The meeting focused on the exchange of experiences among the BRIGHTS national tutors about the implementation of the piloting activities (MOOC, workshops with teachers and trainers and workshops with students). The piloting activities were overall very successful with participants reporting that they had a unique and fulfilling experience. Most of the teachers and trainers attending the workshops found the subject about Global Citizenship Education (GCE) very relevant and were happy to apply the Digital Storytelling methodology with their students as a way to raise their awareness on GCE topics.

During the meeting, project partners went also through the results from the evaluation surveys that have been submitted to teachers and trainers before and after the completion of the BRIGHTS MOOC and after the face-to-face workshops. It was a good way for them to analyse what went well and what still needs to be improved in the future.

The meeting was very productive especially in terms of planning of future activities. Project partners will be engaged in the organisation of the BRIGHTS final event which will take place on the 18-19 October 2018 in Brussels and will be hosted by the ALL DIGITAL Summit 2018 “Digital journey: from inclusion to empowerment”. During the ALL DIGITAL Summit, the four best national digital stories and, among them, the best European digital story will be awarded in the contest of the BRIGHTS Awards.

The project is coming to an end, but an exciting time is still ahead of our BRIGHTS partners!

Are you a teacher or a trainer working on Global Citizenship Education? Did you take part in the BRIGHTS MOOC and workshop? Join the working group on GCE on the Unite-IT Platform!

Please click here to download the Informative Kit on GCE: the document summarizes the concept of Global Citizenship Education, its benefits and methodology, and introduces the Digital Storytelling technique as a tool to teach Global Citizenship Education more effectively. Furthermore, it provides best practices regarding its application. It can be used both as a resource to approach the field of Global Citizenship Education for the first time and as a basis to plan and implement more extensive and focused studies and practices in the field.

The working group is composed mainly of representatives of ministries of education from EU and candidate countries, and its aim is to facilitate collaboration and exchange of good practices among member states in the field of digital competences. In addition, some stakeholder organisations such as ALL DIGITAL, European SchoolNet, EDEN, LLLP and other can be associated members. The working group is a good channel on one hand for being aware of what different member states are doing with regards to digital skills. On the other hand, it is also a way to promote our members’ work and projects. The group is focused mainly on formal education, and projects like BRIGHTS, where we work with schools, are very interesting for the members.

Gabriela presented the project in general terms, informing about the training curriculum and ongoing MOOC. Digital storytelling is still quite new for most of the ministerial officials and is not part of the formal curriculum as a method to teach subjects related to global citizenship education. This further proves the need for policy advocacy actions to raise awareness among policy makers at all levels.

The next meeting of the group will take place in September 2018 and the BRIGHTS project will make sure to present the results of our piloting experience to ministry experts.

Our aims and objectives

BRIGHTS will promote Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in formal and non-formal education with the help of digital storytelling (DS) techniques.

The current global scenario requires education and training institutions and practitioners to assume greater responsibility than ever in helping learners of all ages and backgrounds to develop into informed, critical, socially-connected, ethical and engaged global citizens.

Global Citizenship Education employs concepts and methodologies already implemented in different fields and subjects, including human rights education, peace education, education to achieve sustainable development and education for intercultural understanding. Addressing subjects through GCE can contribute to promote social inclusion and challenge racism and stereotypes. We will combine it with digital storytelling because it has proven to be a powerful learning tool, improving creativity, digital literacy and critical thinking.

How are we going to do it?

We will train secondary school teachers and trainers working with young people (including youth workers, e-facilitators, cultural mediators etc.) on the principles of Global Citizenship Education and its application through digital storytelling. We will develop a blended training course for them with a MOOC and face-to-face workshops. As part of the training, selected teachers and trainers will directly test the methodology with young people (aged 13-19) in schools and in non-formal educational contexts. We expect a great number of interesting and reflective digital stories produced by youngsters on global challenges and subjects including human rights, peace and democratic values, intercultural dialogue, active citizenship etc.

On the policy level, we will promote and raise awareness on BRIGHTS values, objectives and activities among policy-makers and the civil society.

The project will last two years and will be implemented in 4 European countries: Belgium, Croatia, Greece and Italy.

We are proud to say that we have the best team to make BRIGHTS successful. We have four of our member organizations – the Belgian non-formal adult education centre Maks vzw, the Italian training agency Centro Studi Città di Foligno, the Centre of Technical Culture Rijeka from Croatia and the Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society from Greece, plus two recognized Open Universities: the Italian Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi and the Hellenic Open University from Greece. All of them have carried out different initiatives in Global Citizenship Education and Digital storytelling.

What’s next

After the kick-off meeting held in Brussels, the first stage of the project is to carry out a training need analysis to get a better understanding of the target groups’ needs to implement GCE using digital storytelling. We will interview teachers and trainers working with young people, as well as experts in GCE and other related areas. Moreover, we will launch an open call for contribution, so stay tuned if you are willing to give your opinion and provide ideas!

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