Media: to Understand and to Create (The Implementation of the Media Education in Schools) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Media: to Understand and to Create (The Implementation of the Media Education in Schools)

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ IMES-Media: To Understand and to Create (The Implementation of the Media Education in Schools) project has been successfully completed (start: 01-09-2018, end 28-02-2021). Three schools, Vilnius Salomeja Neris gymnasium of Vilnius, Lithuania (coordinator), the 4th General Lyceum of Katerini, Greece, the Elektrotehnicka I prometna skola of Osijek, Croatia, two universities, the Vilniaus Gedimino Technikos Universitas (VGTU) of Lithuania, the Art and Culture Academy of Osijek, Croatia and a Lifelong Learning Centre in Katerini, Greece (KEPA Pierias) collaborated for more than two years in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding.

Through careful collaboration, these six institutions reached their set goal of creating and implementing media literacy in schools (secondary and vocational). They have also completed every set objective of this project. Firstly, the curriculum Media and Society covering 34 hours of teaching and the methodological materials prepared for this curriculum were created. Media and Society curriculum covers four main topics: Introduction into Media; Media and Self; Media and Community; Media and the State. Methodological materials consist of two parts: theoretical part and practical part. Theoretical part has been written by lecturers from universities dr.Kristina Stankevičiūtė, dr. Snjezana Barič-Selmič; Tomislav Levak and Artūras Kavaliauskas. It focuses on teachers’ self-education and seeks to introduce them to the topics. Practical part consists of 74 lessons that have been written by teachers from all three countries, who were participating in the project. Practical part of methodology is dedicated to the direct work in the classroom consisting of a lesson plan and an activity sheet for students. This methodological material can be taught separately as part of Media and Society subject, or it can be integrated in different subjects that are currently at schools, for example English, History, Mathematics, IT and so on. The curriculum has been piloted with a body of around 300 students in the partner schools and an even larger group of students, approximately 1000 were able to test some parts of this programme that were integrated in their other school subjects. Moreover, The IMES project aimed at not only creating the curriculum and methodological materials for the teaching of a course on media and digital literacy but also at providing teachers in the partner organizations with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to create and teach the course. This was achieved through the participation of groups of 15 teachers and 6 lecturers from partner organizations in every Learning, Teaching and Training activities, hosted by the three partner countries. During these three tightly-scheduled LTTs participants had the chance to acquire the knowledge needed in order to contribute to the joint creation of the first draft of the curriculum and methodological materials, pilot it in the three schools, meet to revise and finalize the created material and translate the original English curriculum and methodological materials into their own language (Lithuanian, Greek, Croatian). What is more, an Internet platform, where all the materials are stored, publicly accessible and can easily be downloaded has been created as well.

The three transnational meetings and the online videoconferences held during the last part of the project (due to COVID-19 restrictions that led to the cancelling of the fourth transnational meeting in Vilnius) were crucial in the programming, smooth running and successful completion of the project. A significant part of the project was the purposeful effort on the part of all partners to make the project visible to potential stakeholders and the community, and to disseminate its outcomes. That is why, from the very beginning, reports, photos and other material related to the project were posted on the official websites of the partner organizations, the IMES Facebook page and the IMES website.

Finally, the Multiplier events organized by the schools of the three partner countries gave an opportunity to a large number of stakeholders, teachers, principals, education coordinators, representatives of the administration of education, representatives of the local authorities, representatives of parents and teachers’ associations to be informed both about the two intellectual outputs of the project (the “Media and Society” curriculum and the methodological material for its teaching) and the procedure that was followed for the implementation of the IMES project.

The curriculum has been adapted to every participating country aiming for it to be used not only by the partner schools, but also by other schools from the participating countries. It could eventually be expanded to be implemented in other EU countries as well. We hope that it will only be the beginning of the journey called Media education in schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 130147,13 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vilniaus Salomejos Neries gimnazija & Country: LT

Project Partners

• Elektrotehnicka i prometna skola Osijek
• KENTRO EREVNAS PROGRAMMATISMOU KAI ANAPTYXIS (KEPA) PIERIAS
• SVEUCILISTE JOSIPA JURJA STROSSMAYERA U OSIJEKU
• VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS
• 4th Lyceum of Katerini