Be smart in social media: digital skills for critical minds

<< Background >>This project aimed to create theoretical and practical materials focused on digital literacy and critical analysis of media and social media content and by this support horizontal priority of the Erasmus+ Programme. Work on materials, exchange of good practices and training helped to develop digital readeness, resilience and capacity of the project partners organisations. The acquisition of new competences by youth workers supported increasing of quality of youth work. Partners from Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, France and Italy created a comprehensive E-Handbook which supports the main target group - youth workers who use this project result in the daily work with young people - final beneficiaries. E-Handbook is useful also for wider audience: educators who use non-formal education methods, NGOs workers and other stakeholders who are interested to learn about digital literacy, critical thinking and media literacy as they were main trends in postpandemic time. Partners worked on the topics of fake news/disinformation/misinformation analysis and how they can be used in youth work. Partners had focus on social media because it plays a significant role in spreading disinformation and forging stereotypes and prejudices in societies.<< Objectives >>The objectives of this project were: • to provide youth workers and young people with competences in critical thinking and media literacy; • to offer them training materials in order to develop skills for media content analysis; • to explore the phenomenon of disinformation, both in deconstructing fake news and comprehending what is authentic; • to advance non-formal education and cooperation in the field of youth work with EU Programme countries.Young people spend a lot of time in social media and because of that it is very important to develop their critical thinking skills to be able analyse and buid trust on news and sources they receive via social media. Many young people live in social media bubble and have strong impact from groups and pages they use. It often happened that young minds are manipulated by media and social media. Young people need training and efficient materials to understand how media is working and who are influencers. Non-formal education is one of important way to educate young people with help of youth workers who have to be educated themselves. This project and its results help young people and youth workers to face social media challengers by offering theoretical and practical materials. << Implementation >>Partners organised four transnational meetings for partners' organisation leaders, staff members and youth workers/educators.M1 – Kick-off management meeting was held in Lithuania. M2 – Mid-term evaluation meeting was held in France. M3 – Evaluation meeting was held in Estonia.M4 - Final meeting in was held in Finland. There was training course organised in Italy, also local, promotional and dissemination activities. There were study visits to the youth and other organisations working with topics of media and social media with the aim to learn and collect good practices and create new materials for the project E-Handbook - the main tangible result. At a personal level, the participants developed themselves as individuals and creative educators. In this way the local communities have a clear benefit, also the participants themselves have benefit since they became more creative and active as critical thinkers. At professional level, the participants of the project improved competences in intercultural dialogue and their capacities to deliver high quality workshops. In parallel they exchanged good practices which help to enrich the daily youth work. They developed skills in working with new technologies and abilities to empower target groups, including youth with fewer opportunities. Impact on participating organisations is through the process of exchanging good practices which characterizes the majority of the activities of this project. The participants communicated to the respective organisations the acquired 'know-how'. The partners' organisations collected materials for E-Handbook and for the project Facebook page thus actively contributing to the amplification of knowledge. The long-term impact of the project is that the participants managed to develop competences in the field of critical thinking and media literacy, both theoretically and practically, and particularly taking in account post-pandemic situation and importance of struggling against disinformation. Partner organisations built an overall capacity and new networks with the aim for future cooperation.<< Results >>This project proposes methods and practices for youth work to detect, analyse and understand cases of disinformation. There are tangible and intangible results in this strategic partnership project. Tangible results are E-Handbook with good practices and videos, project logo and project Facebook page with information about the project. E-Handbook as the main tangible results was created by all partners with supervision of French partner who collected, edited and designed E-Handbook before testing and dissemination. E-Handbook materials were tested during short-term joint staff training event in Milan taking into the account feedback from youth workers and young people. Partners added new materials and tested once again with young people and youth workers from own and other organisations, including associated partners' organisations. Partners shared results of the local activities with each other by emails and during the meetings. E-Handbook is available in six languages: English, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finish, French and Italian.Intangible results of this strategic partnership project are competences and experiences gained by participants - youth workers and young people, staff from partners' organisations and other stakeholders involved in the project. These results are visible on increased skills in critical thinking and media literacy, on the improvement of the quality of work in the partner organisations and countries, on positive content of posts in social media produced by young people. Youth workers acquired competences to create workshops with critical thinking and media literacy content. They gained skills to spread practices and involve their target groups of young people in the activities. Results achieved during this project are relevant and applicable also in fields not directly covered by the project (project management skills, intercultural and inter-religious cooperation, etc.). The training course organised with support of all project partners increased productivity of youth work. On the completion of the project, participants have fundamental skills in critical thinking and media literacy and are able to navigate and exploit the media landscape, to promote positive messages and promote inclusion of their target groups via media literacy. One of the important result of this project is network of the partners organisations. The network remains a clear result of this project after its completion. In this respect, the added value of the project is important. Effect of cooperation - consolidation of mutual understanding are the essence of project, thanks to the involvement of people and organisations with different experiences and backgrounds in critical thinking, media and digital literacy. Increased knowledge and skills reflected both on partnership and project level, through peer learning (including the training), exchange of good practices between partners' organisations, workshops for the target groups on local level in partners' countries is the solid result of this cooperation partnership.