In times of globalization and digitization, it is important that school education also have forward looking goals. The technicians and engineers of tomorrow are in our elementary schools today. For this reason, it is necessary to teach children how to use digital media sensibly and competently during their primary school years. To ensure this, we need educators who are appropriately competent and motivated. In our planned project, we would like to evaluate and expand the media literacy of the participating schools. We want to work and learn from each other and with each other. The four participating schools should visit each other to get to know the learning and working conditions of the individual schools. The students and teachers should work together to set goals and present results at the meetings. They will also have the opportunity to experience the cultures of the individual countries up close and then share their impressions with their classmates and colleagues when they return to their school. In the first year of the project, we plan to create a film about the participating European countries. Each country will make a contribution to this film. The school, the cultural and geographical characteristics, as well as the everyday life of each country, will be presented in an age-appropriate manner through explanatory films and other film genres. It is not a documentary- it will contain what our students are interested in. This will enable the pupils to recognize that there are many similarities but also differences in the lives of children in different European countries. The videos will be filmed in English for general understanding. This will serve to develop language skills in all countries since all participants learn English as a foreign language. The individual film contributions will be presented as a joint project on an interactive map. In the second year of the project, we want to expand the language skills of all partners. To aid this purpose, we will create a digital dictionary in the respective mother tongue and the English language. The contents of this dictionary will relate to the topics of the films created in the first year of the project. Learning foreign languages is very important, especially in primary school. Children have a natural curiosity and quickly get a feel for a new language. Our interactive dictionary should give students an insight into the different languages and arouse interest in learning other foreign languages. This will offer the students an opportunity to develop in a variety of ways and promote a positive attitude towards foreign languages. It is also in line with the goal of the EU language policy, that every EU citizen should speak at least two other languages in addition to their mother tongue. The foundations for this language learning are laid in the primary school years. Our project participants are from different regions of Europe. The coordinating school already has experience through involvement in Comenius projects and is located in central Germany. In this school, 270 children learn in 12 classes. All students in 2nd to 4th grade will be involved in the project. There will be an interest and age-appropriate task for each one. The second project participant comes from the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. For this school with 150 students, it will be the first time that they have participated in an Erasmus project. The third school from north-western France is also new to the Erasmus program. It has 226 students between the ages of 6 and 11. The fourth project participant regularly takes part in Erasmus projects and has already been involved in organizing them. 300 students learn at this school located in northern Portugal. When selecting the participants, it was important to us that different regions of Europe were included in order to present different areas in the films and to become aquatinted with different languages through using the dictionary. However, at the end of the project, this learning process should not be finished. We can easily imagine expanding into the Northern and Eastern European regions. The project results should be used in the participating schools as learning and working tools. We also want to make them available to other schools in our project blog and on eTwinning.
In the context of an increasingly globalized and digitized world, we recognized that the education landscape needed to pursue forward-looking goals. Our primary schools today serve as the breeding grounds for future technicians and engineers. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to impart meaningful and competent use of digital media to children at the elementary school level. In our project, we aimed to assess and expand media literacy in the participating schools. We adopted a cooperative approach where we learned from and with each other. The four participating schools from Spain, France, Portugal, and Germany visited each other to familiarize themselves with the different learning and working conditions in their respective institutions. Together, students and teachers set goals and presented results during these meetings. Additionally, they had the opportunity to experience the cultures of different countries up close and share these experiences with their classmates and colleagues upon returning to their schools. The first meeting took place in Portugal, where all participants had the chance to meet in person. Project goals were established, and initial ideas were exchanged. Schools gained a better understanding of their differences and similarities. After a COVID-19-induced pause, the second meeting occurred on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, marking the beginning of the project's second phase. The meeting in France served to make final necessary adjustments and ensure that all activities were on the right track. Discussions were also held regarding possible challenges and solutions. The final meeting took place in Germany, where project results were presented. Students and teachers showcased their WordPress homepage and the interactive dictionary, sharing their experiences with other schools. This meeting marked the successful conclusion of the project. Overall, these meetings not only facilitated the project's progress but also promoted intercultural understanding and strengthened relationships among the participating schools. They contributed to expanding not only the students' media literacy but also their broader perspective on the world and its diversity. Between the four project meetings, all schools actively worked on digital projects. As a project outcome, the schools developed a WordPress homepage containing informative explanatory videos. Additionally, an interactive dictionary was created, serving as a valuable digital resource tool for both students and teachers in the future. The project as a whole aimed to strengthen media literacy among both teachers and students by promoting international exchange and collaboration. The expected long-term benefit of this project was that participating schools would be better prepared for the demands of the digital world in the long run and establish a sustainable culture of shared learning and working. This should optimally prepare students for the challenges of the future. The project results are not only valuable educational resources for the participating schools but also evidence of the successful international exchange and collaboration within the scope of this project. They contribute to enhancing media literacy and solidifying the long-term benefits of the initiative by providing students and teachers with the opportunity to be better prepared in the digital world and expand their skills for the effective use of digital media.