CONTEXT We all talk about citizenship and how important it is to be a good citizen. However, we have reached a point in which we spend most of our lives online, accessing information which lies one click away, interacting with people we don’t even know on a regular basis. Given this context, we believe that teaching students about how to be good digital citizens is imperative – they all have to learn about rights and duties, about threats and privacy aspects which can keep them safe from an otherwise potentially dangerous environment. Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers and parents to understand what students/children should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students for a society full of technology. So we have decided to join our efforts and resources to enable students to learn about these aspects in a multicultural environment. In addition, we want to see what the position and the practice of each school is in terms of technology usage in class or outside classes. Schools in this partnership form a heterogeneous group – there are schools with a broader experience in technology usage, schools which train students in the field of computer science and also schools in which the use of technology is still at its dawn. OBJECTIVES By implementing this project, we aim to achieve the following objectives: - teach students concepts related to digital citizenship - introduce new teaching methods in the practice of teachers - promote appropriate and responsible use of technology among students - enable students to cooperate and develop digital materials on the topic - improve students’ digital literacy and skills - improve students’ communication and collaboration skills - enable the exchange of practices in terms of technology use in schools - enable and promote intercultural awareness and develop values of tolerance and respect - increase students’ and teachers’ level of motivation - produce changes in the regular practices in each of the partner schools. ACTIVITIES In order to strengthen our cooperation and be able to attain these goals, we are planning to include in our project five transnational meetings, namely student exchanges. During these exchanges, we intend to bring students together to collaborate and create materials on the above-mentioned topics. They will not be only spectators in the process, but they will get actively engaged in the activities, so as to make the learning experience more meaningful and motivating. We are going to use the “flipped classroom” method in the process. Participants will receive materials for self-study before the exchange, will acquire knowledge about the topics of the exchanges and they will work together to create materials on the duration of the exchange. The topics are: C1 – Digital identity and digital communication C2 – Digital rights and responsibilities; digital law C3 – Digital etiquette C4 – Digital commerce C5 – Digital security PARTICIPANTS The project targets students and teachers in our schools. Students are from vocational or general education branches. They are 16-17 year-old boys and girls with different levels of school performance. There are also disadvantaged groups in this target, namely students facing social and economic challenges, students with learning difficulties, or students at risk of dropping out. Out of these, we will select 25 students who will actually participate in exchanges and get involved in the exchange hosted by their school. IMPACT Our institutions will benefit from the project from different points of view: - teachers will identify and exchange good practices with the other teachers, observe different systems of organisations, and they will be able to transfer them into their schools - schools will improve their image and strengthen their role in their community; they will promote their community and their area at European level; as result of the hosted exchange, schools will improve their relationship with parents and other members of the local community; they will gain more expertise in dealing with Erasmus+ projects and will be able to develop future initiatives either for KA1 or KA2. RESULTS We expect to obtain a set of outcomes, such as: increased digital literacy, increased collaboration among students, enhanced intercultural awareness, increased use of modern teaching methods, increased level of motivation, improved working atmosphere between students and teachers. The outputs include the collection of materials – videos, resources, games used to teach students about the digital citizenship concepts, students’ project work on the topic during the exchanges, School guide for digital citizens, presentation materials about the schools, the countries, customs and traditions in each partner country, photos, videos etc.
We all talk about citizenship and how important it is to be a good citizen. However, we have reached a point in which we spend most of our lives online, accessing information which lies one click away, interacting with people we don’t even know on a regular basis. Given this context, we believe that teaching students about how to be good digital citizens is imperative – they all have to learn about rights and duties, about threats and privacy aspects which can keep them safe from an otherwise potentially dangerous environment. Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers and parents to understand what students/children should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students for a society full of technology. So we decided to join our efforts and resources to enable students to learn about these aspects in a multicultural environment. In addition, we wanted to see what the position and the practice of each school was in terms of technology usage in class or outside classes. Schools in this partnership formed a heterogeneous group – there were schools with a broader experience in technology usage and schools which were still training students in the field of computer science. By implementing this project, we aimed to achieve the following objectives: - teach students concepts related to digital citizenship - introduce new teaching methods in the practice of teachers - promote appropriate and responsible use of technology among students - enable students to cooperate and develop digital materials on the topic - improve students’ digital literacy and skills - improve students’ communication and collaboration skills - enable the exchange of practices in terms of technology use in schools - enable and promote intercultural awareness and develop values of tolerance and respect - increase students’ and teachers’ level of motivation - produce changes in the regular practices in each of the partner schools. In order to strengthen our cooperation and be able to attain these goals, we included in our project five transnational meetings, namely student exchanges. During these exchanges, we brought students together to collaborate and create materials on the above-mentioned topics. They were not only spectators in the process, but they got actively engaged in the activities, so as to make the learning experience more meaningful and motivating. We used the “flipped classroom” method in the process. Participants received materials for self-study before the exchange, acquired knowledge about the topics of the exchanges and then they worked together to create materials during the exchange. The topics were: C1 – Digital identity and digital communication - Digital rights - Responsibilities and digital law C2 – Digital etiquette C3 – Digital commerce C4 – Digital security The project targeted students and teachers from different types of schools, vocational or general education branches. They were15-18 year-old boys and girls with different levels of school performance. There were also disadvantaged groups in this target, namely students facing social and economic challenges, students with learning difficulties, or students at risk of dropping out. Out of these, we selected 25 students who actually participated in exchanges and got involved in the exchange hosted by their school. As regards the impact on our institutions, we benefited from the project from different points of view: - teachers identified and exchanged good practices with the other teachers, observed different systems of organisations, and they will be able to transfer them into their schools; - schools improved their image and strengthened their role in their community; they promoted their community and their area at European level; as result of the hosted exchange, schools improved their relationship with parents and other members of the local community; they gained more expertise in dealing with Erasmus+ projects and will be able to develop future initiatives either for KA1 or KA2. As a result of the project we obtained a set of outcomes, such as: increased digital literacy, increased collaboration among students, enhanced intercultural awareness, increased use of modern teaching methods, increased level of motivation, improved working atmosphere between students and teachers. The outputs included the collection of materials – videos, resources, games used to teach students about the digital citizenship concepts, students’ project work on the topic during the exchanges, a 'School guide for digital citizens', presentation materials about the schools, the countries, customs and traditions in each partner country, photos and videos.