The DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), partner in Greece, presented the project “Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy” (CrAL) in the event DAISSy Days 2021. During a three-day event (October 14-16, 2021), organized in the context of the global celebration of Erasmus Days 2021, the panorama of the actions of the DAISSy research group of HOU took place. The CrAL project was presented at the first session of the event, entitled “ Digital media literacy and Inclusion enhancement “ on Friday October 14. During the session projects and specific tools aimed at teachers and related to areas such as networking in the media, online hate speech, etc. were presented.
During the event, extensive reference was made to the three-year and co-financed Erasmus + / KA3 / Social inclusion project. It was noted that the CrAL project is aimed at young people (aged 14-19) and seeks to strengthen them so that they can reinterpret and lead the production of audiovisual content on contemporary topics of interest.
In addition, the multiple benefits of the project implementation, both at the level of the educational community – teachers, students, parents, and the local community – as well as at the level of formulating a proposal for the reform of the educational policy of the youth audiovisual education were noted.
An emphasis was placed on the crucial contribution of the DAISSy Research Group of Hellenic Open University, which actively participates in all work packages of the project, while it has undertaken:
- The development of the Online Platform of the CrAL project (Work Package 3) in which multilingual and multimedia educational content will be available for teachers training. A blended learning course will be provided to secondary school teachers and non-formal educators in order to teach to their students the audiovisual creative writing, reading and production. This will enhance active citizenship, audiovisual education and develop their critical thinking. It will also promote the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Thus facilitating the transfer of the innovative methodology of audiovisual creative reading and writing in five different educational systems of all the participating countries.
- The development of the International Online Community of Practice which will be focused equally on the knowledge and information sharing aspect of the media literacy concept, as well as on critical thinking about the information and the knowledge creation and
- the Creation of an Online Showcase for the posting of all the audiovisual contents (videos, short films, interviews) produced by young people during the implementation of the project. It will encourage the generation for the social, democratic participation of the youngsters in the current issues of the society’s emerging discourse.
It was also pointed out that DAISSy Research Group also participates in the development of the Quality Assurance Plan, as a responsible body, in the development of the multilingual educational program, in the pilot implementation in Greece, as well as in the dissemination and utilization of all project results. The pilot implementation of the project is going to start with the trainers training in June-July 2022. The CrAL presentation aroused the interest and attention of the participants of the event and received positive feedback from the moderators of the session.
It is worth noting that the DAISSy days 2021 initiative was posted on the map of the 5th consecutive operation of the Erasmus+ days.