Be Smart in Social Media: Digital Skills for Critical Minds

About the Project

Be smart in social media: digital skills for critical minds (2021-1-LT02-KA220-YOU-000028814) is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership project that aims to collect good practices and create new materials for an E-Handbook. The focus is on digital and media literacy and critical thinking. Work on the E-Handbook and training for youth workers will develop digital readiness, resilience and capacity of youth organisations.

The acquisition of new competences by youth workers will support increasing the quality of youth work. By this, the project addresses the horizontal priority of the Erasmus+ Programme for digital transformation. Partners from Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, France and Italy created a comprehensive E-Handbook which aims at supporting the main target group - youth workers who will use this project result in their daily work with young people - final beneficiaries. This innovative resource is also useful for a wider audience: educators who use non-formal education methods, NGO workers and other stakeholders who are interested in learning about digital and media literacy and critical thinking and, particularly, in learning how to analyse cases about pandemic and post-pandemic situations.

Objectives

The objectives of this project are:

• To provide youth workers and young people with competences in digital and media literacy and critical thinking;

• To offer them training materials in an E-Handbook in order to develop skills for media content analysis;

• To explore the phenomenon of disinformation, both in deconstructing fake news and comprehending what is authentic;

• To advance non-formal education and cooperation in the field of youth work with EU.

Activities

Participants of this project used the opportunity of mobility in Europe when participating in the transnational meetings and training course and created a network for learning and sharing ideas with the aim to initiate new activities. They learned how to critically assess the credibility and reliability of digital content, how to guide others in the interaction through digital technologies, how to support participation in public life and the integration into society of young people with fewer opportunities who were an important target group in this project. This was done by promoting non-formal education and building quality work in youth organisations in line with Erasmus+ Programme objectives.

Partners decided to have a focus on social media because today it plays a significant role in spreading disinformation and forging stereotypes and prejudices in societies by conditioning perceptions and shaping people's attitudes and behaviors. Partners organized four transnational meetings for partners' organisation leaders, staff members and youth workers/educators.

The project included:

• M1 - Kick-off management meeting in Lithuania.
• M2 - Mid-term evaluation meeting in France.
• M3 - Evaluation meeting in Estonia.
• M4 - Final meeting in Finland.

There was also a training course in Italy for youth workers and local and dissemination activities, including multiplier events in all partners' countries. Research work, study visits to youth and other organisations working with topics of media and social media were conducted to learn and collect good practices and create new materials for the project E-Handbook - the main tangible result.

Results

The main result of the project is the E-Handbook, which is available in multiple languages including English and Estonian. This comprehensive resource provides youth workers with tools and methodologies to help young people develop critical thinking skills when engaging with social media and digital content.

The E-Handbook includes sections on:

• Understanding digital and media literacy
• Recognizing fake news and disinformation
• Developing critical thinking skills
• Practical activities for youth workers
• Case studies and examples
• Resources for further learning

The project has created a network of youth workers across five European countries who are now better equipped to address issues of digital literacy and critical thinking with the young people they work with.

Partners

• International association of solidarity and democracy "Mes" (Lithuania) - coordinator
• Anmiro Oy (Finland)
• EESTI PEOPLE TO PEOPLE (Estonia)
• L ORMA SOCIETA SPORTIVA DILETTANTISTICA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA (Italy)
• MITRA FRANCE (France)