Address: Rua Nossa Senhora do Calvário, 4300-357 - Porto

Country: Portugal

 School website

Project: Literacia para os Media – Uma abordagem ao longo do 10.º ano [Media Literacy – an approach for year 10]

Working language during the project: 

• Portuguese
   

Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

• Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news
   

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

• Knowledge and critical understanding of the world: politics, law, human rights, culture, cultures, religions, history, media, economies, environment, sustainability
  To foster a critical and attitude of intervention towards the surrounding reality and the media; to contribute to the development of informed and enlightened citizens.
• Knowledge and critical understanding of language and communication
  To teach how to understand audiences, identifying possible social differences as far as relationships and behaviour of audiences are concerned; to identify the "voices that are heard" in the media and the "voices that remain silent"; to think about the uses of the media; and to understand that the media content/messages do not have the same meaning to everyone
• Responsability
  To teach how to use the Internet safely; to develop the ability to perceive "good" and "bad" information – check the sources; to analyse the truthfulness and relevance of information; to teach how to make use of the many advantages that Internet has to offer; to learn how not to release personal data
   

Target group age range:

• 15-19
   

Level of education:

• Upper secondary education

Short description of the project:

This project was launched in 2018 after attending a Teacher Training Workshop called «Media Literacy and Journalism», which involved a partnership between the Directorate-General for Education and the Union of Journalists. The protocol was signed at the school headquarters of Cerco Cluster, in Porto.

This training workshop was expected to be in high demand, but as soon as the news was published in the newspaper “Público”, in August 2017, we immediately emailed the Union expressing our strong will and reasons to be chosen. We perceived, under a logic of curricular commitment, that our cluster lacked a space where the media would be critically analysed. Although the project started in September 2019, it had already been running since the previous school year in two classes whose teachers had attended the training workshop to verify its relevance (one year 10 class and one year 12 class). This school year the planned activities will be focused on fake news where the students will be invited to try out some apps to check the reliability of information, the origin of the images, so as to notice that often the image does not correspond to the text. It is expected that, in a reasoned way, there is the "recognition" that all of us, consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or not, have already contributed to this "plague", either by sharing the title only, either because it is funny or because it will encourage a discussion. We anticipate that one of the most interesting activities will be the perception or awareness, of how the same news is treated by the different media. The reflection shall be on the "voices that are heard" in the media and the "voices that remain silent" and the faces that give voice to the news. Are the media at the service of misinformation? Or are they a lens that distorts reality?

Aims/objectives

• Develop media literacy skills for secondary education students in the framework of the curriculum in reading, writing and speaking of Portuguese ;
• Create mechanisms for encouraging thinking about the information gathered;
• Distinguishing credible sources from non-credible sources;
• Raise awareness of the correct and clear use of information sources

Expected results/outcomes

• Encourage the students to use and decode the means of communication, including access to and the use of information and communication technologies; adopt appropriate behaviours and attitudes towards a critical and secure use of the Internet and social networks. (Education for Citizenship Reference);
• Encourage students to have a critical view of the media regarding both quality and accuracy of content;
• Encourage students to make a critical use of the media, given that the evolution of media technologies and the growing presence of the internet as a distribution channel allows a growing number of Europeans to create and disseminate images, information and content;
• Understand the economics of the media and the difference between pluralism and media ownership;
• Encourage students to be aware of copyright issues, essentials to a 'culture of legality', especially for young people, in their dual quality as consumers and content producers.

Changes

• Help young people to become critical thinkers and active content creators rather than passive consumers of online content and technology.
• Help young people to behave responsibly and ethically and, ultimately, to become more engaged and better informed citizens.
• Promote the exercise of a more enlightened and participatory citizenship.

Challenges you faced

• Possibility of working with students in a room equipped with computers;
• Need for continuing education and training of more teachers to make this project sustainable.

Time-frame of the project:

• Along this school year - from September 2019 untill June 2020

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice: