Telecentre Europe, in collaboration with the partners of the Erasmus+ KA3 project “BRIGHTS – Boosting Global Citizenship Education using digital storytelling”, is promoting an open call for contribution to collect opinions, open educational resources, reports and any other material that can be exploited for the design and implementation of a MOOC for European teachers and trainers.

The call will stay open for the duration of the project, but if you really want to influence our research on training needs, you should share your contents and point of view before May 5, 2017.

Many relevant stakeholders are currently contributing from the different EU countries, represented in the partnership.

In Italy, we have interviewed experts from the National Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS – Alleanza Nazionale per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile), the Association of Virtuous Municipalities (ComuniVirtuosi), the General States of Innovation (Stati Generali dell’Innovazione) and the Table of Peace, an umbrella organisation of cities and schools that promote e Peace and Human Rights education.

In Belgium, we have already met with Kleur Bekennen/Annoncer la Couleur (a Belgian organisation that disseminate and support World citizenship education in schools), the Flemish knowledge center of media knowledgeMediawijs, the Belgian state agency for development cooperationBTC/CTB and Teach for Belgium (a training organisation for teachers who teach in schools with a low socio economical index).

In Croatia, the first to be interviewed were the experts from the Centre for Peace Studies (Centar Za Mirovne Studije), immediately followed by the Croatian Youth Network (Mreža mladih Hrvatske), B.a.B.e. Be Active Be Emancipated that has a particular expertise on gender equality and the CEDRA national cluster for eco-social innovation and development.

In the context of our field research in Greece, we visited the Koinoniko Polykentro – the research and training institute of ADEDY (the Greek Civil Service Confederation). We have also interviewed experts in the Center for Cross-Cultural Psychology and the Centre of Cross-Cultural Education of the University of Athens. Interviews have also been held in the Kethea Mosaic Centre that seeks to facilitate the social integration of migrants and refugees and in particular drug addicts.

Moreover, many other experts, teachers and trainers are taking part at face-to-face interviews, focus groups and online surveys, providing us with precious information and suggestions.

You can do the same! Visit our website and fill the open call for contribution, and if you want to meet and discuss with international peers, join our dedicated working group on the Unite-IT Platform or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

They were presented with the short explanation of each key concept, and were free to comment and present their opinions. Concerning global citizenship education, they put great emphasis on educating youth as the most important age group. They expressed worry because of politics on the national level meddling in worthy initiatives such as civil education. Because of suppression and lack of good information, they find that local youths are getting more intolerant towards anybody they perceive as different, i.e. members of other ethnicities and homeless.

One of the conclusions about global citizenship education is that it has to stem from local context. People need to be open to others in their community, and raise their awareness and hopefully, acceptance to the global level.

They listed the following as the most desirable traits among teachers and trainers: willingness to listen, recognizing, stimulating and using the potential of the group, being methodologically sound and experienced, finding ways to solve conflict and eliminate aggression, and in general, being open and cultivating positive outlook towards the world.

Concerning digital storytelling, they watched some of the videos made during the RIGHTS and similar projects, and found the method a great tool for learning and presenting information, especially for the young people. Some of them already use the method, and find it engaging and effortless in implementation, since youths are technically well versed, and ready to use that knowledge to present information. On the other hand, their work needs firm mentorship from teachers and trainers, to guide, motivate and help them to find valid information, as well as understand the general idea of global citizenship education.

Also, members of the focus group were called to participate in the Unite-IT platform, and are interested in the next steps of the project.

• « We used digital storytelling to speak about radicalisation in a weak and very heterogeneous class. The projects took away the walls between the pupils. There was a groupe effect; the youngsters learned to work together, to discuss between them ». Sebastiaen Boudart, teacher French, Institut Marius Renard, Anderlecht
• « The pupils love to express themselves through the new media. They feel comfortable to use these tools. » Anke Verberckmoes, Teacher General Courses, Instituut Anneessens Funck, Brussels

Additionally they started the discussion « Digital storytelling to speak about radicalisation in schools » in the group Global Citizenship Education on Unite IT. Join us here!

It invites students, academia, civil society, workers, business and local governments to join forces in the March for Europe in Rome on March 25.

For those who believe in a strong, united and democratic Europe, it is time to stand up. Against nationalism and populism.

• For a Europe of unity against divisions and new walls.
• For a united Europe that delivers on its promises of peace, freedom, security and prosperity.
• For a Europe of solidarity and shared responsibility.
• For a Europe that protects European interests and values in the world.
• For a Europe of democracy that empowers European citizens.
• For a Europe of hope, against a Europe of fear.
• For a plan to relaunch and complete European political unity.

For more details click on the following link:

http://www.marchforeurope2017.eu/

• The call for national partners. The call is published here: http://www.i-linc.eu/web/portal/gow17
• A call for young digital changemakers to be nominated by the national partners, available here: http://www.i-linc.eu/web/portal/open-call-youngsters

Look at the event on Facebook, available here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1563995520294739/

Supported by corporations, NGOs & public authorities, the campaign is organized each year in March by Telecentre Europe (TE), an umbrella organisation that represents European networks of ICT learning centres.

Since its take-off in 2010, the Get Online Week campaign has reached more than 900.000 Europeans in more than 20.000 learning centres across Europe. Thanks to the campaign, more than 150.000 people have used the Internet for the very first time.

In 2017, Get Online Week is organized during 27 March – 2 April and challenges Europeans to learn, participate, share and create through thousands of events and activities tackling the digital transformation and its effects.

The campaign activities, trainings, and events will address the following themes:

• Cybersecurity: use technology and the internet safely, manage your (digital) identity
• eServices: learn to keep up with eServices (eGovernment, eBanking, eHealth, eCommerce)
• Employment and entrepreneurship: learn new skills for jobs and for starting businesses

In 2017, all campaign partners and stakeholders will use the I-LINC platform to share, connect and learn from each other. I-LINC is a stakeholder platform on digital skills towards employability and entrepreneurship, that will host Get Online Week updates and interactions.

To learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved, visit the website http://getonlineweek.eu/.

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!

[layerslider id= »2″]