This century could be considered the information era but it is not easy to skim in this ocean of communication. If we want our students to retrieve accurate news, if we want them more educated and competent, we need to teach them also some special skills. Digital literacy plays a key role in education, preparing students to become information-literate, avoiding the spreading of fake news and using knowledge to improve society. This project wants to enhance learners’ digital skills while scaffolding their critical thinking. The general objective of the project “Digital Literacy in 6 Steps” is using modern technology for both formal and informal education methodology. The biggest challenge for the six European high schools involved in this project will be the creation of a motivational school environment for almost 180 students and 20 teachers coming from: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain. The main objectives of the project are: - Give the necessary tools to evaluate Media Literacy news and viewpoints - Strengthen e-safety concept to the target group - Improve digital learning by using flipped classrooms and collaborative tools - Learning to build realistic and critical profiles on Social Media - Develop the ability to recognize fake news - Promote and disseminate the importance of copyright on socials - Increase communication skills in English - Introduce and implement the eTwinning in the target group. The project educational design is based on six modules providing authentic contents: case studies, simulations and workshops. The activities will support students to communicate their ideas through gamification, creative media and laboratories, online polls. Planned Activities: 1. Social Media Literacy – managing your online presence. Case studies on negative and positive social media cases. Tips on the use of social media. Creation of students’ dos and don’ts through a poll. 2. ICT Literacy – learning through blogs, social networking, online educational communities. Workshop: in-depth activities on source evaluation. Simulation and exercises on dissecting news sources. 3. Online Learning and Team-working – collaborating in flipped classrooms. Workshop: advantages and disadvantages of Flipped Classroom approach, sharing good practices. Seminar: new strategies to improve learning and teaching activities. Elaboration of a manual for using collaborative tools and flipped classroom approach. 4. E-safety protecting users against dangerous online activities. Survey on e-safety. Students’ contribution to e-safety through comics, posters, Powerpoints. Creation of the e-safety symbol. Creation of the Kahoot survey. 5. Media Literacy – improving knowledge about copyright and responsibilities. Research and case study on the digital footprint. Production of a collaborative document on users’ responsibilities on the net. Creation of a webpage and its Creative Common License. Digital portfolio as a final task. 6. Information Literacy – combining information from multiple source, to evaluate information. Case studies: how fake news can affect and influence the way we live. Practical exercises to detect fake news. The project methodology will: - boost communication and collaboration between learners and teachers, with forums and creative laboratories - Provide opportunities for active learning, with flipped classrooms and practical competences - Allow students independence and autonomy during their learning experience - Convey clear expectations while setting specific goals - Provide appropriate and well-timed feedback. During all the project activities support and aid will be based on: teacher-student; student-student and student-learning resources. According to our objectives the results will be: - Development of the capability to dissect a news source, interpreting and making connections between different sources of information - Reinforcement of e-safety concept - Enhancement of digital learning - Growth of a critical thought while using social profiles - Ability to recognize fake news, asses and evaluate information - Increased perception of copyright to create ethical media literacy content - Students familiar of eTwinning and able to use it. The foreign language skills, of all the actors involved, will be improved by a practical use while communicating with international partners. The project will also show intangible long-term outcomes. Teachers will improve project-management and team-work skills while students will gain self-confidence, public speaking ability, interpersonal communication, teamwork competences. Even after its conclusion, the project will deliver benefits in term of positive models to future beneficiaries because all the material and works will be on the project web, accessible and possibly implemented by the schools involved. Moreover, the app will create further dissemination for other potential digital literates.
The 21st century can be considered the information era but it is not easy to skim communication. With this project our aim was to allow our students a better and more skilled knowledge of digital literacy, preparing them to become information-literate, especially avoiding the spreading of malinformation, misinformation, disinformation while using literacy to improve society through critical thinking. The general objective of the project “Digital Literacy in 6 Steps” was using modern technology for both formal and informal education methodology. The biggest challenge for the six European high schools involved in this project has firstly been the creation of a motivational school environment for almost 180 students and 20 teachers coming from: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain. After March 2019, and the spread of Covid-19, that was the biggest challenge for our project. The main objectives of the project have been: - Give the necessary tools to evaluate Media Literacy news and viewpoints - Strengthen e-safety concept to the target group - Improve digital learning by using flipped classrooms and collaborative tools - Learning to build realistic and critical profiles on Social Media - Develop the ability to recognize fake news - Promote and disseminate the importance of copyright on socials - Increase communication skills in English - Introduce and implement the eTwinning in the target group. The project educational design was based on six modules providing authentic contents: case studies, simulations and workshops. The activities have supported students to communicate their ideas through gamification, creative media, laboratories, and online polls. Planned Activities and Mobilities : apart from C1 which was a short-term joint staff training event, all the other mobilities were short-term exchanges of groups of pupils C1. Social Media Literacy – managing your online presence. It was held in Italy. C2. ICT Literacy – learning through blogs, social networking, online educational communities in Greece. C3. Online Learning and Team-working – collaborating in flipped classrooms in Bulgaria. C4. E-safety protecting users against dangerous online activities in Lithuania, to C4, in presence, it was also created C8, a virtual mobility, because the Italian team, due to national Covid restrictions, wasn’t able to join the group in Lithuania. C5. Media Literacy – improving knowledge about copyright and responsibilities in Spain C6. Information Literacy – combining information from multiple source, to evaluate information in Portugal C7. Close-up meeting in Italy. This gathering wanted to sum-up the whole project. The project methodology has boosted communication and collaboration between learners and teachers, with forums and creative laboratories, it has provided opportunities for active learning, with flipped classrooms and practical competences, it has allowed students independence and autonomy during their learning experience During all the project activities support and aid was based on: teacher-student; student-student and student-learning resources, especially when we had a year stop during the pandemic. Teachers reacted with online meetings and rearranging all the planned scheduled mobilities, allowing international group of students to create virtual meetings on different topics, getting more in touch than in the previous year. Despite all the inconveniences due to this historical moment, our project has completely reached the set objectives : - Development of the capability to dissect a news source, interpreting and making connections between different sources of information - Reinforcement of e-safety concept - Enhancement of digital learning - Growth of a critical thought while using social profiles - Ability to recognize fake news, asses and evaluate information - Increased perception of copyright to create ethical media literacy content - Students now are more familiar of eTwinning . The foreign language skills, of all the actors involved, has been improved by a practical use while communicating with international partners. The project has especially shown intangible long-term outcomes. Teachers has improved project-management and team-work skills while students have gained self-confidence, public speaking ability, interpersonal communication, teamwork competences. Even after its conclusion, the project will deliver benefits in term of positive models to future beneficiaries because all the material and works will be on the project web, accessible and possibly implemented by the schools involved. Moreover, the app and the blog will create further dissemination for other potential digital literates.