,,CYBERSECURITY SCHOOLS'' (2019-2022)

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Summary

The issue of online security and protection are topics that arise with the development of the Information Society and their intensive use by the population.

Technologies accompanie us throughout the day whenever we communicate, share information, or collaborate in the creation of new content. Nowadays, the trend is for people to make intimate aspects more and more public. A few years ago it was unthinkable that our private lives could be exposed to the whole world.

In this new reality, we need to be aware of the risks we are exposed to, the ways to prevent them and finally how to solve them. We consider that education is the best way to fight this and it can start at any age.

Cybersecurity Schools is a project dealing with online safety and security in six schools from Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain (coordinator) and Turkey. It was aimed at students from ten years old for their greater contact with mobile phones, computers and tablets, websites, social networks, applications or electronic games. Its main objectives were to raise awareness of the correct use of technologies and its dangers; to exchange good practices.

The activities were very varied, involving all sectors of the educational communities. All students benefited from the cultural activities, pedagogical celebrations and good practices, understood as those giving positive results in other educational contexts. Five units of good practices were carried out, dealing with issues such as privacy, online communication, cyberbullying, hyperconnectivity, identity theft and inappropriate content.

A fundamental pillar was the cybermentors, groups of students, supervised by teachers, to act as trainers of their own peers on topics such as cyberbullying, fake news, online privacy, video games, netiquette, techno-addictions, postural health, digital footprint, resilience, identity theft and social networks. They were trained on these topics during an academic year following the Project Based Learning methodology. They decided on the final product they wanted to prepare (a presentation, a video, a radio spot or an interactive leaflet). When they finished the training and the final product they had to present it in public, both to students from their own school and from other schools.

Six transnational activities were carried out involving 131 pupils. Teachers and students had the opportunity to put into practice what they had been working on, shared their experiences and carried out the programme of activities organised by the host country. They developed the First International Congress on Cybersecurity in Spain (From 16 to 20 May, 2022) and all the groups of students presented their investigations. In those days another important activity was "Stands", booths where they exhibited their cultures and the best work done on cybersecurity.

Covid-19 brought major changes that made us rethink the whole process of our project and was manifested in innovative educational practices such as the virtualisation of two teaching, learning and training activities. Both promoted the participation of a larger number of learners. We highlight the real-time virtual tour of the city of Makó (Hungary) or the live concert with traditional Turkish songs and dances by the pupils of the school in Fethiye (Turkey).

Monthly training sessions were conducted with families and teachers on topics such as parental mediation, inappropriate content, social media, gender-based violence, eating disorders, identity theft and mental health. Families with children who had been direct beneficiaries of LTTA hosted other students in the project.

The project has generated visible results such as the TwinSpace and its pages section, the blog, posters, photos of the mobilities, some videos of the family trainings, videos with the evidence of students’ activities, videos of the presentations of the cybermentor, presentations for the dissemination of the project, video tutorials, a repository of good practices in cybersecurity, didactic units, evaluation questionnaires, templates for writing good practices, a cyber escape room, a cybersecurity board game with its cards, and the Congress book.

Non-visible results include the transformation of classroom and school life; the involvement of various sectors of the educational community; the improvement of language and digital skills; the development of teamwork skills; the consolidation of relationships between participating schools; the promotion of self-evaluation; reflection on teaching and learning processes; the implementation of good practices in the school; the promotion of the European Dimension: the direct and indirect approach of the educational community to other cultures; the use and experimentation with new digital resources and tools.

Long-term benefits of taking part in this project will be seen by improving quality of life for each participant through new communications and travel experiences with peers from Europe.