Thessaloniki, GR
MEDIA LITERACY AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS FROM GREECE, BULGARIA AND ROMANIA
Digital Transformation and Digital Skills Center, Thessaloniki, Greece
September 23-24, 2022
About "Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in the Digital Age"
This two-day event addresses some key points:
The importance of being media literate in the rapidly changing world
How teachers and students can become more media literate
By attending this free professional development event, you will find out how to address them!
The event takes place at the Digital Transformation and Digital Skills Center in Thessaloniki, Greece, on September 23-24, 2022.
Attendance is free, but participants need to register here.
The event aims to:
develop the participants' knowledge related to the importance of media literacy in the world today;
inspire teachers and students to learn more about the new reality of media literacy;
improve the participants' knowledge and skills so that they become more media literate;
create connections and opportunities for further collaboration among the participants.
Speakers
Nikos Panagiotou
Associate Professor - School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
Dr. Nikos S. Panagiotou is Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University. He has been a DAAD Scholar at Deutsche Welle, Chevening Scholar of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK, RCAP Scholar from APU University Japan, Scholar to Beijing Foreign Studies University, Scholar at Sabanci University (Turkey), Scholar of the State of Luxembourg. He has an extensive research work which has been funded from Google (DNI Initiative fund). He is the initiator and organizer of Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy. He is head of Digital Communication Network Global. He is Director of Peace Journalism Lab, member of the advisory board for Networking Knowledge. His research interests are upon: International Journalism, Audience Studies, Mass Media Literacy, Disinformation, Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Theodoros Maniakas
EFL Coordinator, 1st PEKES of Central Macedonia
Theodore M. Maniakas was born in Thessaloniki. After his B.A. (1980, AUTH, Department of English), he pursued postgraduate studies at McGill University (Montreal) in Applied Linguistics. (M.A.1984). Between 1984 and 1991 he studied at the Université de Montréal, Anthropology Dept. (Ph.D. 1991). He taught at the trilingual Primary École Démosthène where he also served as a School Principal (1992 –1999). He has taught at the three universities of Montreal (among others :Modern Greek, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography of Communication). A State School Advisor for EFL since 2003, he has participated in various academic, pedagogical and educational committees dealing with minority language education of immigrant children, empowerment of heritage languages, specialized curricula.
Avgoustos Tsinakos
Professor, AETMA Lab Director, Department of Informatics,
International Hellenic University
Dr Tsinakos Avgoustos is a Professor and Director of Advanced Educational Technologies and Mobile Applications (AETMA) Lab in the Department of Computing Science at International Hellenic University in Greece and Director of the International MSc in Immersive Technologies in Education Training and Game Design. Part of his activities are shared among the following positions Member of the Institute of Educational Research and Development of the International Hellenic University, Director of Education of the Con-E-Ect Headquarters of UNESCO in Greece, Member of the Executive Committee and Founding Director of the International Association for Blended Learning (IABL) and National Ambassador of SELFIE in Greece. Since 1997 he has been engaged in research in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Distance Education, and since 2010 he has been teaching in postgraduate programs in Greece and abroad in thematic units related to distance education, new technologies in education and learning, development. mobile applications, and augmented reality.
Apostolos Paraskevas
Coordinator of Educational Work,
Interregional Thematic Network on Internet Safety
Dr. Apostolos Paraskevas is the Coordinator of Educational Work at the 2nd PEKES of Central Macedonia from 2018 until today. He graduated from the Zarifio Pedagogical Academy of Alexandroupolis and completed the Vocational Simulation program of the Department of Primary Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
He holds a PhD from the Department of Primary Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in The Teaching of Natural Sciences and New Technologies, after completing postgraduate studies at the Department of Primary Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the same subject and later completing a second postgraduate program at the Hellenic Open University in Adult Education.
He is one of the founders of the Interregional Thematic Network on Internet Safety, which was originally launched in Central Macedonia and Western Greece and today operates in 8 Regional Directorates throughout Greece, with about 1000 schools (kindergartens, elementary schools, gymnasiums and lyceums) and is supported by 148 executives (Former School Advisors and Coordinators of Educational Work) with all the projects of the actions posted at the address http://isecurenet.sch.gr/portal
Sophia Papadopoulou
Journalist at Athens-Macedonia News Agency
Sophia Papadopoulou is Editor in chief at ANA-MPA’s Macedonia-Thrace Directorate, mostly reporting on the Balkans, Greece’s bilateral relations and the refugee/migrant crisis.
She studied Journalism at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (graduated in 1996) and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Cairo/Department of Political Science. Full member of the Editors’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers (ESIEMTH), the International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists and German Marshall Fund (GMF) fellow (2011). Active member of the Association of Balkan News Agencies-SE Europe since 1999. Fluent in English, Arabic and Italian. Also speaks French, German. Studies Turkish and Persian.
Marios Magioladitis
Corfu Tech Lab, Chair of Wikimedia Community, Greece
Marios Magioladitis holds a Bsc in Mathematics, a MSc. in Mathematics Foundations of Computers and Applications and a MA in Special Education. He is administrator in Greek Wikipedia and was highly active English Wikipedia administrator for 9 years. He worked as scientific fellow at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Oldenburg in Germany. He currently is an external partner at the Corfu Tech Lab (American Space) where he organizes STEM workshops. In 2016, he received a Wikimedia Foundation grant and in 2018 an IP - American Spaces Project Grant for organizing IT workshops. He is the President of Wikimedia Community Association since 2021.
Tatiani Rapatzikou
Associate Professor, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Tatiani Rapatzikou is Associate Professor at the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. She holds a B.A. from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, while for her graduate studies she holds an M.A. from Lancaster University in Contemporary Literary Studies and a Ph.D. in Contemporary American Literature from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. For her Ph.D. research she was funded by the Board of Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y). She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the M.I.T. Comparative Media Studies program in summer 2009. In addition, she was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Program in Literature at Duke University, U.S. (2012) and at the Department of English at York University, Toronto, Canada (2016). She has offered lectures and seminars in different universities abroad in the context of the Erasmus+ program (Austria, Portugal, Sweden, UK) and the AUTh international inter-university agreements (Canada, New Zealand, USA). Since 2019, she has been the director of the Digital Humanities Lab "Psifis" of the Faculty of Philosophy AUTh. Her teaching and research interests broadly focus on Contemporary American Literature, Culture and Digitality.
Dessislava Ognianova
Project partner, Bulgaria
Dessislava Ognianova is Vice-Principal of Study at 128th ”Albert Einstein” High School in Sofia and EFL educator with a MA in Geography and English philology from Sofia University and specialization in Education Management, University of Veliko Tarnovo. She is the school coordinator for Erasmus+ and Cambridge Schools Association, and TSL International Essay Competition and Debate Teacher Champion. She participated in the TEA program 2013 and Alumni TIES Kyiv 2018 Seminar on Media Literacy and Critical Thinking. She participated in developing a Media Literacy toolkit for educators on the Get Your Facts Straight project funded by the European Commission.
Nadina C. Nicolici
Project partner, Romania
Nadina Carmen Nicolici is an EFL teacher at `Lorin Salagean` Technical High School in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania. She is the school coordinator for projects and partnerships. So far, she coordinated more than 175 international projects, such as Erasmus+, Let’s Speak Media Literacy!, Confident Teacher, Well-off Community, English Language Program for Youth, eTwinning, Teaching with Europeana.
She is a SUSI (Study of the US Institutes) and Fulbright TEA alumna (Media Literacy cohort), member of the advisory board for Fulbrighter, country trainer for British Council, National Geographic Certified Educator, Microsoft Innovative Educator, T4 Education Country Ambassador.
Chrysoula Lazou
Project coordinator, Greece
Chrysoula (Chryssa) Lazou is an EFL educator and School Life Counselor in secondary education, Hellenic Ministry of Education. She holds a Bachelor Degree in English Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Master’s of Education in Distance Education, AU, Canada. She is a PhD Candidate at International Hellenic University focusing on Technology Enhanced Learning for Digital and Media Literacy Enhancement in Education through an Interdisciplinary Approach. Chryssa is an IVLP alumna, the Vice President of the International Association for Blended Learning (IABL) and past president of the English Language Educators Association of Kavala, Northern Greece. She is the Coordinator of the Media Literacy for TEENS.gr, DigiTEENS.gr, VerifyInfoED and CommuniTIES projects and the recipient of the Northern Lights Award, Education Leaders GOLD Award 2021/2022, English Language Teaching Excellence Awards 2021/2022, and Governor General’s GOLD Academic Award 2019/2020.
Friday, September 23
Digital Transformation and Digital Skills Center, Thessaloniki, Greece
17:00 – 17:30: Registration
17:30 – 18:00: Welcome and Introduction - Opening Remarks
18:00 – 18:20: International News Literacy: Social Media and the War in Ukraine
Associate Professor Nikos Panagiotou – School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
18:20– 18:40: Digital Media and Education from a Cultural Anthropology Perspective
Dr Theodoros Maniakas, EFL Coordinator, 1st PEKES of Central Macedonia
Digital generation adopts and adapts new means of communication in the cultural globalized world. New terms i-something, e-something, pins and codes, passwords and .com addresses dominate our everyday activities and social media have become a global common language, for some a sine qua non for success. The pandemic and the consequent “shocking experiment” with distance online education platforms like cisco. webex, zoom, google meet and the like have forced educators as well as learners of all ages to approach knowledge mainly via new technologies. In this presentation the new reality of disseminating knowledge and information, developing critical thinking, acquiring soft skills and the impact of internet tools on accessing knowledge are discussed. Moreover, the new role of teachers to the digital generation as well as the need for empowerment of educators in a limitless, constantly changing learning context is examined in the framework of cultural anthropology and ethnography of communication.
18:40 – 19:00: Coffee Break - Networking Event
19:00 – 19:20 : Generation Z - Skills and Challenges for Learners and Teachers in the New Era
Professor Avgoustos Tsinakos, AETMA Lab Director, Department of Informatics, International Hellenic University
In the after Covid era a number of educational standards have been challenged due to the sudden pedagogy shift. Teachers have realized the lack of multiple skills to overcome new educational barriers as on the other hand youngsters, belonging to Generation Z, have developed a number of new and almost unknown (so far) learning skills in order to adapt to the new reality, realizing the big difference of being tech savvy for social media presence towards the efficient use of educational technology for learning purposes.
These new factors, identified by both sides, have created a number of challenges which all should take a better and deeper look in order to keep up with the new digital competencies for education.
19:20 – 19:40: "Interregional Thematic Network Internet Safety", Past, Present and Future of a School Network Concern Safety in Internet and other Emerging Technologies and Phenomena
Dr Apostolos Paraskevas, Coordinator of Educational Work, Interregional Thematic Network on Internet Safety
In my speech I would present the past, present and future of the Interregional Thematic Network Internet Security. The Thematic Network includes one thousand (1000) public schools of Preschool, Primary and Secondary Education, licensed by the Regional Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education of Central Macedonia, Western Greece, Crete, Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, Cyclades, Dodecanese’s, Attica and Thessaly regions. It aims to educate and train teachers in experiential education with the active participation of students throughout their preschool, kindergarten and post-secondary education, as well as their parents, about the safe use of the Internet, ways and practices of risk prevention in relation to social networks and other emerging technologies and phenomena.
19:40 – 20:00: Quality Journalism as a Key Component to Media Literacy
Sophia Papadopoulou, Journalist at Athens-Macedonia News Agency
With the on-going radical transformation of modern societies driven by digitalisation and changing normative structures, communication on a personal, professional and public level has fundamentally changed.
Nowadays, citizens of all ages and all walks of life are confronted by an abundance of information and media content and often rely on digital media to meet their daily informational needs. Nonetheless, media literacy programs that do not include lessons on why quality journalism is needed more than ever, could be disservice to democracy.
20:00 – 20:20: Wikipedia and Media Literacy
Marios Magioladitis, Corfu Tech Lab, Chair of Wikimedia Community, Greece
We discuss how Wikipedia communities build quality articles and improve media literacy skills. The talk will focus on how Wikipedia articles are written, the importance of Wikipedia communities, and the factors that affect article evolution. We will also focus on how a person can benefit from active participation in this project and the power of information and communication.
20:20 – 20:30: Students share experiences
20:30: 1st day closing event
Saturday, September 24
Digital Transformation and Digital Skills Center, Thessaloniki, Greece
9:30 – 10:00: Registration
10:00 – 10:20: Participatory Learning - Digital Literacy - Digitality in the Classroom
Tatiani Rapatzikou, Associate Professor, Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Our digital-driven reality is inviting us to (re)consider how we think, write, read, create and communicate. With attention paid to participatory learning, the specific presentation will refer to the learning needs that are created and the skills and competencies young people need to be equipped with so that they become responsible and creative digital media users and creators. The talk will also be embellished with examples of how digitality and textuality can be combined for effective classroom use.
10:20 – 11:10: CommuniTIER DigiLab for Content Development
Dessislava Ognianova, Project partner, Bulgaria
Students love being content developers in the digital age and they have the best platform to share their imagination and creativity. Social media and video platforms like YouTube and Facebook offer endless opportunities to upload and share digital content with the world like never before. However, the recent shifts to remote education have revealed significant gaps in digital and information literacy among students. One of the most important objectives of the CommuniTIES project is to teach students how to be responsible consumers and creators of media content.
11:10 – 11:20: Coffee Break
11:20 – 12:10: Checking Facts like a PRO!
Nadina C. Nicolici, Project partner, Romania
Texts, pictures, videos - everything we find or create online can be altered, fabricated, misleading or fake. During this workshop, you will be introduced to methods, strategies and resources which make the difference when it comes to deepfake, and make you an expert while checking facts online. Like a Pro!
12:10 – 13:00: Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in the New Produsage Ecosystem: Training Youth for Responsible Citizenship in the Digital Age through Technology-enhanced Learning
Chrysoula Lazou, Project coordinator, Greece
The workshop aims to familiarize educators with strategies as to enhance their students’ digital and media literacy skills with the intent to become responsible consumers and creators of information with the use of new technologies within a pedagogical framework. Critical thinking and cross-checking of sources should be an indispensable part of the digital era in order to promote social justice, human rights, and freedom of expression in a democratic, globally-connected society. Schools are no longer the only source of information and new knowledge as learners may have access to the “unknown” on the click of a button. The role of the 21st educator is to facilitate youth’s competences and critical skills building through innovative and all inclusive pedagogical approaches to ensure a rich learning experience, sustainability and civic engagement.
13:00: Closing Event - Certificates of Participation
Light Lunch
Conference Program
Program_Greece_CommuniTIES 2-DAY EVENT.pdfHighlights
A great opening, sharing of ideas with outstanding keynotes and closing celebration for our project took place at the International Digital Transformation and Digital Skills Center in Thessaloniki, Greece!
We were honored by the presence and opening remarks delivered by Mr Stavros Kalafatis, Deputy Minister of Interior, Sector Macedonia and Thrace, Mr Isaac Hansen-Joseph, Consul at the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki, Mr Thomas Bacharakis, Regional Director of Education in Central Macedonia and the insightful presentations delivered by our keynotes.
Highlight of the event: representatives of the participants of the CommuniTIES project from Greece, Bulgaria and Romania sharing their experiences of interaction, learning and creating new digital content.
Closing Event
Venue
26is Oktovriou 21, Thessaloniki 546 27
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior (Sector Macedonia Thrace)
The project is funded and supported by the U.S. Embassies in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania
