The project "Fostering Adolescents’ Knowledge and Empowerment in Outsmarting Fake Facts" (FAKE OFF) aims at fostering young people's internet literacy, at creating awareness of intentional misinformation and at enabling young people to identify “fake news” and to avoid them. CONTEXT “Fake news” and “fake facts” have become not only fashionable keywords but actual threats to democratic values. Especially young people, who spend increasing amounts of time on the internet and with social media, are targeted by fake news for propaganda and/or profit reasons. Therefore, they need empowerment and knowledge to outsmart the flow of intentional misinformation through critical thinking and improved internet literacy (e.g. fact-checking abilities). Although initiatives to foster these competencies have been initiated by educators and corporations, adequate didactic means to foster digital literacy skills have been missing in the sphere of youth work until now. PROJECT OBJECTIVES To create an innovation in youth work, the project establishes a DIGITAL LEARNING PACKAGE especially developed for young people and youth workers. This learning package enables youth workers, teachers and young people to improve their digital literacy and to work on the topic of fake news: an interactive APP for young people and a RESOURCE TOOLBOX WEBSITE containing TRAINING MATERIAL and extensive information for youth workers and teachers for in-depth fake news research and learning. With these project results we aim to: - increase the participation of young people in the critical debate of news and internet content - develop young people’s capacity to evaluate published information and act accordingly - allow a systematic approach to digital literacy for young people and professionals working with them - support the individual learning process of young people in the context of digital literacy PROJECT OUTPUT • A tailor-made GENERAL DIDACTIC CONCEPT to foster media literacy in youth work, youth information centres and other educational settings • The DIGITAL LEARNING PACKAGE, in five languages (English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian): - APP for young people, containing game-based specialised activities, content and a communication platform concerning fake news) - RESOURCE TOOLBOX WEBSITE for youth workers with access to didactic material, up-to-date information and TRAINING MATERIAL. • CONTENT for the DIGITAL LEARNING PACKAGE, including fake news articles, videos, graphics to be analysed – and extensive information material for download • TRAINING MATERIAL concerning fake news and internet literacy for youth workers and teachers METHODOLOGY We pursue an action-oriented methodology to produce all deliverables and to realise our project objectives. In this vein, we divided all project activities into individual TASKS, each of which leading to an actual output or interim result, such as a document or product. This action-based methodology with clearly defined TASKS makes actions and their results measurable. PARTICPANTS Together with international experts, and with young people (from 13 to 19) and youth workers and teachers, the project team will develop the project results - to be used in youth work across Europe. In addition, LEARNING, TEACHING AND TRAINING ACTIVITIES will be conducted with young people and youth workers to actively engage them in the project process - and as multiplicators. IMPACT AND LONGER-TERM BENEFITS The impact of FAKE OFF will have the following impact on all geographical levels: - more responsible use of (online) media by young people - public discourse about the accuracy and quality of news - awareness of media education in the context of fake news in youth organisations - a general democratization process through making young people less susceptible to intentional misinformation and propaganda - empowerment of young people with the skills of critical thinking and media literacy - better informed younger generation and stronger fundament for democracy - a higher competence regarding digital forms of teaching by youth workers PARTNER ORGANISATIONS The consortium consists of seven partners in five countries, ranging from educational institutions, youth workers and youth organisations to digital media experts, youth information centres and ICT experts: bit schulungscenter (AT), Future Balloons (POR), Internationale Akademie Berlin für Innovative Pädagogik, Psychologie und Ökonomie (GER), Asociacion Intercultural Europea Go Europe (ESP), Jonathan Cooperativa Sociale (ITA), Österreichisches Institut für angewandte Telekommunikation (AT) and LOGO jugendmanagement gmbh (AT). In addition, various associated partners - ranging from authorities, youth work umbrella organisations, youth organisations, schools, media, academic institutions, etc. - support the project in the development of outputs, dissemination and multiplier events - to ensure maximum impact and distribution of the project results.
The project "Fostering Adolescents’ Knowledge and Empowerment in Outsmarting Fake Facts" (FAKE OFF) aimed at fostering young people's internet literacy, creating awareness of intentional misinformation and enabling them to identify “fake news” to avoid them. BACKGROUND “Fake news” and “fake facts” have become not only fashionable keywords but actual threats to democratic values. Especially young people, who spend increasing amounts of time on the internet and with social media, are targeted by fake news for propaganda and/or profit reasons. Therefore, they need empowerment and knowledge to outsmart the flow of intentional misinformation through critical thinking and improved internet literacy (e.g. fact-checking abilities). Although initiatives to foster these competencies have been initiated by educators and corporations, adequate didactic means to foster digital literacy skills have been missing in the sphere of youth work until now. PROJECT OBJECTIVES To create an innovation in youth work on an international level, tackling the issue of fake news and provide solutions for the target groups of young people and youth workers, a GENERAL DIDACTIC CONCEPT, providing up-to-date information on the topic and state-of-the-art TRAINING MATERIAL, including a game-based approach for young people within an APP, have been developed. With these project results we aimed at: - increasing the participation of young people in the critical debate of news and internet content - developing young people’s capacity to evaluate published information and act accordingly - allowing a systematic approach to digital literacy for young people and professionals working with them - supporting the individual learning process of young people in the context of digital literacy PROJECT OUTPUTS • A tailor-made GENERAL DIDACTIC CONCEPT to foster media literacy in youth work, youth information centres and other educational settings • An APP (for Android and iOS devices) for young people, containing game-based specialised quizzes concerning fake news, media literacy and how to detect them • TRAINING MATERIAL concerning fake news, internet and media literacy for youth workers and teachers PARTICPANTS To create high quality outputs that can be used across Europe, the main target groups of teachers, trainers and youth workers and young people (from 13 to 19) as well as international experts have been actively involved in the development of the project results, e.g. in pilot tests, interviews and research. In total 30 youth workers, trainers and teachers gave feedback to IO1 and IO4 and 55 young people participated in the pilot testes of IO3. Additionally, LEARNING TEACHING TRAINING ACTIVITIES were conducted, planned and implemented with teacher, trainers and youth workers (15 people at C1) and young people (20 individuals between 13 and 19) and the participants have been involved in the project processes (review of the GENERAL DIDACTIC CONCEPT (IO1), development of the APP (IO3) and development of the TRAINING MATERIAL (IO4)), as well have been trained as multipliers for the topic, the results of the project and as fighters against fake news ACTIVITIES Besides the LEARNING TEACHING TRAINING ACTIVITIES, 5 multiplier events were conducted in the project partner countries (AT, DE, IT, ES, PT), presenting the project and its results, disseminating it and generating multipliers of the project. The multiplier events (E1-E5) attended in total 242 participants from 8 different countries. IMPACT AND LONGER-TERM BENEFITS The impact of the FAKE OFF project on all geographical levels are the following: - usage of the Know-How, expertise and materials in the follow-up project: "MISS to young people: more information, safe surfing" (2019-3-IT03-KA105-017667) with its objective to improve youth work quality on the topic of media literacy via 5 full days of training course - empowerment of young people with the skills of critical thinking and media literacy - more responsible use of (online) media by young people - better informed younger generation and stronger fundament for democracy - public discourse about the accuracy and quality of news - awareness of media education in the context of fake news in youth organisations - a general democratization process through making young people less susceptible to intentional misinformation and propaganda - a higher competence regarding digital forms of teaching by youth workers - already used Training Material within the partner organizations and beyond - strong relationship within the consortium for following projects - establishment of local, regional and national networks with other educational institutions, youth workers and public authorities/municipalities