Online gaming and Digital tools to promote the asylum seekers Integration and increase awareneSS amongst schools of the refugees’ crisis in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Online gaming and Digital tools to promote the asylum seekers Integration and increase awareneSS amongst schools of the refugees’ crisis in Europe

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: Integration of refugees; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

ODISSEU is a cross-field strategic partnership in the school education field creating an online simulation game responding to 4 key EU-wide needs:

This will address 4 related school needs linked to key EU policy objectives:
Need1: Ensuring inclusive education for young people which combats racism and discrimination on any ground
Need2: Empowering teachers to educate children and young people in media literacy and to impart common fundamental values and to prevent and combat racism, intolerance and hate speech online
Need3: Promoting intercultural dialogue through all forms of learning in cooperation with other relevant stakeholders
Need4: Increase understanding and raise awareness of refugee issues amongst pupils

ODISSEU is a well-balanced partnership, composed of different types of institutions, with different skills, regionally and culturally diversified. All partners are largely experienced in participating and coordinating European and national projects associated to school education, innovation, ICT and asylum seeker issues. The partners in the project are Oxfam IT (coordinator), University of Erlangen-Nurnberg (DE), University of Pitesti (RO), CARDET (CY), KOPIN (Malta) and Meath County Partnership (IE).

Partners know ODISSEU can meet these 4 needs because:
-ODISSEU will have a structural link into the curriculum to embed learning more effectively into formal education: no other models do this
– will structurally include student active citizenship actions into the online game:
– will be informed by real life stories developed by asylum seekers, with specific focus on training them as agent of change and educators
– will be developed with the support and evidenced based feedback of Peer Groups, schools themselves and asylum seekers as the end users of the model

ODISSEU will produce a holistic and inclusive Online Simulation Game to explain forced migration which allows broad participation across the whole school, including integration into the curriculum, provision for skills development and shifts in pedagogy and mindset by participating teachers, and a genuinely involvement of asylum seekers as active change agent throughout the project. This will make it both innovative (entirely new in EU) and complimentary to existing work. It therefore has 4objectives:
OBJ1: Develop, adapt and transfer an innovative online simulation game to increase understanding and raise awareness of refugee issues amongst secondary school students OBJ2: Develop online education resources to support secondary school teachers to engage young people in informed discussion about Migration and Asylum in the EU;
OBJ3: Promote a positive interaction and active participation of asylum seekers and refuges by engaging them to participate in local community’s life telling their stories
OBJ4: Enhancing young people critical thinking and media literacy,

The project will create 6 intellectual outputs to achieve this
1. A needs analysis research
2. Curriculum and Story Board
3. Digital Teacher Manual
4. Odisseu Online Game
5. E-library of real life stories
6. Policy recommendations

Outputs will be created working with schools and adult educator organization across 6 countries, ensuring IOs are relevant and transversal. They will engage target groups:

Group 1: Youth (11-18) and teachers in our project hub/trial schools. They will trial the tools.
Group 2: Youth and teachers in other secondary schools in partner countries and EU-wide, to whom we will disseminate the tools.
Group 3: Education stakeholders at local, national and EU level (e.g. policy makers, professional bodies etc), who we will aim to influence.
Group 4: Adult educator organizations dealing with asylum seekers and refugees

Delivering the above will ensure we meet the 4 needs identified above, and therefore meet the project goals.

The project will also conduct continuous and comprehensive communication and dissemination activities, and host 6 national multiplier events.

Together the outputs and dissemination will lead to direct impacts on more than 10.000 youth, over 500 teachers, 300 asylum seekers and 60 key education stakeholders during the life of the project. More importantly the high quality outputs will lead to the take-up of a sustainable and inclusive online simulation game that put the students in shoes of an asylum seekers with significant multiplication impacts across EU schools. Partners will also integrate the model into their own educational offers. More broadly, ODISSEU will contribute to sustainable shifts in the institutional practice and mindset of EU education systems to better promote inclusive education through online tools and formal and informal education in school.

Project Website

http://odisseu-project.eu/en/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 438076 Eur

Project Coordinator

OXFAM ITALIA ONLUS & Country: IT

Project Partners

• MEATH COMMUNITY RURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP LIMITED
• FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG
• KOPERAZZJONI INTERNAZZJONALI – MALTA (KOPIN) ASSOCIATION
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITESTI