Storytelling Workshops Online Project (SWOP) aims to create an innovative, social, and collaborative space for working with and teaching storytelling online across borders in Europe. As the CoVid-19 crisis has developed and students have been sent home, it has become clear that the one thing missing from Zoom meeting, Teams Meetings, Skype Meetings, etc has been the ability to socialize and “be” together with fellow students. SWOP aims to create a solution to this by creating a closed social media network for teachers and students of the same age across Europe – and work with using storytelling and creative workflow processes as a means of working with a problem- and project-based learning. There is wide recognition of the fact that most EU countries are not using ICT in schools to its fullest potential – and that using social media networks has been banned from use in many schools. But what if we could use the good parts of social media to create a network of collaboration across classes from different countries. Working with projects based on real UN goal needs – creating solutions and presenting that solution in the form of stop-motion films? This could support a great many things like for instance: • Educating teachers in the use of ICT in classrooms. • Educating children in the use of communication in social media. • Educating teachers and students in collaborating across borders as well as digitally • Empowering students to learn from their mistakes and keep refining their thoughts and the product they are working with • Making ICT a creative experience instead of only a consumptive one. The project will be executed in 4 stages • Gathering information and setting up the social media network. Working with the transnational partners to factor in their national differences and challenges. • Educating and working with the partner schoolteachers – including co-creating rules of social media conduct. • Conducting workshops in the selected classes in the partner schools. Creating deliverables on 2 named goals working with UN goals on sustainability and the environment. • Delivering an intellectual output in the form of a report studying both the feasibility of working across borders in this manner – and of the factual learnings experienced by both students and teachers involved in the project. The project will encompass schools in different countries with their teachers and students as well as a film festival, a private company, and a VIA/TAW college from Denmark. A lot of children will get to experience next level ICT use in their everyday classroom – and a lot of teachers will hopefully learn that using modern technology is something that not only makes life easier – but also makes teaching better, more fun, and more creative! These project activities will develop creative teaching and assessment methods that are responsive to educator and learner interests and needs, and that carefully consider staff and learner wellbeing. Using Learning Design methodology and cutting-edge technology for the dissemination of materials will ensure that they have longevity in a fast-moving digital environment. Project learning and resources will be uploaded to the teachers only social media groups, from where all the participating teachers can access it. All materials will also be uploaded to a website, from where all teachers can download and access the learnings. All films and reports and of course the final analysis will be shared in different languages with local, national, and European educators and academics. Project findings will also be widely disseminated via social media, local dissemination events, practitioner and academic journals, and presentations at regional, national, and international conferences. The expected impact will extend over the phases of the project. There will an impact on the partners’ skills and knowledge; This impact will extend to teachers and learners in project schools and other schools recruited to participate. The project findings and resources will reach the broader national and international educational community of educators, HEI students, and staff involved in Teacher Education, as well as other training organizations looking for material to support creative, collaborative approaches to learning and working with ICT in professional development. Longer-term dissemination will continue beyond the funded lifetime of the project by project partners by, for example, approaching publishers and European journals of educational research about special issues or standalone publications to set project findings in a broader context – or by simply working with the established social networks after the project is done.
We want young European students to work with storytelling as a process. We want students and teachers together on a journey towards a better understanding of creative storytelling and working with creative processes as a part of going to school. We want them to learn, that it is both fun and rewarding to work in this way and with this kind of framework. We want to create a portal, where participants can view and watch movies from other participants in other countries. Where all the productions can be seen. Where you can collaborate in a safe digital environment, but with all the benefits of a modern social network. We want groups to be paired with other groups from other countries - online in a closed, social network, where they will work with the same projects and be able to share ideas and working methods across borders. We want teachers to be paired with each other across borders and across subject matters - again in a closed online community – to share ideas and communication around their storytelling progress and prowess. We want to promote a feeling of cultural sharing across borders with peers from participating schools. Learning about how other cultures work and see the same projects, we work on ourselves.
With the project Storytelling Workshops Online Project (SWOP) we want to create and explore the possibility of using transnational social media to teach both teacher and students creative storytelling in a school context. We want to create a universe where normal workshops can be held online and where we utilize technology to bring student projects out for all to see in a safe, serious, and creative way. Furthermore the project aims to develop and test innovative animated learning techniques for teaching throughout Europe, with a focus on creativity. We believe that fostering creativity among students allows them to express themselves freely and think critically, leading to increased engagement and confidence in their learning. Creative approaches have been found to promote a deeper understanding of subject matter, instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in students, and alleviate stress and anxiety. By incorporating creative methods in the classroom, we challenge the idea of static learning and encourage independent problem-solving skills in students.