Schools throughout Europe are experiencing more and more problems at school with social media (cyber bullying, exclusion, sexting, misinformation (fake news) …) There seems to be a lack of moral use of these media, pupils are not aware of the consequences of their online behavior nor towards others as towards their own online image. Schools, teachers and parents don’t really know how to react, in what manner they can interfere or how to cope with problems relating from the online activity. It is hard for schools and pupils to find the right balance on how to deal with these social media (what should we put online, what can we like or not, what can be future consequences, how do teachers need to react, how can we use these social media in a positive way…) Parents and students are also asking for our help in what way they can positively use these media both for personal and academic needs. In this project all of these schools want to work on the empowerment of the students because we believe if we can strengthen our students in order to prevent future problems, we can reach the best possible results. We deliberately are working with students of the age group 14-15 because this is the age group where most problems seem to occur, possibly linked to their puberty and 'new liberties' they gain. We have gathered five schools spread all over Europe with all different contexts but all experiencing the same issues. All schools are already working on this and are using various techniques on how to deal with this. All of these schools have specific strengths in working on these theme and can make each other and possibly also other schools stronger on this topic. This project meets the horizontal priority of ‘social integration’ because it delivers good practices on working on digital well-being of pupils, cyber bullying etc. We also will be taking our time to inform and work with students on matters as disinformation through the internet and fake news. Next to these 'threats' of the digital world we also want to learn what the educational possibilities of social media can be for us as educators. To do so first of all we will define what social media are and how they work. Therefore we will need to have sufficient knowledge of different social media and their opportunities and use. We also want to share basic knowledge on social media with parents so that they can also be informed on this issue since knowledge of what exists is a first step into dealing with the problems or opportunities that occur. We will do this in collaboration with the students who will inform their parents and peers. As a concrete result of this project we want to have an overview of good practices in these fields which can be shared with other schools throughout Europe. During the Transnational Learning Teaching and Training Activities we will try out all kinds of good practices on four topics 1. Communication Interaction: cyberbullying, sexting, exclusion from social media , peer pressure … 2. Communication Cyber Image and reputation: How do we ‘make’ an image of ourselves? Do we know what our own image looks like? What are the consequences of that image? Do we think about our own/others safety? Is our cyber image futureproof? How do we define what is appropriate (and in what context)? 3. Cyber Awareness: Trolls, click farms, user-orientated news, fake news, hidden advertising, product placement, influencing, nudging, GDPR, Cambridge Analytics and Facebook … 4. Educational opportunities: How to use social media in the classroom? How to use social media as a school? Rules and regulations, access to digital media/wifi/cell phones, a code on social media at school… Off all these topics we will gather, share and try out good practices from all of the five countries. We will pour those good practices into a shareable format and publish this for all interested parties. Added to the mere summary we will also add the effects of the try-outs, what was successful, what wasn’t (and why) and in what ways have we adapted the good practices and support to implement these good practices in another (school)situation. As schools we also want to learn how we can adapt our policy towards social media both in our communication with students, parents and others and also in how we deal with the social media use of students and staff. We then of course will share our policy and in what way we have adapted it. In the long run we think that working on this project and changing the way we (staff, students) deal with social media can positively affect the well-being of staff and students both in school as at home. It can take away stressful situations and undermine possible threats. We also hope to being able to reach out to other schools in the same situation and support them by supplying them with accessible good practices.
Schools throughout Europe have been experiencing more and more problems at school with social media. There seems to be a lack of moral use of these media, pupils are not aware of the consequences of their online behavior nor towards others as towards their own online image. Schools, teachers and parents don’t really know how to react, in what manner they can interfere or how to cope with problems relating from the online activity. It is hard for schools and pupils to find the right balance on how to deal with these social media. Parents and students are also asking for our help in what way they can positively use these media both for personal and academic needs. In this project all of these schools wanted to work on the empowerment of the students because we believe that if we can strengthen our students in order to prevent future problems, we can reach the best possible results. We deliberately worked with students of the age group 14-15 because this is the age group where most problems seem to occur, possibly linked to their puberty and 'new liberties' they gain. At the start of the project we gathered five schools spread all over Europe with all different contexts but all experiencing the same issues. All schools were already working on this and were using various techniques on how to deal with this. All of these schools have specific strengths in working on these theme and can make each other and possibly also other schools stronger on this topic. This project meets the horizontal priority of ‘social integration’ because it delivers good practices on working on digital well-being of pupils, cyber bullying etc. We also took our time to inform and work with students on matters as disinformation through the internet and fake news. Next to these 'threats' of the digital world we also wanted to learn what the educational possibilities of social media can be for us as educators. To do so first of all we defined what social media are and how they work. Therefore we needed to have sufficient knowledge of different social media and their opportunities and use. We also shared basic knowledge on social media with parents so that they are also informed on this issue since knowledge of what exists is a first step into dealing with the problems or opportunities that occur. We did this in collaboration with the students who informed their parents and peers during each project meeting. As a concrete result of this project we made an overview ( Twinspace) of good practices in these fields which has been shared with other schools throughout Europe. During the Transnational Learning Teaching and Training Activities we tried out all kinds of good practices on four topics 1.Communication Interaction: cyberbullying, sexting, exclusion from social media , peer pressure … 2.Communication Cyber Image and reputation: How do we ‘make’ an image of ourselves? Do we know what our own image looks like? What are the consequences of that image? Do we think about our own/others safety? Is our cyber image futureproof? How do we define what is appropriate (and in what context)? 3.Cyber Awareness: echo chambers, fake news, hidden advertising, product placement, influencing, GDPR … 4.Educational opportunities: How to use social media in the classroom? How to use social media as a school? Rules and regulations, access to digital media/wifi/cell phones, a code on social media at school… We’ve gathered and shared good practices from all of the five countries on these topics. We’ve published those good practices on an open Twinspace. Added to the mere summary we will also add the effects of the try-outs, what was successful, what wasn’t (and why) and support to implement these good practices in another (school)situation. During the meetings we’ve adapted the good practices twice according to the comments it received and our own reflections. We did this first after the try-out and secondly after everyone tested out each workshop at home in their own context. As schools we also wanted to learn how we can adapt our policy towards social media both in our communication with students, parents and others and also in how we deal with the social media use of students and staff. We decided not to write out a policy but wrote out some guidelines and suggestions for schools if they want to think about this. In the long run working on this project, changed the way we (staff, students) deal with social media positively and affected the well-being of students both in school as at home. Our final evaluation showed that students participating in the project are stronger in the use of social media, have more knowledge on the subject and have better skills in coping with the threats of it. Staff members are more aware of the opportunities and possibilities of social media in school. We also hope to being able to reach out to other schools in the same situation and support them by supplying them with the accessible good practices.