The Real Mao – Social Skills Development on Identifying, Avoidig and Reacting on Media Manipulation Erasmus Project

Project Title

The Real Mao – Social Skills Development on Identifying, Avoidig and Reacting on Media Manipulation

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; Inclusion – equity; Social dialogue

Project Summary

RATIONALE, SUBJECT AND LEARNING NEEDS ADDRESSED:
In 1994, Siklós Szilveszter filmed a pseudo-documentary titled “The Real Mao”. The essence of the experiment was to present a one-hour film out of competely incapable and false statements in a scientific documentary style. Based on the clichés of historical investigative reports from well-known news channels, the film tries to draw attention to the fact that the media’s current tools can make almost anything possible, just as far away from reality as we can give it credibly and coherently.
The experiment and its conclusion are more current than ever.
Day by day we face annoying news which shows that Europe is at risk. More and more aggression, intolerance, nascence, migrants’ crisis, unemployment, quarrels, nationalism, demagogue politics raise our attention to integration problems. There are many examples of situations where people make decisions according to feelings formed by media manipulation. This fact is also threatening for (European) conscious adults, but it causes confusion, puzzlement and nihilism among youngsters. Most of them defend themselves with ignorance, inner focus and refusing any kind of attention to social issues. But there is also a risk to evolve extreme theories and extreme political opinions by these news.
Identifying the real urge and importance of communication, the partnership seeks for methods which can generate discussions and deeper thinking among youngsters. We need to prepare youngsters for a world in which people need to work with people of diverse cultural origins, and appreciate different ideas, perspectives and values; a world in which people need to develop trust to collaborate across such differences; and a world in which people’s lives will be affected by issues that transcend national boundaries.

OBJECTIVES:
The project targets the improvement of those socio-emotional competences, which were included to the PISA test assessments for the first time in 2018, through those most striking phenomena which embarrasses us day by day while walking down a street, opening a newspaper, switching on the TV or using the Internet. According to the context, rationale and connected needs mentioned above, the project would mainly address three of the following general objectives:
1.) Learning to identify media manipulation. Preventing violent radicalization and promoting democratic values, intercultural understanding and active citizenship
2.) Fostering the inclusion of disadvantaged learners, including persons with ethnical or a migrant background, while preventing and combating discriminatory practices.
3.) Challenging and revitalizing new competences: ability of examining local, global and intercultural issues; being able to perceive and accept others’ viewpoints; and competences of maintaining open, adequate and effective communication with people from other cultures. (PISA global competences 2018.)

CONCRETE ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS:
The project designs thematic workshops on film analysis, round table discussions, open debates, creative campaigns such as film making competition and visual placard competition, lectures, thematic seminars using alternative, nonformal learning-teaching methods deepening the understanding to reach its aims. The project ends with a common international wall painting, wich expresses the participants’ commitment to the no hate campaign in a prominent and artistic way.
Four teaching-learning activity is included into the professional work.
One of the most effective innovation of the project is opening school gates to civil society in order to understand and respond adequately to social issues. School societies are isolated from their surroundings, and exist as separate envelopes in the middle of reality. All the project activities are designed to involve members of the local-wider societies, managing public round table discussions, open debates, social campaigns in order to foster interaction among concerned parts, not remaining the theme on the theoretical plane. Members of civil society can join also to learning activities, which has double effects: a.) schools give up their isolation and make an opening to the society around b.) new cooperative models can be found during the common adventure to promote social capital
schools and generational learning.

IMPACTS:
Pupils participating in the project:
-Learn to identify, avoid and react on media manipulation
-Master their skills of news literacy
-Strengthen personal skills such as self-reflection, self-consciousness and confidence in selfexpression.
-Improve fundamental competences as socio-emotional competences, foreign languages and digital competences
-Develop transversal competences such as social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, learning to learn and cultural expression

The itinerary is based on intercultural dialogue between participants from 4 countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy AND ???????).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81201 Eur

Project Coordinator

Nyitott Ajtó Baptista Szakképző Iskola, Középiskola, Általános Iskola, Óvoda, Szakiskola és Kollégium / Edelényi Nyitott Ajtó Baptista Oktatási Tagintézmény & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Secodary school “Peyo Yavorov”
• Colegiul National Aprily Lajos
• I.I.S. Carducci