The event was full of digital stories, sound and laughter, as several young digital story creators, from 10 to 19 years old, were present to receive their certificates of excellence for their innovative and GCE-oriented stories. Their teachers, from formal and non-formal education, were there as well to celebrate with them and share the challenges they faced as they trained their students about Global Citizenship Education Values and Digital Storytelling Methodology.

During the event, Mr. Faldamis, welcomed the participants and wished even more projects like BRIGHTS to be implemented in Greece. Then, the two National Tutors, Mr. Patselis and Mrs. Skoulaki presented the results of the  BRIGHTS Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Addressing Global Citizenship Education through Digital Storytelling”, as well as the BRIGHTS Training Programme to trainers and students. Following their presentation, Mrs. Aspioti, highlighted dissemination and exploitation activities and presented ways of promoting the BRIGHTS project results after its completion.

During the second part, the lights went off, and the four finalist digital stories were presented to the public. Participants were fascinated by the depths of the imagination of the young learners and were moved by their stories’ topics. There were themes about War, about Adoption by Same Gender Couples, about Gender Equality and about Refugees; all given by a more gentle and innocent aspect, the one of a child’s.

As soon as the presentation was over, the silence from retrospect was filled by the voice of the teachers, who were responsible to engage their students into creating digital stories regarding Global Citizenship Education principles. The teachers talked about their challenges and their concerns during the training. However, they all talked about how the children became from passive to active, how even the most “difficult” children became involved and cooperated with their classmates.

But why did this happen? It was because the students were able to express their inner voice and to talked about sensitive subjects using pictures, drawings or even play-doh.

Older students worked with younger as their mentors and helped promoting a supportive network during the whole process. Other groups helped foreign students, who were unable to speak Greek, to read and participate to the story as well. So we believe that the project was successful. What a better way to learn about Global Citizenship Education than implementing its values through cooperation, respect, support, and encouragement to speak your own voice?

And a message from a young student…”this is the opportunity for all grown-ups to learn about Global Citizenship Education and see things differently, because so far they have only seen with their own eyes and their own interests”.

The Festival hosted more than 300 participants from all levels of education, which communicated and presented programs, activities and exhibits related to Education, Training, Innovation, Science and Technology. It was a major event, during which visitors got acquainted with educational and scientific courses linking education, skills, training and lifelong learning with career, creativity, growth, entrepreneurship and, in general, production and labor market needs. More than 70 schools were hosted at the Festival and presented their activities in sciences and new technologies. In addition to the booths and stands, more than 200 workshops and seminars were held free of charge by leading scientists, institutions, universities and market executives.

The DAISSy research group of Hellenic Open University participated in the “Spoudase” Festival with its own booth, promoting its research activities and projects. Four big screens were set up, each displaying videos about the DAISSy group, the various projects that the group participates in and their products.

One of the screens was dedicated to the promotion of the MOOC on “Promoting Global Citizenship Education using Digital Storytelling” that was produced in the context of project BRIGHTS. A specially created video based on the MOOC content was playing constantly on the screen, enhanced with slides promoting BRIGHTS project outcomes. Moreover, a banner promoting DAISSy supported MOOCs was permanently on display. Booth visitors were informed by DAISSy personnel about the contents of the MOOC and the objectives of the project and were handed the project brochure. Thanks to its central location, the DAISSy booth attracted more than 500 visitors, all of whom expressed their interest in the project and especially in the MOOC.

]]> https://www.brights-project.eu/en/promotion-of-project-brights-at-the-spoudase-festival/feed/ 0 https://www.brights-project.eu/en/presentation-of-project-brights-at-the-festival-for-combating-multiple-discrimination-in-crete/ https://www.brights-project.eu/en/presentation-of-project-brights-at-the-festival-for-combating-multiple-discrimination-in-crete/#respond Fri, 06 Jul 2018 06:22:22 +0000 http://www.brights-project.eu/?p=1954 […]]]> DAISSy Research Group of Hellenic Open University (HOU) participated successfully at the Festival for Combating Multiple Discrimination organized on 25 May 2018 in Heraklion, Crete. The action falls under the project: “Fighting multiple discrimination in Greece: Promoting equality through active participation and policy-making” that is funded from the EU’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) program. The festival was organized by the Region of Crete, which is a partner of the project, together with the DAISSy Research Group, the Economic and Social Committee of Greece (ESC) and the University of Sevilla, coordinated by the National Center for Social Research (EKKE).

The PatrasIQ 2018 event hosted more than 80 exhibitors (Universities, research centers, regional authorities, companies and start ups etc.) and attracted more than 5.500 visitors. The DAISSy research group of HOU had its own independent booth (#53), where DAISSy personnel presented the results of the research projects in which the group participates.

The BRIGHTS project was one of the main attractions in the DAISSy booth. A promotional video produced specially for the event was playing constantly on a large screen, while a dedicated workstation provided on-site access to the BRIGHTS MOOC (the video can be accessed here. The DAISSy personnel explained to visitors the objectives of the BRIGHTS project and the contents of the MOOC and then invited them to register and take a guided short tour. All visitors received the BRIGHTS brochure and were given the project contact points for further information.

The DAISSy booth attracted the interest of numerous visitors, both citizens and representatives of national and local authorities and organizations (in the sectors of entrepreneurship, research, education, culture, sports, etc.). It is noteworthy, that Mr. Nikos Pappas, Minister of “Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Information”, Mr. Apostolos Katsifaras, Secretary General of the Region of Western Greece, and Prof. Ioannis Kalavrouziotis, Dean of School of Science & Technology of HOU, visited the booth and were informed about the BRIGHTS project.

During the Conference, around 90 participants, among them experts in the field of discrimination and stakeholders from the Education and Training sector, shared best practices and activities in the fight against (multiple) discrimination from different European countries and explored their potential transferability in the Greek contexts.

Check the agenda of the conference here!

The event was held in the premises of the Hellenic Open University in Athens and the target group were stakeholders and trainers/teachers who have been contacted through HOU’s and HEPIS’s networks in Athens. The idea was to present the project (its objectives, ideas, Global Citizenship Education, online community, MOOC) to them as well as familiarise them with the technique of digital story telling and its importance for promoting the principles of Global Citizenship Education.

To make the whole event more interesting the HOU team invited Emeritus Professor Michalis Meimaris, who is a member of Unesco board and with his team has been working in the area of Digital Storytelling in Greece in the last decade or so.

The event started with a welcoming note from Prof Achilles Kameas and was followed by the overall presentation of the BRIGHTS project by Barbara Quatra who is running the project on behalf of the project’s leader, ALL DIGITAL. Importantly for the first dissemination event of the project in Greece Barbara focused both on the project’s idea, objectives and outcomes, as well as on the the concept of Global Citizenship Education and its embeddedness in European and global politics and policies.

Prof. Meimaris introduced the audience to the state of digital story telling in Greece providing illuminating examples of stories already created in the context of previous projects focusing mainly on how digital story telling can enrich the educational process in general. Moreover, he presented a short introduction of the history of the digital storytelling and its academic genealogy. In so doing he both familiarised the audience with digital storytelling and provided the necessary background for the engaging discussion that followed.

The third presentation by Sissie Theodosiou and Mara Aspioti focused on the outcomes of the research conducted in Greece both with trainers/trainees and experts on the presence and importance of Global Citizenship Education. The research outlined also the ways in which digital storytelling can enhance  the process of implementing GSE.

The following presentation by Prof Kameas concerned the content of the planned MOOC  entitled “Addressing Global Citizenship Education through Digital Storytelling”. In the introduction of his presentation Prof kameas outlined the characteristics of a MOOC.

Having  already gained an understanding of the BRIGHTS project, the audience furthered its knowledge about digital story telling and its importance for the promotion of GCE through a focused workshop led by Veronique de Leener from Maks vzw, Belgium,  a partner in BRIGHT’s project. Veronique’s tele- presentation  focused mainly on the story circle, the main methodology employed for creating a digital story. Importantly for such an event, a very interesting and  lively discussion followed.

The audience’s interest was high in both the blended course and the f2f workshops and a high number of the people present expressed their desire to participate.

]]> https://www.brights-project.eu/en/first-brights-multiplier-event-in-greece/feed/ 0 https://www.brights-project.eu/en/brights-project-meeting-in-italy/ https://www.brights-project.eu/en/brights-project-meeting-in-italy/#respond Fri, 25 Aug 2017 09:58:06 +0000 http://www.brights-project.eu/?p=1333 […]]]> The BRIGHTS team had its second project meeting on 3-4 July 2017 in Rome, Italy, hosted by the project partner Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi (USGM). The meeting involved ALL DIGITAL and five of its members: Maks vzw, Association Study Center City of Foligno (CSF), DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), Centre of Technical Culture Rijeka (CTC Rijeka), and Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society (HePIS).

The objectives of the meeting were the following:

• Commonly produce a draft version the BRIGHTS blended course curriculum and MOOC instructional design;
• Present the results of the survey on Unite-IT platform users’ experience and agree on what technical improvements are needed in order to have a more user-friendly platform;
• Monitor and plan all the project transversal activities, including management, dissemination & exploitation, and quality assurance.

The meeting was very productive. All partners actively participated in the brainstorming about the BRIGHTS MOOC instructional design and became aware of its objectives and contents. Afterwards, three working groups were organised to define the Learning Outcomes of the MOOC Modules. Thanks to the active participation of all partners in the working groups, the BRIGHTS Partnership collectively managed to realise a co-creative process that advanced the state of the project.

The process resulted in the design of a coherent and attractive MOOC, which will be addressed to both secondary school teachers and trainers working with young people in the 4 project countries (Belgium, Croatia, Greece and Italy), starting from February 2018.

Moreover, during the meeting the results of the “Analysis of the Unite-IT users’ experience” were presented in detail by CTC Rijeka and discussed among the partners. The analysis has been implemented on the following three levels: (1) desk analysis implemented by ICT experts; and (2) survey involving both project partners and Unite-IT existing users. Strategies on how to boost the Unite-it working group on Global Citizenship Education were also discussed and planned. The improved Unite-IT platform will be launched in February 2018 when its community on GCE will be actively moderated by four BRIGHTS National tutors and populated by the BRIGHTS MOOC trainees and other interested actors.