Professionals’ Media Empowerment through Educational Suitability Erasmus Project

Project Title

Professionals’ Media Empowerment through Educational Suitability

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Boundaries between the real and the virtual are being shifted every day. Inadequate exposure to the media (technology) disrupts healthy development of a young individual. Adverse effects have been scientifically proven at the cognitive, emotional, and physical level [14][21][27-29]. Media literacy is being called for. Schools are expected to provide for media education that supports child development. Teachers are expected to be media empowered individuals to stimulate the empowerment of their young learners, too.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
However, little has been done to meet these needs. Experience and analyses show media literacy is mostly educated without an explicit development-focused transversal plan that would unite cross-curricular topics under a single conceptual umbrella. ICT and technical aspects play a dominant role in the school-run media education. At the tertiary level, no permanent structured approach is offered to empower the (future) teacher on the matter in line with his/her subject of interest. Project-driven extracurricular activities remain scattered and limited in focus.

TARGET GROUPS
In order to protect child development and educate empowered citizens, TEACHERS and LEARNERS, our target groups, NEED A DEDICATED AND COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO MEDIA EDUCATION.
— for LEARNERS, such an approach should explicitly support age-appropriate dealing with the media.
— for TEACHERS, it should contribute to their media empowerment at a systemic level.

PROMETHEUS responds to these needs by
(i) building primary and secondary media literacy education on a universal educational variable of child development
(ii) developing permanent expert support to teachers at the tertiary level.

RESULTS
The backbone of outcomes is the media literacy METACURRICULUM (MC) for primary and secondary education. It is innovative in 3 facets typical for the entire concept:
(i) a clear TRANSVERSAL DEVELOPMENTAL aspect, adjusting topics to the learner’s development-dependent abilities,
(ii) a CROSS-SYSTEM SUITABILITY AND INCLUSION aspect: based on developmental considerations it is applicable across different environments, and
(iii) a CROSS-CURRICULAR DESIGN which does not predetermine any special subject to deal with the topics.
Based on the principles defined by MC, the MEDIA EMPOWERMENT TOOLKIT (MET) – an open-source-based website with concrete tools on topics for different age groups – is to be set up for teachers, older learners, and parents. Its interactive character will enable an inclusive and sustainable exchange of best practices. Teachers will also be offered a PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE ON MEDIA LITERACY (PG). Since the PROMETHEUS approach is a novelty, PG shall elaborate principles and topics from MC and navigate the teacher across MC. Case examples of topics from MC are to be piloted in the partner schools for necessary feedback during the course of the project. To meet the empowerment objective at the tertiary level, a TRAINING COURSE/MODULE FOR TEACHERS/STUDENT TEACHERS (TCT) is to be prepared and introduced at the partner universities.

IMPACT AND POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITS
PROMETHEUS is expected to achieve a significant improvement in learners’ and teachers’ media knowledge and competences. The project will build capacity within the educational sector, which will be able to provide a high-quality media empowerment education at primary and secondary levels in the partner countries and EU-wide.

DISSEMINATION
In addition to its own MEDIA EMPOWERMENT TOOLKIT website, we will use multiplier events and other known dissemination channels to improve its reach at different stages. Early on, the project website is to be set up to disseminate MC, MET and PG. Subsequently, publicity will be boosted at the national and EU-level via articles, summaries and panels in education magazines and conferences to reach education experts. Upon completion, PROMETHEUS is to be disseminated among organizations that influence policy and practice, to meet the project’s bottom-up approach with a commitment to introduce the outcomes to policymakers (a top-down solution) in the long term.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 222289 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZA V MARIBORU & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla SAU
• Združenje KUD Parzival
• Osnovna waldorfska skola
• Consorzio Scuola Comunità Impresa
• Liceo Ginnasio Statale Benedetto Cairoli
• UNIVERSITATEA LUCIAN BLAGA DIN SIBIU