The issue of online security and protection are topics that arise with the development of the Information Society and their intensive use by the population. These changes pose new educational changes for an adequate online management of our students’ safety and privacy. A few years ago it was unthinkable that would be exposed our private lives to the whole world. Our experience with the web was reduced to the consumption of content. With the Web 2.0 technology becomes a ubiquitous reality that accompanies us throughout the day, makes us communicate, share information, collaborate in the creation of new content and we relate in a different way. New tendencies emerge that go on the line of making more and more public intimate aspects of personal life. In this new reality information risks falling into improper use, endangering privacy and configuring the digital identity itself. In this context, remaining constantly aware of everything children are doing online, can be a full-time job for parents and teachers. The best way to fight cyber criminals is through education, and it can start at any age. Therefore some of our topics will be: Healthy use of mobile devices, gender - based violence in the Internet, stereotypes and sexist language in the Internet, privacy on the net, care of the image itself, techniques to prevent and combat situations of cyberbullying, threats or extortions in the Internet (grooming, sexting…), and what to do in the face of criminal situations on the Internet. In this context, the motivation for developing this project comes from the main purpose itself, that is, to make our pupils aware of the correct use of the new technologies and its dangers. It is aimed at students from ten years old for their greater contact with mobile phones, computers and tablets, websites, social networks, applications, electronic games… In addition, they all live in large cities, where the risks described above multiply, and the need for this kind of projects is greater. Cybersecurity Schools is a project that pursues as main objective the exchange of good practices between six European countries in matters of security and privacy of our students on the Internet. We would like to organize and develop the First International Bilingual Congress on Cybersecurity, share our best practices and publish the Conference Proceedings Cybersecurity Book. Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain (coordinator) and Turkey will be the European countries forming part of this experience. Four of them are primary level schools and two are secondary level institutes. Almost 150 students will participate in the mobility activities. Our activities will be designed to have the opportunity to participate all the agents of our educational communities. In this way we will advance towards an educational participation that is the one that at the moment has scientific evidences of obtaining the best results of learning and coexistence between our students. There will be six mobilities, in which both pupils and teachers would have the opportunity to put into practice what they have been working before and share their experiences when working in the exchange of the good practices. All the partners will participate in these mobilities and they will choose four pupils to come with them, … giving priority to the most disadvantaged students, to express themselves, relate and collaborate with the rest in achieving the objectives. One of the important parts of the Congress is the presentation of good practices made by the partners on the subjects under study. These will be didactic units or workshops carried out collaboratively among all the partners. Each one assumes the commitment to design a good practice (activity or task) to be done by all partners. Another important part is the Cybermentors. They are students organized in small, international mixed teams that will work on a subject of protection and security in the network, on which they will be formed during a period of time to present it in the Congress. Products obtained from both: the good practices and the learning of the Cybermentors students will be exposed in the last mobility consisting of the celebration of a Congress in the coordinator country. Our methodology will be mainly active, integrating and collaborative. Giving the main roles to the pupils so they are the centre of the project, taking advantage of the shifting class, peer work, scaffolding. The expecting final results of the project, which are celebrating the First International Cyberbullying Congress conducted by pupils and forming pupils as cybermentors are very ambitious, so we can not stop here. Our proposals include, as it can not be in another way, that these already formed cybermentors go on forming another pupils who will became the main actor for the next congress to be celebrated the next year. In this sense the spirit of the project will be long term included in the educational context of every school.
The issue of online security and protection are topics that arise with the development of the Information Society and their intensive use by the population. Technologies accompanie us throughout the day whenever we communicate, share information, or collaborate in the creation of new content. Nowadays, the trend is for people to make intimate aspects more and more public. A few years ago it was unthinkable that our private lives could be exposed to the whole world. In this new reality, we need to be aware of the risks we are exposed to, the ways to prevent them and finally how to solve them. We consider that education is the best way to fight this and it can start at any age. Cybersecurity Schools is a project dealing with online safety and security in six schools from Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain (coordinator) and Turkey. It was aimed at students from ten years old for their greater contact with mobile phones, computers and tablets, websites, social networks, applications or electronic games. Its main objectives were to raise awareness of the correct use of technologies and its dangers; to exchange good practices. The activities were very varied, involving all sectors of the educational communities. All students benefited from the cultural activities, pedagogical celebrations and good practices, understood as those giving positive results in other educational contexts. Five units of good practices were carried out, dealing with issues such as privacy, online communication, cyberbullying, hyperconnectivity, identity theft and inappropriate content. A fundamental pillar was the cybermentors, groups of students, supervised by teachers, to act as trainers of their own peers on topics such as cyberbullying, fake news, online privacy, video games, netiquette, techno-addictions, postural health, digital footprint, resilience, identity theft and social networks. They were trained on these topics during an academic year following the Project Based Learning methodology. They decided on the final product they wanted to prepare (a presentation, a video, a radio spot or an interactive leaflet). When they finished the training and the final product they had to present it in public, both to students from their own school and from other schools. Six transnational activities were carried out involving 131 pupils. Teachers and students had the opportunity to put into practice what they had been working on, shared their experiences and carried out the programme of activities organised by the host country. They developed the First International Congress on Cybersecurity in Spain (From 16 to 20 May, 2022) and all the groups of students presented their investigations. In those days another important activity was "Stands", booths where they exhibited their cultures and the best work done on cybersecurity. Covid-19 brought major changes that made us rethink the whole process of our project and was manifested in innovative educational practices such as the virtualisation of two teaching, learning and training activities. Both promoted the participation of a larger number of learners. We highlight the real-time virtual tour of the city of Makó (Hungary) or the live concert with traditional Turkish songs and dances by the pupils of the school in Fethiye (Turkey). Monthly training sessions were conducted with families and teachers on topics such as parental mediation, inappropriate content, social media, gender-based violence, eating disorders, identity theft and mental health. Families with children who had been direct beneficiaries of LTTA hosted other students in the project. The project has generated visible results such as the TwinSpace and its pages section, the blog, posters, photos of the mobilities, some videos of the family trainings, videos with the evidence of students’ activities, videos of the presentations of the cybermentor, presentations for the dissemination of the project, video tutorials, a repository of good practices in cybersecurity, didactic units, evaluation questionnaires, templates for writing good practices, a cyber escape room, a cybersecurity board game with its cards, and the Congress book. Non-visible results include the transformation of classroom and school life; the involvement of various sectors of the educational community; the improvement of language and digital skills; the development of teamwork skills; the consolidation of relationships between participating schools; the promotion of self-evaluation; reflection on teaching and learning processes; the implementation of good practices in the school; the promotion of the European Dimension: the direct and indirect approach of the educational community to other cultures; the use and experimentation with new digital resources and tools. Long-term benefits of taking part in this project will be seen by improving quality of life for each participant through new communications and travel experiences with peers from Europe.