The AMeLiE project involves innovative practices in the digital age and works on the theme of social inclusion: these are two aspects of fundamental importance, strongly correlated, and which permeate our life. Social inclusion is a priority that goes beyond national and European borders, becoming a central node to be addressed in all fields and at all levels, from the institutional one to that of the various communities. The virtual world, the internet, social media, are also communities, and should therefore not be excluded from this common effort for a more tolerant, fairer and respectful society. This is why AMeLiE addresses the issue of online hate-speech, which has become particularly evident thanks to its current diffusion and popularity on social media, that is, where young people have more easily access. The project addresses this theme starting from providing innovative tools for education, in order to have a widespread and participatory methodology as well as new generations of teachers trained to actively involve young people in this common goal. In fact, the aim of the project is to train teachers and representatives of school communities (school managers, digital facilitators, but also representatives of families) on the specific methodology proposed, which goes in the direction of getting a step forward also in the field of “digital citizenship”, in line with the next Digital Europe program, thus going beyond basic computer skills and focusing on the formation of advanced media literacy skills for those in educational roles. AMeLiE’s methodology is based on the use and further development of already existing and tested good practices and is based on the principle of co-construction of the training path by learners at all levels, from trainers to teachers, from parents to students. The positive effect will be to have created a community that will not have passively learned techniques and tools but will be an active engine for grassroots proposals and solutions, in a constant process of exchange and sharing. The project foresees the creation of three Intellectual Outputs that are closely related and complementary to each other: - a blended training course, which will be able to use al the materials and possibilities offered by the interactive platform; - a Virtual Network of schools for active countering online hate-speech; - a manual of Policy Recommendations for policy makers and educational institutions. AMeLiE is structured on a three-level training phases (first addressed to the Consortium organizations, then addressed to the teachers and / or representatives of the schools involved, then enlarged through a peer-learning path, guided by facilitators), and phases of experimentation, study and analysis of the results, consequently obtaining a methodology that will be easily applicable in various educational contexts, and at different levels. This also makes the project sustainable on a temporal scale, providing for a continuous and long-term exploitation of the results produced. In particular: - in the first phase, 10 trainers (with different backgrounds, but above all experts in media literacy) of the partner organizations will be trained on the specific methodology of AMeLiE and on innovative techniques for training and teaching; - in the second phase, a group of 25 teachers and representatives of the school communities (chosen from the schools participating in the project as associated partners) will test the methodology thanks to the blended course and the use of the interactive platform of the project; - in the third phase, each trained teacher will have to involve at least 5 colleagues or people belonging to the school community, thus reaching a core of 150 people who will have experienced the methodology and tools offered, hence creating the first nucleus of what will be the "Virtual Network" of schools against online hate-speech. At the end of the project we estimate that the proposed activities will involve at least 3000 students from the partnership countries (Italy, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Germany), subsequently including other countries and other communities thanks to the Virtual Network and the central role of the "pilot" schools. The project, offering innovative pedagogical paths and approaches, intervenes at transnational level in the professional development of teachers, creating the conditions for a virtual community that will be increasingly fair and respectful of diversity. Furthermore, also involving other representatives of the educating community, we also intervene in the context of the community in a broad sense, promoting correct, aware and responsible behaviour in the virtual world. Because: "Virtual is real" (from the Manifesto of Parole Ostili).
The project addresses online hate speech starting by providing innovative tools for education, in order to have a participatory methodology as well as new generations of teachers trained to actively involve young people in this common goal. AMeLiE actually aimed at involving the entire educational community, in order to reach not only teachers but also families, who are the first to have first to learn and then transmit to "digital natives" that the Internet is not a reality separate from the world, thus promoting correct, aware and responsible behavior in the virtual world. The objective is to guarantee that trained teachers have concrete tools to continue to trigger awareness and critical thinking in subsequent generations of students. The project offers innovative and effective solutions to the world of education to counter the phenomenon of online hate-speech, in order to create two tools that are now available to all interested schools: - European network of schools - An interactive platform accessible to all schools and educational communities that in the network, with useful content to address the issue of online hate-speech, possibility to discuss cases, carry out bottom-up initiatives
Over the past two decades, radical digital transformations and their impact on media and communication have shaped how young people in particular view the world, their interactions with others, and their perceptions of themselves. Access to unlimited amounts of information is often associated with insufficient media literacy, which means that young people are easily misled by biased, distorted or fake news. In this context, cultivating students' critical thinking and media literacy, defined as the ability to access, analyze and critically evaluate media messages as well as create new media content (Buckingham, 2007; Kellner and Share, 2005), can help them better understand the world in which they live and responsibly express their voices online and offline. The AMeLiE project especially addresses the issue of online hate speech, which has become particularly evident thanks to its current diffusion and popularity on social media, that is, where young people have more easily access. Hate speech online represents a widespread and transversal phenomenon and is both cause and effect of a process of cultural change that leads to and/or reinforces manifestations of discrimination and intolerance, even offline. Schools and educational communities face issues for which they have neither adequate tools nor support. For this reason, the AMeLiE project invests in training and sharing tools for educating communities, which will then have a strong spillover effect, on young students.