Europe is a topic in the curriculum of every European country with the aim of developing a common European consciousness and ensuring peaceful living together. It is often noticeable that pupils have little basic knowledge about other countries, European diversity, cultural roots and similarities, the circumstances of historical development and the functioning of European decision-making and institutions. In addition, Euroscepticism is often present: Regulations are often perceived as cumbersome and unrealistic due to a lack of change of perspective and problem awareness, many topics are controversially discussed even within the Union partners, which leads to insecurity among young people. The intensive confrontation with Europe and the simultaneous experiencing and getting to know different national perspectives can be a great enrichment and lead to a deeper awareness of the problem. Digitalisation makes the world and Europe "smaller" and changes our daily lives. Digital media are an integral part of students' everyday lives and are therefore also an issue for schools, which often lag behind these developments in didactics and methodology. Pupils have long become accustomed to media-based services and use them intensively, because they offer a different, target group-oriented approach, compared with what is often perceived as "dry" content (e.g. EU topics). Young people are usually more consumers than creators, but their behaviour as consumers is often uncritical. However, pupils can judge well which form of presentation, which medium etc. seems better or less suitable. Digital media education and the teaching of media competence are therefore currently among the central challenges for all European schools. Through the joint production of digital teaching and learning materials, pupils and teachers gain an intensive insight both into European topics and into their media presentation, whereby of course the focus is always on content and the medium should not serve as an end in itself. Thus two essential topics, which are closely interlinked and equally relevant for all participating schools, will be worked on together. Through the international European exchange, valuable changes of perspective are experienced directly and products are created for all participants which are sustainable, innovative and up-to-date. Accordingly, our first goal, which we want to achieve together with our Polish and Slovak partners, is the strengthening of a European consciousness as well as the expansion and deepening of knowledge about the origin, structure and functioning of the EU (including its diversity, pluralism and cultural diversity) as well as the deeper examination of current and future problem areas and lines of development. A further aim is to increase competence in the use of digital media for the design of content. By dealing with media-didactic aspects, both pupils and teachers gain a better understanding of the assessment of digital content and acquire new skills by creating and designing the media themselves. Concrete products and results thus represent jointly produced digital teaching and learning materials (e.g. eBooks, explanatory videos, apps, quizzes,...) on subjects relevant to teaching in Europe (e.g. election, legislation, regional studies, individual policy areas such as the environment, the economy,...). A total of about 40 pupils from the 11th or 12th grade aged 17 - 19, who are shortly before (PL, SL) or after (D) the (Fach-)Abitur, will be involved. The selection of the pupils takes place at all schools by voluntary registration. The pupils from the participating countries form mixed teams, each of which deals with a specific topic and implements a didactically meaningful medial presentation that is to be used in teaching in the future. The pupils prepare individual topics for this and plan the media implementation through which they intensively exchange information with their respective team partners from the other countries. The exchange will initially take place virtually via eTwinning and will be appropiately complemented by real encounters with workshops, work phases and multiplications. During the encounters, every school will multiply some content (e.g. legislative process) and media technology (e.g. eTwinning, kahoot, ...) priorities and, above all, the pupils personally discuss the ideas that have so far been virtually exchanged and work together to implement them. Within the framework of short-term exchange programmes for teachers, they will also coach each other and exchange information on options for media-didactic implementations so that they can provide meaningful support for pupils and can confidently use the products created by their students.
Europe is a topic in the education of every country with the aim of forming a European consciousness and ensuring peaceful coexistence. It is often noticeable that students have little basic knowledge about other countries, European diversity, cultural roots and commonalities, historical development conditions, functioning of European decisions and institutions. In addition, "Euroscepticism" is often noticeable: Regulations are often perceived as cumbersome and unrealistic due to a lack of perspective change and problem awareness, many topics are discussed controversially even within the Union partners, which leads to uncertainty. The aim of this project was to deepen awareness of the problem through intensive discussion of Europe and simultaneous experience and familiarization with the most diverse national perspectives. This was achieved by presenting European topics with modern media in order to make them more attractive and increase digital literacy. Digitalization is making the world and Europe "smaller" and changing our daily lives. Digital media are an integral part of students' everyday lives and are therefore also a topic for schools, which often lag behind developments in terms of didactics and methodology. Students have long been accustomed to media-based offerings, and they use them intensively because they offer a different, target-group-oriented approach, even to content that is often perceived as rather "dry" (such as EU topics). Young people are usually consumers rather than creators, but their consumption behavior is often uncritical. However, students can judge well which form of presentation, which medium, etc. seems better or less suitable. Digital media education and the teaching of media skills are therefore currently among the central challenges for all European schools, which we have addressed with this project. Through the creation of digital teaching and learning materials, the students gained an intensive insight into European topics as well as their media preparation, whereby of course the content should always be the focus and the medium should not serve as an end in itself. Thus, two essential topics, which are closely intertwined and equally relevant for all participating schools, were worked on together. Through the international European exchange, valuable changes in perspective could be experienced directly and sustainably useful and contemporary products were created for all participants. In the course of the project, about 70 students of the 11th and 12th grade, aged 17 - 19 years, who are about to (PL, SL) or after (D) the Abitur, were involved. The students formed country-mixed teams, each of which worked on an individual topic and realized a didactically meaningful media-technical implementation, which can be used in the classroom in the future. For this purpose, the students chose a freely selected individual topic of European significance (e.g. Nord-Stream-2, amendment of copyright law, ...) and planned the media implementation, about which they intensively exchanged ideas with their respective team partners from the other countries. Initially, the exchange took place virtually via eTwinning and was supplemented by real encounters with workshops, work phases and multiplications. During the meetings, one school at a time multiplied content-related (e.g., legislative process) and media-related (e.g., eTwinning, kahoot, ...) focal points and, above all, discussed in person the ideas that had previously been exchanged virtually and worked together on their implementation. Within the framework of short-term exchanges for the teachers, they were able to coach each other and exchange information about media didactic implementation possibilities, so that they could support the students in a meaningful way and use their created products safely. Even if the didactic and medial quality of the created materials does not always allow an immediate, direct use in class, it was possible - despite all corona-related obstacles during the course of the project - to create some helpful, useful and informative materials in the form of e.g. interactive presentations, eBooks, explanatory videos and much more, which show the diversity of a pluralistic Europe mostly multilingually on the basis of selected EU topics by comparing the participating countries (D, PL, SK).