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SMART Generation - Smartphone potential and educat..
SMART Generation - Smartphone potential and educational resources for young generation
Start date: Dec 15, 2015,
End date: Dec 14, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The smartphone is the personal media that has become more widespread among children in the last decade and it has become overwhelmingly a part of their lives, and as a symbolic element characterizing their culture, which is often perceived as essential,. However, the use of the smartphone without adequate precautions exposes children to various risks. In fact, it can produce adverse effects on mental and physical health (risk tumors, ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder); endanger the personal safety (in the case of cyberbullying, the online micro-violence, public humiliation on social networks); induce compulsive behaviors (in the case of Nomophobia - No-MobilePhone which can be considered a true modern form of addiction).
The specific objective of the SMART GENERATION project is to develop an innovative training model at European level in order to promote a conscious use of the smartphone, its potential and its risks, and to open a public debate on the role of digital technologies in the consprocess of the quality of social relationships between young people and between generations.
SMART GENERATION project is based on Media Education as innovative methodology of reflection on new media, supporting processes of citizenship in the knowledge society, promoting courses that see the media at the same time as the instrument and the educational content.
In particular, the project will:
• Investigate the European youth universe and the methods of communication with smartphones, as well as cultural differences in their use at the European level, given the convergence of various communication technologies - Internet, TV and Radio - on newer phones.
• Develop, test and transfer to different European countries - by cultural and technological background - an educational model
related to digital, communicational, relationships, social and civic skills thanks to the networking of experiences and best practices useful to produce effective tools, truly innovative and transferable to a wide European audience.
• propose and encourage positive and responsible use of smartphones by providing young people with the tools necessary to decipher consciously the enormous amount of data and multi-sensory stress that pass through the mobile phone;
• help young people living in Europe to develop critical thinking, digital citizenship, life and work skills - communicational, relational, digital, social and civic, continuous learning - or educate them to properly and constructively "live" these tools as aware producers and distributors of information and reports, building up together with them an effective path to literacy;
• spread a culture of collaborative learning between schools and extra -schools through cooperation between youth and educational organizations, school and extra-curricular.
The project includes several activities: an analysis of the training needs of young people and teachers / educators about the smartphone, the planning of a training program on the conscious and critical use of the smartphone, the testing of the pilot path through workshops of Media Education in schools and in environments outside the classroom, the production of Recommandations Policy on the use of smartphones, the creation of a e-learning platform opensource and dissemination of these instruments through 2 multipliers events.
Direct beneficiaries of the project will be the class groups and non-formal groups of young people from each PP as well as teachers and educators / youth workers. The age considered for youth is from 12 to 17 years.
It is expected to involve during the project, and the during the implementation of the Media education training course, 2 classes + 2 non-formal groups for PP (about 500 young people) and 4 teachers + 10 educators / youth workers to PP (70 adults). The anaysis phase of the training needs analysis will involve about 1,500 children aged 12 to 17 years and about 500 teachers / educators / animators residents in the five partner countries (Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Romania) and in the other 37 (EU and non) Federated within the European Network EAEA.
The expected results are: to build an integrated package of digital literacy, increasing the supply of learning in the field of Media Education, create strategic local alliances between formal and non-formal education, raise awareness of the potential and limitations of the smartphone.