Website: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2024-1-ES02-KA152-YOU-000233320
Start date 01-06-2024
End date 30-11-2025
Budget: 25.470,00 €
Coordinator: ASOCIACIÓN RUMBO A EUROPA
Partner: ICSE & CO (IT) , Športno društvo Gib Ljubljana Šiška (SI) , Fundacja Bonae Fidei (PL) , En Root (FR)
Objectives
The main objective of the exchange is to help young people become aware of the importance of critical thinking and distinguishing between false and true pieces of information, especially in recent years. Young Europeans are, in general, concerned about disinformation. However, many of them do not know what habits or daily actions they can take to be more conscious and selective of information received every day. To start changing our lifestyle, it is important to know in advance the causes and effects of critical thinking. Therefore, we propose that young Europeans acquire historical, political, scientific and statistical knowledge about this complex issue, through activities such as presentations, workshops, games, videos and more. In addition, they will learn to contrast, through the reality of the different participating countries, the tragic consequences of misinformation and propaganda that Europe is currently suffering. For years, both in the national and international educational sphere, attempts have been made to tackle this problem by promoting guidelines about fraud and misinformation through their social media channels.
In this learning process, knowledge, proactive attitude, participation and evaluation skills are valued. A set of measures and decisions to achieve short- and long-term objectives for the protection and improvement of the environment of our informational intake. They are adopted at the national level by the state, at the international level by institutions such as the UN or by private or public companies and institutions. If we all become aware and start to take small actions on a daily basis, together we can achieve a better planet. Among other objectives we can highlight:
– Raise participants’ awareness of the importance of critical thinking.
– Provide participants with key skills to apply in their daily lives.
– Inclusion and diversity, especially based on the values of equality, respect and tolerance.
– Development of common values and civic engagement to fight politically for our world.
– Raise participants’ awareness of the origin of the problem of critical thinking, the actions that are currently damaging the opinion making process and possible solutions to the problem.
– To draw the attention of policy makers and society to the needs and concerns of young people.
– To make participants aware of practices they can use in their daily lives.
– To approach the problem of critical thinking from various perspectives, including economic, historical, political and social, to give a global and comprehensive picture of the problem.
– Give young people the opportunity to act, formulate and express their voices and messages in artistic and creative ways that suit them best.
– To increase young people’s knowledge of active participation, active citizenship and intercultural dialogue. The Erasmus+ programme is a key instrument to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes on critical thinking and to support sustainable development both within and outside the European Union. Our aim is to foster competence development, improve career prospects and involve participants in strategic areas for sustainable growth, with a special focus on rural development.
Activities
This project stems from the identification of a problem in today’s Western societies that particularly affects young people. Mass access to information, although positive in many ways, has had the opposite effect to that intended: a large part of the population is unable to find and filter truthful and unbiased information. Therefore, the expected results and impact is the creation and strengthening of critical awareness in young people, that is, increasing their capacity for questioning, analysis and reasoning in order to be able to discern what information comes from reliable sources and to learn to identify the elements that could make them suspect that they are dealing with a fake new. Furthermore, this project will also delve into how disinformation can be used as a political weapon to help build a generation less vulnerable to hoax as a result. And as a tangible result, we will create a decalogue of good practices aimed at young people for the identification of fake news that we will share free of charge with partners and on social networks so that it is accessible and can benefit as many people as possible.
30 participants from 5 different countries are going to participate in this project. The countries involved in this project are Spain, Poland, Slovenia Italy and France. They will be young people from 18 to 25 years old with geographical, social and economic obstacles. Therefore, we will support them in every way they need in order for those obstacles not to be a problem for them to participate in the project. For example, if someone has economical obstacles, we will pay for their tickets in advance so they don’t have to spend money in advance. We believe that this participant profile is the most appropriate for the topic of our project because in the digital era, young people are the most affected by fake news and disinformation, as well as being the leaders of the future, so it is essential that they have a critical spirit.
Impact
As a tangible result of the project we will have art projects that critically reflect the reality of the false information that young people are exposed to today, especially in the so-called digital age, where social networks have become our way of communicating with each other and the way we get news and information of all kinds and powerpoint presentations from each participating country showing how their own country or locality is affected by the lack of a critical spirit of its inhabitants, e.g. through relevant cases of manipulation of people through the media. In addition, intangible results of great value will be generated because we will have succeeded in getting young people from different parts of Europe change their thinking, being more critical and trying to corroborate if the information is true every time they see a publication or receive any kind of information from the media or social networks, in order to have a better informed population. The project will deliver a broader view for participants of what critical thinking is and why it is important to implement it in their lives and the acquisition of the 5 institutional competencies for intellectual and personal growth, with the aim of forming positive action leadership (personal development, communication skills, critical thinking, professional competitiveness and leadership and entrepreneurship), among others.
