The project ‘Reporters without frontiers’ sees students as reporterswho document intercultural studies on Europe’s important problemsas well as on already existing approaches to those problems.They do so by using media like, for example, photos, videos, audiorecordings, interviews, texts and audio-visual texts.The first step of the project includes the preparation, realisation andevaluation of transnational TLT-meetings. All countries which are involvedin the project will be asked to work interdisciplinary on five differenttopics in the following subjects: History, Economic and PoliticalStudies, Geography, Languages, Ethics and Biology. The topic ‘refugees’will be compulsive for every country participating in the project.The other four topics will be chosen by the countries individually, accordingto their specific and individual interests. Possible topics couldbe ‘environmental protection’, ‘unemployment’, ‘poverty’, ‘gentrification’,etc.Each TLT-meeting will last ten days (including arrival and departuredays). The individual schools will be represented by five students andtwo teachers. The meetings are made up of five teams, consisting offour visitors and at least four hosts. The visitors will be staying withtheir hosts’ families.The host school will be asked to make enquiries on the five topics(relevant locations, contacts, responsibilities, schedule and possibledifficulties). The results will have to be available for the countries involved,in advance. Local students will function as ‘local experts’. Theresults of the meetings will be evaluated in schools and communities.The student reporters, who by then will have returned, function as expertsand report about their experiences and results by giving presentationsand putting on exhibitions.Parallelly to intensive work on each of the 5 topics the students will continually (over the whole duration of the project) do research on daily life in their own counties and during the TLT-meetings on the respective guest countries using the media named before. Emphasis will be on topics like family and school life, friends, leisure activities, favourite spots, non-places, etc.The following principles are essential:The students function as experts in their own country as well as intheir host countries. Their expert knowledge will be passed on to theirlocal schools and communities. The teams work on a transnationalbasis. Theoretical and practical elements of their learning processwill be connected by using new media for doing research and givingpresentations.
Context / background of the project The project 'Reporters without frontiers' examined interdisciplinary and intercultural on the one hand (a) everyday realities of young people in Europe and on the other hand (b) Europe's current problems and approaches (refugee issues, socio-economic distribution and equity issues, environmental issues, quality of life issues) To this end, transnational student teams prepared and conducted interviews with external stakeholders and prepared them for presentations. The interview partners were representatives from the fields of politics, economics, social affairs, environmental NGOs and alternative projects. The media used were photography, video, sound, text and any combination of images and text. The work with artistic-documentary means transformed abstract contexts into something tangible and offered a new, pictorial-linguistic level of reflection. The own and above all foreign languages were made practically usable, image and sound were experienced in their universality (the language of art is international). ICT was used throughout for communication and presentation. The students all lived in host families. Each TLT meeting lasted 10 days. In addition to their preparation and follow-up, the TLTs in all partner countries developed twelve photo topics on the everyday life of the students. Objectives The project set itself the following goals for the participating pupils: - Continuing to expand the knowledge of the history, political-social, economic and geographical facts of all partner countries. - Extending active language competence in English in everyday and technical contexts - Creating a favourable communication atmosphere in a foreign language - Raising awareness of and becoming aware of one's own and other cultures - Strengthening general communication skills in the context of European Citizenship - Experiencing and appreciating different European lifestyles and cultural contexts in everyday experience with host families - Fostering and strengthening creativity and constructive criticism in the context of transnational teamwork - Becoming aware of and relativising one's own points of view in the context of transnational teamwork - The learning of journalistic research, documentation and presentation forms in teamwork across cultural borders. - Expanding cultural competences and cultural openness in a European dimension - Strengthening self-confidence and self-awareness in a European dimension - Active, reflective handling of photo, video and sound artifacts - Active, reflective use of the Internet and social media The project set itself the following goals for the participating teachers: - Improving their pedagogical concepts and applying new teaching methods within the framework of exchanging ideas with European colleagues. - To expand their knowledge of the theory and technical and creative practice of photography, videography and sound work in audiovisual-linguistic contexts. - Strengthening the European dimension of their teaching - To sustainably increase the motivation of the teachers involved through the cooperative European work on the project. Number and profile of participating institutions There were five schools involved in the project: IES Ángel de Saavedra (Córdoba / Spain): continuing, general education, public Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti (Reykjavík / Iceland): Secondary school, general education, public Gymnasio Mesovouniwn Me Lykeiakes Takseis (Kefalonia / Greece): Secondary school, general education, public Lycée privé Paul Claudel d'Hulst (Paris / France): Secondary school, general education, private Adolf-Reichwein-Gymnasium (Heusenstamm / Germany): Secondary school, general education, public Description of the main activities carried out TLTs were prepared, carried out and followed up in all partner countries involved. According to the principle 'More value for money', more teachers and students took part in the project than was provided for in the application form. TMs took place in Heusenstamm, Paris and Reykjavík (for the evaluation, planning and adjustment of work processes, results and products). Achieved results and impact The results achieved are in line with the objectives set out above. Only the organisational details had to be slightly readjusted in order to fully achieve the planned objectives. If relevant, long-term benefit The long-term benefit consists in... a) the sustainable expansion of competences in accordance with the objectives described above b) the awareness of the problems addressed in the project among external stakeholders c) the usability of a proven and transferable project structure in new contexts of content