Information Technology for Citizenship and Democracy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Information Technology for Citizenship and Democracy

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

The AECM has been focussing on the development of its students’ comprehensive skills and competences, namely their ability to think critically, develop citizenship, democratic awareness and participation, get involved in their school and community life, as well as other 21st century skills. Simultaneously, we are aware of the huge influence of technology in our youngsters’ lives and of the extensive – and often misguided – use they make of technology and social networks. Thus, we thought it would be paramount to put technology at the service of the development of global skills and competences. In addition, former and ongoing Erasmus+ KA1 and KA2 projects have been helping us develop community, national and European awareness and this project appeared as a natural consequence of the school’s concern. Starting from key questions such as “How can we promote civic and democratic participation? How do we show young people the importance of their contribution to solve present and future issues? How can technology help develop the human and humanistic aspects and prepare youngsters for the challenges of the 21st century?”, we set our aims: i) to promote citizenship, democratic participation and sustainability within the technological world (for example, online security, source reliability and credibility, freedom of communication and expression vs the right to privacy, active learning, arguing for/against ideas vs tolerance); ii) to promote young people’s cultural and civic dimension; iii) to develop 21st century skills; iv) to put technology at the service of citizenship and democratic ideals. After establishing our goals, we looked for partners who had the same concerns.
The group of schools which will be developing this project (Croatia, France, Poland and Portugal) all share an interest in the topic of citizenship and democratic participation and the adequate use of technological tools at our disposal, both at school and in students’ personal lives. Several teachers and 18-20 students from each school (aged 15-18) will be directly involved in the different LTTs; however, our project will involve a very extensive number of students and teachers from participating schools, as the levels of involvement in the project will vary according to the activities and their goals. The direct participants share an interest in the extracurricular activities in their schools and usually participate in citizenship development projects. The teachers are primarily from the areas of English, Citizenship Education and Social Sciences and IT. Special needs students will be included in the project, as well as students who are less able at English, in order to guarantee that less competent students can get involved and participate actively in this kind of project and benefit from its impact. Special needs students will be motivated to participate more actively in school life.
To achieve our goals, we will do activities in each of the schools as preparation for the different LTT. Preparatory activities will include organization of the teams that will work on the project in each school, selection of the students that will take direct part in the LTTs, questionnaires about the different countries/languages, organization of working groups of teachers and students with a specific task, creation of an eTwinning project, communication among students and teachers using email, facebook, whatsapp, skype, eTwinning, creation of a virtual space for the project linked to the school website and of an Erasmus+ corner at each school, workshops and/or debates with MPs, NGOs, etc, research on citizenship topics that worry students, production of evaluating and disseminating materials. During the LTTs, the following activities will be carried out, among others: presentation of work done locally, teamwork to design games/apps/(teaching) materials/video spots/posters that can help raise awareness of democracy and citizenship issues, problem-solving, roleplays, creation of a project logo, activities for dissemination, such as writing news and press releases in local and regional means of communication, on the internet, excursions, visits to museums or places of historical, scientific or project interest in each country. After the mobility, all activities and impacts will be assessed through questionnaires, surveys, minutes of meetings, interim and final reports. Besides the development of global skills and competences in ICT, English and the subject matter, some of the results of the project will be posters and presentations, an eDictionary of democracy, games, apps, teaching and learning materials that help promote citizenship and democratic participation and the responsible use of technology.
The sustainability and impact of the project in the different schools is guaranteed because the final products will be shared among partners and used in the different schools and communities, changing the learning environment of the schools involved.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 111330 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento de Escolas do Castêlo da Maia & Country: PT

Project Partners

• Prirodoslovna skola Split
• Zespol Szkol im. Jana Kilinskiego
• Lycée Polyvalent Louis Audouin Dubreuil