A Healthy Dose of Social Media Erasmus Project

Project Title

A Healthy Dose of Social Media

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 2017

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

The project was titled “A Healthy Dose of Social Media“. The idea came from daily life, when we observed our own children and students at school. There is no doubt that Social Media have become an essential part of most people’s everyday lives, from checking Facebook and Twitter to posting blogs, Pinterest listings and uploading YouTube videos.
The aspiration for our project team was to find ways where Social Media networks can be leveraged to engage and build a foundation for future student’s learning.
The main aim of the teaching staff was to develop the right Social Media teaching strategies which can lead to creative learning, and a productive approach to making Social Media a part of ongoing personal and professional development.
Our aim was to create opportunities for our students to view Social Media as something that is not going away and which should be used productively rather than devalued in schools. Doing so can mean that students moving into workplaces know how to use Social Media as an important tool. Thanks to being involved in all project activities our students gained the key for competences for a successful life such as problem solving, reflection, creativity, critical thinking, learning to learn, risk-taking, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Also, they improved their English and ICT skills.
We were team of 5 countries with the similar experience connected to the project topic and who worked together on the same subject which interested all participants – active methods, ICT and social skills, the use of Social Media as a tool during the lessons. But above all we wanted to share our innovative teaching approaches.
The project team consisted of teachers who are well-qualified and skilled enough. They can be called innovative and willing to experiment on new ideas, methods and approaches. They participated in various European projects and seminars about the new learning methods, activities and also they took part in Comenius projects as team members. More than half of the key persons are well-qualified and skilled on ICT.
Students target groups were from 9 to15 years old and were selected on the basis of that children and teenagers are one of the biggest media consumer group in the society. The project aimed at enhancing the quality of media education offered for this target group. 60 students from 5 participating schools attended the mobilities of students. These young people were communicative, cooperative, social, enthusiastic, creative, able to work in a team and assumed the leadership role. In addition to good social and personal skills, they had good English and ICT knowledge. So 100 participants actively participated in the project. However, this team involved the whole school community from their countries to participate actively in this project.
All partners were important and gave something special to the project. The German partner’s role as a coordinating school within the project had a supportive role but also provided specialism for the whole project group. The coordinating school brought new innovative pedagogical teaching materials which will be shared with all partners. The Portuguese partner brought the new advanced ICT technology and they shared their knowledge with others. They designed the website and all materials. The school has a good command of computer technologies and participated in some training. The Lithuanian school brought new ideas and created new teaching materials by using social games and active learning methods in class. They used their knowledge and ICT experience in teaching and shared that with the partners. The Greek school showed our students that the world is open to new opportunities and that they can explore this world by the use of the Internet as a main channel of communication. The Polish school brought their enthusiasm and innovative ideas. They helped other partners to organize and moderate students’ activities during all students meetings. Our international team shared good practices which were essential to create high quality project activities and results. The main activities were:
– creation of project’s logo and website
– publishing a 4 parts teachers e-book with teaching material
– creating videos which documented the project meetings
– publishing students’ stories e-book
– creating videso with with students’ interviews
– publishing material “Window to Daily Life at School: Social Media and Students”
– brochures , videos and posters created by students about Cyberbullying on Social Media.
IMPACT on:
Teachers: improvement of language skills, mastery of ICT, use of new teaching methods, management skills.
Students: improvement of their basic English language skills, ICT and social skills
The project’s realization led to a raise of the schools’ status as a learning institution and the gained knowledge enabled them to apply for new future European projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 131705 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gesamtschule der Stadt Hemer & Country: DE

Project Partners

• 3 Gymnasium of Iraklion
• Kauno Tado Ivanausko progimnazija
• Colégio Atlântico
• Publiczna Szkola Podstawowa nr 2 im. Hansa Christiana Andersena w Radomiu