New Media Literacy for School and Special Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

New Media Literacy for School and Special Education

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The European Commission’s 2020 Strategy Report highlights three mutually reinforcing priorities for Europe: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This project is largely compatible with those priorities. To improve New Media Literacy (NML) skills of school students (12-17 years old), this project aims to gather and share knowledge among the participant countries (the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey) and generate both definitive results and tools that serve teachers in guiding students’ enhancement of their NML skills. The context of the project is that of ‘new media’, which plays a central role in the creation of a participatory culture by giving a voice to the often unheard. On the one hand, this provides increased communication opportunities but on the other hand, it exposes users to the risks and dangers of the dark side of the digital world. Thus, NML represents a critical field as new media forms are becoming increasingly accessible to students.
In accordance with the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training, this project aims to cooperate in building best practices by; (1) contributing to lifelong learning and mobility of teachers through LTTs on building the relevant NML skills, (2) improving the quality and efficiency of education and training through the development of NML skills, (3) promoting equity and social cohesion by including teachers of students with special needs and active citizenship by upskilling the NML of teachers and (4) enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training through holistic NML training conducted by scholars of Communication and Entrepreneurship. Thus, the main objective, following best practices in Europe, is to enhance NML skills of teachers in order to best mediate knowledge for students. To achieve the objective, the first activity will be a TPM in Turkey. The second (LTT) will take place in Italy and the third (LTT) in the Netherlands. The last LTT will be organized in Turkey. Each partner will be responsible for disseminating the work, explorations, and interactions of the project. At the TPM; partners will introduce their countries and organizations and decide on the interview questions to be applied to teachers in their home countries. The LTT in Italy will include; the presentation of the best NML cases from each country, a discussion on the findings of the interviews and a workshop on the first two pillars of NML (access and analysis). The LTT in the Netherlands will comprise a workshop on the latter two pillars of NML (evaluation and content creation), discussions and a final decision on the integrated online platform applicable to all participating countries. The LTT in Turkey will include the introduction and an interactive trial of the online platform and an NML workshop on the effective communication skills required to transmit NML skills to students. All LTTs will involve a local stakeholder visit and a cultural tour. Partners (scholars, teachers, and representatives from Bornova District National Education Directorate) will participate in all four events. At the TPM, the Turkish partners will participate with their full project teams each foreign partner will participate with one representative. At the LTTs, the directorate will have two participants, Ege University four, University of Florence two, Istituto Enrico Medi three, and the remaining partners will have one representative each. While introducing the online platform at the final LTT, local stakeholders will also be available. At the last LTT, Turkish partners will attend with more participants in order to increase the dissemination since it does not necessitate an extra budget. Finally, all partners are expected to share the project results in their dissemination events with teachers, students, and local stakeholders. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in the project. The quantitative method involves measuring the level of NML skills of teachers and comparing the results among partner countries, while the qualitative method will be used to understand best practices and what meanings teachers attribute to new media. Trained teachers are expected to convey their knowledge of NML to enhance students’ skills in accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating new media content. Students will learn how to think creatively, develop innovative ideas and even create a digital start-up, designed to fight unemployment. Teachers with NML skills are also expected to begin to use more technology-based contemporary teaching methods. Project results will be transferred onto an online platform, where teachers will be able to access all the necessary materials on a single platform that will function as a long-term sustainable information source.

Project Website

http://www.nm-lit.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 40403 Eur

Project Coordinator

BORNOVA ILCE MILLI EGITIM MUDURLUGU & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Tulay Aktas Isitme Engelliler Ortaokulu
• BORNOVA ANADOLU LISESI
• Koninklijke Kentalis Guyotschool voor VSO
• UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
• ASSISI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL + FONDAZIONE PATRIZIO PAOLETTI PER LO SVILUPPO E LA COMUNICAZIONE
• ISTITUTO D’ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE ENRICO MEDI
• EGE UNIVERSITY