These days we are not only teaching students at our school - we are teaching digital natives. Having been confronted with the digital world since their earliest childhood, our students know how to use a computer and the Internet even better than most of their teachers. Nevertheless, it seems as if they are still quite naive when it comes to navigating this vast jungle of digital information. The main aim of this project is to raise students‘ but also teachers‘ awareness of the opportunities and risks connected to the consumption of digital media. Besides, in a participatory media environment we are no longer only consumers but also producers of media content, so we want to make our students understand how to deal with this virtual world in an appropriate and sensible way without harming oneself or others. Moreover, we want to help them find out how to use it to their advantage. Our target group are students aged 14-16 at our schools who will be invited to participate actively in the project. As a result of our work, students and teachers at each school should benefit from the guidelines and activities we intend to work out. The project is separated into five different areas of work with ensuing activities. The producer: Students should become aware of the traces they are leaving online by looking at the things they produce themselves and develop guidelines for their online presentations. The consumer: We will examine the content teenagers consume and work on the issues of manipulation, media algorithms and fake news. Consumers of education: We will compare ICT policies at our schools. Furthermore, we will explore forms of verification and validation to help our students avoid plagiarism. The responsible user now: We will examine the positive power of digital media by analysing empowerment movements and tools on the Internet. Besides, we will have a closer look at our media consumption and consequently, define dangers such as addictions and develop guidelines for digital detoxing. The responsible user in the future: Students will be invited to discuss the future development of digital media in our professional and private lives. Finally, we will develop materials for teachers on how to deal with the topic of digital media in the classroom. Concerning the methodology, several approaches to the different issues will be offered, including talks by experts, who will give information on various issues, as well as independent student research or the examination of material provided. Furthermore, we will also use students‘ creative potential with appropriate tasks and invite them to reflect on their own „media personality“ in different ways. In this context, it will also be interesting to see how the issues mentioned above have an impact on students and teachers in different European countries and how those dealing with the impact of the digital world on their school systems. In the end, it is about learning from each other and helping each other to deal with the challenges of a digitalised world. Our project should not only result in a better understanding - of both students and teachers – of how to navigate in a digital environment both on a personal as well as on a professional level, it should also provide substantial teaching material, thus ensuring a lasting effect on the school community. With the development of guidelines after each project week and the planning and implementation of a yearly media awareness day at our schools, we want to ensure that the output and insights of our project are disseminated among students and teachers alike. In the long run, the results of our work should be implemented in our schools‘ policies on media awareness and find their way into media curricula which have to be developed by our schools, mostly due to new school legislation in this area.
The aim of our project was to help our students to turn from digital na(t)ives to digital navigators. Due to the Corona pandemic, that started to change our teaching and learning experience - maybe forever -, our project has become more immediate than actually planned and teachers, as well as students, were forced to navigate digital surfaces consciously more quickly than expected. When we started this project, we saw that our students had been confronted with the digital world since their earliest childhood, so they know how to use a computer and handle the Internet even better than most of their teachers. Nevertheless, noticed that quite a large number of students were (and are) quite naive when it comes to navigating this vast jungle of digital information. The main aim of this project has been to raise students‘ but also teachers‘ awareness of the opportunities and risks connected to the consumption of digital media. Besides, in a participatory media environment, we are no longer only consumers but also producers of media content, so we wanted to make our students understand how to deal with this virtual world in an appropriate and sensible way without harming oneself or others. Moreover, we wanted to help them to use it to their advantage. Our target group were students at our schools, aged 14-16, who were invited to participate actively in the project. As a result of our work, our students and teachers at each school benefited from the toolbox, guidelines and activities we have worked out together. The project was separated into five different areas of work and related activities: a) The producer: Students learned to discover the traces they are leaving online by looking at the things they produce themselves, by getting an in-depth knowledge of social media and by developing guidelines for how they present themselves online. b) The consumer: We explored the content teenagers consume and worked on the issues of manipulation and media algorithms. We developed guidelines on cyberbullying and how to spot Fake News. We had experts talking about Fake news and legislation related to what people post on social media. c) Consumers of education: We compared ICT policies at our schools. Furthermore, we explored forms of online verification and validation to help our students avoid plagiarism. d) The responsible user now: We examined the positive power of digital media by analysing empowerment movements and tools on the Internet. Besides, we had a closer look at our media consumption and how it impacts our mental and physical health. As a result, we developed guidelines on digital detoxing. e) The responsible user in the future: We wanted to invite our students to discuss the future development of digital media in our professional and private lives. Practical activities regarding future skills like programming were planned but cancelled due to the Corona lockdown in March 2020. Fortunately, we had already started to build a digital tool-box for teachers on how to deal with the topic of digital media in the classroom with many tools and ideas on how to work with students using digital tools. This digital tool-box is still being updated. We worked on several approaches to the different issues including talks given by experts, who provided us with input on various issues, as well as independent student research and the examination of the material provided. We also used the students‘ creative potential by giving them appropriate tasks and invited them to reflect on their own „media personality“ in different ways. It was interesting to see how the issues mentioned above have an impact on the students and teachers in different European countries and to analyse the impact of the digital world on each of our school systems. It was interesting to learn from each other and to help each other to deal with the challenges of a digitalised world. The aim of our project was not only to acquire a better understanding - related to both students and teachers – of how to navigate in a digital environment both on a personal as well as on a professional level, we also wanted to provide substantial teaching material, and make a lasting effect on our school communities. We have developed guidelines after each project week and organised a yearly media awareness day at our schools (which unfortunately could not take place in 2020 due to the Corona pandemic, but is intended to take place in the upcoming school year). Besides, we wanted to share the output and insights of our project among students and teachers alike through our project website https://sites.google.com/sandnesskolen.no/digitalnativetodigitalnavigato. The results of our work have partly been implemented in our schools‘ policies on media awareness and we also hope that they have been or will be reflected in media guidelines in our schools, some due to new school legislation in this area.