Author Archives: imessalas

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LEAD-Online Talks #Ηate: Mίσος και Τοξικότητα στο Διαδίκτυο: Μάθε και ενήργησε

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lead-online-logoΗ Ερευνητική Ομάδα DAISSy του Ελληνικού Ανοικτού Πανεπιστημίου (ΕΑΠ) σε συνεργασία με το 2ο και το 8ο ΓΕΛ Ιωαννίνων και την ΑΡΣΙΣ-Κοινωνική Οργάνωση Υποστήριξης Νέων, σας προσκαλούν στην εκδήλωση με τίτλο: 

#Hate: Mίσος και Τοξικότητα στο Διαδίκτυο: Μάθε και ενήργησε

Δευτέρα 13 Μαρτίου 2023, στις 18.30’

Πολιτιστικός Πολυχώρος «Δ. Χατζής» (Παλαιά Σφαγεία), Ιωάννινα

Η δράση εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο της υλοποίησης του Ευρωπαϊκού έργου LEAD–Online: Learn, Engage, Act: Digital Tools to Prevent and Counter Hate Speech Online, με την DAISSy-ΕΑΠ ως εταίρο στην Ελλάδα, Στοχεύει να πραγματευτεί την ιστορικότητα της ρητορικής μίσους ως κοινωνικό φαινόμενο, τις θεσμικές διαδικασίες αναφοράς και τους τρόπους αντιμετώπισής της στη διαδικτυακή εκδοχή της. Παράλληλα, θα παρουσιαστούν τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας πεδίου που πραγματοποιήθηκε σε σχολεία της πόλης των Ιωαννίνων και η συμβολή του έργου LEAD-Online σε αυτά. Τέλος, θα πραγματοποιηθεί διάλογος με εκπροσώπους της εκπαιδευτικής κοινότητας που συμμετέχουν στην υλοποίηση του έργου, με έμφαση στην ανάδειξη των εμπειριών τους από το πεδίο.

Η εκδήλωση αποτελεί την πρώτη από τη σειρά εκδηλώσεων LEAD-Online Talks, που έχουν ως στόχο να ευαισθητοποιήσουν και να εκπαιδεύσουν τα νέα άτομα, και όχι μόνο, σχετικά με το φαινόμενο της ρητορικής μίσους στο διαδίκτυο.

  • Η συμμετοχή στην εκδήλωση είναι δωρεάν, είναι ανοικτή για το ευρύ κοινό και δεν απαιτείται προ-εγγραφή
  • Αναλυτικές πληροφορίες για το περιεχόμενο, μπορείτε να δείτε στο πρόγραμμα των εργασιών.

Το έργο “LEAD-Online” έχει διετή διάρκεια, συγχρηματοδοτείται από το πρόγραμμα CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme) και στοχεύει στην ενδυνάμωση νέων, εκπαιδευτικών, μέσων ενημέρωσης και ακτιβιστριών/ ακτιβιστών των μέσων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, προκειμένου να καταστούν φορείς αλλαγής σχετικά με τη ρητορική μίσους στο διαδίκτυο. Υλοποιείται από κοινοπραξία επτά (7) εταίρων σε επτά (7) χώρες της Ε.Ε. Η DAISSy-ΕΑΠ, Έλληνας εταίρος, συμμετέχει σε όλα τα παραδοτέα του έργου “LEAD-Online”,  και με ευθύνη για την ανάπτυξη ενός εργαλείου αυτοαξιολόγησης σχετικά με τη ρητορική μίσους στο διαδίκτυο και του Hate Out! Game, παιχνιδιού με στόχο την εκπαίδευση των χρηστών στην αναγνώριση, την αναφορά και την αντιμετώπιση περιστατικών ρητορικής μίσους στο διαδίκτυο.

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες σχετικά με το έργο «LEAD-Online» καθώς κι άλλες δράσεις της Ερευνητικής Ομάδας DAISSy:

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The CRISIS MOOC for Smart City Resilience Officers starts with the support of the DAISSy-HOU Participation is free and registrations are open!

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CRISIS Project logoThe DAISSy research group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU) announces the launch of the CRISIS Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on 20th March 2023!

This MOOC was developed in the framework of the European project “CRISIS-Competences for Resilient Smart Cities’ Staff“, which proposes a holistic approach to the professional development of the workforce of resilient and smart cities through the development of a new job profile for these officers and the certification the first group of smart city resilience officers.

The CRISIS MOOC includes twenty (20) learning modules targeting acquisition of essential knowledge and skills in the digital transformation of cities, planning, monitoring and managing resilience of smart cities, and among other issues, establishing and financial support mechanisms for resilient smart cities. Emphasis is put on the networking of the trainees with peers from Europe and beyond.

The CRISIS MOOC starts on 20th March 2023 and is offered in four languages (EN, EL, DE and PT).

The trainees that successfully complete the CRISIS MOOC will receive a Certification of completion in accordance with the European and national qualification frameworks and the European credit system for vocational education.

The CRISIS project has a duration of 24 months, is funded by the European framework ERASMUS+ and is implemented by a consortium of five (5) partners from four (4) European Union member-states (Greece, Cyprus, Germany and Portugal), with the DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, as a partner from Greece.

For more information on the «CRISIS» project, and other activities of DAISSy:

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Training activities of the CRISIS project with the participation of the DAISSy team

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CRISIS Project logoThe DAISSy research group participated in the training activities that took place within the framework of the CRISIS project in Frankfurt from 6 to 10 February 2023. The activities were carried out live on the premises of FernUniversität, which is Germany’s state distance education university. The CRISIS project (Competences for Resilient Smart Cities’ Staff) is implemented by a consortium of 5 partners from 4 different European countries (Greece, Cyprus, Germany and Portugal) and proposes a holistic approach to the professional development of the workforce of resilient and smart cities through developing a new job profile for these officers, as well as designing, developing and delivering a pilot training program to certify the first group of smart city resilience officers.

Towards this direction, the project identified the 20 most important competencies for smart city resilience officers through literature research and questionnaires distributed to officials and politicians of municipalities and regions in Greece. It then classified these 20 skills into three categories and nine domains of smart city resilience capabilities and developed a self-assessment tool of resilient smart city knowledge and skills based on the competence levels of the European digital competence standard DigComp. Aiming to create a professional development program, a modular training program divided into four phases was created and learning outcomes for each competency were defined, which guided the development of training materials.

The first three days of the training activities focused on content analysis of the learning modules representing the 20 most important competencies of smart city resilience officers by the people who developed the relevant training materials. The aim was to inform and discuss comments and questions between content creators and trainers of all project partners, as the project training program will be piloted in four languages (English, Greek, German and Portuguese). On the fourth day, Dr. Theodoros Panagiotakopoulos presented the project’s electronic learning platform, describing its functionalities. Then, the processes of registration, self-assessment and enrollment of learners in the project’s massive open online course was discussed. The pilot’s timeline was also presented and details of each of its four phases explained. Finally, on the fifth and final day, trainers were briefed on details of learner support during the pilot offering of the massive open online course (e.g. synchronous meetings, use of forums and assessment of learning outcomes), while practical assignments along with recommendations for their assessment and feedback provisioning were analyzed.

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For more information on the «CRISIS» project, and other activities of DAISSy:

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The DAISSy Research Group of the HOU participated at the ‘CLIP: Critical visual media Literacy and emPowerment’ transnational kick-off meeting

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CLIP-logoThe transnational partners’ kick-off meeting of the ‘CLIP: Critical visual media Literacy and emPowerment’ european project took place on the 3rd and 4th of November 2022, in Rome (Italy) launching its implementation.

The CLIP project aims to strengthen the digital capabilities of the HE sector by boosting their resilience to information overload, manipulation and polarization, mitigating the risks of bias in visual representations by providing young people (within and outside Universities) with the capacity to critically understand media and images and the way those are used in education, news and online narratives.

The DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, the Greek project partner, actively participated at the kickoff meeting, represented by its Director, prof. Achilles Kameas who delivered a detailed presentation about the CLIP Micro Learning course on critical Visual Media Literacy and Fluency, for which DAISSy serves as the Leader partner. Namely, prof. Kameas referred to the design, development and maintenance of the e-learning platform and the drafting of the course content, to which all partners will contribute. DAISSy, will also be one of the partners responsible for the piloting of the course in its Institution and the respective assessment and evaluation process.

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The meeting was hosted by the Coordinator UNIMED – UNIONE DELLE UNIVERSITA DEL MEDITERRANEO (Italy), took place at the premises of the second Italian project partner, LIBERA UNIVERSITA DI LINGUE E COMUNICAZIONE-IULM, and both the ALL DIGITAL (Belgium) and the HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY (Greece), project partners, were also represented.

The partnership had the chance to meet in person and to discuss thoroughly about the project objectives, i.e.:

  • Raise awareness of the role played by higher education in Europe to enable the fair and resilient digital transformation, tracking disinformation and bias in visual communication through education and training.
  •  Increase the digital fluency and critical consciousness about visual media of European students and faculties, both within communication study communities and transversely across subjects, nourishing misinformation-resilient behaviors and providing them with the practical skills to detect image bias as well as stereotypes in visual artefacts.
  • Enable academic staff, senior management and communication staff at the universities to develop sustainable strategies for integrating visual media literacy at all levels of course offering.

The partners exchanged vividly about the content of the project outcomes and the distribution of their tasks, namely about the:

  • The in-depth analysis of visual media literacy as part of the Report on Visual Media Literacy in Europe about the non-biased visual communication contributing to inclusiveness and social responsibility.
  • The Micro-learning course in critical visual media literacy and fluency for detecting image bias as well as stereotypes in visual artefacts.
  • The Scalability and transferability toolkit consisting of practical ideas and recommendations for the development of relevant visual media literacy initiatives in Europe.

The CLIP is an eighteen-month project co-funded by the ERASMUS+/KA220-HED – Cooperation partnerships in Higher Education Program of the European Union. The DAISSy Research Group of the HOU will ensure the effective implementation of the project activities in Greece, putting emphasis on networking and the involvement of respective stakeholders, aiming at the multiple exploitation of the project results and its impact.

For more information on the CLIP project, and other activities of DAISSy:

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XENIA for Valentine’s Day with students from the Federico II University in Naples

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xenia-3The 14th February Saint Valentine’s Day, the day dedicated to lovers, is usually celebrated worlwide. For this celebration, the Anti-Discrimination and Culture of Differences Section of the Centre SInAPSi from the Federico II University (Italy) organised a social campaign to disseminate all the forms of love with photos taken by the students themselves. The love celebrated by the staff of the section, as well as the one celebrated by the students who took part in the social campaign, is love in all its forms, a love without any kind of stereotypes and prejudices.

Some of the photos can be found on the Section’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, bulismoomofobico.it, or on the hashtag #esichestnunèamor

The involvement of the students was also a way of publicising the Xenia project. “Xenia: He Inclusiveness Index” is a project co-funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and involves a consortium of 7 partners from 5 European countries (Ireland, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Spain). The project aims to promote the social and educational inclusion of sexual and gender minorities in European universities by developing and implementing an innovative index to measure the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities and provide tools for each university to improve its level of inclusion.

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for two workpackages and participating in all activities.

To stay up-to-date on the progress of the project, please visit our website: www.xeniaindex.eu.

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities:

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XENIA SURVEY ADMINISTRATION KICK OFF for IDAHOBiT

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xenia-logoThe XENIA consortium of 7 partners from 5 European countries(Italy, Ireland, Spain, Greece and Slovenia) symbolically chose the commemorating day of May 17th, the International Day Against Homo-lesbo-bi-transphobia, to start the survey administration to students at the “Federico II” University in Naples, University College Dublin in Ireland, University of Barcelona in Spain, Hellenic Open University in Greece and University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

The date, celebrates when the World Health Organization no longer considered homosexuality as a mental illness and it is dedicated worldwide to initiatives to prevent and raise awareness against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The consortium has developed an inclusiveness index to evaluate inclusion based on gender identity and sexual orientation in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in order to make Universities ‘safespace’ forall.

Students, academic staff and expertises will be asked to respond to a series of questions about their HEI in relation to five key institutional categories. Once they havecompleted the whole questionnaire they will receice an overall score summarizing the level of gender and LGBQ+ inclusion in their HEI, a report about strenghts and weaknesses and a series of best practice that can guide the progress towards their improvements.

The survey is anonymous and data collected will be processed guaranteeing the anonymity of the participants. Whats more the results will be used exclusively for the project’s purpose.

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for two workpackages and participating in all activities.

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities:

 

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HOU/ DAISSy participated at the XENIA face-to-face meeting at the University of Barcelona

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On March 29th and 30th 2022, the fourth transnational meeting of the European project XENIAtook place at the University of Barcelona. Finally, almost 2 years of online meetings and monthly call via Zoom due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions the consortium was able to meet and work face-to-face.

Great enthusiams and collaboration animated the two working days with partners from Ireland, Greece, Slovenia, Italy and Spain thatare currently working on the implementation of the XENIA index to gauge, assess and implement the level of inclusion, equality, diversity (EDI) of women and LGBT+ peoplewithin the university context.

January 2020 marked the start of this innovative journey of Xenia He Inclusiveness Index, a three-year Erasmus + project,with SInAPSi from the University of Naples as leader of a motivated consortium, composed of organizations from 7 European Institutions all present in the meeting.

Xenia is made of committed people that put their knowledge and heart in finalizing a unique tool that can ensure that everyone can live peacefully academic life, at any level of the organization, so that the University does not become a place for a few selected group of people but a safe place where everyone can be respected and protected.

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for two workpackages and participating in all activities.

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities:

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XENIA presented at the “Málaga Innosocial competition” edition 2022

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The need to turn university environments into more inclusive spaces to any form of gender expression and sexual orientation, through an IT algorithm,is the core of the Xenia Project.

In June 2022, XENIA took part in the “Málaga Innosocial competition”, II edition, after the IT partner of the consortium Internet Web Solutions spotted the local contest organized by the Málaga Municipality together with an active local association.

The objective of “Málaga Innosocial competition”is to recognize and make visible any initiative at the local and provincial level that provides an innovative and efficient solution to unresolved social problems.

With XENIA, Technologyhas been put at the service of social change.

Currently there are no specific tools or mechanisms that systematically address stigma against sexual and gender minorities and/or marginalized groups and to promote the dynamics of social and educational inclusion of LGBT+ and cisgender women in EU higher education institutions.

The XENIA project and its platform https://www.xeniaindex.eu/ available in English, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Slovenian with an innovative algorithm, more than 50 indicators and 175 best practices offers a highly inclusive tool for all the European universities and organizations.

Fingers crossed to XENIA participation in this competition!

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for two workpackages and participating in all activities.

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities:

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How inclusive is your University? First results from the XENIA Index Pilot Study

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xenia-logoDuring March and April 2022, the XENIA Consortium carried out the pilot study of the XENIA Index in Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain. The pilot study aimed to identify and correct potential defects and drawbacks of the XENIA tools and Index before replicatingthe test on a larger size.

Staff responsible for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 44 students, and 13 faculty and administrative/technical workersfrom 4 Higher Education Institutions contributed to the project’s pilot phase. Participants tested the XENIA tools (matrix or survey, depending on their academic profile), reportingon their institutions’ inclusiveness across five categories: Institution, Policy & Programmes, Pedagogy and Academic Programming, Support Services, and Academic Life. Then, they were asked to evaluate the user-friendliness of the XENIA toolsand the overall ability of the XENIA Index to capture the dynamics of inclusiveness within the Institutions.

In general, in all participating countries,the pilot attracted considerable interest from the target audiences. The tools were mostly considered very good and useful to assess how the Institution is doing in relation to equality based on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. As a result of the pilot phase, a small number ofminor amendments have been made.The more extensive test of the Index is now ongoing.All the results will be released in November 2022.

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for two workpackages and participating in all activities.

To stay up-to-date on the progress of the project, please visit our website: www.xeniaindex.eu

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities:

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The XENIA Policy Guidelines and Mainstreaming and Operational Manual are out!

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xenia-logoBased on all the pilot Deployment inputs, and completed by the Hellenic Open University/ DAISSy Research Group, in cooperation with all the partners, the two main Deliverables of the XENIA project are out!

The Mainstreaming and Operational Manual purpose is to serve as an easy-to-use and with clear instructions guide that provides all the necessary information on how to embed the XENIA Index in any Higher Education Institution. Thus, as a reference instrument, the XENIA Mainstreaming Guidelines & Operational Manual aims at supporting any European HEI interested in using the Index and its tools to evaluate the equality and inclusiveness strategies that they adopt in order to address diversity on the grounds of sex, gender and sexual orientation within their contexts.

The set of XENIA Policy Recommendations, that also stemmed also the results of the XENIA Index implementation, target to provide valuable evidence, insight and data for Policy makers to inform and influence the formulation, design and implementation of more effective policies, programs and initiatives to promote inclusion in the Higher Education field.

Lastly, the XENIA Policy Recommendations combined with the corresponding Index, the suggested “Best practices” and the XENIA Mainstreaming and Operational Manual can become a valuable set of tools for HEIs to further develop and secure an educational environment that actively supports the participation for all on the basis of the Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles.

The “XENIA: Higher Education Inclusiveness Index” is three-year project, aiming at turning Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation and lower (potentially eliminate) organisational and operational barriers for equal opportunities. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and it is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries, with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner, responsible for the two Deliverables and participating in all activities.

You can find both on the website, https://www.xeniaindex.eu/.

For more information on XENIA and other DAISSy projects & activities: