From 9/2017 to 8/2019 two grammar schools collaborate in the bilateral DISTEM project: Bahçelievler Anadolu Lisesi in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Ecumenical Cathedral School in Magdeburg, Germany. These two schools have collaborated on a previous project and aim to intensify and deepen their partnership despite the current tensions between Turkey and the EU. Apart from the objectives connected to the project’s topic we hope to establish and intensify personal contacts between the two schools. In the current situation we consider it essential not to allow communication between the two partner schools to be disrupted, and to stay in touch with each other. Thus, on a small scale, this project will contribute to improving the relationship between the two countries and between Turkey and the EU, and it will serve to create and strengthen the understanding and appreciation for each other. In this project, ten male and ten female students and two teachers from each school examine cultural differences between Turkey and Germany with regard to the influence of digital education (e.g. the way in which they are integrated into lessons, research is done and knowledge is transferred) on how values are imparted in the sciences. On the basis of the findings ‘tutorials’ will be created for classroom use to instruct students on how to find objective and relevant information when doing Internet research. Participants will follow the way in which knowledge is acquired and the way in which ethical attitudes are developed. They also reflect on the use of genetically engineered organisms in food production in both countries. It is our aim in this project to make students realise how they can do research on a certain topic in as objective a way as possible and guided by arguments based on facts without being led (or misled) by their own preconceptions on this subject. The ‘tutorials’ that participants will create are meant to allow them to show fellow students how such research can be carried out. With regard to the teachers we expect them to be able to follow and understand the way in which the process of acquiring knowledge with the help of ICT works and by which factors it is influenced. The ‘tutorials’ are meant to serve as tools for teachers and students that will enable them to practise the use of digital media in a way which is appropriate for the respective age of the students and the subject-matter at hand. In this context the students are meant to reflect on the way in which they acquire ethical attitudes, and to critically question the way in which they come to hold certain opinions and what influences them. Thus, they are enabled to explain and justify their stance to themselves and to others. Against this background they will be able to present and explain their ethical stance to the students from the other country respectively. Thus, they will learn to follow, understand and accept the opinions held by people from a different culture. After the ‘tutorials’ created in this project have been tried out, evaluated and improved they will be made available for both schools via the schools’ websites and the ‘moodle’ platform for ICT learning. Besides, they will be available for use by other interested students and teachers via e-twinning and a YouTube channel.
From September 2017 to August 2019, two schools worked together in the bilateral DISTEM project: Bahçelievler Anadolu Lisesi, Istanbul, and the Ecumenical Cathedral School, Magdeburg. Both schools had collaborated in preceding projects, and the responsible teachers on both sides knew each other. So in the face of growing tension between Turkey and the EU, we wanted to build on our existing partnership and strengthen and expand it in this third project. As had been the plan, the personal contacts between both sides were deepened. Again, we got to know more colleagues from our partner school, and so far, 62 students have taken part in the project, have got to know at least one other student from the partner school more closely and welcomed them into their families. It was still important to us in the current situation to not lose sight of each other and keep in touch. (In August 2019, the tensions between Turkey and Germany were high, with Syrian refugees used as pawns and a substantial number of German citizens imprisoned in Turkey.) Thus, we are certain that this project contributed, on a personal level between the schools, to improving the relations between our two countries and, on a small scale, between the EU and Turkey. In this project 10 students from each school and two to three teachers on each side examined cultural differences between Germany and Turkey with regard to the influence of digital education on the teaching of values in the natural sciences (e.g. how digital education is used; research; transfer and teaching of knowledge). Based on the results, three tutorials were developed for different age groups and levels to be used in class when teaching students how to research objective and relevant information about a given topic. The process of gaining knowledge on the one hand and of developing a moral attitude towards it on the other was exemplified by looking closely at the use of GMO (genetically modified organisms) in food production, which the group then reflected on critically. From the start the differences both in the approach to researching information and to reflecting the results critically from an ethical point of view became obvious. Although the laws on GMO are very similar in both countries, the Turkish students, in their presentations, concentrated almost exclusively on the implications of such food for our health. By contrast, the German students also considered the consequences of GMO for our eco-systems and for biodiversity, and its potential role in fighting hunger in the world. The Turkish students tended to use publications such as news magazines, newspapers and online encyclopaedias much less frequently than the German students, and mainly referred to “experts” as the sources of their information. These “experts” were knowledgeable acquaintances who teach at a university and whose statements were quoted by the students. This seemed understandable, considering the fact that in schools in Turkey online sources such as Wikipedia and YouTube, commonly used by German students, cannot be accessed. During the last three conferences the students created three different video tutorials for Years 5 and 6, Years 7 to 9, and Years 10 to 12 respectively. With the help of these tutorials they show other students how one can carry out web-based research that is as objective and factual as possible, and not be influenced too much by one’s preconceptions of a given topic. As GMO turned out to be too complex a topic for such a tutorial, the videos now concentrate on how to conduct objective internet research in general. After the version 1.0 had been tested and evaluated in lessons in both schools, the versions 2.0 were developed during our last conference and published on the schools’ internet platforms (for our school in Magdeburg, that is moodle) to be used and evaluated during this school year. With regard to the teachers we expect them to learn to understand how the process of acquiring knowledge through online research works and by which factors this process is supported. With these tutorials, students and teachers are supplied with a tool that they can use to implement digital media into lessons in a way that is appropriate for the different age groups. During this project the students from our two groups reflected on the way in which they developed ethical attitudes towards a topic. Also, they reflected critically on why they had come to hold these opinions and what exactly had influenced them in the process. They learned how to explain and defend their own moral stance and became aware of the criteria they applied when judging something to be morally right or wrong. Thus, they were made aware of the ethics they applied in a particular situation. It became clear that our German students were familiar with such questions as “Ethics” is a compulsory topic in Religious Education at our school, whereas the Turkish students had not been taught this topic to the same extent.