK
27-30 October 2003

2nd project meeting: Bucharest, Romania
27-30 January 2004

Partners: British Council Romania, British Council UK, British Council Denmark, Institute for Educational Sciences (Romania), Development Education Centre (UK), The National Innovative Centre of General Education (Denmark), The Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark)

The project aims to identify ways to promote learners participation in the process of finding solutions to the problems Europe is currently facing within the framework of the ICT potential.
The objectives of the project emphasize values, skills, and attitudes consistent with the rights and duties of EU citizenship.

1st training session: British Council, Bucharest, Romania
28 January 2004

Partners: British Council Romania, British Council Denmark, Institute for Educational Sciences (Romania), The National Innovative Centre of General Education (Denmark)

The simulation game 'Take Part' is played by 14 to 18 year old learners and their teachers (facilitators) in three different countries. The players in each simulation game are three classes of learners representing each their country. In this first phase the countries are UK, Romania and Denmark.
Take Part is a web based simulation game that combines fact and fiction off-line and on-line. It provides a interactive way of using knowledge. It consists of a universe of three existing countries and a 'fictional' or virtual Youth Council. The Youth Council consists of all the participants from the three classes. A number of parallel games can take place at the same time. It is possible for the players in one game to follow the proceedings in other games.

The training session in Romania was supported by British COuncil and was comprised by 6 hours of hands-on activities conducted by the developers of the simulation game.

Partners: the Institute for Educational Sciences (Romania), The National Innovative Centre of General Education (Denmark), Development Education Centre (UK), The Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark)

Take Part Too is an extension of the implementation of Take Part in Romania. The main aim of the project is to empower young people from different European countries (including Romania) to play an active and responsible role as democratic European citizens in the rapidly changing context of our modern learning societies.

This aim is supported by the following objectives:

• To provide young people the opportunity to take active and responsible roles in our multicultural societies by creating an ICT based platform for collaboration, exchanging opinions and decision-making on local and global issues.
• To encourage young people from 14 to 18 years old to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need as adult members of our global and multicultural society.
• To promote democratic processes and positive attitudes toward cultural, social, ethnic and religious diversity by using simulation activities on topics such as human rights, poverty, gender, migration, inclusion, sustainable development and conflict resolution.
• To provide an efficient computer mediated tool for teachers of 14-18 years old learners involved in the project, for complementing their activities in the field of citizenship education and across the curriculum.
• To explore the possibilities and limitations of ICT in relation to inclusion and the development of democracy and active global citizenship.

The virtual context provided by the platform to be developed within the project will have a strong impact on enhancing the opportunities for 14 to 18 year old learners to exercise their global citizenship. The young people in the project will look together at ways of defining issues and problems that Europe is facing today, as well as working together to find out the best solutions offered by the democratic process. The simulation activities that will be run through the Internet within the project will enrich teachers' pedagogical knowledge and skills. That will help them in using innovative strategies to meet the common intended goals in education for global citizenship. The content of the simulation activities will stimulate cross-curricular approaches, using and complementing the resources offered by other areas of study, and will call for close cooperation between teachers as well as pupils.