In a world in which digitalization is changing the everyday life of many people, responsible and creative use of digital media is one of the basic skills that students have to develop. The young people should not only learn how to use the media in a technically safe and targeted manner, but also critically examine the effects of the media and reflect on their own behavior. The digital change is not only evident with new media such as smartphones, but also the well-tried radio is affected by digitization. Working in a school radio team can promote the necessary media skills in several ways. With the radio work, the pupils acquire the knowledge of journalistic forms of writing as well as basic skills such as concentrated listening and speaking freely. Students gain technical skills, such as handling a recorder or cutting audio files on a PC. As regards content the students in the school radio project will deal with the biographies and experiences of people in the period of National Socialism and World War II. The project therefore focuses on remembering together, sharing European history based on individual life stories. The medium of radio is particularly suitable for telling life stories, since it concentrates on listening and speaking in a period where pictures dominate our lives. People tell their own stories or students tell the people´s stories. The historical context becomes visible in individual fates. In the different phases of the project, the students are active in all sphere of competence in media education. The students do research (sphere of competence “search & process”) and use new media, classic information sources such as books and archive materials and talking to contemporary witnesses. Afterwards, the pupils put the collected information into the historical context (“analyse & reflect”) before completing a radio programme (“produce & present”). According to their country and region the single schools fill the historical framework with concrete and individual topics. The starting point will always be the individual life story. Being in exchange the host students become more aware of their own history, while the guests learn new facts and broaden their horizons. For everyone, including the teachers, this personal approach opens up the possibility of a change of perspective and an increasingly networked sense of history. Because of working in mixed teams, a constant exchange of experience and knowledge is also necessary for the actual radio work ("communicate & cooperate"). Here again media competence is required if e.g. they communicate via eTwinning. At the same time, language competence is acquired, since talking about historical topics in the bridge language English goes beyond school language lessons. The actual radio production should be spoken in the native language and in English too. A total of 20 students from each school will be involved in the project. Each student can be host once and be a participant in a group of 5 travellers. The target group of our project are secondary school students, aged 13-17, who want to try journalistic activities and / or are interested in the technical aspects of a school radio. At the same time, the project is intended for students who want to deal intensively with European history in the 20th century. Various audio products in the form of radio broadcasts, radio plays or audio guides will be created in the course of the project. These audio files are exchanged between the schools and can be heard both live in the school building and on the school homepage, regional radio stations or the platform of the European School Radio. In addition, cross-regional distribution is possible through the cooperation with Bavarian Radio. During production and especially in the initial phase when the technical skills are built up, students and teachers develop tutorials and similar means of sharing knowledge. The Erasmus + project is intended on the one hand to start or expand one's own school radio, and on the other hand to open up a permanent exchange of schools via the medium of radio. But especially the intensive examination of the Nazi era and the Second World War should have a positive influence on the student´s historical conceptions and their political and social engagement. It is to be hoped that this project will deepen the personal responsibility for a peaceful and respectful coexistence in Europe and respect for human rights.
In a world in which digitization is increasingly changing the everyday life of many people, the responsible and at the same time creative use of digital media is one of the basic skills that students have to develop. In our project, the young people not only learned how to use media in a technically safe and targeted manner, but also how to critically examine the effects of media and reflect on their own behaviour. Through radio work, the students acquired knowledge of journalistic forms of writing forms as well as basic skills such as concentrated listening and free speaking. During the project, the students acquired technical skills, such as handling a recorder or editing audio files on the PC. In terms of content, the students in the school radio project dealt with the biographies and experiences of people in the period of National Socialism and the World War II. In addition to media literacy, the project was focused on remembering together and sharing European history based on individual life stories. The medium of radio is particularly suitable for telling life stories, as this type of communication concentrates on listening and speaking in a period where pictures dominate our lives. This slower way of storytelling leaves time for empathy and reflection. Contemporary witnesses told their stories and answered the participants' questions, and the students retold the life stories and verbalized their own impressions. The historical context became visible and concrete in individual fates. In the various phases of the project, the students were active in all areas of media education. The students researched (competence area “search & process”) and used new media, classic information sources such as books and archive materials and talking with contemporary witnesses. Afterwards, the students placed the collected information into the historical context (“analyse & reflect”) and completed radio programmes (“produce & present”). According to their country and region the single schools filled the historical framework with specific and individual topics (persecution, destruction, and resistance). The starting points were always individual life stories. The host students and teachers became more aware of their own history, while the guests learned new facts and broadened their horizons. This personal access opened up the possibility of a change of perspective and an increasingly networked historical awareness. Because of working in mixed teams, a constant exchange of experience and knowledge was necessary for the radio work (“communicate & cooperate”). Before the mobilities, the students expanded their media skills by communicating via eTwinning and by exchanging audio files. During the phase of lockdown, students and teachers also produced tutorials and similar knowledge transfer tools to build technical skills. At the same time, everyone's language skills were improved, since talking about historical topics and the production of radio programmes required a variety of English vocabulary which went far beyond language lessons at school. English was also the bridge language for interaction during mobility (school, host families). A total of 20 students from each school were involved in the project. Each student could be a host and a participant in a group of five travellers. The target group of our project were secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 17. Especially students who wanted to try out journalistic activities, who were interested in the technical aspects of a school radio and who wanted to deal intensively with European history of the 20th century were addressed. During the project, various audio products were created in the form of radio programmes, radio plays or podcasts. These audio files were exchanged between the schools and could be heard either live in the school building or via the school homepage, regional radio stations or online radios. In addition, the cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk allowed distribution. On the one hand the Erasmus+ project served to start or expand the school's own radio, and on the other hand, it opened up a permanent exchange between schools via the medium of radio. But most importantly the intensive examination of the Nazi era and the Second World War motivated the participants to intensify their political and social commitment. This project strengthened and deepened the personal sense of responsibility for peaceful and respectful coexistence in Europe and respect for human rights.