With the "Short Forms Beyond Borders (SFBB)" project, we intend to work collaboratively on short forms as a tool for cultural, educational and social mediation in Europe. The relevance of short forms is becoming more and more visible in today's society. Brevity is becoming a way of doing things, a question of time and style, indeed of thinking (as in Twitter). Examples of short forms include short videos, text messages, short stories, Instagram stories, sound fragments, television series, short speeches, sales pitches, news briefs, slogans etc. “Short forms” is an innovative concept that can reach many targeted audiences. The present project aims to develop teaching approaches and pedagogical tools and programmes for adolescents and young adults, with a particular focus on the definition and use of short forms for cultural, educational and social mediation in Europe (literary, artistic, cultural, communicational, journalistic, social for example). Our project aims to both instruct these young people and eventually help respond to the needs of young migrants to find their place in European culture. Short forms become a means to develop and affirm social connections and cohesion, and also encourage the expression of individual and cultural identity. Based on our expertise in the area of short forms, we are interested in creating tools that develop and promote this potential for intercultural communication and societal cohesion. These tools will be contribute to activities that foster a sense of belonging (students belonging to Europe, the integration of migrants, the exploration of foreign spaces in the context of tourism), while taking into consideration individual and national identities. Specialists will consolidate skills and tools and will share competencies with a growing audience of teaching professionals who wish to develop the use of short forms tools for cultural, linguistic and pedagogical mediation. PARTNERS: Specialists of short forms from six European universities (Angers, France; Athens, Greece; Szeged, Hungary; Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Giessen, Germany; Leuven, Belgium) and a private firm, Baludik (Nantes), will work together to develop short forms as both tools and objects of pedagogical innovation and cultural mediation. Baludik develops a smartphone application to create educational and touristic itineraries (https://baludik.fr/). The tool will be used in the context of the project for pedagogical experimentations and tests. PROJECT ACTIVITIES: If European funds are obtained, the project will begin in October 2020 and will end in late August 2022. We will organize 6 meetings throughout the two years of the project (October, March, and June). These meetings will allow the members to coordinate their activities, and will also involve teaching sessions for professionals and students. The project will involve the mobility of professors and students (Masters and Doctoral). The indirect audiences of the tools in the project will be secondary school classes, and, if possible, young migrants. Tourists and amateurs of culture might also be interested in cultural products created by students in the context of the project. Short forms will be studied, created, used as tools and integrated into European programmes as a means to negotiate not only linguistic and cultural issues, but also social issues and questions of identity in Europe. They will be approached as tools for mediation in a perspective combining education, research and innovation that will focus on both the use and production of short forms. The first axis of the project will involve developing clear definitions for use by teaching professionals. We will also conduct surveys in the partner institutions to understand how short forms are currently being used in classrooms. A survey of online resources in the area of short forms will also take place during this first phase and will be pursued throughout the project. We will also create a website to be used for the full duration of the project. Its database will be accessible and contributed to by partners and participants during the project; the resources will be made widely available after the end of the project. In the third axis of the project we will develop pedagogical toolkits designed for intercultural and language learning. The last axis of the project will involve organizing these tools to develop innovative teaching sequences and modules that could be integrated into Masters and Doctoral programmes at European universities. Sequences for use in training secondary school teachers will also be developed. POTENTIAL LONG TERM BENEFITS: - Original pedagogical modules, that are “ready to use,” will be made available for integration into existing Masters and Doctoral programmes. These modules will follow the model of "flash trainings" - An Erasmus Mundus application will be submitted for the creation of a European Short Forms Masters Degree.
This project combines research and innovative teaching based on the notion of 'short forms', using objects of study and tools as diverse as news, micro-news, tweets, pitches, Facebook or Instagram posts, short videos, fan fiction, short films, news flashes, street art, caricatures, songs and so on. The architecture of the project has been designed around four main principles: 1. Deepen the definitions of short forms in order to consolidate the conceptual basis of the project and conduct research into the current uses of short forms in educational, cultural and linguistic environments. 2. Design educational and cultural mediation tools that focus on short forms as an object of study or that mobilise them to achieve various educational (education in institutions, work with migrants), cultural (tourism) and linguistic objectives. 3. Create coherent sequences of tools to develop teaching modules adaptable to a variety of educational and cultural environments. 4. To share these tools with teachers and students in each institution and more widely with the European scientific and educational community.
With this international, multilingual and multidisciplinary project, we wanted to respond to the need - to help young people cultivate cultural adaptation and mutual respect between individuals and groups as citizens of Europe. The aim was to get them to understand their own use and interpretation of short forms, so that they would be better equipped to avoid stereotypes and a lack of nuance. The aim was also to make them aware of the rhetorical techniques specific to short forms, and how they can be used to influence others (fake news, manipulative summaries, decontextualised video montages, etc.). - to cultivate and diversify the education of young people by putting in place an innovative educational concept that meets the new needs emerging in the era of short forms, the use of which is increasingly intermedial (interaction between different media). - to train professionals in practical teaching tools that focus on the specific features of short forms and are easy to use and adapt. - to provide young people with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills adapted to the contemporary job market.