Misinformation spread out by social networks is a growing issue in Europe. The main motivation in this project is to tackle the spread and impact of online misinformation from schools. Furthermore, we aim to foster in our European students, critical thinking and positive use of ICTs. But we also plan to deal with gender inequality as a part of our main horizontal priority: social inclusion. Particular attention will be given to address gender differences in relation to the access and use of digital technologies and the gender inequalities derived from the misinformation online. Four Secondary Schoolsfrom Norway, England, Finland and Spainare taking part in this project, working with pupils in between 15 and 18 years old. Sharing from the west-southern to northeastern borders of Europe the same concern, the danger of the disinformation online, based on the vulnerability of the students who spend a lot of time exposed to a great deal of unfiltered data from diverse sources, which many times intend to deceive the receiver and in several occasions could be very harmful.

Framed in a more ambitious horizontal priority, social inclusion, this project also intends to improve students’ critical thinking and to solve problems through intercultural collaboration, to promote values like gender equality. This horizontal objective is related to the construction of learning environments that promote collaboration, debate, scientific analysis and sustainability, and aims to promote global awareness and critical thinking focused on the digital environments of an interconnected European society.

This involves the responsible use of technology. We will use digital devices to promote innovative practices and methods for educational purposes, i.e. identification of misinformation online, fake news involving health issues; gender differences and digital skills related to the use of technologies. In this project we are going to work a series of activities classified into five groups: 1) misinformation online, including fake news, 2) gender equality, 3) Data protection and security in the network, 4) social inclusion and 5) responsible and innovative use of technology to tackle the school failure by fighting against some of the reasons of this issue, such as technology addictions, misinformation and security online, gender factors, appropriate guidance, social inclusion and lack of motivation. The outcomes of these activities will be presented in four short transnational meetings with students from every country. We will compare and debate these results. Also, two training activities among teachers will be held to encourage innovative teaching.

To do so, we will promote interdisciplinary a collaborative approach in different areas and among the different actors of the school community. Working in this way we would support students to acquire and enhance basic skills and key competencies. Furthermore, in order to strengthen the profiles of our teaching professions, we have designed activities focused on supporting educators in developing innovative teaching or pedagogical and assessment methods. The concrete results in the development of the project will be the creation a repository of activities and resources, using ETwinning and social networks. This way we will share and spread the artefacts created in our project (videos, reports, infographics, shared stories, etc.).

eTwinning will be used in the following ways: Coordinate activities using on-line events, Chat room or Forums (blended mobility); Store materials (Twinspace) to make more explicit the tangible results; Create Twinspace Pages: in order to make more accessible the artefacts and the activities. Currently, we are running an eTwinning project related with this project proposal.

The impact of the participation of the four schools in the project will be reflected through a sequence of actions once the project is ended up; both, in each school and then in the shared meetings. We will integrate the activities as regular tasks in the development of our students. In addition, we will measure if there is a progressive change of paradigm in the school regarding the responsible use of technology concerning misinformation online, innovative approach, and social inclusion. This might be done by means of questionnaires addressed to pupils, teachers and families. This way we could assess the impact of the project in the long term, correct and enhance the tasks and activities designed to reach the targets proposed.

All these actions will leave a footprint of the project on schools. That is, to consolidate interpersonal skills in order to develop social competencies in the context of interconnected global citizenship and to develop educational processes in the schools directed toward the construction and consolidation of European shared values. More specifically: social inclusion, security in social networks and misinformation online.