Nationalistic opinions and ideologies can actually be seen in whole Europe and it seems that through some political parties both are getting more and more socially acceptable in all European countries. Populism and fake news manipulate the Europeans and result in a feeling of uncertainty and isolation of countries which can be seen in the Brexit. It is a fact that young people, that means future voters, do not consume different newspapers or news. That`s dangerous for democracy and an open-minded society, behaving like this they can’t help themselves against manipulation and wrong information or fake news. In an intern survey between my pupils a great majority said that they do not read newspapers and a little number told me that they only inform themselves via personalized newsfeeds. That means a selection of information made by a computer program or who knows who and which intentions they have (see manipulations of the Russian in the American elections). Most of them shared the opinion that you can`t trust neither the media nor politicians and so it is not necessary to be committed in politics or social events. Additionally, many pupils don`t know about the organization and tasks of the European institutions like e.g. of the European Parliament. Thus, they have no relation to the EU and they are not able to see the link between the work of these institutions and their daily private or professional life. If you add this negative facts to the participation in European elections which is getting smaller and smaller (50,66% in 2019!) we are going to face a difficult future for our democracy with young people who are getting more and more dependent, not informed and not willing to participate socially. To make thinks more difficult in times of growing racism and international deseases the EU has to work together if we want and have to find successful solutions for these international problems which we can only solve together. Our projects starts at this status quo and we like to show young people in whole Europe (North: Sweden, East-Poland, South-Spain, West: France and in the center of Germany) that you can face nationalistic isolation, populistic promises and fake news searching with all digital possibilities of the 21 century for own information. That it is worth to be open minded and respect different cultures and that the European community offers the young people an economically strong and future-compliant basis for their private and professional future. Further, two of the fife participants (Germany 2. half year 2020 and France 2. half year 2022) have the function of the European presidency so we can show our pupils directly in an active role which influence and capacity every European country in the community has (e.g. German plans during the presidency to standardize the sanctions against violation of human rights or climate policy). To foster our common values and to reach our aims we found a digital European school magazine. Every school chooses a class which is going to be responsible for one article in every edition. Within these two years we are going to publish minimum 6 editions. So, there will be minimum 6 participating classes in every school and minimum 30 classes in the whole project. Teachers of these classes are going to help, give advices and stay in contact with the teachers of the other schools. Furthermore, they organize workshops for their classes e.g. with external organizations (media centers or regional companies) or help them communicating in the foreign languages giving extra classes e.g. in English. We choose the classes so that the content of the article fits in the curriculum of the class. Further there are going to be field trips to every participating school. Every school selects a delegation of several pupils and minimum 2 teachers of these classes which are going to visit the school which has its turn. Because of the little number of pupils of every school (in summary minimum 25 pupils) the teachers can select the most courageous and motivated pupils. Another positive aspect of the generous financial help of Erasmus+ is that poor pupils have a chance to widen their horizon and go to other countries. Before each visit is going to happen, the pupils get to know each other in chats and videos in which they present themselves in English, German, Spanish or French depending on their curriculum and the foreign languages they learn at school. They work together in international groups e.g. in redactional conferences to discuss the editions and contents of the articles. Because of the mostly digital cooperation in intercultural groups we promote IT competences, teamwork, foreign language knowledge. We also eliminate stereotypes and increase the understanding of the EU and common values. During the visits our pupils get insights in important areas such as for example the education systems or the economies of other european countries.
In 2020, 3 years ago, this ambitious European project was launched. Together with our old (Spain and France) and our new (Poland and Sweden) partners, we wanted to strengthen European cooperation, eliminate prejudices, promote intercultural skills and raise awareness of fake news by publishing together a European digital school newspaper. As if these goals and 5 participating schools spread across Europe were not enough of a challenge, the Corona pandemic also got in our way, which showed the advantages of digital collaboration over thousands of kilometres between the partner schools, but made our mutual visits impossible for almost two years. We planned to publish six editions with a focus on different topics which are important for us as schools, for us as citizens and for us as europeans: environment, education, economy, news and history. First we planned to realize it during the normal project period of two years. But after several lockdowns and school closures we decided then to extended our project up to three years. We published a total of 6 editions of our magazine over the 3 years. That´s why we published our magazines the following months: 1. december 2020, 2. april 2021, 3. june 2021 then a longer break 4. may 2022, 5. april 2023 and the last in june 2023. Between publications, teachers held organizational video conferences to coordinate themes, outputs, and multinational student teams. In order to keep the contact and the project alive during the long lockdown periods, we also organized numerous events, such as the International Earth Day or the Erasmus Day. These were great events that trained the research skills of our students and let them reflect on which aspects of their region, for example, they would like to bring closer to the partner schools. In addition, they had to use their English skills and show their presentation and discussion skills. Sometimes we no longer believed in it ourselves but we actually managed to achieve our ambitious goals despite completely different school and holiday times, Corona requirements and examination periods We were only able to do this because the project was not carried out by different schools but by a team that developed into friends in the end. Committed colleagues and motivated students planned, discussed, researched, wrote, designed and worked together to find solutions to the numerous stumbling blocks that awaited us over the three years. Surely it was very helpful that our project was a digital project in which we learned a lot about digital research, digital media, fake news and digital communication. We were all the happier when the opportunity for mutual visits arose in the last year of the project. Finally, we were able to see each other without a screen barrier and internet fluctuations and show each other our home countries and cultures. The experiences that one makes in such exchanges as travelers, hosts, pupils, parents and teachers, the insights into everyday life, the encounters with local people are what one does not forget for a lifetime, which makes everyone involved more cosmopolitan, tolerant and thus more "European". We ,as the Erasmus team are convinced that such projects make sense in many ways. And with that, I would like to conclude with the long-term results of our project: Through the interdisciplinary cooperation with students of different ages and from different countries, the participants have learned to pursue a goal and to find solutions to expected (language barriers) but also unexpected problems (technical problems with Skype so we switched to whatsapp ) They have understood why it is important to speak foreign languages and that there are differences between people/nations and that despite these you can work together successfully thanks to compromise and consideration. Our students, some of whom have never been abroad before, have become more independent and self-confident as a result of travelling without parents. By getting to know everyday life and the people in the host country, they are now sensitized to the advantages and disadvantages of prejudice.They have come to know many similarities between themselves and the French, Spaniards, Poles and Swedes - and have learned to endure the differences or appreciate them as an enrichment. (Swedish serenity, Polish hospitality, French joie de vivre, Spanish cordiality or German organization) Especially in times of growing nationalism, it is important to think outside the box, to get in touch with others and to shed light on topics from different perspectives (e.g. climate , history, economy, education). The evaluation of all those involved shows that we have succeeded in making it clear that it is worthwhile to work together within Europe and that the school has a special responsibility as a place of learning for pupils, parents and teachers. That´s why we will continue to drive european cooperation forward in future projects.