As schools, students and teachers are also the main target group of our AMeLiE project, we want to introduce you to another great European initiative that wants to tackle school dropout rates.
Children from families with few economic resources and at risk of social exclusion are the group most directly affected by school dropout. The ENDING project (ICT & Early School Leaving. Developing a New Methodology to Empower Children in Digital WellbeIng and Critical ThiNkinG) has already produced two guides in three different languages: for teachers and families. In the upcoming school year, a third guide will be developed, aimed at students and created with their participation. All material is and will be available here: https://endingproject.eu/.
A total of five European organizations (the Spanish National Police, PantallasAmigas and Fundación MAPFRE, as well as the German Digital Opportunities Foundation and the Portuguese Instituto Politécnico de Porto) have joined forces to launch the ENDING project. The aim of this educational initiative, funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ program, is to reduce the number of school dropouts in Spain and Portugal. Research shows a correlation between school dropout and perceived risks associated with the digital environment. So far, ENDING has developed two guides with the collaboration of different experts. These are available in Spanish, Portuguese and English. From 2023, also in German.
Cooperations
The project works in close cooperation with schools involved in the implementation and testing of the project results. These are Colegio Aquila in Parla, Madrid, C.E. Santa María la Nueva and San José Artesano (Burgos), and two Portuguese schools, Agrupamento de Escolas Eugenio de Andrade and Escola Secundaria da Boa Nova-Leca da Palmeira, both in Porto.
Guide for teachers
The guide for teachers proposes solutions to help young people with their developmental challenges in personal and school environments, for example, reducing media time through alternative pursuits such as sports and cultural activities. It also presents methodological approaches for raising young people’s awareness of responsible media use. Detailed descriptions of teaching scenarios as well as material for further activities enable a low-threshold treatment of the topics in the classroom.
Guide for families
The aim of this guide is to provide families with information and advice on how to identify and counteract potential problems that may arise from the excessive use of digital devices by minors at an early stage. Among other things, the guide provides advice on how to deal with compromising photos or videos, educates about phenomena such as “sexting”-or “sextortion”-and how families can get into the conversation about protecting their online image. One of the most innovative contents of this guide is the chapter on children’s rights and what role they play in the digital world.
Guide for students
With the involvement of students from Portuguese and Spanish schools, content and methods for a student guide will be developed. The basic idea is the concept of peer learning, which has been successfully practiced in schools in Germany for many years. Young people themselves know best which language they need to speak in order to reach peers and younger people. During the 2022/23 school year, the content of the guide will be tested.
A great approach, many points of contact to our AMeLiE project against online hate speech and therefor a chance for collaboration in order to support and train schools, teachers, students and their families on different levels of media literacy.
All information about the project can be found on the website https://endingproject.eu/.
