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A New Energy Culture: Sustainability and Territori..
A New Energy Culture: Sustainability and Territories
Start date: Sep 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
In line with the EC Europe 2020 strategy objectives of energy sustainability, and with those of social inclusion, growth and innovation of the Education and Training programme, the NECST project aims at developing an alternative educational offer. The approach will be innovative, inclusive, focused on the energy issues and based on the potential offered by the information and communication technologies.
The project will be based on a cross-sectoral strategic partnership that will involve research organisations, universities, enterprises and public bodies, all with a specific expertise in energy and environmental issues, i.e. FEEM, eni, Civicamente, the University of Zagreb, the National Park of the Appennino Lucano and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Archives. The partners will be joined by a number of secondary schools of 4 European countries sharing a relevant interest in energy production (Croatia, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands).
From a methodological point of view, the project builds upon the implementation of a cross-media e-learning platform, based on the frontier educational strategy of “peer education”. The “Connecting Energy” platform is structured into an educational area (Area Learn) and a community area (Area Meet). The platform represents a virtual dimension where diversified multimedia contents (videos, interviews, reportages, surveys, etc.) related to energy issues (energy efficiency, savings, renewables, sustainability, innovation technologies, etc.) are uploaded and explored by users. Some of these contents will be developed by experts of the academic, research and business sectors and will provide accurate and accessible scientific information aimed at increasing the knowledge of the students involved in the project. These documents will also help stimulate a debate among the students and foster their critical awareness of energy production activities and their impact on social welfare (health, the environment, employment, growth). Based on this debate the students, assisted by their teachers, projects tutors and facilitators, will develop their own contents in e-journalism formats that will be published on the platform. The most advanced 2.0 web communication tools will be used to further disseminate these contents. As producers of the contents and recipients of the teaching activities and mobility opportunities, the students will be both actors and beneficiaries of the project.
The project will include preliminary training (web seminars and short-term mobility) for both teachers and students, in order to provide specific knowledge on energy issues and on the tools and methodology to be used when developing the contents. These training activities will be carried out by the partners with the support of facilitators and experts from the academic, research and business sectors.
The project expects tangible results from the teaching activities and mobility, such as web seminars and their digital outputs and the contents and methodology guidelines. The main result, however, will be the implementation of the cross-media platform “Connecting Energy” and the digital journalism output produced by the students that will be published on the platform.
The long-term impacts envisaged by the project are: 1) to disseminate accurate scientific information on energy issues; 2) to spread energy literacy among the new generations of European citizens ; 3) to foster critical awareness on the connections between energy problems and environmental and social needs in the young generations; 4) to reinforce collaboration and interaction among the business sector of energy production, the education and training entities, the public institutions, the private stakeholders and the local communities.
In conclusion, NECST proposes an educational experience based on the collaboration between students coming from different geographic and social environments. The project will be based on the digital and shared production of scientific contents and on an extracurricular, in-depth analysis of themes of common interest. This initiative represents an innovative and inclusive educational model, potentially applicable to other contexts and sectors, aimed at fostering intercultural dialogue through the extensive use of information and communication technologies.