Europe needs, now more than ever, more education in media and digital literacy, a better understanding of what fake news are and how to avoid them, and more confident and active citizens of all countries. This is why gaMEfy is designed to tackle these very needs with the most state-of-the-art methods and with the utilization of a solid scientific basis. This will unfold through the creation of 3 Intellectual Outputs and through the engagement of target groups in 4 Multiplier events and countless informal meetings with young people, youth workers, educators and policy makers. gaMEfy is an ambitious 20-month project, which unites the efforts of 6 active and driven organizations, which aim to contribute to the communities they work directly with, as well as to Europe as a whole, promoting the value and joy of education, the merits of active participation, and the importance of strategic vision backed by science. gaMEfy will provide youth and youth workers with a tool of the future – a unique, interactive, multiplayer simulation game, which will engage young people in understanding and learning about fake news, media as a whole, and provide them with practical tools on how to be more critical of the information they receive without being purely skeptical of everything; how to access information and gain from it; how to be a more productive consumer and creator of content; how to be truly media and digitally literate. The game will be an innovative mix between real-life practices and a gamified experience, full of specific missions and tasks, which the players will have to collaborate on or work individually in order to achieve. This immersion will, on the one hand, increase their willingness to learn, and on the other hand, predispose them to accepting new outlooks on life, introduce them to the merits of active citizenship, and inspire in them more active participation in civic life. Our main activities in reaching gaMEfy’s overall aim are: - Create an educational Curriculum, which will not only serve as the basis of the Simulation game, but will also be available as an educational tool on its own; - Design and develop an online multilingual platform, which will host all project results; - Create the simulation game to be cutting-edge, engaging and useful for youth as an educational resource; - Organize a 3-day Joint Staff Training to improve the game and prepare 12 youth workers for piloting the game with youth in their countries; - Pilot the game extensively, collecting statistical data through AI and machine learning, working within the simulation game, on how to best educate youth on the topics, as well as which topics to handle with more attention; - Promote the topic and the project results across youth and youth workers’ communities across Europe (via 3 Multiplier events and many informal meetings). The impact of gaMEfy will span across the following target groups: - Youth - they will be empowered and equipped to develop their knowledge and practical skills in media and digital literacy, and be more aware and active citizens of their countries and the EU; will be more self-assured and confident to participate in public discourse and express their opinions. - Youth workers and educators - youth workers and educators engaged through dissemination activities (since the directly engaged participants were discussed above) will receive a tool to work with more effectiveness for the education on the topic of digital and media literacy and will be more aware of the importance of the topic for young people and for their own work; - Policy makers on a local, national and international level – will receive comprehensive research to assist with their work on improving awareness, as well as (digital and media) literacy, in compliance with their set goals; - Other stakeholders - youth training providers, youth platforms, youth communities will improve their awareness of the needs and opportunities for young people to be more active, engaged and knowledgeable on the specific topic of media and digital literacy. They can participate and reap in the benefits of the project, as well as help us further develop. The project partners will work during the project implementation and after, dedicated to the topic and its impact, in order to deliver the best possible products and experience for young people; the best assistance possible to youth workers and educators; the best strategically-aimed guidelines for policy makers and for the future of Europe.
According to the original planning all project’s objectives have been successfully accomplished. In particular: - Empower young people’s media and digitally literacy competences in understanding and learning about fake news and media through the creation of an accessible and reliable AI-equipped educational tool. - Create an easy-to-use tool that can be used by both youth workers as well as (directly by) young people delivering important knowledge on digital media literacy. - Inform a wider audience on the dangers of digital media illiteracy, how the digital environment alters the way media are operate and are being used. - Improved the overall educational approach towards digital and media literacy by developing Guidelines based on the piloting of the educational game.
The exposure of citizens, specifically young people, to large scale “fake news”, including misleading or outright false information, is a major challenge for Europe and a danger to democracy. As these fake news gain traction, they become more and more sophisticated and increasingly difficult to spot or differentiate from real, credible content online. According to an EU-wide study on fake news, the partner countries, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia and Bulgaria were among the EU countries with the least amount of confidence in identifying fake news, perceiving it as a big threat (TNS Political & Social, 2018), which was reflected in different facets of their societies – from constant political uses in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, through constant and insistent scams in Kosovo, to tense situations with refugees in Greece and clashes with police. In that context, there was an EU wide need, especially for partner countries of empowering young people “to be critical and responsible users and producers of information” (European Commission, 2017), enhancing their digitally and media literacy by providing them with innovative tools, allowing them to be effective judges of information, and keep themselves educated, as leaders of the future.