The EscapeStory Sphere is an innovative game-like tool for language learning, built on the idea of virtual escape rooms. The name “sphere” comes from the 360 degrees environment that gives a sphere-like shape to the digital space. The innovative aspect of this tool is given by the gamification features used to encourage language learners to read stories, learn about social issues, discover cultural heritage, history and of course, to practice their language skills.

The best 12 stories from the Storytelling HUB (3 stories per language – Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and English) were transformed into interactive “escape rooms,” where the player has to solve tasks related to the content of the story.

The EscapeStory Sphere can be used on computers, phones and tablets on the HUB or it can be used in a more interactive way, by using Virtual Reality Headsets.

The Multiplier Event from Granada, Spain took place in Aula Magna, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Granada.

The event started with a project and output presentation held by Marisa Hernández and Regina García. As the Spanish project team wanted to praise the great volunteers of the project, they were invited at the event and offered volunteering diplomas.

The second part of the event consisted of a workshop on teaching and training practices by Arturo Tapia, a second one on using storytelling in teaching and training by Símon Salvador Herrera, and a third workshop on origami and storytelling techniques by Ángela Guevara.

The Multiplier event as well as the project outputs received great feedback from the participants, who were mainly people working in education and cultural heritage.

Encuentro sobre Storytelling y Patrimonio Cultural 24 de octubre de 2022  

“Divulgar cada día sobre arte y no morir en el intento”  por V. Yuri de Torres. Ni un día sin arte. Historiador de arte, profesor, divulgador y guía cultural.  En esta charla se explica cómo utiliza en storytelling para divulgar, día a día, obras de  arte a través de las redes sociales (Instagram), llegando de esta manera a muchas personas que no conocen la Historia del Arte.  

“El arte de contar la historia” por Natalia Núñez Dato. Parte del Arte. Historiadora del arte, divulgadora cultural y directora de Parte del Arte. A través de esta charla se pone en valor la utilización del storytelling en la divulgación del Patrimonio Histórico, Artístico y Cultural.  

19.30h a 20.15h – Presentación del Storyline Project a cargo de María Eugenia Godoy. Directora de Didark. Didáctica. Explicando quienes integran el proyecto, cómo surgió y los objetivos principales. Además se muestran los resultados (BOOK, SFERA Y HUB) 

20.30 a 21.30h – Mesa redonda “el Storytelling y el Patrimonio Cultural” con la participación de: 

V. Yuri de Torres de Ni un día sin arte. 

Natalia Núñez de Parte del Arte. 

Gergő Tóth. Lector de húngaro de la Facultad de Filología de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 

Begoña Regueiro Salgado. Profesora titular de la UCM y directora del grupo ELLI Educación literaria y literatura infantil. 

María Eugenia Godoy de Didark. Didáctica y socia del Storyline Project. 

Place: Auditório José Araújo, Universidade Lusófona, Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal 

Number of participants: 30 

Organizer: Universidade Lusófona 

The Multiplier Event held by Universidade Lusófona was attended by 30 people who were very enthusiastic and willing to ask questions about the project, they were representatives of various cultural and educational organizations and students.

The event comprised the presentation of the project and activities carried out during the project and the presentation of the project results. 

There was a presentation by Prof. Carla Sousa under the title “The importance of game-based learning in teaching” during which the participants had the opportunity to get to know many different tools that can be used to gamify the learning and teaching experience. 

The event closed with a session in which some of the participants in the project activities shared their experiences in the project and answered questions by other people present in the session. 

MULTIPLIER EVENT AGENDA

28 October 2022  

11:00 – 11:15 

Welcome and registration  

11:15 – 11:30 

Introduction  (Ana Cunha) 

11:30 – 12:00 

Presentation of IOs (Anabela Mateus) 

StorytellingHUB.  

EscapeStory Sphere 

12:00 – 12:15  

Coffee break 

12.15 – 13:00 

EscapeStory Sphere game demonstration / “The importance of game-based learning in teaching” by Prof. Carla Sousa 

13:00 – 13:30 

Living Library activity / Closing remarks

Place: Constanta, Tomis HUB, Biblioteca Colorata

Organizer: HEI

The Multiplier Event in Constanta, Romania had great success, as many representatives of local, national and European NGOs, companies and institutions participated at the event.

The multiplier consisted of an outdoors session during the first part of the day (A storytelling hunt) and an indoors session afterwards which consisted of a presentation of the storytelling hunt results, a presentation of the partners, the project and of the Intellectual Outputs.

Some of the young volunteers involved in the project, who wrote stories for IO1, the Storytelling HUB, talked about their experience during the training and during the writing process, which in most cases, it was a very fulfilling and emotional one.

A game-session with the whole group was organized, as the participants had to find objects and solve the EscapeStory Sphere game (IO2), an output that received great feedback and reactions.

The organizers moderated an online discussion with a special guest of the event, Simona Mirela Miculescu, PhD in French literature magna cum laudae, Ambassador of Romania to the Permanent Delegation of Romania to UNESCO (Paris). The Ambassador spoke to the participants about the Creative Cities Network, the role of literature and storytelling in education and culture and the importance of involving young people in the development of cities and the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage (such as stories).

A non-formal game on social inclusion was organized with all the participants, for them to get a taste of what the training and workshop sessions felt like for the project participants. A feedback session was implemented at the end of the event and all participants responded positively.

We had a cooking workshop, with Chef Fernando Rodrigo. We learned how to make “tortilla de patatas,” without being able to talk and with the pressure of time 🤭 to work on non-verbal communication and team building. 

Using text as a resource to implement non formal activities proved how powerful storytelling is in teaching. Besides working in the workshop room, we also enjoyed a scavenger hunt to discover the legendary Barrio de las Letras. The so called “neighborhood of the letters” housed some of the most important writers in Spanish literature 📚 🤓 The neighborhood, located in the city center, continues to be an influential area thanks to its beauty and history. 

Sara Decoz, an official tour guide, made us discover an important and historical part of Madrid, the so-called “Madrid de los Austrias”. Storytelling was very present when communicating and transmitting the historical and cultural heritage.

An amazing training full of laughter, heritage, art, culture, debate… ⭐

The participants received their Youthpass and ate “cocido madrileño” to end a perfect training with… a perfect meal! 😋

👉 Organised by Didark Didáctica 🤗 

❗Phoart Media Production flew as well to Madrid and took 360 HD pictures. 

📷 📷 📷 Soon available in the #Storyline virtual reality game and HUB!

House of Education and Innovation – HEI Universidad de Granada ULHT – Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias

#STORYLINE #Storytelling #Training #Madrid #Spain #ErasmusPlus #MobilityEU

The participants from Spain, Romania and Portugal visited the Spanish capital for multiple training sessions that explored storytelling as a tool for second language acquisition.

The Spanish training for the STORYLINE project is titled “Storytelling for Social Inclusion” and it was held in Madrid during February 25 – March 3, 2022. Didark, from Spain organized the event. During five days, the participants took part in three training sessions and two cultural sessions. The training sessions were held at the NH Hotel, Passeo de la Habana, in Madrid, while the cultural activities took place either in the historical center of Madrid or in the workshop room, at forementioned hotel. The training in Madrid was assisted by a total of 26 people: nine volunteers and participants from Granada (UGR), two from PHOART Rumania, six from HEI Rumania and nine from COFAC Portugal.

The objectives of the training referred to exploring storytelling as a tool for second language acquisition in an inclusive environment, creating non-formal resources for teaching English and discussing the advantages of using storytelling in language teaching, through digital tools. The result of the training was the creation of eight complex non-formal education activities and games based on storytelling.

🇵🇹 The participants who attended the training in Lisbon, organised by ULHT – Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, had the opportunity to:

• learn about multicultural and inclusive matters;
• visit local museums such as Museu Bordalo Pinheiro and Museu da Cidade de Lisboa;
• enjoy a guided tour through the streets of Lisbon;
• receive useful input on the power of digital storytelling to bring cultures together through educational approaches;
• disseminate the project through Lusófona’s University studios.

💬 Some thoughts from Laura, a Romanian volunteer at STORYLINE, about the training:

“The Portuguese have a word that describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. That word is ”saudade”. Early or not, I am already experiencing saudade for Lisbon.

I love the complexity of the Storyline project. On the social and cultural level, I enjoyed working within a multicultural team while using digital tools like the Mural platform, as well as interacting with the participants. On the educational level, I am grateful for learning interviewing approaches and techniques, inclusive communication, and ethical concerns. I am thankful for every day spent here!

It has never occurred to me the potentiality of a story to learn a language, much less the cultural package you are absorbing simultaneously. Not only the Storyline project lights up storytelling for (language) learning in an interactive and non-formal environment, but it also found creative means using the ubiquitous tool of our lives, namely the digital. I am not much of a gamer, but think of a VR where you are handling characters, customs, communication out of your cultural zone, all while having fun.

The training I have attended in Lisbon exposed me to information and experiences from different areas like education, language, communication, and psychology. I have reflected on the impact a story has on micro and macro levels, on my place of speech, on the digital as the common language, and I hope they will strongly sediment in my future approaches.”

🤩 #HEI #Storyline #ErasmusPlus #Training #Travelling #Lisbon #Portugal #ULHT #Lusofona #DigitalStorytelling #YouthWork

What happened during the Digital Non-Formal Language Learning Methodologies training organized this summer by House of Education and Innovation – HEI? 

• Project presentation
• Getting to know each other through digital tools
• Social media to hold creative writing activities
• The importance of culture to increase involvement levels in language learning
• Non-formal education practice sessions
• Constanta treasure hunt (via mAPP My Europe, recently finished Erasmus+ project APP for Android and iPhone)
• Use of audiovisual material
• History, culture trips and outdoor activities
• Group dynamics
• Organized meals and traditional Romanian dinner
• Intercultural dinner
• Youth involvement in training activities
• Utilization of texts from STORYLINE with teaching purposes
• Development of lesson plans
• Discussion on strengths and weaknesses of different educational approaches
• Online resources presentations
• Youthpass ceremony

During the 7 days of training, we hosted youth workers from #Spain, #Portugal and #Romania in Constanța to share good practices and knowledge on #storytelling, #digitalization, #nonformaleducation and #languagelearning.

Looking forward to attending future trainings and meetings! 

#Storyline #HEI #DezvoltamIdei #Training #EU #ErasmusPlus