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Social Media and Education: Threats and Opportunit..
Social Media and Education: Threats and Opportunities.
Start date: Sep 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
This is a strategic partnership of five European High Schools to achieve best practices in the usage of social media, especially within an educational context. Furthermore, it aims at avoiding a misuse of them.
Students will develop a critical view on social media and realize the effects which a misuse might provoke.
The project will offer help to not only the students but also to their families, creating the same awareness for them.
In the long term, it will strengthen the media literacy of our students enabling them to participate actively in a democratic society.
Besides this multilingual skills and intercultural awareness will be reinforced.
Social learning will be fostered through a positive use of social media at the same time that violence in schools is avoided.
Ninety-six high school students (aged 11-16, though the target group is 13-14) and more than 30 teachers will be taking part in short term exchanges, while more than 500 students and more than 75 teachers will be participating in the rest of activities .
The following are some of the more relevant activities:
A preliminary survey about using media at school and outside school was conducted to know about the differences and similarities between the five schools.
Different accounts in the best known social networks will be created.
A Logo Competition will be held at each school. The winning entry will be our project logo and thus give us a corporate identity.
There will be an International evening with the participation of families in every short term exchange.
Conferences with Police representatives to discuss the dangers of social media misuse, their experience, the way they work will be held in Jaén and Dreieich.
Students will make photo stories, find films about cyberbullying, provide subtitles and share them. They will also make their own films about the risks.
There will be workshops on positive use of mobile phones in the classroom.
Students will review the apps they use and create their own app with the help of experts while teachers will participate in a workshop on educational apps.
There will be a virtual exhibition of the materials produced, which will be available online sine die.
Students will create a booklet, which will be published at the final event, summarizing all the achievements and findings of the project.
General methodology used in in carrying out the project includes collaborative work, task centred activities, learning through discovery, hands on activities... using the possibilities that non-formal and informal education offer.
An initial survey was conducted on students to learn about their habits on the use of social media.
The students´ expertise in the field will be taken into account.
Fluent communication is the key to successful partnerships and collaborative working, thus, whenever it is needed video conferences with the rest of partners will be held. e-Twinning will be the main platform used in the project as well as those free tools and resources now available on the Internet i.e. instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Line or Telegram, social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Hangouts or Skype, social learning platforms such as Edmodo or Moodle, and web services for publishing blogs or websites, such as Blogger or Jimdo.
Short term exchanges (every three months) are crucial for the success of the planned activities in the project. The more communication there is, the better the project outcomes will be.
The coordinators of the five school will have two transnational meetings (January 2015 and April 2016) to control the quality of the project and to evaluate it.
The project will have a positive impact on the participants' attitudes. It will broaden their cultural awareness of others and provide important experiences, not least resulting from mobilities.
Moreover, it will give them the opportunity to use and improve their foreign language, ICT, research and presentation skills.
Students will learn to avoid leaving traces of their personal life on the Internet, which could be problem-causing when it comes for example to their future job search.
The project will improve communication between parents, students and teachers.
Teachers will get opportunities to rethink the integration of media in their classrooms and learn from good practice examples of the partner schools.
There are also many foreseen longer term benefits such as helping students to prepare for the European job market, encouraging friendships and personal contacts via modern communication platforms and social networking beyond the project boundaries.
Not only students will benefit from this project but also teachers, who will acquire skills in the areas of international work experience and project management.