No Alternative Facts Erasmus Project

Project Title

No Alternative Facts

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Young people today are growing up in a globalised world and are processing information from a wider variety of sources than ever before. They need the critical literacy skills to navigate the potential pitfalls when consuming news, particularly when using online sources and social media. Media literacy is crucial for sustaining democracy by knowing which information sources to trust and which media are trustworthy. It is important to recognize and see through propaganda and sometimes “read between the lines”.

“No Alternative Facts” addressed this challenge in an adult education context through an innovative train-the-trainer format which aims to:
– Provide adult educators (the direct target group) with useful skills and action-oriented methods on how to develop young people’s digital competence
– Enhance digital competence of young people 15-25 (final beneficiaries), especially with a low level of education and training
– Thus increasing Critical Digital Literacy, especially critical thinking skills, of young adults in the age of “Fake News”.

Adult educators’ professional competence are enhanced by the attitudes, knowledge skills necessary to apply the innovative “No Alternative Facts” approach:
In most competence development processes action-oriented and productive methods are most effective on developing critical thinking. Therefore the final beneficiaries, the young adults, will be encouraged to describe their own experience with fake news in the internet in small videos and other multimedia formats and place it on an online gamification environment. After analysing their experiences, the young people themselves develop learning quizzes to test peers about their knowledge of “Fake News”, Misinformation and Disinformation and how they can be detected.

Consequently, the train-the-trainer offer for adult educators will contain the following elements:
– Awareness and basic knowledge about “Fake News”, Misinformation and Disinformation and about tools to detect them (watch websites, analytical methodologies etc.)
– Insight into how “Fake News”, Misinformation and Disinformation is created, can be spread and manipulated in social media
– Introduction to game-based learning and quiz-based learning as methodologies for competence development and empowerment
– Practical tools for media and quiz production in the classroom

In terms of concrete products “No Alternative Facts” developed
– A Situational Analysis Report on how young people experience fake news
– A Train-the-Trainer Format for adult educators
– A Toolbox of resources for Adult Educators
– An Online Gamification Environment

“No alternative facts” was put into practice in a Transnational Training Activity with 21 adult educators, who then piloted the approach with young people in their respective country. 127 more adult educators and multipliers were informed about the project outputs and instructed how to use them in multiplier (mainly virtual) events, and a total of 432 young people were directly involved in the project.

The main outputs will be continued to be offered online after the end of the project via the project website, www.noalternativefacts.net, through the Toolbox of learning materials (including e-learning formats of the training modules), resources and useful instruments, and the Gamification Platform. These have all been designed in a way which makes it easy for adult educators to apply “No Alternative Facts” training and game-based learning opportunities in different adult education contexts and with young and older adults alike.

The partnership is led by Apricot, United Kingdom, and has experienced adult education providers from Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden and Denmark as project partners.

Project Website

http://www.noalternativefacts.net

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 248293,44 Eur

Project Coordinator

APRICOT TRAINING MANAGEMENT LTD & Country: UK

Project Partners

• STIFTELSEN KURSVERKSAMHETEN VID U-AUNIVERSITET
• Videnscenter for Integration
• DIE BERATER UNTERNEHMENSBERATUNGS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
• CATRO BULGARIA
• BUPNET BILDUNG UND PROJEKT NETZWERKGMBH