The project aims to establish an attractive and modern Web Radio with Portal which will facilitate the cooperation of schools across Europe making learning more challenging and promoting Radio and other cultural products. The direct target groups are school students, primary and secondary education – from public and private schools, and their educators. The Web Radio will provide the necessary tools and skills in order to successfully incorporate web-based radio activities into their educational settings in an innovative way. It will use English as the main language as well partners' language for the audio productions; but the user interface, guides and other material will be translated in 4 different languages. The radio production is addressed to students without discriminations, while no strict assessment within the project is required; this explains the reason why it will be a successful method to motivate all students to learn. Disadvantaged students -even early leavers- will find this very attractive and alluring. Taking into consideration that the radio as a medium helps disabled students to express themselves and socialize, the Web Radio Portal will be designed more friendly for such target groups; for example students with visual disabilities will be given the chance to communicate via the platform with peers and they will find an new way to learn in a very exciting and new way. The Web Portal will provide a robust and safe online platform for web-based schools radio productions, giving them an educational-oriented approach, in subjects such as maths, science, languages, history, literature, journalism and also enables various literacies such as media, information and also critical thinking; enhancing in this way the digital integration in learning and training. Copyright and ethical issues have been considered.Concerning the actual project, in the project selection process of partners, the coordinator has made the best possible choice given for the success of the project. It has considered their complementary roles, based on their experience and history track of achievements and of their proven specific capacities to make the project happen in a harmonious way. The consortium comprises of partner who are are competent in education overall, in researching, teaching, aware of the technical/technologies involved, and in management and communication skills. As the consortium represents partners from a wide geographical spread of EU member states Greece, Italy, Denmark, Lithuania, Cyprus) it brings together a range of communities of practices from across Europe, promoting European research synergies and knowledge transfer. In the design phase, the project has split the activities and other outputs in a logical continuum, with phases and milestones making many intermediate results that are usefull for the next steps; also, shared assigned tasks among partners keeping in mind their best abilities.In the implementation, a “create-evaluate-reproduce/recreate” approach has been applied. The necessary monitoring, evaluation and quality control procedures have been considered to make this project real and to meet its aims and objectives. The main results of the projects are, a Web Radio Portal, a Web Radio for European schools, Educational Scenarios on making audio products for the Radio in various levels (primary, secondary), Studies and Guides on how to do and how to use and apply. The educational material is put on the web portal and serve the role of a learning community where educators and students learn not only with prepared by the consortium learning material, but more importantly, from each other. The latter but also professionals, will have the chance to get more on media and digital literacy. This is cultivated through online collaboration, exchange of experiences on the implementation of radio shows, and good practices.The impact of the project is of paramount importance for the project. The fact that the target groups will come from at least five European countries of different socioeconomic characteristics, cultural backgrounds and educational systems, is expected to result in project outcomes of broader European impact, relevance, applicability and added value. More, NEStOR will encourage research and evaluation to identify what works, by collecting and sharing effective best practices in national and European level. The project will have impact at the local, regional and national level, by creating synergies and cooperation, and exchanging experiences through the Web Radio portal developed and enhanced with social networking characteristics. Dissemination of the results and sustainability of the Web Radio, at European level is considered strongly. NEStOR will further promote the transnational cooperation and exchange of best practices, while in parallel will strengthen the skills of students at the area of audio/radio productions and journalism.
The NEStOR project was planned for two years and was finally accepted by I.K.Y. ,the national Agent of ERASMUS +, in August 2016 with very high grade. It was designed to exploit the experience of the successful "European School Radio, the First Student Radio" and to expand at European level, starting with the participating countries, which will serve as the pilots for the largest spread. European School Radio was supported initially by the schools and with the consensus of the Greek School Network was about to make the project more accessible to more partners. The partners were selected on the basis of geographic distribution, previous partnerships, used previous collaborations that proved to be effective. Also, schools and academic partners were selected because the project had to be supported at the academic level as well. At this level, the response was very satisfactory because the Aalborg University had a dedicated Media section that eventually participated. As regards the academic profile and the ability to intervene in education, such a partner was the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute with the power to create policies. As far as the Greek area of collaborations is concerned, the Panhellenic School Network is a strong partner because it has the supervision and support of all schools at a technical level and also offers the possibility of eLearning programs and European programs such as eTwinning as project managers in Greece . The schools were selected by the Experiment of the University of Macedonia because they have more flexibility to develop programs and experience, while the school in Lithuania has been an old partner and has European experience in similar projects. The Aglantzia High School was proposed by the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus. At the outset, the project started with delay as funding issues had to be solved. The issue was resolved by creating multiple installments, subject to corresponding interim reports and similar evaluations. The project was implemented in its entirety just as it was designed on the GANTT chart and broadly in line with the management plan that was initially agreed between the partners at the Kick Off meeting. The total number of partners is seven (7) from four (4) different countries. The NEStOR project coordinator is the non-profit European School Radio Scientific Society, which owns the idea and founding of "European School Radio, the first Student Radio" in Greece. (http://esradiosociety.eu.eu) based in Thessaloniki. The other partners are the Institute of Computer Science and Publishing "Diophantos" (http://www.cti.gr/) in Patras, the "Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus" (http://www.pi.ac.cy/ pi / index .php? lang = el) in Nicosia, Aallborg University (http://www.en.aau.dk/) in Copenhagen Denmark and partner schools Aglantzia High School (Cyprus), Experimental Gymnasium, University of Macedonia, Greece and Gymnasium Kaunas Garliava Juozas Luksa, Lithuania. Project activities include transnational meetings, dissemination activities, teamwork among partners, multiplier events, process and outcome research, educational material as well as Intellectual Outputs. In particular, they include guides, handbooks, educational material, educational scenarios, academic studies on the media in Europe, and pedagogical issues that emerge,especially for the Web Radio including a provision for visually impaired students. The main result is the development of a fully functional multilingual Web Radio and Platform which addresses all types of schools and at all levels, not only for the four partner countries but also for the whole of Europe. Deliverables include both analysis and design and, of course, the implementation of a full-time/real-time Web Radio streaming, and the ability to manage profiles for each user, guides and manuals, training scenarios and other material. Also, FAQ and certainly communication with managers. In addition, the deliverables include analysis of the intellectual and ethical issues that arise, as well as research on the implementation or use of the Internet Radio and Platform by partners and associates. Finally, Internet Radio has been created in a way that can be integrated into other European programs that wish to benefit from this platform, such as eTwinning.