The most important characteristic feature of all human beings that they are "zoon politikon"(Aristotle) - i.e., live in a society. That fact brings opportunities and rights to the members of the society - but also responsibilities and duties. Those all are meant in the "social competence" - one of the "8 key competences", enabling the persons to live a meaningful life. Digital era, i.e. internet, computers, Facebook and smart phones have brought about fundamental changes in the society. Members-especially the young, the upcoming generation - spend a very considerable amount of time in the "virtual reality" - i.e. being a member of a society and being at the same time alone. Digital era has brought fundamental changes also in the social competence components. Some of those new components are highlighted in the project. The project aims at developing teaching materials regarding Digital Era's social competence (or: civic competence) for the upper elementary and secondary school students. Since the topics are (at least partly) new to the teachers too, Teachers' Support Materials (TSM) are also developed for the teachers of both age groups. Eight topics will be elaborated like digital society, media literacy, digital information vs. manipulation, internet ethics, the "alternative truth", electronic communication specifics and rules, digital and other solidarity, et. Topics for the two age groups will be different. Each topic is devided into two modules; one being taught in a 45-minute class. Materials will be available in written form, electronically and also using smartphone media. (The last being specifically constructed to help students coming from ambiente with lower possibilities.) The core version will be elaborated in English but a supplement on national languages will be attached to it - it will enable teachers to teach the materials on national languages too. Sample class plans, methodology suggestions, homework and control questions will also be attached to each module. The eight-member team of the project partners fits fully to the task: there are schools, a municipality, a foundation and an SME (having experience in teaching and elaboration of teaching materials) form the team. With that, practically all stakeholders will be represented - albeit the two most importent target groups are pupils and their teachers. Project activies are a chain of transnational meetings and individual working periods between them. It optimally combines the independent work and the common discussion and approval of it. Transnational meetings usually start from project management part when all important project management issues like communication, documentation, progress indicators, dissemination, finances etc. are discussed followed by a workshop each time, discussing the contents of the work done and assignement of tasks for the next period. Each participant country will host one meeting, providing thus opportunity for the participants to meet local citizens, visit local schools and cultural events - i.e., developing friendship between communities and countries. Methodology applied is a combination of individual and common work giving thus opportunity to the partners to present itself but still developing jointly accepted, common results. The "tangible" results will be, as it is described above: four books in English, electronic version, smartphone version plus supplements to the books on all participants' national languages. (I.e., 4 volumes in English plus 6 x 4 volumes on national languages) Partners expect a very important impact on all stakeholders, above others on the two crucial target groups: the pupils and their teachers. The upcoming generation will be more up in arms to face the Digital Era challanges, become knowledgeable and responsible, fulfil their own social duties and responsibilities and also firmly excercise their rights. Teachers will be provided useful background information regarding the project topic too. Since the social attitude and life changes usually slowly, the real effects are expected to occur mid- and long-term only. It is of crucial importance that the upcoming generation meets all expectations of the society. Originally, "CSR" meant Corporate Social Responsibility" (ISO26000) CSR is widened into a combination of "Community's", "Civics" and "Corporate" Social responsibility. Integration of the three aspects will make the understanding and the usefulness of the project results. Topics of the materials are semi-independent, giving freedom of choice to the teacher to select and teach topics/module that fits most to the interests and knowledge level of the audience. Materials developed will be supplementary to the usual curricula of the schools.
The digital era (the Internet, social media, virtual reality, smart phones) has brought unprecedented changes in the life of society, brought new aspects, new methods, new ways of life, changed the way we all deal with small or large social issues. This digital age places enormous demands on society as a whole, but above all on the younger generation. The young upcoming generation spend a very considerable amount of time in the "virtual reality". However, the digital new era does not only mean new challenges for pupils and students. The development of digital technologies has also increased the barrier between teachers and parents (Generation Y) and pupils (Generation Z). On the one hand, the new generation is adapting faster to the coming trend, so it is now common for children and adolescents to be able to control some new facilities better than their parents and teachers. On the other hand, it contributes to the widening gap between generations. The concept of digital citizenship has only appeared in education for a short time, which is why there are very few teaching materials in schools. There are already online resources that deal with the issue, but they are usually not primarily intended for didactic purposes. For this reason the project team developed teaching materials regarding Digital Era's social competence (or: civic competence). There were two main target groups. It was agreed that the first group would be upper elementary pupils/students (12-14 years) and the second group would be secondary students aged15-18 years. As some of the topics are (at least partly) new to the teachers too, Teachers' Support Materials (TSM) were also developed for the teachers of both age groups. The original plan was to elaborate eight topics divided into two modules dealing with issues like digital society, media literacy, digital information vs. manipulation, internet ethics, electronic communication specifics and rules, et. We planned to divide each topic into two modules but the elaborated volume of materials considerably surpasses the original plans. When collecting topic and theme suggestions in IO1, high number of other, important suggestions also came up. We decided to divide the individual topics into 3 modules. We elaborated four books in English (core version), electronic version, smartphone version plus supplements to the books in all participants' national languages. (I.e., 4 volumes in English plus 6 x 4 volumes on national languages). One module is to be taught in a 45-minute class. Even though the national versions are usually shorter that the core English version it enables teachers to teach the materials in national languages, too. Sample class plans, methodology suggestions, homework and control questions are attached to each module in the TSM. The team consisted of eight partners from six countries (the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Italy). Since the project was focused on school education, most of the partners were from schools. But there was also municipality, a foundation and an SME (having experience in teaching and elaboration of teaching materials). With that, practically all stakeholders were represented - albeit the two most important target groups were pupils and their teachers. Project activities were a chain of transnational meetings and individual working periods between them. It optimally combined the independent work and the common discussion and approval of it. Transnational meetings always started from project management part when all important project management issues like communication, documentation, progress indicators, dissemination, finances etc. were discussed, followed by a workshop each time, discussing the contents of the work done and assignment of tasks for the next period. Each participant country hosted one meeting, providing thus opportunity for the participants to meet local citizens, visit local schools and cultural events - i.e., developing friendship between communities and countries. Methodology applied was a combination of individual and common work giving thus opportunity to the partners to present itself but still developing jointly accepted, common results. Partners expect a very important impact on all stakeholders, above others on the two crucial target groups: the pupils and their teachers. The upcoming generation will be more up in arms to face the Digital Era challenges, become knowledgeable and responsible, fulfill their own social duties and responsibilities and also firmly exercise their rights. Teachers will be provided useful background information regarding the project topic too. Since the social attitude and life changes usually slowly, the real effects are expected to occur mid- and long-term only. It is of crucial importance that the upcoming generation meets all expectations of the society.