This Europeana mentoring programme and educational challenge contributed to the New European Bauhaus movement by inviting students and educators to design beautiful and sustainable spaces with Mozilla Hubs. 

Imagine your students not just sitting through their lessons, but virtually building the experiences they are learning about! And imagine if, in the process, they could contribute to a more beautiful and sustainable future for Europe.

In 2021, our eight-week mentoring programme helped educators and teachers to achieve this by combining collaborative learning experiences and digital technologies with the values of accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability that are at the heart of the European Commission’s New European Bauhaus movement.

The programme explored how virtual experiences can be used within education and is designed for teachers and educators working with students in secondary education in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. This online programme helped teachers to:

• Explore virtual and extended reality technologies

• Learn how to create virtual spaces with Mozilla hubs, a virtual collaboration platform that can be run in any browser, from any device.

• Learn how virtual spaces can be used in collaborative processes

• Discover existing projects and examples of immersive spaces using cultural heritage that will inspire you and spark your students’ imaginations.

The European Commission’s New European Bauhaus movement looks to shape future ways of living that answer the challenges we face today. Think green, sustainable and affordable, alongside accessible, inclusive and beautiful. 

The Europeana Education community aims to build an international community of engaged educators that uses disruptive pedagogical practices to help Europe move towards new ways of thinking, creating and living together sustainably.

This mentoring programme and challenge brought teachers, non-formal educators and students across Europe together to develop innovative and immersive spaces, incorporating the principles of New European Bauhaus (togetherness, beauty, sustainability) and supporting educators and students to develop new digital skills. 

All of the virtual spaces created as part of the programme were entered into a challenge, and the winners will be offered the chance to take part in a masterclass with Daniel Llamas and David Mingorance from the Macedonia initiative to develop their project further. The winners were announced at a ceremony in January 2022. You can watch the full ceremony and explore the winners below! 

Country winners

• Spain: CODEMA: A century and beyond by Rafael Montero from Colegio Corazón de María, Gijón
• Italy: Anatomical Open Air Museum by Luigia Palumbo from Capozzi-Galilei school
• Portugal: Historic monuments of Tomar by Cristina Paula Lopes Ferreira de Sousa Marques from Agrupamento de Escolas Nuno de Santa Maria
• Greece: Children's Games by Sofronia Maravelaki from Iraklia's Junior High School

• Special mentions 

• Best Europeana project: Living on my Moon 2021-22 - Sustainability 4 Future by Daniela Brogna from IC Pimentel Fonseca
• Best New European Bauhaus project: Una nuova vita per La Sughereta (A New life for La Sughereta) by Maria Luisa Onida from Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Leonardo da Vinci

All the spaces developed for this project can be seen in this Mozilla Hub exhibition.

Through this mentoring programme, student and teachers have: 

• Contributed to the New European Bauhaus movement by becoming active participants in the discussion of the future of Europe. 

• Learned about Europeana open content and the educational value of cultural heritage. 

• Discovered new digital technologies for teaching and learning, and increase your digital skills, creativity and innovation using Mozilla Hubs.

• Increased problem-solving and collaborative skills by interacting with peers. 

• Gained a new appreciation for the importance of individual and group contributions for a more sustainable, diverse, inclusive and equitable space for all.

Would you like to follow the Built with Bits programme in your own time? Then explore the video tutorials! They take you step by step through how to work with Mozilla hubs and explore virtual and explore bringing extended reality technologies into the classroom. You can find videos below and more resources on the programme’s website Notion.