The aim of this AIMS project is to make teaching material about advertising and lobbying. The rationale behind this is that nowadays society is commercially driven and in many cases - especially in social media - the difference between advertising and information has become unclear. Young people need skills to orientate in this world. Teachers also need teaching material about this important topic which is not included in many national curriculums.In the project there are four participating schools from Belgium, Finland, Latvia and Macedonia. The schools are both general and vocational education, students are 14-16 years old.There will be four learning activities (one in each country), all together 80 students and 48 teachers travelling. Between the activities students and teachers will be working internationally online and nationally at schools. Each learning activity has a certain topic: Belgium: lobbying in EU, Finland: lobbying in practise, Macedonia: logos and brands, Latvia: marketing in practise. During the learning activities students will work in teams preparing for example advertisements, presentations and little researches.The main result of the project is an online teaching manual about lobbying and advertising. It will include practical examples of teaching the theme tested during the project. For pupils and accompanying teachers the advantage of the project is gained practical field experience in marketing and lobbying and better skills in understanding commercial world.As a potential longer term benefit of this project we see impact on national curricula. If we manage to make good teaching material and present it to national curricula authors, it could benefit in longer term future.
„Advertising in Multiple Societies” is a cooperative and peer learning project that was planned in 2015 and realized within two school years from September 2016 until August 2018. Teachers and pupils (from 14-18 years old) came from four experienced participating schools from Belgium, Finland, Latvia and Macedonia. The project rationale is based on the following priorities: to open and innovate education using different meaningful digital tools and improve achievement education in a theoretical and practical manner using relevant basic and transversal competences in planning, implementation and during monitoring phases of the project. Project activities highlight the connection between lobbying and both the learning and the process of creation with knowledge of entrepreneurship, field research and the use of digital sources. Throughout the project different theoretical and practical activities were developed around advertisement, lobbying and sensible customer awareness based on field and media research. The aim of the project is to create learning tools for lobbying and advertising by deepening pupils' understanding of sensible consuming and their customer awareness. Sub aim is to get insight in the concept of lobbying as an important part of current economical processes. A key element in our project is the use of electronic resources and communication via the internet. Pupils acquire new knowledge, skills and shape their attitudes towards consuming with the help of well-experienced professionals, teachers and other involved parties. During the project pupils: - gained theoretical knowledge of lobbying and its connections with entrepreneurship by media monitoring and research by visiting MEP and listening to guest speakers and a visit of EU institutions in Brussels; - increased their digital and creative skills by making videos and presentations to introduce the teams or to present certain products/activities; - learned about brands by creating their own ones, doing market research, visiting different innovative, progressive and green-minded companies and institutions; - produced new products by following an instruction; - participated in a market where they presented the products they had branded and produced. Final output of the project is two teaching manuals: one set of teaching materials focuses on lobbying (5 sessions of approximately 2 hours without pupil mobility) and teaching material around the topic of Logos and Branding (advertisement) in a similar line-up. Both are published on a digital platform (using Google Sites). Each website offers theoretical background, teaching ideas, worked out lesson plans, connected weblinks for further research and some examples from pupil output that was realized in our Erasmus+ exchange. These sites offer lesson materials that can be used in economics, social studies, history and politics and by entrepreneurship teachers. According to participating teachers and pupils, our AIMS project has successfully reached its aim and objectives and can therefore be used as promising praxis for schools, as example of transversal competence implementation and realisation in real time and for partners that held certain areas of responsibilities.