European media coaches in action Erasmus Project

Project Title

European media coaches in action

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The Internet in our contemporary world is an immanent part of our lives. Although it brings a lot of benefits and makes our lives easier, it also plays a destructive role, especially among young users.
Being teachers, who are in constant contact with the youth, we are aware of the dangers arising from the inappropriate use of the Internet and social media. A survey launched in each school before the candidature confirmed the necessity of the project.
Objectives of the project
The main aim of the project was to make students, teachers and parents more aware and proficient in the use of the Internet and media as a whole.
Methodology to be used in carrying out the project
The internet and especially social media are very private parts of our students` lives – they communicate, make friends online and organize their lives using social media. A lot of students feel uneasy if schools want to interfere with their privacy. In order to reach as many students as possible and be sure of a high level of acceptance on dealing with e-safety from their part, each school developed a training to prepare them to become e safety experts.
At the end they were “media coaches” capable to pass on their knowledge to younger students in a peer-to-peer approach. The training course for the students we made use of is based on a program that was developed by a media centre in the county of Baden-Württemberg in Germany (www.lmz-bw.de). You can find details in the handbooks we provide.
Description of activities / project´s results
We did not only convey technical know-how, but also highlighted impacts of the media world.
The adolescents learned about essential rules of media production, improved their media literacy, acquired knowledge in project planning and implementation, how to lead groups and how to competently inform their classmates on media issues.
For the purpose of training new media coaches the responsible teachers have created a booklet “e-safety concept handbook” that you can also use for your purposes respecting the copyright.The implementation of the media coach handbook requests at least 20 hours. For instance students get to know details about privacy rights and copyright, communication and social networks, cyberbullying, safe use of smartphones and apps as well as extremism on the net and hate speech.
Students who act as media experts at their schools can offer courses and workshops to younger students.They can also act as mediators.
The students trained as e-safety coaches should be 13-16 years of age and will act as specially trained media counsellors at their schools. They usually especially work with classes of younger students (10-12) and cooperate with the school communities during days of the open school.
With our concept of a peer-to-peer approach we have been aiming at reaching the majority of students and parents of the school communities.
Students also wrote scripts, produced videos and edited them. Furthermore media coaches created material like comics, posters, flyers, songs or a theatre play dealing with the topic of youth media protection.
Our aim is to reduce dangers linked to the use of media and raise awareness on the students´ and parents´ sides concerning the use of media establishing e-safety clubs at our schools that meet on a regular basis.
Potential longer term benefits
Once established, the system of e-safety coaches being trained every year should have a sustainable effect on our school communities, contributing to a safer and more harmonic school environment. After the end of this project e-safety clubs should continue with their work simply because it makes a lot of sense in an increasingly digital world.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 93033 Eur

Project Coordinator

Groupe scolaire Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle & Country: FR

Project Partners

• IES FRANCISCO FIGUERAS PACHECO
• Alderley Edge School for Girls
• Scoala Gimnaziala “Mihai Viteazul”
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 46 im Jana Kiepury w Sosnowcu
• Realschule Eberbach