Lead by Simona Sava, with well-known reputation in Educational sciences, co-lead by Laura Malita and Ileana Rotaru
Over the past decade, social media use has become nearly ubiquitous in our society and beyond. Every day, millions of messages are posted on Twitter, millions of hours of video content are uploaded on YouTube, and billion posts are made on Facebook. The new modes of communication enabled by social media are changing traditional democratic processes and altering longstanding power relations between politicians, the media, and citizens. Politicians have novel, sophisticated methods for political campaigning based on big data analytics; the media are increasingly pressured to fit their reporting to social media logics; and citizens engage with politics through online platforms that can aid in the organization of large-scale protest mobilizations. Thus, this course will provide students with an overview of the changing political communication landscape, in order to equip them with the knowledge to critically assess the democratic implications of social media use in contemporary politics.
The students will be introduced to the state-of-the-art in social media and investigate how social media is changing democratic processes such as protest mobilization, civic deliberation, and political campaigning. Students will also learn how scholars are approaching social media data empirically, and upon completion they will be able to apply the knowledge gained to their own research projects. By the end of this course the students will acquire a comprehensive understanding of the historical development of media and democracy in EU.
In this course we will focus on European topics such as: • Access to Information in EU: investigative journalism, Open Data, and European legal frameworks • Online media and ICT: internet governance, digital security, human rights promotion and data protection issues • Changing media landscapes in the context of Digital Single Market: sustainable business models, disinformation • Media service to the public: women in media, media ethics, inclusiveness, public interest etc.
Lead by Gheorghe Clitan, with well-known reputation in Critical thinking, co-lead by Simona Sava and Ileana Rotaru
Faced with a flood of information, we are challenged to evaluate and make sense of what we see and read, especially in the digital world. Parents, students, educators, and employers all have a stake in meeting this challenge through the use of critical thinking skills. It is vital that people develop the ability to analyze the information they encounter online and assess whether they can trust the sources behind the content.
The main objectives of the course are:
Using technology to reflect, develop arguments, draw conclusions and identify implications (digital fluency).
Using technology to bring together different sources of information to synthesise an argument and shape ideas.
In the digital age, our challenge is tremendous because from all parts of the world anyone can enter data on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter or other sources. Both accurate and false information goes around the world at the speed of light. The challenge is how to give young people the critical thinking skills that allow them to make maximum use of this cornucopia of information and at the same time verify its accuracy. Thus, the students will understand that not all information that is available on the internet is accurate or relevant // they will learn how to ask critical questions so they can identify the best information that meets their needs. Moreover, students and staff can become self-supporting learners, improving self-reflection skills, practice critical writing skills, and raising professional profile for the digital society.
Moreover, due to the possibilities of spreading such training course even to other educational levels, the lectures will be open to other related stakeholders from the civil society (including ie adults and seniors from the local communities and related professional networks), but especially teachers and students from pre-university level, as well as educational policy practitioners.
Lead by Laura Malita, with already 5 years experiences in guiding students on this topic, co-lead by Gabriela Grosseck and Simona Sava
“Fake news” has captured the attention of politicians, the media, and the general public since 2016. But the concept is hardly new; it has existed in some form for centuries. In this course, we will explore the history of fake news in different media, culminating in an examination of the modern phenomenon of fake news. Students will learn information literacy techniques for evaluating news sources and will study a specific contemporary manifestation of “fake news” in depth.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: Define fake news and discuss its history // Describe the modern phenomenon of fake news and discuss its significance // Identify examples of fake news in different media / know how to verify sources and spot fake news or images, which often appear indistinguishable from a reliable source // Evaluate news sources in depth // Make educated choices with regard to the veracity of news. At the end of the course students will have media literacy skills they need to navigate the media and learn how to spot fake news.
The students will learn how to categorize information, make and critique news judgments, explore how the press and citizens can each act as watchdogs, detect and categorize misinformation, compare the ways that different countries protect or restrict press freedom, identify logical fallacies and evaluate arguments, investigate the impact of personalization algorithms, evaluate bias and learn about confirmation bias, know how to use a range of tools to spot fake content.
We expect that students show significant changes in the ways they think about, share and respond to news and information.
Lead by Gabriela Grosseck, with well-known reputation in using technology for different purposes, co-lead by Laura Malita
Digital revolution in the form of social networking, artificial intelligence and big data, and near ubiquitous access to sophisticated computing devices and information is shaping our democratic process-for better or worse. There is a general belief that our entire democratic process is under siege due a variety of factors such as rampant disinformation online (fake news), corruption / distortion of the political process by narrow interests, insufficient critical thinking skills, voter suppression / disenfranchisement activities, and rampant polarization and inability to bridge divides. The main goal of this interdisciplinary training course is to gain an understanding of how current technology is impacting the democratic process and how we can strengthen democracy through technology.
This training course seeks to empower participants about the importance of social activism precisely using online resources to strengthen democratic values within their communities. It will begin by analysing the previous elections (national and European from 2019 as study cases).
Moreover, later, by opening the training course to the digital environment (as an online workshop and / or webinar) we can teach youth the importance of democracy in their own communities and how the Internet can be an important tool to increase their civil participation.
This training course takes the view that the problems our democratic system is facing due to digital revolution are very complex and would require a multidisciplinary effort to address them.
Lead by Laura Malita, with experience in running courses on identity, diversity and culture visualization through selfies, co-lead by Gabriela Grosseck and Gheorghe Clitan
In a world dominated by technology, by abundant amount of information, by influencers that are trying to spread their view of living/doing something, we still need to calm down, to take a step back to discover ourselves, our true nature & values. Through this course, we will start by doing a self-introspection to discover our inner world, then we will continue by understanding our self and the roles we can play and then to spread our discoveries and influence. By avoiding (almost) all buzz around us, we will discover ourself, understanding our true nature, values, wishes and possible roles to act in this technologically driven society. Sometimes, all of us need a break, in order to become more creative and innovative, still remaining realistically oriented.
By empowering ourselves, we can have a more confident and authentic role in this European society, that values each person with its particularities, without discrimination but supporting cultural diversity, ideology and minorities.
We’ll look at how personal values and ethical judgments shape our online participation, and how new technologies can be applied to solve some of the problems we might face. Through all of this, we will develop your digital capabilities, and your awareness of the cultural and ethical implications of using digital technologies, and we’ll seek to establish the skills required to become more confident in using properly the new technologies for educational and personal purposes.
Lead by Ileana Rotaru, with experience in running courses on Digital citizenship, co-lead by Laura Malita and Simona Sava
We live in a world where the use of digital technology has become the norm. Effective participation in our society increasingly requires our ability to engage online. This isn’t just a question of technical ability – just as with our physical society, there are appropriate and responsible behaviours we need to acquire.
In this course, we’ll investigate and explore the concept of the digital society/digital citizen. We’ll look at how personal values and ethical judgments shape our online participation, and how new technologies can be applied to solve some of the problems we might face. Through all of this, we will develop your digital capabilities, and your awareness of the cultural and ethical implications of using digital technologies, and we’ll seek to establish the skills required to become an effective and successful digital citizen. The ‘digital citizen’ is a person who has developed the skills and knowledge to effectively use the internet and digital technologies, who uses digital technologies and the internet in a responsible and appropriate way in order to engage and participate in society and politics.
We will start by exploring digital access and digital divide and then we’ll move to digital identity and security. Finally, we will look at the use of social media for political discussion and shaping public agendas (digital participation and ethics). By the end of the course, students will be able to explore personal values and make ethical judgments when participating online, develop the skills needed be an effective and successful digital citizen, apply knowledge of new technologies to solve problems in the real world.
The notion of digital citizenship is ubiquitous, and this course therefore aims to be useful to a wide variety of online learners. This course is suitable for anyone who engages with social media platforms, those who use technologies to support their study, as well as graduates looking to maximise the impact of their digital footprint and avoid common mistakes which may make them unattractive to potential employers. Moreover, due to the possibilities of spreading such training course even to other educational levels, the lectures will be open to other related stakeholders from the civil society (including ie adults and seniors from the local communities and related professional networks), but especially teachers and students from pre-university level, as well as educational policy practitioners.