The digitalisation of today's societies is an important driving force for social development and an opportunity for participation for all people. However, it can also lead to a restriction of privacy and self-determination and to the undermining of free democratic order through fake news, hate speech or social bots. This has consequences for the tasks for schools, which have the responsibility of imparting important competencies to their pupils, such as - a critical and responsible approach to media, - the willingness to take responsibility, - to value diversity and to be able to act intercultural, - to be able to contribute their own abilities constructively in an increasingly diverse society. Very few schools are in a position to do this, as the teachers only have the capacity to develop these skills in few topics. Against this background, the project initially brings together the existing competences in the subject areas of two schools from Denmark and Germany. The aim is to create basic principles and pedagogical options for action which aim to convey basic democratic values in connection with the optimal and responsible use of digital media and tools in an increasingly digitized society. To this end, an intensive exchange will take place to clarify which competences need to be developed for the pupils and which competences teachers need in order to initiate this development. As a result, a guideline for schools will be developed, which contains tested basic principles and pedagogical options for initiating processes that enable pupils to learn and implement basic democratic values in an increasingly digitized society. For this purpose an intensive exchange takes place between 3 teachers of local groups of both schools and between 15-17 pupils per school. The pupils are between 15 and 17 years old and work together in local student groups at Klax Schule in Germany and at Deutsche Nachschule Tingleff (DNT) in Denmark. In transnational working meetings of the teachers involved, it will be discussed and analysed, - which competences pupils need to develop for the appreciation and exercise of basic democratic values in an increasingly digital society, - what knowledge pupils need for this, - which competences teachers need to initiate these developments and to impart this knowledge. Based on the above, the teachers develop a concept, which is tested in transnational student exchanges of pupils in the implementation of "Democracy Weeks" and finally further developed into a guideline. More pupils of both schools between the age of 15 and 17 participate in these local project weeks. Between the student exchanges and the transnational working meetings of the teachers, the participants continue to work on the project and its jointly defined milestones. The teachers groups regularly present the results of their observations, analyses and documentations as well as the results and contents developed at the transnational working meetings to their colleagues or pass them on in micro trainings. The published guideline provides other teachers with a basis for initiating pedagogical processes that enable pupils to attain and apply basic democratic values in an increasingly digitised society. In the course of the project, the participating schools expand their partnership and consolidate it. They can also deepen their international profile. The respective colleges gain practical experience in European project management. If transnational cooperation is continued using etwinning, further teachers and pupils can acquire competences for the initiation and implementation of transnational partnerships.
The digitalisation of today's societies is an important driver of social development and an opportunity for participation for all people. However, it can also lead to the restriction of privacy and self-determination and to the undermining of the liberal democratic order through fake news, hate speech or social bots. This has consequences for the demands on schools, which have the responsibility to teach their pupils (SuS) important competences, such as: - a critical and responsible approach to media, - the willingness to take responsibility, - to value diversity and to be able to act interculturally, - to be able to constructively contribute one's own abilities in an increasingly diverse society. Very few schools are in a position to do this, as the teaching staff only have the capacity to develop these skills in the students for a few topics. Against this background, the project initially brought together the existing competences on the topics outlined above from two schools in Denmark and Germany as a model. The aim was to create a basis and pedagogical options for action aimed at teaching basic democratic values in connection with the optimal and responsible use of digital media and tools in an increasingly digitalised society. For this purpose, an exchange took place between teachers and students of the Klax School in Germany and the German Night School Tingleff (DNT) in Denmark. At both schools, the teachers and students worked in a project group. The students were between 15 and 17 years old. The exchange was able to clarify which competences need to be developed among the students and which competences the teachers need to initiate this development. As a result, a guideline for pedagogical staff was developed, which contains the first tested basics and pedagogical options for initiating processes that enable students to learn and implement basic democratic values in an increasingly digitalised society. In transnational working meetings of the local working groups of teachers, the following was clarified in rudimentary form, - which competences the pupils need to develop for the appreciation and practice of basic democratic values in an increasingly digitalised society, - what knowledge the pupils need for this, - which competences the teachers need to initiate these developments and to convey this knowledge. From this, the teachers developed a pedagogical concept, which was tested in transnational exchanges of the participating pupils of both local groups of pupils in the implementation of "Democracy Weeks" and finally developed into a guideline for action. Other pupils and teachers as well as parents from both schools participated in the democracy weeks. Between the pupil exchanges and the transnational working meetings of the teachers, the participants continued to work on the project under the difficult conditions caused by the restrictions of the corona pandemic. The local project groups of teachers regularly presented the results of their observations, analyses and documentations as well as the results and contents developed during the transnational working meetings to their colleagues or conveyed them in micro-trainings. The action guide published on the Erasmus+ project results platform provides pedagogical teachers with a first basis for initiating pedagogical processes that enable pupils to acquire and apply basic democratic values in an increasingly digitalised society. The participating schools expanded and consolidated their partnership in the course of the project. They were also able to sharpen their international profile. The respective colleges gained practical experience in European project management. If the transnational cooperation continues, more teachers and pupils can gain competences for initiating and implementing transnational partnerships.