How do you get schools to work with your digital offerings?

1. Ensure a shared desire

An educational project ideally stems from a question from schools. An important step for a good implementation of your offering is the first conversation you have together. Dive into the ‘why question’ and explore the shared interest. This way, you develop offerings that meet the needs of schools and are sustainably deployable.

You don't always have to reach out to schools yourself. Cultural organizations can rely on an advisor for cultural education in the region or province. They often work at an expertise center or arts center and help establish contact with schools. These advisors also have substantive expertise on alignment with education, which you can often use at no cost. Investigate how this is arranged in your area. 

Kim: 
''The content of projects I develop for a cultural institution often comes about with input from school staff (teachers, ICC coordinators), a subject matter expert, and sometimes subject specialists. This truly results in better lessons. A pilot is important to get an impression of students' reactions. You quickly see which methods generate enthusiasm and which lose their attention. But you also see whether the teacher or staff member of the cultural organization can work with the material. Conduct a follow-up conversation to investigate this thoroughly.''

2. Link it to what students need to learn

Teachers want to translate the project to educational goals. Emphasize the growing importance of creative and cultural competencies in the society of the future, for example, that students become critical citizens who can think creatively. Highlight the usefulness of your offering in the context of a school subject or learning domain. And where possible, make the link to the curriculum visible, both in the material and in its description (metadata). This makes it discoverable.

Kim:
''Good cultural offerings consist of varied methods where students process provided or self-found information in different ways. Room for autonomy is also important, especially for older students. See how you can use digital tools to spark curiosity and encourage questioning and research.''

Tips for online resources I use in my lessons include:

• Delpher.nl, where you can view archaeological finds and old newspapers online
• Image banks from local, regional, and national archives where you can find old photos;
• The Rijksmuseum also has a beautiful image bank with high-resolution images of paintings;
• HisGIS is another great digital tool. Here you can go back in time based on geographical maps. Topotijdreis is a similar site.

Tips for creating engaging digital offerings for education can be found in the checklist for cultural institutions (opens in new tab).

3. Ensure (online) visibility

Sometimes schools simply don't know about the existence of a great project or program. Especially in large cities, the cultural offerings are vast. Teachers then can't see the forest for the trees. Always ensure visibility of your offerings through social media, newsletters, regional networks, word-of-mouth, and especially platforms that teachers already use like Lesson-Up (opens in new tab) and Wikiwijs (opens in new tab). Check out the tips below to help you with development and visibility using DEN's infographic.

Kim:
''Think about your offerings from the teacher's perspective. They want quick insights. Start with a short summary, where you describe the essence of the project in a few lines and make it intriguing. Mention the age group, the number of lessons, and the duration. Indicate which subjects the offering aligns with.

Also, try to connect to cultural menus if they exist in your region: these are bundled cultural activities for schools. An inspiring example is the website Reizen in de Tijd, the heritage learning line of Erfgoed Gelderland. Joining such an initiative makes your offerings visible to all schools in your area and beyond.''

4. Let teachers experience culture and digital heritage

Allowing teachers to experience physical and digital lessons is a good idea, especially if something is expected of the teacher themselves. Students are often overestimated by parties outside of education, for example, in their digital skills. It's often assumed that this generation naturally picks up technical matters because they grow up with the internet, devices, and apps. In practice, it appears they can struggle with searching in a digital archive system or an institution's online collection. Interpreting sources is also often challenging. Teachers can assess what assistance is needed.

Kim: 
''Invite ICC coordinators to your organization (for example, host an ICC network meeting), present the projects you have for education, and let them try it out. It's a great opportunity to get to know people from schools. And once they've visited your institution, the threshold to come with students is lower. You can also collaborate with the local support organization that might be looking for a location for a network meeting with ICC coordinators or teachers. A win-win situation!''