"Europa On Air" is a project which brings together five complementary partners around a medium familiar to each of them: the webradio. It combines three secondary and higher education schools equipped with a webradio (De Sanctis high school in Salerno, Gustave Eiffel high school in Bordeaux, Complutense university in Madrid) and two associations providing production and Radio broadcasts training. Each association is also specialized in a specific field: Radio Expert works particularly within the Rom community and The Red Tower offers advice on event organization and project management. Knowing the virtues of the radio tool, we are well aware of the extent to which it allows young people with academic and / or social difficulties to feel valued. Moreover, it offers by definition an openness to the world, to the other and to the advancement of the society by entertaining and informing it. It is from these multiple initial assumptions that our project was born and whose priorities are : to fight against the dropouts and to promote social inclusion by using practices that are part of the digital age. It is quite difficult for young people to open up to other cultures, to understand the current migration problems without crossing the borders of their respective countries. The European dimension is essential to the understanding of "living together" and to its promotion, and above all, it gives it full meaning. The 100 or even 150 participants will certainly be of different nationalities but also of different ages (high school students , university students) and different social backgrounds since some young people coming from a community often stigmatized will be involved in the project : the Roma community. We will endeavor to enlighten consciences and demonstrate through reports and interviews that the differences are a great asset, they are a vital force because they add richness in all competences and in various points of view. We will organize mobilities during which we will systematically produce a collective broadcast. In order to achieve coherence and a linearity in our approach, the various partners will be responsible in turn of the multiplexes broadcasts whose themes, as mentioned, will be those of European citizenship and otherness. Our aim is also that of developing education to the media, in a context in which these are everywhere and sometimes misused or even diverted. The formation of the citizen also depends on his ability to identify and to thwart disinformation and media manipulation. For this reason, we will meet local and national media. Our productions will be broadcast on the websites of all the partners, on the specific website of the project and on Facebook, so they will be available live in podcast without time limit. They will also be accessible to the participants' entourage, to all the students of the various organizations involved, to the teachers who wish to exploit them during teaching sessions, etc. The various local and national media encountered will also be a relay of our productions. At the same time, we will follow a detailed dissemination plan (of the project and its results) integrating social networks (twitter, facebook, etc ...), the etwinning platform and supervised by our British partner, specialized in event production. The project will go beyond the two years scheduled, because of many factors : the rexploitation of the acquired skills, the collaboration with the new partners , the participants and various actors met during the project and the local media encountered. It will continue also through the pedagogical exploitation of the productions, which may follow.
« EUROPA ON AIR » ACCOUNT The « Europa on air » project gathers five partners : three secondary and higher- education schools which have already got a webradio (De Sanctis High-School in Salerne, Gustave Eiffel High-School in Bordeaux, Complutense University in Madrid), the Radio Expert Association in Brno (particularly active in the Rom community) and Red Tower in London. Organized around the radio medium, and more particularly around the webradio, « Europa On Air » is aiming to favour inclusion (broadly speaking) and self-confidence, solve potential school difficulties and open young people’s mind on the world. This project enabled us to include young people with various backgrounds, either opposite or complementary : pupils from De Sanctis High-School, students from G. Eiffel High-School, Complutense University or Radio Expert, professionals for Red Tower or RadioExpert. Whatever their experience in radio, they loved working together and became aware of each other’s assets. Though the experience of « living together » was quite easy, some efforts were sometimes required. The exact number of young people participating in the project is difficult to know as the number of young in the host country was quite varied although higher than the number of travellers. We went over the number of individual mobilities financed by Erasmus by cutting fares and, above all, accommodation fees. Indeed, in italy as in France, the young were staying in host families, for financial as well as human reasons. Language and cultural immersion remains the best way to better get in touch with others. Thus, 111 young people (out of which 1 with specific needs) directly benefitted by « Europa On Air » project. We are glad the launching of our first common radio program in Salerne in October 2017 was performed all in English by a young Asperger autistic student from Bordeaux. With the support of our European team, he could overcome his fears and prove himself he could do it ! That was a huge personal step forward ; besides, his family could listen to him from France. Among the participants in the project were high-school pupils and students with a previous webradio experience in their school but also young people from the Czeh Republic or the United-Kingdom who are in fact skilled hosts. The healthy competition arousing from the different points of view, habits and backgrounds resulted each time in a high-quality result. Indeed, at the end of the four mobilities, there was a common radio program. Boys and girls had to organise themselves individually on air. They were in charge of a detailed story telling on a weekday or preparing a topic (for example about genders or technology) in a professional and documented way . They all enjoyed doing this and were all very proud of reaching such a result . Thanks to live or podcast broadcasting on social networks, partners’sites or our project’s, their families and friends could listen to them. Their productions can now be used on personal or school purposes. In the same time, as it had been planned, each partner organised, between mobilities, a multiplex in which the whole team participated. As a whole, we think our goals have been reached ; and the feedback from students’ questionnaires or oral exchanges shows it. Most of them gained maturity and self-confidence. Besides, they think they really improved their knowledge of a foreign language, particularly English. They have naturally become aware of European citizenship and from now on, don’t consider national borders as an obstacle. Furthermore, they enjoyed discovering countries and cultures both close and different. The impact can also be measured beyond the project members since Europa On Air aroused the interest of the members of various schools, local and regional authority. Afterward, there were also several press or on line articles, video reports in the local media. So, the concept of European radio appealed and called out. The benefits of this project are numerous in various fields such as self-esteem, oral and written expression mostly in English, the mastery of digital technology and,above all, European citizenship.