Around 30 teachers from all over Germany joined the webinar “MEET – Intercultural Learning and Media Education for Equity and Tolerance” which was organized by the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD)/ Pedagogical Exchange Service and medien+bildung.com. What does digital civil courage mean to you? With this question the two media educators Mario Di Carlo and Katja Mayer from medien+bildung.com started the webinar and encouraged the participants to share their thoughts among each other.
Next they gave an overview of the MEET project and the concept of intercultural media education to address issues such as racism, discrimination, migration as well as tolerance, human rights and equity. The webinar mainly addressed teachers that are involved in the eTwinning community. eTwinning promotes school collaboration in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by providing support, tools and services for schools.
eTwinning also offers opportunities for free and continuing online Professional Development for educators. In this context, the aim of the webinar was providing an insight on the proven methods that were carried out in the six learning scenarios in Italy, Slovenia and Germany and that can be used in collaborative eTwinning projects accordingly. The two media educators introduced hands-on methods on how to implement media education activities in intercultural contexts in the classroom. The participants also got to know the MEET Toolkit. The Toolkit provides a detailed description of the learning scenarios as well as an educational documentary that shows how the projects’ three pedagogical key concepts can be implemented.
The participants were impressed by the variety of methods and the possibilities that the MEET Toolkit provides. Some examples from participants’ feedback:
“Many thanks for the great impulses and the extensive material.”
“Thanks, that was very stimulating for the teacher education.”
“Many thanks for the various insights into the project and for providing the materials! I am impressed and will most certainly take a closer look at the website and use the materials for my school, my lessons.”
The cooperation between medien+bildung.com and the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst which is the sole public organisation in Germany working on behalf of the Federal States to promote international exchange and cooperation in the school sector, will continue. A repetition of the webinar is planned as well as a presentation of the MEET-project at the annual conference for the Erasmus+ moderators who as multipliers carry out information events nationwide.
