Human rights, image and identity in the digital age Erasmus Project

Project Title

Human rights, image and identity in the digital age

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

In this age of social media, students often post images of themselves online and comment on the posts made by others. There is often no real thinking behind this and the anonymity of the internet makes for a safe place for writing offensive and discriminatory comments without any comeback or notions of what effects these comments have on the intended target. The ideas of image and identity fit in with this issue; how are we seen by others in this day and age, and how can an understanding of (older) artwork help us contextualise this? What behavioural norms should we adhere to when we are online? However, it is not only online that we see increasingly harsh and extreme opinions being freely given. In real life we also see the rise of far-right, extremist political parties and there is a general consensus that ideas and points of view are becoming more outspoken and polarised throughout the world.

In this exchange programme, roughly sixty 12 to 16-year-old, secondary-school students from the Netherlands and the UK work together with their exchange partners on a number of different activities addressing the issues of fundamental human rights. What are they? Why are they important? And, how do they conflict with each other? The students record an interview with each other relaying their thoughts and feelings about a visit to Anne Frank’s House, which are posted online, viewed by and commented upon by their peers. The students work on flyers which give information about and support a particular human right. These flyers are exhibited at school and at local libraries which are open to the wider public.

The students also attend lessons at school about portraits and parallels are drawn between these and selfies in contemporary society. These lessons prepare them for a workshop at the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge in which students learn what the image says about the identity of the person portrayed. Modern day versions of the portraits are recreated at school and pupils are guided so that they can describe what these images say about them. A similar exercise takes place on the return visit in the Netherlands at the Kröller Müller museum, but with more focus on the impressionist portraits of Vincent van Gogh. The students are able to describe the main attributes of the paintings on view and write a motivation as to which painting is their favourite and why. They also need to take a selfie in the style of Vincent van Gogh. The pictures taken will be exhibited along with their motivations at school and they will also be posted on an internal social media page.

Any comments that the students make in response to products, video and pictures which are posted on an internal social media page, need to follow the guidelines on online behaviour that they themselves have formulated after participating in a workshop about safety online.

In this project, the students learn the importance of fundamental human rights, can state what their online images say about them as a person, and become competent in the use of a number of digital competencies.

In terms of the curriculum, the image and identity lesson, and the selfie lesson developed in this programme will form an integral part of the art curriculum for forthcoming first-year classes at all participating school as we feel that this is such important topic for contemporary teenagers. Extending the online behaviour workshop to all first-year classes as a supplement to their tutor group lessons (NL) and social studies lessons (UK) is something that we will be looking at and is a distinct possibility.

Participation in the exchange programme plays an important role in the international identity and profile of each of the schools, although at different levels. For Anna van Rijn, this programme is an essential part of their bilingual education programme and adds to the international character of the school. For Bottisham, gaining the International School Award is an aim for the school and an Erasmus project would help us to achieve this aim. Having the award would help accredit the school’s international work and would enrich student learning by embedding learning opportunities within the curriculum. For Bottisham, participation in an Erasmus Project would enhance their opportunities to continue to network with partner schools enabling the college to provide enriching opportunities to extend students learning through an exchange programme. Witchford would like to supplement their modern foreign language trips and exchanges by offering a cultural exchange to an increasing number of pupils.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 3000 Eur

Project Coordinator

Anna van Rijn College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Anglian Learning
• Witchford Village College