Since 2011, the language learning platform deutsch.info has been developed within different partnerships and funding programs by the European Commission. In this project the online platform has been expanded to include a teacher portal with teaching materials for German lessons in schools worldwide. 6 institutions from 5 European countries worked on the project, bringing together their relevant expertise and know-how for the elaboration of teaching materials and thus further developing the very popular online language learning resource deutsch.info.So far deutsch.info was a free platform for learning German, focusing on self-learners and providing the possibility to train and enhance one’s vocabulary and grammar skills as well as reading and listening competencies by providing full online courses on the levels A1-B2. All content is available in 19 languages and learners have the choice to see translations of texts, words and exercises into their chosen language. This way motivation of self-learners on a basic level is preserved and they are given assistance in the learning process. The online courses incorporate specifics of life in Germany and Austria and moreover deal with different varieties of the German language as spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in order to be as authentic as possible. The courses comprise 31 topics, 129 lessons and over 1187 learning units. This project was aiming on creating additional teaching materials for German lessons in schools, that could be combined with the already existing online courses of the platform. In order to integrate the online courses meaningfully into school lessons for children and adolescents, a total of 35 downloadable lesson packages have been developed for the teacher portal, which forms a new section of the portal. It is a connection between offline school lessons and online courses. A lesson package consists of a workbook with texts, exercises and didactical explanations as well as of additional materials and audio files. The lesson packages follow most relevant topics for school children and train speaking and writing skills in the first place. In all workbooks teachers and pupils find links and references to the respective online courses, that can additionally be completed in class or at home. The online courses mainly train listening and reading skills as well as vocabulary. All lesson packages were developed by professional German teachers and pedagogues from different European countries and tested with the target group of German learners in different European schools, providing an European access as well as the correspondence of materials and relevant topics with the target groups. Furthermore, the teacher portal contains additional teaching materials such as posters and games as well as seven so called quiz generators, which allow for creating individual riddles and quizzes and open a playful approach to learning German. A teacher's manual explains the possibilities of using the materials and all parts of the platform in class and thus makes it easier for teachers to integrate ICT into their lessons. Also already existing parts of the platform have been partially revised or supplemented and are well usable for school lessons. Parts of the regular platform, that can be used in school classes, are: a media library with authentic audio, video and text types, the grammar section and practical information on living and working in Austria and Germany. In addition, general knowledge about Germany and Austria can be tested in interactive tests, which were created on the basis of genuine questions from the naturalization tests. The special feature here are additional explanations after each question, which gives detailed background information as well as translations of the entire test. The previous target group of deutsch.info, which comprises motivated learners of German, who are interested in language, culture, country and people, as well as employees with different qualifications, students, pupils, tourists, residents of border regions and all those who need the German language for their profession, was expanded: The main target groups of the new section are formal and non formal German language teachers (German as foreign, German as second language) and pupils in German-speaking and non-German-speaking countries.

The language learning portal deutsch.info – Deutsch für Kinder (www.deutsch.info/kids), which was developed during this project, is directed at children between 5 – 8 years and engages children to learn German playfully. It is accessible in more than 8 languages (The navigation is also available in 25 languages, the app in 18 languages). The App „Dandelin – Deutsch für Kinder“ can be downloaded and comprises videos, songs as well as interactive exercises for children to train basic German vocabulary while playing. Funny videos about the mascot Dandelin and two children introduce the topic in each part of the app (e.g., baking a cake, not being able to sleep, learning the alphabet …). With the help of the videos, it is possible to understand the story without needing a translation or reading skills. Entertaining songs, which refer to real life situations of children (e.g. I am hungry!) enlarge the vocabulary and support language acquisition of children through repetitive elements. With the interactive exercises within the app children then train the correct meaning of words and sentences. Additionally, there are 35 teaching units for kindergarten and primary schools which can be downloaded for free and comprise numerous and linguistically effective activities for the teaching of German. The mascot Dandelin plays an important part as it is involved in many activities and sometimes also gives instructions. Emphasis is put on CLIL-based language learning content as the integrative teaching of content and language skills strengthens the learning process. Each unit starts with a list of learning goals and the grammar and vocabulary that is being trained in this unit to inform teachers about the goals and topics of each unit right at the beginning. The videos as well as the songs are also accessible via the website and YouTube and can be used by the teachers either individually or in combination with the 35 teaching units. Children can also watch and hear the videos and songs autonomously on YouTube. 9 worksheets with ideas for parents to support their children’s language acquisition in their mother tongue as well as in German can be used in more than 8 different languages. The website is continuously being translated in additional 17 languages. All materials were developed by language teaching experts of the involved partner organizations and were technically implemented by an experienced web design studio. The project partners from schools and kindergarten tested the materials continuously and gave feedback via an implemented peer-review-process. All in all, 9 videos, 9 songs, more than 1000 illustrations and 18 rewards (as PDFs) were produced. The materials for parents are available in numerous language versions in the form of 225 nicely illustrated PDFs. The 35 teaching units for teachers in schools and kindergarten are also available as downloadable PDFs. The project was a logical continuation of the development of the online German language learning platform www.deutsch.info, which had been developed since 2011 with the support of different project grants by the European Commission. It was directed at adult learners as well as alphabetized children and youngsters from 6-18 years. The target group of the current project were non alphabetized preschool children as well as children at the beginning of school. Now, two months after the end of the project we already see a very promising number of users: The app was being downloaded 3500 times in different test versions. The final version is now in Google Play and Apples App Store available and was being installed on more than 1000 gadgets since the end of the project. It was rated 4.9 out of 5 (Apples App Store) and 4.8 out of 5 (Google Play). The feedback of parents and teachers during the testing of the product and during the multiplier events showed that the results of the project enjoy great popularity. In the context of German as a Foreign or Second Language the results are very innovative and are one of the few online products, which are available for non-alphabetized children. The current project is connected to the website www.deutsch.info, where almost 625.000 users have been registered during the last 10 years. This guarantees that the project site www.deutsch.info/kids will be sustainably maintained and even further developed. What’s more, the users of the already existing website will become multipliers of the new project (as many of them are teachers of German).

Today’s children are growing up surrounded by media. They use it intuitively and without fear. But in order to make their use safe, effective and constructive the handling with media should be learned just as other any other skill. Through media education in kindergartens children can learn about the use and creation of media and its content. The focus in kindergartens should be, in contrast with the usual use at home, not only on the proper handling of media but much more on using media as tools to realize one’s own ideas and goals. Through early media education kindergartens can help close the digital divide and help all children lay good foundations for later media literacy and skills.Our project aims at creating opportunities for children to get to know, think about and experiment with the medium of photography. Today, pictures are the basis of media; they are a form of communication, but also a form of deception. Being able to critically evaluate pictures is becoming a necessity in the digital age, where most pictures are manipulated in one form or another. With simple activities children can learn how photography can stage reality (with the use of perspective, lighting or simply by choosing what to leave out of the picture), how it can change the past by cutting elements out, how it can “improve” reality (filters, Photoshop) etc. With playful activities with stop motion technique they can experiment with making moving pictures and build their understanding of videos. Photography also offers an excellent opportunity for children to actively use media. They can work on their own topics, learn about and create photography art and they can get to know the language of the media and understand its tricks. Using photography, teachers can involve a wide range of topics, from culture and creativity to science and social topics. All this is possible without major investment into pricy equipment.The objectives of our project are: 1.To develop materials for active use of photography in kindergartens2.Try out practices in kindergartens3.To inform kindergarten teachers of the importance of early media literacy and their own role in laying the foundation for later digital skills of children4.To inform parents about the appropriate use of media by childrenThe final product (output) of the project will be the portal “Photography for kids” – a portal for kindergarten teachers with all relevant information about the introduction and use of photography in kindergartens and information about media education. The portal will be available in 5 languages, among them 3 small European languages. The portal will offer:1.Didactic materials for photography in kindergartens2.Handbook for teachers on media education in kindergartens3.Information for parents4.Practical online tools and templates for teachers to enable them to create games and activities based on children’s photographsWe foresee impact on our three target groups (teachers, children, parents) and beyond:1.higher level of awareness of teachers about the importance of early media education2.higher motivation of educators to use media in kindergartens creatively3.better skilled educators (ICT, culture) 4.higher level of basic skills of children (media, culture, science…)5.higher level of media awareness of children6.higher level of awareness about media use and media education of parents7.More awareness of policy makers of the potential and challenges of media education in kindergartens8.higher level of public awareness for the importance of life-long media education

The project focuses on German as an important European language, with an increasing demand in particular within Eastern and Southern European countries for learning and teaching the language due to its vital economic importance as well as because of a high number of migrants from those countries to Austria and Germany. It is based on the existing free e-learning website for learning the German language - deutsch.info, which was developed during three previous projects 2011-2018. The website is currently available in 19 languages, has a total of 520.000 registered users and 150.000 Facebook fans. The users can access all materials free of charge:- Courses A1, A2, B1 and B2 with a total of 31 topics, consisting of 129 lessons, including interactive exercises;- Grammar section;- Media library, linked to built in dictionaries and a tool for morphological analysis;- Practical information for migrants about Austria and Germany;- Teachers' portal with didactic preparation;- Multilingual forums and applications for social media.Based on learners' feedback we have identified a need to provide materials for extensive practicing of articles and declination, mainly for learners at a beginner level (A1-A2) as well as those transitioning to the lower intermediate level B1. Therefore, the goal of the project is to develop an application for smartphones and tablets for that purpose. The content of the app will be based on a list of 1000 most frequent nouns in the German language. All nouns will be translated into languages of the users in order to make sure that users first learn the word, in case they do not already know it. For each noun learners will not only learn/practice the gender and nominative form, but there will be several common combinations with other words (prepositions, verbs), and the noun will be practiced in different cases in combination with definite and indefinite articles. At higher competency levels it can be practiced with adjectives for additional practicing of the declination of adjectives in combination with articles. If only 10 different combinations with other words will be created per word, 10.000 different exercises will be available in the application.The final product of the project will therefore be an application with the following features:- Pictures, colours and sounds will be used in order to create additional associations for remembering genders of nouns;- Words with articles will be taught in i.e. 50-words-blocks, based on the frequency of words, in a way that learners can learn the most important (frequent) words firstly;- Articles will be taught in different phrases and word combinations, in combination with most commonly used prepositions, verbs and adjectives for the given noun;- The app-algorithm will use spaced repetition, which is a proven learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material in order to exploit the psychological spacing effect. Every word will be repeated in defined intervals and in most varied combinations. The program will record mistakes and adapt following repetitions to every individual user. The program will show the right answer and will repeat exercises on that word again and again, until the user stops making mistakes;- The algorithm of the app will adapt the tasks individually for each user;- The learning programme will be created in the form of a game in order to make the learning experience more interesting;- The application will be programmed for offline use and it will be updated online.For persons intending to move to or participate in mobility actions in Austria and Germany, but also for those learning German in their own countries for any other reason, such a free learning opportunity is very important. This is emphasised by the current user statistics of deutsch.info with more than 520.000 registered users only 5,5 years after the launch of the platform. Thus the project promotes access to new language learning resources and develops and disseminates new language learning materials and OER. After the project life-cycle the app will be offered in 22 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese of the learners and will add an important learning opportunity, not only for those learners, who have registered on deutsch.info, but also for any other learners.We expect the following impact: Improved access to learning the German language for prosperous migrants and migrants, but also for persons learning the German language for any other reason, working in tourism and health sectors in other European countries etc.