Media Citizenship in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Media Citizenship in Europe

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The aims of the project were to examine the role of media and its impact on school life between these 4 partners and, in turn, these four EU cultures. Over the course of 24 months the project activities provided students, aged 13-15, and teachers a platform to gain a deeper understanding of the role and impact of media in their EU community, of social media in school and education and also learn about social medias role in democracy.

How students interact with media has seen a drastic change with access to many different forms of media readily available for those with a smart phone and an internet connection. For many this can be seen as merely a convenience, however, from the point of view of education this is also representing a fundamental shift in the changes that our students and teachers are currently undergoing.
The project aimed to use modern ICT methods in a multinational atmosphere to examine the role of media in the lives of students and by dong so also provide teachers a new resource for teaching and new teaching skills. Therefore the project complements the aspects of being both competence and content based in its methods and objectives.

The primary results of the project were to create a “Media Citizenship magazine” which will contain all the Tabarticles and JointTab Articles created over the course of the project. The project was based on 4 key stages. 1- Media in context, 2- Media in my community, 3- Social media in education, 4- Social media in Democracy. We aimed to have a minimum of 16 mobilities of students (aged 13-15) and 12 teachers per country over the course of the 24 months.

Students created “TabCasts” (TC) in short video clips form using tablet computers which are related to the 4 key stages.
Each TC was recorded by the students in which students presented their researched findings on the relevant key stage. This TC will therefore be an instrument for students to show what they have learned in an innovative way, promoting the use of ICT in the learning process, problem based learning techniques and engage students at risk of ESL using a more innovative method. By using modern ICT hardware such as the tablets, students will also be updating their basic and transversal skills and be able to fully utilise all the communication opportunities that it will provide.

A major element of the project was the inclusion of a local media company (newspaper, TV etc) which will be part of the local schools project activities. This “Media Provider” became a practical source of information for schools and also provided a tangible link for students when working on project activities. This provided students the opportunity to connect their transversal skills that they have learned through the project with a 3rd party who will work in co-operation with project activities.

Each key stage was researched, recorded and edited in partner schools culminating in TCs which were presented during the exchange. The use of modern ICT methods formed a key element of the project ethos with the objective of interesting students in a natural way and increase attainment for those at risk of early school leaving.

Teachers were encouraged to share their resources, teaching strategies and experiences with their new ICT tools among their colleagues both in their local school, the wider educational community through Professional Development workshops and through the use of the social media platforms (Google+ and eTwinning) that will be utilized throughout the project.

The transnational perspective is imperative as the results can be obtained from 4 different countries through the participating partners providing a true EU overview of the subject. Students will also be able to easily share info and communicate using ICT thus strengthening their EU connections.

This is a summary of the project as was written in the application, funnily enough, they are quite similar thats mainly because they are. The project went really well and we had some great times with the students and in essence all of these things were achieved as stated nearly three years ago. I am not too sure what is needed here that is not already stated or should be stated just to be seen as something else but this is the reality of the project. It went well. The age group is difficult to work with, not many have traveled before or taken part in the such a project but yet they achieved great things and made new friends. I am not going to rewrite something just to re write it. This is the information that is relevant and that achieved the project results.

Unfortunately the project partners decided not to continue the partnership and apply for a new E´+ project. The main reason was that the workload associated with the new E+ was simply too much for the others schools and teachers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 96150 Eur

Project Coordinator

Merenojan koulu & Country: FI

Project Partners

• I.E.S. CASAS VIEJAS
• Balwearie High School
• Agrupamento de Escolas Piscinas – Olivais