Media Literacy in the Digitalised Era: supporting teachers through a whole-school approach Erasmus Project

Project Title

Media Literacy in the Digitalised Era: supporting teachers through a whole-school approach

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 2018

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

‘While there are many opportunities arising from digital transformation, the biggest risk today is of a society ill-prepared for the future. If education is to be the backbone of growth and inclusion in the EU, a key task is preparing citizens to make the most of the opportunities and meet the challenges of a fast-moving, globalised and interconnected world’. (COM/2018)

Digital advances have brought new challenges for Europe’s pupils, students and teachers. Algorithms used by social media sites and news portals can be powerful amplifiers of bias or fake news, while data privacy has become a key concern in the digital society. EU citizens, but above all young students are vulnerable to cyber bullying and harassment, predatory behaviour or disturbing online content. Everyday exposure to digital data driven largely by inscrutable algorithms creates clear risks and requires more than ever critical thinking and the ability to engage positively and competently in the digital environment. These issues have been brought even more to the fore by the move to online teaching brought about by the global Covid pandemic.

In the above context, the MeLDE project, which started in 2018 and completed in 2021, sought to

– Identify, through wide-ranging research, the key digital skills gaps amongst secondary school teachers and students in the target countries of UK, Cyprus, Germany and Greece;
– Map professional development opportunities and online resources to support digital literacy in key topics;
– Create educational resources (including web-lectures, ebooks, as well as lesson plans and handouts for use with students) in online courses for teachers to strengthen teachers’ digital skills and professional profiles;
– Offer open education and innovative practice in the digital era by providing open and free access to the educational tools and materials developed by the MeLDE programme with online assessment and validation of the skill acquired through the option of earning Open Badges;
– Strengthen the digital skills and competences amongst secondary school students through the upskilling of their teachers.

To this end the MeLDE consortium has produced a FRAMEWORK mapping out the approaches in schools related to the promotion of media literacy skills for digitial citizenship, an ePLATFORM with accompanying assessment tool to measure media literacy skills acquired; a TOOL BANK of resources and teaching materials, an ACADEMY of teacher training materials, and a TOOLKIT to guide teachers to implement the MeLDE skills in their schools.

The MeLDE skills cover 17 topics (including social media and classroom collaboration platforms, fake news, managing digital identity, cyberbullying, creating compelling digital content for educational purposes, digital copyright, distance learning, self-promotion, and digital citizenship ) within 4 online modules:

1. Digital Teaching & Learning Skills
2. Online Communication & Collaboration
3. Digital Content Creation and
4. E-Safety

The consortium has developed the educational materials within each Module as well as the teacher TOOLKIT in English, Greek and German thereby extending the reach of the project. The materials have been reviewed by experts and piloted by teachers. Feedback has been constructive and positive with an estimated 8000 people having been reached directly or indirectly through project activities at the end of the three year project. This number is set to grow as the MeLDE materials are adopted by more teachers and schools. A follow-on project DigiTEAL examining the lesson learnt by the move to online teaching necessitated by the Covid pandemic is already underway.

The MeLDE consortium comprises 5 organisations representing a wide range of background and expertise coming from 4 different European Countries.

Project Website

http://meldeproject.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 308084,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Arbeitskreis Ostviertel e.V.
• ANTENNA LTD
• NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “DEMOKRITOS”
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd