Listen to my story – European History on school radio Erasmus Project

Project Title

Listen to my story – European History on school radio

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

In a world in which digitalization is changing the everyday life of many people, responsible and creative use of digital media is one of the basic skills that students have to develop. The young people should not only learn how to use the media in a technically safe and targeted manner, but also critically examine the effects of the media and reflect on their own behavior. The digital change is not only evident with new media such as smartphones, but also the well-tried radio is affected by digitization. Working in a school radio team can promote the necessary media skills in several ways. With the radio work, the pupils acquire the knowledge of journalistic forms of writing as well as basic skills such as concentrated listening and speaking freely. Students gain technical skills, such as handling a recorder or cutting audio files on a PC. As regards content the students in the school radio project will deal with the biographies and experiences of people in the period of National Socialism and World War II. The project therefore focuses on remembering together, sharing European history based on individual life stories. The medium of radio is particularly suitable for telling life stories, since it concentrates on listening and speaking in a period where pictures dominate our lives. People tell their own stories or students tell the people´s stories. The historical context becomes visible in individual fates. In the different phases of the project, the students are active in all sphere of competence in media education.
The students do research (sphere of competence “search & process”) and use new media, classic information sources such as books and archive materials and talking to contemporary witnesses. Afterwards, the pupils put the collected information into the historical context (“analyse & reflect”) before completing a radio programme (“produce & present”). According to their country and region the single schools fill the historical framework with concrete and individual topics. The starting point will always be the individual life story. Being in exchange the host students become more aware of their own history, while the guests learn new facts and broaden their horizons. For everyone, including the teachers, this personal approach opens up the possibility of a change of perspective and an increasingly networked sense of history. Because of working in mixed teams, a constant exchange of experience and knowledge is also necessary for the actual radio work (“communicate & cooperate”). Here again media competence is required if e.g. they communicate via eTwinning. At the same time, language competence is acquired, since talking about historical topics in the bridge language English goes beyond school language lessons. The actual radio production should be spoken in the native language and in English too. A total of 20 students from each school will be involved in the project. Each student can be host once and be a participant in a group of 5 travellers. The target group of our project are secondary school students, aged 13-17, who want to try journalistic activities and / or are interested in the technical aspects of a school radio. At the same time, the project is intended for students who want to deal intensively with European history in the 20th century. Various audio products in the form of radio broadcasts, radio plays or audio guides will be created in the course of the project. These audio files are exchanged between the schools and can be heard both live in the school building and on the school homepage, regional radio stations or the platform of the European School Radio. In addition, cross-regional distribution is possible through the cooperation with Bavarian Radio. During production and especially in the initial phase when the technical skills are built up, students and teachers develop tutorials and similar means of sharing knowledge.
The Erasmus + project is intended on the one hand to start or expand one’s own school radio, and on the other hand to open up a permanent exchange of schools via the medium of radio. But especially the intensive examination of the Nazi era and the Second World War should have a positive influence on the student´s historical conceptions and their political and social engagement. It is to be hoped that this project will deepen the personal responsibility for a peaceful and respectful coexistence in Europe and respect for human rights.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 145520 Eur

Project Coordinator

Otfried-Preußler-Grund- und Mittelschule Stephanskirchen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• English Martyrs Catholic School – A Voluntary Academy,
• OSG De Ring van Putten
• 2nd Junior High School of Rethymno
• Agrupamento de Escolas Infanta D. Mafalda, Gondomar