The Creative Lion project was first conceived in 2012 when media teachers from Sweden and Italy met in Italy to discuss how to integrate media and international exchange. During this meeting, we came up with the idea of letting our students run a transnational website where they would publish different kinds of media productions. We wanted it to be a pedagogical tool and address questions about communication (media literacy and language proficiency) and intercultural understanding. We also came up with something we called “Learn to Teach”, a concept where students produce video tutorials to teach other students about media production. We also wanted it to be a platform for teachers to discuss and share innovative teaching methods. The following months we contacted several media schools in the European Union and many of them showed great interest in our ideas. Eventually, we were six countries involved in the project. We all shared a vision of a transnational website which would stimulate our students’ communicative skills, media interest and creativity. We decided to call this vision Creative Lion. The main objectives of the Creative Lion project: • Media Literacy. We want to develop our students’ abilities to analyse, evaluate, create and communicate media messages in a wide variety of formats. • Language Proficiency. We want our students to become better at communicating in English and other European languages. • Intercultural Understanding. We want our students to understand and increase their appreciation of their own as well as other cultures. • Metacognition. We want our students to gain a better understanding on how they learn and what strategies to use to improve their learning. • Learner Autonomy. We want to help our students to take charge of their own learning and to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. • Learn to Teach. We want our students to improve their media skills by teaching other students about media. • Teacher Training. We want our teachers to learn new teaching methods, especially innovative methods involving ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Description of the main activities: • To build and run the website Creative Lion where the partner schools share the editorial responsibility to publish the students’ media productions • To organize teacher meetings in each country where we discuss and learn more about innovative ICT teaching methods, PBL, learner autonomy and metacognition • To have regular contact with local media agencies and promote and evaluate the project • To evaluate the impact of the project in the school community • To disseminate the project and its results in the school community • To disseminate the project and its results in local newspapers • To set up and use several digital platforms to share the project on a global level, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo, Prezi, and Padlet Our main methodology in this project is problem-based learning (PBL), in which our students will learn through the experience of problem solving. We chose this methodology because it stimulates metacognitive abilities and learner autonomy (which are two key concepts in our project). PBL will also stimulate our students’ creativity and entreprenurship. Another benefit of this methodology is that it encourages team work, both locally and globally. We are excited to see how our students will collaborate and solve problems, thousands of miles from each other. The expected impact on the participating schools: • Our students will improve their communication skills (media literacy and language proficiency) • Our students will gain a better understanding of their own as well as other cultures • Our students will improve their media skills by teaching other students about media • Our students will gain a better understanding on how they learn and what strategies to use to improve their learning • Our students will become more active and creative from a learning perspective • Our teachers will learn innovative ICT teaching methods The Creative Lion website will live on long after the Creative Lion project is completed and we will continue publishing our students’ media productions on the website. We will promote Creative Lion to other teachers as a permanent platform for exchanging experiences and we will invite more schools to join our community to reach even more people around the world. We believe our students will benefit from this project from a lifelong learning perspective. They will develop their communicative skills and they will be able take charge of their own learning, both today and in the future. Ultimately, their increased appreciation of their own as well as other cultures will help them become active, open-minded citizens of the European Union in the 21st century.
The Creative Lion project was first conceived in 2012 when media teachers from Sweden and Italy met in Ascoli Piceno to discuss how to integrate media and international exchange. During this meeting, we came up with the idea of letting our students run a transnational website where they would publish different kinds of media productions. We wanted it to be a pedagogical tool and address questions about communication (media literacy and language proficiency) and intercultural understanding. We came up with something we called “Learn to Teach”, a concept where students produce video tutorials to teach other students about media production. We also wanted the website to be a platform for teachers to discuss and share innovative teaching methods. The following months we contacted several media schools in the European Union and many of them showed great interest in our ideas. Eventually, we were five media related schools from five different countries involved in the project: Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey. We all shared a vision of a transnational website which would stimulate our students’ communicative skills, media interest and creativity. We decided to call this vision Creative Lion. The main objectives of the Creative Lion project: • Media Literacy. We want to develop our students’ abilities to analyse, evaluate, create and communicate media messages in a wide variety of formats. • Language Proficiency. We want our students to become better at communicating in English and other European languages. • Intercultural Understanding. We want our students to understand and increase their appreciation of their own as well as other cultures. • Metacognition. We want our students to gain a better understanding on how they learn and what strategies to use to improve their learning. • Learner Autonomy. We want to help our students to take charge of their own learning and to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. • Learn to Teach. We want our students to improve their media skills by teaching other students about media. • Teacher Training. We want our teachers to learn new teaching methods, especially innovative methods involving ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Description of undertaken main activities: • We have built and continuously updated the Creative Lion website with material produced by both students and teachers • We have organised teacher conferences in each country where we have discussed and learned more about innovative ICT teaching methods, PBL, learner autonomy and metacognition • We have had contact with local media agencies from each partner country and they have evaluated our project on two separate occasions • We have evaluated the impact of the project in the school community • We have disseminated the project and its results in the school community at each partner school • We have disseminated the project and its results in newspapers, on TV and on the radio • We have set up and used several digital platforms to share the project on a global level, including Facebook, Instagram, Prezi, Slideshare, Vimeo and YouTube Our main methodology in this project is problem-based learning (PBL), in which our students have learned together through the experience of problem solving. During the project, we have discovered that this methodology has stimulated our students’ metacognitive abilities as well as learner autonomy. PBL has also stimulated our students’ creativity and entrepreneurship. The project’s results and impact attained on the participating schools: • Our students involved in the project have improved their communicative skills (media literacy and language proficiency) • Our students involved in the project have gained a better understanding of their own as well as other cultures (intercultural understanding) • Our students involved in the project have improved their media skills by teaching other students about media • Our students involved in the project have gained a better understanding on how they learn and what strategies to use to improve their learning (metacognition) • Our students involved in the project have become more active and creative from a learning perspective • Our teachers involved in the project have learned innovative ICT teaching methods The Creative Lion website will live on after the Creative Lion project is completed and we will continue to publish material on the website. We will promote Creative Lion to other teachers as a platform for exchanging experiences and we will invite more schools to join our community to reach even more people around the world. We believe our students have benefited from this project from a lifelong learning perspective. They have developed their communicative skills, their media competence and they have become more willing to take charge of their own learning.