Mediawise: an international media literacy course

Mediawise: how to design education that builds resilience

As author and facilitator, I built the entire eight-day intensive training programme on experiential learning. As project manager, I also coordinated six partner organisations across every phase of the project. Instead of passively absorbing information, twenty-five teachers and trainers from seven European countries tried out the principles of psychological inoculation, which builds resilience against manipulative techniques, along with other proven approaches to developing media literacy. During the closing incubator, teams then created and delivered their own educational activities.

Participants clearly felt more confident after the training. Their motivation to keep creating educational content rose from 3.35 to 4.35 points, and their self-assessed confidence in designing and facilitating activities rose from 2.6 to 3.85.

The impact showed up immediately. After returning home, participants ran eleven local events that passed on what they’d learned to more than 180 other people. We created the Mediawise Toolbox, a freely available set of seven fully developed activities.

Two things grew beyond the original brief. The Slovak team launched an educational game about dopamine, and a new youth organisation was founded in Romania.

The National Agency (DZS) ultimately scored the project 96 out of 100 and named it an example of good practice, which is rare for a first-time applicant. The project is published on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, and it gave rise to a stable network of practitioners who still communicate and share experience today.