The Internet in our contemporary world is an immanent part of our lives. Although it brings a lot of benefits and makes our lives easier, it also plays a destructive role, especially among young users. Being teachers, who are in constant contact with the youth, we are aware of the dangers arising from the inappropriate use of the Internet and social media. In preparation for this project, the participating schools have handed out an anonymous survey concerning the use of internet and social media. The main outcomes confirm the necessity of this project: - 91% of our pupils use social media - 11,4% of the respondents have personally experienced problems on social network sites, in absolute terms this means almost 100 pupils. - 21,5% know someone who has already had problems with social networks and 36% have already felt uncomfortable online (more than 300 pupils in absolute terms) - One alarming outcome was that 33% of pupils think that there's no danger on the Internet and a majority of students are not informed about all the dangers existing and how to talk about the problems in their close environment. Objectives of the project In response to the problem we have decided to create this project on e-safety issues. The main aim of the project is to make students, teachers and parents become more aware and proficient in the use of the Internet and media as a whole. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project The internet and especially social media are very private parts of our students` lives - they communicate, make friends online and organize their lives using social media. A lot of students feel uneasy if schools want to interfere with their privacy. Consequently the question came up how we could reach as many students as possible and attain a high level of acceptance on the students´ side dealing with e-safety. As a result we developed the idea of training students to become experts on matters concerning the media and e-safety. These students will become “e-safety coaches” and offer training courses for younger students in a peer-to-peer approach. The training course for the students we will make use of is based on a program that was developed by a media centre in the county of Baden-Württemberg in Germany (www.lmz-bw.de) Description of activities We will not only convey technical know-how, but also highlight impacts of the media world: The adolescents will learn about essential rules of media production, improve their media literacy, acquire knowledge in project planning and implementation, how to lead learning groups and how to competently inform their classmates on media issues. The course will be conducted in about 20-30 hours. For instance students will get to know details about privacy rights and copyright, communication and social networks, cyberbullying, safe use of smartphones and apps as well as extremism on the net and hate speech. Students who will act as media experts at their schools will offer courses to younger students. This can happen at lunch break in an internet café of a school or during school lessons. They can also act as mediators. E-safety coaches will regularly cooperate with their counterparts in the other participating schools during e-safety-clubs. They will exchange their experiences, develop material together and prepare activities for an annual e-safety day at their schools. The students that will be trained as e-safety coaches will be 13-16 years of age and will act as specially trained media counsellors at their schools. They will especially work with classes of younger students (10-14), train new e-safety coaches and cooperate with the school communities and their European partners. The six participating schools are: “Realschule” Eberbach (GER); “Saint Jacques de Compostelle”, Dax (FR); “Alderley Edge School for Girls”, Alderley Edge (UK); “I.E.S. Francisco Figueras Pacheco”, Alicante (SP); “Szkoła Podstawowa Nr. 46 im. J. Kiepury”, Sosnowiec (PL); Şcoala Gimnazială “Mihai Viteazul” Pucioasa (RO). Four of them are local public bodies and two of them are independent schools; the number of pupils varies between 400 and 2700 and their ages are between 2 and 18. With our concept of a peer-to-peer approach we aim at reaching the majority of students and parents of the school communities. Our aim is to reduce dangers linked to the use of media and raise awareness on the students´ and parents´ sides concerning the use of media establishing e-safety clubs at our schools that meet on a regular basis. For the purpose of training new e-safety coaches we will produce a booklet “e-safety concept handbook”. Potential longer term benefits Once established, the system of e-safety coaches training new e-safety coaches in the next school year will have a sustainable effect on our school communities, contributing to a safer and more harmonic school environment. After the end of the project e-safety clubs will continue with their work.
The Internet in our contemporary world is an immanent part of our lives. Although it brings a lot of benefits and makes our lives easier, it also plays a destructive role, especially among young users. Being teachers, who are in constant contact with the youth, we are aware of the dangers arising from the inappropriate use of the Internet and social media. A survey launched in each school before the candidature confirmed the necessity of the project. Objectives of the project The main aim of the project was to make students, teachers and parents more aware and proficient in the use of the Internet and media as a whole. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project The internet and especially social media are very private parts of our students` lives - they communicate, make friends online and organize their lives using social media. A lot of students feel uneasy if schools want to interfere with their privacy. In order to reach as many students as possible and be sure of a high level of acceptance on dealing with e-safety from their part, each school developed a training to prepare them to become e safety experts. At the end they were “media coaches” capable to pass on their knowledge to younger students in a peer-to-peer approach. The training course for the students we made use of is based on a program that was developed by a media centre in the county of Baden-Württemberg in Germany (www.lmz-bw.de). You can find details in the handbooks we provide. Description of activities / project´s results We did not only convey technical know-how, but also highlighted impacts of the media world. The adolescents learned about essential rules of media production, improved their media literacy, acquired knowledge in project planning and implementation, how to lead groups and how to competently inform their classmates on media issues. For the purpose of training new media coaches the responsible teachers have created a booklet “e-safety concept handbook” that you can also use for your purposes respecting the copyright.The implementation of the media coach handbook requests at least 20 hours. For instance students get to know details about privacy rights and copyright, communication and social networks, cyberbullying, safe use of smartphones and apps as well as extremism on the net and hate speech. Students who act as media experts at their schools can offer courses and workshops to younger students.They can also act as mediators. The students trained as e-safety coaches should be 13-16 years of age and will act as specially trained media counsellors at their schools. They usually especially work with classes of younger students (10-12) and cooperate with the school communities during days of the open school. With our concept of a peer-to-peer approach we have been aiming at reaching the majority of students and parents of the school communities. Students also wrote scripts, produced videos and edited them. Furthermore media coaches created material like comics, posters, flyers, songs or a theatre play dealing with the topic of youth media protection. Our aim is to reduce dangers linked to the use of media and raise awareness on the students´ and parents´ sides concerning the use of media establishing e-safety clubs at our schools that meet on a regular basis. Potential longer term benefits Once established, the system of e-safety coaches being trained every year should have a sustainable effect on our school communities, contributing to a safer and more harmonic school environment. After the end of this project e-safety clubs should continue with their work simply because it makes a lot of sense in an increasingly digital world.