The AmeLiE virtual network in Romania was expanded in the last few weeks with the second phase of the pilot activities. During this phase, more than 25th teachers from the partner schools joined the AmeLiE virtual network and the project.
Teachers accessed the AmeLiE platform and created their own accounts on the platform in order to familiarise themselves with the content of the worksheets and to share their experience regarding the hate speech topic with their colleagues and with peers from other countries.
All 25 teachers that joined the project in the second phase of the pilot used several AmeLiE worksheets with their students in the classroom and created great and inspirational materials based on the worksheets developed within the AmeLiE project. They shared with us their experience, and which worksheets students liked the most:
- Our class is on WhatsApp – it was discussed why a WhatsApp class group is useful and what the problems are. The video on the topic of cyberbullying was watched and the following principles of the Manifesto were discussed:
- 3. Words shape the way you think
- 4. Words have consequences
- 10. Silence says something too
- Then, students created their own WhatsApp group rules:
- Cyberbullying – discussions about why cyberbullying is dangerous, what cyberbullying looks like, how it can affect us, what to do in such situations. The students worked in groups and described their own cyberbullying experiences, reactions and prevention measures.
- Listen to understand – it was discussed why it is important to listen to each other and what are the “ingredients” of empathic listening. The Manifesto principle “You are what you communicate!” was debated. Students worked in groups and made some posters with slogan ideas related to this topic.
In the second phase of the pilot, AmeLiE Romanian partner schools started also to implement a range of activities as part of the Kind Speech Day campaigns at local and national level. Kind Speech Day activities were promoted on school communication channels (including social media), but also on the social media accounts of the teachers involved in the development and implementation of KSD campaign activities. Kind Speech Day campaign started in three of the five partner schools and messages with a strong impact against hate speech topic were launched in social media. The three schools where the KSD campaign was launched are:
“Mihai Eminescu” National College Petrosani – Parole Ostili Manifesto was promoted among students together with the AmeLiE worksheets “Our class in on WhatsApp”, “Little” fact-checkers growing up!, “The power of words”. Motto of the campaign: We must not forget that, like keeping democracy, the guarantor of human freedoms and rights, fighting online speech is a marathon, not a sprint. Link to social media posts. Link to video.
“Samuel von Brukenthal” National College Sibiu – For Kind Speech Day campaign was created a short game to be implemented with the students. It can be played in class in small groups, the 10 rules of non-hostile communication were implemented in the form of a game type quiz. To do this, students need to install the Actionbound app on their phone from Google Play or from the App Store and to scan the code presented below. The game was implemented with a big number of students and they loved it.
“Tudor Vianu” National College of Informatics Bucharest – the Kind Speech Day campaign was recently launched at “Tudor Vianu” National College and a short video was created by students to draw attention to the phenomenon of online hate speech and the negative impact that hate speech can have on youngsters’ lives.
In the following weeks, more activities and messages will be launched during Kind Speech Day campaigns organized at national level by partner schools, with the aim to counter the spread of the hate speech phenomenon among young people in Romania.
