For 10 days young people from 15 countries all over Europe worked together in order to spot and fight fake news.
People from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Turkey gathered in Sarata Monteoru and through different activities.
After three days full of team building activities, the youth workers created the gossip box in order to send messages to each other secretly, spread the news of their Erasmus+ experience, gossip and maybe... spot the fake ones. P 16
Have you ever heard about sustainable production? Or maybe objects that are created from products we can find in nature?
And the winner was.
P 5
INTERCULTURAL NIGHTS: ROMANIAN NIGHT
Descoperă tradițiile românești! /RO/
Discovering romanian traditions! /ENG/ P 7
ANAÏS MOTRONI | FRANCE
BRUNO PRECES | PORTUGAL
MARIA CHATZIASTERIOU | GREECE
SARA CALATAYUD VALLEJO | SPAIN
TAILERS RIVERA | LATVIA
TOMOYA WAKAYAMA | FINLAND
"LET’S BREAK THE BREAKING NEWS" was a training course that took place in Romania between 1-10 February 2023 with 34 participants and 3 experts
The aim of the project was to provide youth workers with new methods and tools to develop critical thinking and prevent fake news.
The methodology was based on non-formal education methods including presentations, world café, role play, forum theatre and many others. The project activities were preparation, introduction, getting to know each other, workshops in plenary and teams, outdoor activities, intercultural evenings, reflection and evaluation.
The final products were 2 forum theatre plays, 3 videos, promo materials and a collection of tools and methods to be applied in daily work to prevent and block the spreading of fake news.
This was the first mobility of the first year of FPT accreditation and we wanted to have a great start we can say that we succeeded. We are grateful for this to our team, to the trainers and facilitators that were dedicated every minute to help participants get involved and understand their role and to our partners that did a responsible selection that was one of the keys to success.
Daily evaluations and monitoring showed good group dynamics, perfect time management, achievement of objectives and wonderful final products that will stay as good practices for the next teams and next mobilities. Some of the methods and activities were very challenging (six thinking hats, zoom, cognitive biases and logical fallacies), mainly new for participants but their devotion and support from every side created a very good background to learn and have fun at the same time.
If we’ll hear some rumours that participants and youngsters they are working with on a daily basis or other beneficiaries are now more careful when they press the <share= button or think twice before using some information that will be a sign that our work was not in vain (Fabi, Bogdan, Tolea).
Descoperă tradițiile românești! /RO/
Discovering romanian traditions! /ENG/
Everyone thinks it's a natural human process, what can make the difference in the thinking process it´s the way how we think. According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking (2019) critical thinking <is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.
In this first activity, trying to develop tools that helped us to be more critical about our own thinking process and to think about our environment in this global world, we have created posters trying to answer the two main questions, define <What is critical thinking?= and <How can be the critical thinking be connected with fake news?=
With these posters, we have achieved some keywords and expressions that can help us to define what is critical thinking like <thinking outside the box=, <rational thinking=, <crosschecking=, <not reliable source=, <propaganda=, <judgment= and a lot of more.
This activity has been really important to start the project because it has allowed us to conceptualize the main topic of the project <critical thinking and fake news=, as we can read in this reflection: <I have developed my critical thinking, learnt on how to check the sources, do my own research, check which information I can trust, what is true and what is fake= (Anna from Poland). <Critical thinking is something that we always have been trying to do, being considerate to the participants (…) that all these [tools] will be useful for me professionally and personally [life]= (Tzevtan from Bulgaria)
Bloom’s taxonomy was invented by Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl in 1956. The original structure consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. This original framework was applied to K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching (Armstrong, 2010).
In 2001, a group of psychologists revised original frameworks to be more objective and started to use verbs for describing key structures to understand clearly for learners and teachers.
Teamwork is often challenging in especially new environments, new colleagues and/or limited communication.
From this observation point, we also found that similar things are happening in our societies such as schools, etc. In fact, the process of analysis should have taken more time and wisely as one participant already found that activities mean a lot.
Zoom activity was conducted after introducing the framework of Bloom's Taxonomy as the activity is based on his framework.
In this activity, we picked four observers who will monitor the others. "This session was pretty challenging but at the same time, it was useful as the theory of Bloom’s Taxonomy can be easily adapted to your life" (Nicola from Italy).
"I learned how fake news is formed and how we have acted in my life, for example, my school life (...) I am studying teaching school for now, so it was useful knowledge for these activities" (Sadullah from Turkey).
This was the first group presentation during the project. It was interesting and creative for most of the participants. All teams worked together and created a poster representing an example of biases or a fallacies. They selected one or more of the four cards that they received and created a poster explaining their cards.
The main idea of this activity was to understand what cognitive biases and fallacies are and how we meet them in our everyday life.
One team combined two of them, confirmation bias (favourite things that confirm our existing beliefs) and strawman fallacy (misrepresenting someone's argument to make it easier to attack) through an example of the climate crisis.
<Everyone contributed to the activity. More or less, some were the artists while others wrote the dialogues and others did the presentation. The most important thing is that it was the first team presentation in this project. The timing was really great and the team building helped us feel comfortable and work all together as a team= (Venla from Finland).
<I enjoyed the whole process while discussing the topic. There was a main idea and everyone added something. The final presentation was very interesting and it was really connected to what we experience in our daily life. In the end, the poster was very representative and quite funny. We enjoyed it a lot!= (Selim from Turkey).
The World Cafe is an engagement non-formal technique designed to create a space that supports "good conversation" where anybody is able to talk about things that matter to them.
The technique is based on the assumption that people already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges and rests on two key principles:
talk and understand the idea of the topic that matters to them. the gathered information can be used as a collective power.
During this technique, we had to talk about the causes and effects of fake news, on an individual and social level.
Reflecting on the World Cafe technique we have used <it's an amazing tool for brainstorming ideas and this method helps to understand a different perspective with different solutions. We (...) have 15 different countries with two/three participants, which allows us to form bonds with most of the participants= (Theodora from Romania).
"It was a good technique and we liked it a lot because we expressed different opinions. In addition, what is good is that we could write all our ideas on a sheet and then compare them to see if the same ones come out= (Mohamed from France).
While trying to evaluate sources Sarah Blakeslee and her team have developed the CRAAP Method that can be used to check the trustworthiness of a source. To do this, five steps were created that can help us determine if a source can be trusted or not – it can be used for checking fake news, one of our daily sources.
In this activity, the facilitators asked the big group to divide into small groups and gave all groups a photo that represents a real person, situation or platform: climate change, Kanye West, TikTok, Game of Thrones, vaccines, UFO and 5G. Through the role-playing technique, the different groups had to represent a situation related to the topic in the atmosphere of the TV news.
"It has been possibly learned to make the unconscious process a conscious one= (Beatriz from Spain). "Have been reflecting on that and will definitely use it in my life when seeing news to evaluate them, whether they are true or false. Also in my career, because I work with citations and different news sources= (Madara from Latvia).
The Six Thinking Hats was a tool developed by de Bono (1999) to aid practical discussions and thinking. One of the issues with groups of people trying to think creatively is that individuals will criticize the ideas of others and derail creative thinking by aligning everyone in one of six states of mind.
It is very easy when considering a subject to jump to your preferred conclusion. Dr Bono's six thinking hats give you a systematic way of considering the subject from different perspectives (using different perspectives to think about the problem and also the solutions) and in doing so be more complete and effective.
Dr. de Bono proposes that there are five (five or six) distinct states of the brain each with its own distinctive chemical state. In each state, the brain will focus on different aspects of the subject being discussed (no evidence of the brain states was presented).
Using The Six Thinking Hats was <an excellent opportunity for simulation in various groups= (Kristijan from North Macedonia) and an <amazing method to learn from each perspective and actually had a conversation (...) to see something from a different angle= (Klara from Croatia).
Cyberbullying is bullying through digital technologies, social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted (Unicef, 2020).
Eight groups created role-playing performances based on real situations that were made in the context of cyberbullying. There were two plays: 1) the given story with a dramatic end and 2) the same story but with an alternative, happy ending.
<I learnt that there’s always a way to prevent a disastrous ending as long as we don’t act just as bystanders that let things happen. I loved everything from coming up with the different characters' personalities to the making of the props. The creative process was super rewarding and fun, everyone got to shine and participate" (Daniela from Portugal).
"The feelings that I had were mixed, from the one hand I felt anger because the victim was suffering and no one was helping but after that solution was presented I felt relief that the victim found a better way. All the information I gained from this activity made me confident on recognizing categories of people when a situation of bullying occurs. Never stay silent or neutral beacause you're becoming a bully too!" (Efthimis from Greece).
The theatres were represented in various ways such as common theatre or mute role-playing.
To publish our contributions and our activities, we have created this magazine, poster and leaflet in this session. In this magazine, we wrote what we learnt from the key sessions and references together with participants' interviews. The magazine will be helpful for sharing what we learnt in public but also will remind the participants what we learnt through the project as well. We made a small poster and a leaflet that could support the book and initial introduction of the project. Please refer to their photos and laeflets from the following QR codes.
The video group intends to publish what we learnt from the programme, fake news and the importance of media literacy. The video group consists of three groups. They made creative videos to promote our activities. Please refer to their videos from the following QR codes.
Theatre is one of the key achievements of our programme referring to our project topic. The forum theatre is participatory - firstly we performed to the audiences normally, then audiences took action, corrected and reacted changing the initial story. As this is not ordinary theatre, thus it is sometimes challenging for acting with changes by audiences, however, it is very interactive with the audiences' interferences and contributions. Please refer to their forum theatre performances from the following QR codes.
DIG DEEPER supersistion is just a myth
After three days full of team building activities, the youth workers created the gossip box in order to send messages to each other secretly, spread the news of their Erasmus+ experience, gossip and maybe... spot the fake ones.
The youth workers got very quickly the idea and the purpose of the gossip box.
It worked as the final glue that connected all the participants for life!
Maria from Greece and Tailers from Latvia were the moderators of the gossip box.
Every day after lunch they were in charge of reading the gossips to the youth workers.
They enjoyed it a lot and maybe they are planning to go on with the gossip box... but this time digitally!
We will find out soon.
Whatever happened inside this box will stay in Sărata Monteoru, Romania and confidentially between the 34 youth workers!
ALCOHOL I BEREAL I BREAKING I CHICKEN I COFFEE I
CREATIVITY I CRITICAL I CULTURAL I DANCE I DISCOVERY I DOG I
EDUCATION I EMOTION I ENERGIZER I ERASMUS I FACEBOOK I
FAKE I FOOD I FRIENDLY I GAME I INSTAGRAM I KARAOKE I
LEARN I MARCO I MEDIA I MUSIC I NEWS I PAPER I PHOTO I POLO I PROJECT I REFLECTION I RESEARCH I ROMANIA I SING I SNOW I SOCIAL I THINKING I TOLEA
1. Speak English?
It’s easy for you!
No, I speak only my language and I don’t want to learn another. It’s not that but you’re working on it.
2. Team Working? You Love that!
You hate it and you don’t want to work with others. You prefer working alone.
You don’t hate it but you don’t love it either.
3. What do your friends think about you?
Procrastination is your second name.
Adventurer.
Hyperactive! You don’t stay put.
4. When you want something: You inquire.
You go for it because you like having the right away. Life is full of surprises.
You take time to reflect and you weigh the pros and cons of both.
5. How do you feel when you are far from your family and friends?
Released! You can do what you want without permission.
Abandoned, desperate and melancholic.
Disoriented for a few days but you adapt quickly.
6. In your cover letter you often speak: Your curiosity. Your adaptability. Your perseverance.
7. What may stop you from the project and your personal life?
Your shyness.
Lack of time. You’re so busy. You procrastinate and lose motivation.
8. What routine do you feel?
It’s boring. You feel security. You don’t know what to do to routine.
9. Do you think you can adapt to the local food?
You like to discover new dishes and tastes.
It’s complicated that you only eat fast food and you don’t like vegetables. You don’t eat when you’re not home.
You are hard to satisfy but you can eat basic food.
10. What could hold you back from going to Erasmus+ projects?
Your family, your friends and your partner. Your budget. To take a plane.
11. Is travelling for you?
You don’t like it. You like to be home.
Need to escape, live new experiences and discover new cultures.
You don’t like visiting museums and touristic monuments but you like going to nightclubs and beaches.
You can9t wait to leave! Maybe you have already packed your luggage and passport. You are curious to discover new cultures and people. You9re independent and enjoy accepting new challenges. English is not a barrier for you because you speak it fluently or you are eager to learn and improve it. Actually, there are 34 countries in partnership with Erasmus + and you have already looked where you want to go. You rejoice at the idea of stealing a few of your own wings.
Go abroad why not but not right away? You need more time to know what you want to do in the future. Especially since you9re attached to your family and friends. You need benchmarks to move forward. On the other hand, you like your freedom.
You9re not really ready. You9re interested in Erasmus + projects but need more time to think. Don9t worry if you don9t go this year. You may be reassured to leave other countries when you have prepared all projects from A to Z step by step. Erasmus + attracts you and frightens you at the same time… You think carefully about not meeting your family and friends for a few weeks. Also, take the opportunity to work on your languages and why not first participate in a short-term project and see if you are comfortable? Trust yourself.
Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom9s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
Blakeslee, S. (2023). Evaluating Sources: The CRAAP Test. Benedictine University Library. https://researchguides.ben.edu/source-evaluation
Cyberbullying: What is it and how to stop it. (2020). UNICEF Romania. https://www.unicef.org/romania/stories/cyberbullying-what-it-and-howstop-it
De Bono, E. (1999). <Six Thinking Hats: revised ed.,= New York: Back Bay Books.
Maftei, A., Holman, A. C., & Merlici, I. A. (2022). Using fake news as means of cyber-bullying: The link with compulsive internet use and online moral disengagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 127, 107032.
The Foundation for Critical Thinking (2019). Defining Critical Thinking. The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
World Cafe Method https://theworldcafe.com/key-conceptsresources/world-cafe-method/
BULGARIA
ALEKSANDR
TZVETAN
CROATIA
ANDRO
MISLAV
KLARA
CZECH REPUBLIC
ALICE
LENKA
KATARINA
FINLAND
TOMOYA
VENLA
FRANCE
ANAIS
MOHAMED
GREECE
EFTHIMIS
FILIPPOS
MARIA
ITALY
ALESSANDRA
NICOLA
STEFANO
LATVIA
TAILERS
MADARA
NORTH MACEDONIA
BETIM
KRISTIJAN
POLAND
ANNA
TOLEA DIMITRIE POSTOVEI
BOGDAN CHIRIACESCU
FABI CHIRIACESCU
PORTUGAL
BRUNO
DANIELA
ERICA
ROMANIA
ROBERTA
THEODORA
SERBIA
MELINDA
MILANA
SPAIN
BEATRIZ
SARA
TURKEY
SADULLAH
SELIM
8This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.9
