More precisely, the CrAL project aimed at promoting critical thinking and media literacy by providing an innovative methodology that included audiovisual tools and the concept of a “Lab” for the education and training of teachers and subsequently their students. The project was implemented by a consortium of seven (7) partners from six (6) countries, namely Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Spain.

The DAISSy-HOU, being the only Greek partner, was responsible for the implementation of all CrAL activities in Greece, ensuring high quality and compliance with the project objectives. In addition, the Research Group was actively involved in all intellectual products and deliverables of the CrAL project and responsible for the coordination of both the overall Quality Assurance and the development and support of the operation of the CrAL online educational platform, a pivotal tool for teachers and trainers. Lastly, DAISSy-HOU was also responsible for the dissemination of the project results in Greece, enhancing their sustainability and safeguarding their impact.

Overall, the CrAL project developed and delivered a comprehensive training program that included valuable materials and guidelines for the training of teachers and trainers in five (5) partners’ languages (Croatian, Italian, Lithuanian, Spanish and Greek), while more than three hundred fifty (350) registered users had the opportunity to learn how to integrate critical thinking and media literacy into their lessons in class, by using audiovisual tools and technologies through the CrAL platform, open to all and offered free of charge.

For more information on projects and activities of DAISSy-HOU:

• Website : https://daissy.eu/
• Facebook : @DAISSyResearchGroup
• Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email : info@daissy.eap.gr

The platform has been developed by the DAISSY Research Group of the Hellenic Open University within the framework of the “Creative Audiovisual Lab for the Promotion of Critical Thinking and Visual Media Literacy (CrAL)” European project, undergoing by DAISSy as the Greek partner.

Here are three reasons why you should check out the platform and register right away!

1. Online training course for teachers and trainers

The platform offers a training course consisting of ten (10) modules covering technical, digital, and creative skills. The course is available in English, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Lithuanian, and Greek. Through different modules you will get the opportunity to grasp the CrAL methodology and learn how to use it to enhance young people’s creative audiovisual literacy.

2. Showcase of audiovisual materials produced by young people

Young people and their teachers that participated in the implementation of the CrAL methodology in Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain created audiovisual materials. On the platform you will find a collection of these audiovisual materials, as well as the winning videos from each national context. Explore how they put the CrAL Methodology into action, how they addressed different social issues, and how they put their creativity into action: https://platform.cral-lab.eu/videos/

3. Online Community of Practice

Apart from the course and ready-to-use materials, the platform offers a space where you can share your thoughts, start discussions, and connect with like-minded teachers and trainers across Europe. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, advice, or a space to engage in meaningful conversations about education, this platform is a great place to start!

Curious to see more? Here’s your straightforward guide on how to register:

1. Head over to the registration page: https://platform.cral-lab.eu/registration/
2. Add you details
3. Once you’ve filled in the required fields, click on the ‘register’ button.

Voila! That’s it You’re now officially part of the CrAL community!

We invite you to join us today and share your thoughts about creative audiovisual media literacy in the CrAL forum!

For more information regarding CrAL project and news about other activities of DAISSy:

• Websites  : https://daissy.eu/,    https://daissy.eu/projects/cral/
• Facebook : @DAISSyResearchGroup
• Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter     : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email        : info@daissy.eap.gr

The theme of the 16^th AD Summit 2023 was “Skills for the Digital Future”. The programme included keynote speeches, panels, workshops, and informative sessions with over 200 in person participants, and an even larger number of online participants through live online broadcasts. Policy makers, stakeholders in digital education, trainers, educators, representatives of civil society, and market representatives were actively involved in the sessions attended by the DAISSy Research Group. 

Specifically, DAISSy participated at the sessions:

• Educational workshop for the European project “CrAL: Creative Audiovisual Lab for the Promotion of Critical Thinking and Media Literacy”, during which Ms. Eleni Georgakakou, Senior Project Manager of HOU’s team, presented the educational platform developed by DAISSy which operates on its own server for online courses and platforms.
• Lightning talks, on which Ms. Natalia Spyropoulou, Project Manager of HOU’s team and head researcher, presented the significant results of the European projects “Spice: Special Education STEAM Academy” and “The SEER: STEAM Education European Roadmap”. DAISSy is the Coordinator of the first project, while it is responsible for conducting a pan-European survey on STEAM education in the second one.
• World Café, on which Dr. Achilles Kameas, Professor at HOU, moderated the table on “Digital Social Innovation” with the aim of generating new ideas.

Additionally, throughout the event, DAISSy was present at the “Marketplace,” where it actively promoted its work.

For more information about the 16^th ALL DIGITAL Summit 2023, as well as the recorded speeches, you can visit: https://all-digital.org/all-digital-summit-2023/

The Training of Tutors of the CrAL project

During these three days, the 25 tutors of the partnership had the chance to familiarize with and better understand the audio-visual writing and reading methodology through the deeper analysis of the theoretical content and the narrative audiovisual content as well as their practical involvement in the creation of the educational material.

The tutors underlined the role of images as a means of providing experiences that help to better understand reality and culture. They pointed out the urgent need of the youngsters in secondary education to obtain media literacy education as media affects their daily lives, viewpoints and thoughts. They agreed that applying audiovisual media education through the innovative methodology of the Creative audiovisual writing and reading will help students to possess sufficient knowledge about the real world and the way the audiovisual content is given to the media, to analyze audiovisual content (Images, films), to make effective interpretations,  to critically evaluate it and develop the ability to create it.

After the Training of Tutors, the 25 European tutors will communicate the methodology developed by the two experts Annio Gioacchino Stasi and Mery Tortolini to teachers from all the countries participating in the project, and support them in implementing it in the classroom with their students. The teachers will encourage media literate youngsters and will help them become role models of their ideas and inclusivity perspectives all over the world!

So, the CrAL-Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy- is starting to create the CrAL European Communty of Practice!!

Will you join the CrAL Community of Practice?

This audiovisual experience will really meet all your expectations!

For more information on CrAL and other DAISSy projects and activities, you can visit:

• Website   : https://daissy.eu/projects/cral/
  Facebook: @DAISSyResearchGroup
  Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter     : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email        : info@daissy.eap.gr

During the event (on 24th March), Gabriela Ruseva (ALL DIGITAL) presented the Italian best practice and made as well a significant reference to the CrAL methodology.  According to Annio Gioacchino Stasi, who is a screen writer, essayist and writer, this methodology “is trying to show the link between images and words. Working with images implies intellectual and above all human honesty. We see the effects of the images that confuse, lie, destroy, and unfortunately, at times convince”.

The innovative CrAL methodology is a result of the research which was carried out within the Laboratory of Image and Creative Writing of “La Sapienza” University of Rome by Annio Gioacchino Stasi, who has been teaching creative processes in writing for 30 years and Mery Tortolini, a painter, essayist and teacher.

CrAL is very close to delivering the innovative methodology to tutors of all participating countries at this stage of the project. A 3day Training of Tutors (ToT) event will take place in Barcelona on May 23-26. Greece will participate with the DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU).

For more information about the CrAL presentation: https://www.cral-lab.eu/cral-project-featured-at-the-all-digital-weeks-2022

For more information about the project CrAL and other activities of the DAISSy Reasearch Group:

• Website   : https://daissy.eu/, https://daissy.eu/projects/cral/
• Facebook : @DAISSyResearchGroup
• Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter      : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email        : info@daissy.eap.gr

The innovative platform rises to the challenge of engaging the educational and local communities of the five participating countries (Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Lithuania) in an exciting, experimental learning experience aiming to foster critical thinking, active citizenship and media literacy among learners, parents and educational staff. The main objective of the platform is to support:

• An Online training Course for teachers and trainers: The modules of the massive Open Course (MOOC) have started being uploaded on the CrAL online platform. Thanks to the intensive cooperation of the project partners, all the educational content of the MOOC is translated into all languages of the participating countries.
• A Showcase of the audiovisual materials: The Showcase will be developed during the implementation phase of the project and it will contain the audiovisual material (videos, short films, interviews etc.) produced by young people during the pilot action.
• The establishment of the online Community of Practice. The Virtual International Community of Practice is technically supported by the platform. It will serve as a vehicle for offering teachers and tutors access to the educational material for media literacy; ensure their preparedness; manage training in the most suitable and effective way and enable professionals of all levels of education to promote collaborative learning and co-creation of content in a virtual environment.

The platform provides the following main services: (a) Online Training Course, (b) User registration and  profile management, (c) Showcase of the audiovisual materials/Upload  content, (d)  Collaboration/Community Space and finally (e)  Fora.  In this way, the platform  provides a virtual space for all those (students, teachers, tutors, parents, community) who share this common interest about media education and work towards the shared goal.

So, the CrAL Platform of the Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy is almost  ready to start up tutors training!!

Are you ready to launch into it with us? We are looking forward to it!

For more information on CrAL and other DAISSy projects and activities, you can visit:

• Website   : https://daissy.eu/projects/cral/
• Facebook: @DAISSyResearchGroup
• Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter     : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email        : info@daissy.eap.gr

CrAL is aiming to promote media literacy, critical thinking and active citizenship among the teenagers (14-19 years old) of the participating European countries.

Nowadays, Media literacy is considered as one of the most important skills. The importance of media literacy was underlined by the Greek Pedagogical Institute since 1995-2004, when an initial focus on the Audiovisual Expression in a Laboratory by the well-known Program „MELINA – Education and culture“, resulted to a „Teacher’s Guide for Audiovisual Expression“. It was a Pedagogical Institute’s first initiative to form a Greek Curriculum included a series of suggestions for activities that step by step promotes audiovisual consciousness of those who practice them.

As we are waiting for the CrAL MOOC and the implementation of Creative Audiovisual Literacy methodology in Secondary schools, lets see what „media“ is and why „media literacy“ becomes an evident nessesity nowadays for the worldwide democracy.

McLuhan had predicticted long time ago that „media is the message“. He focused on analysing the form in which the content is delivered to us by the media. He argues that, since the „medium is the message“, if we don’t understand the medium we don’t understand the message either. The form informs our “identities”, the way we perceive ourselves, and as the form changes to the current digital media,  our perception of the world and of ourselves is also shaped by this fast growing shift. The following EAVI’s video presents McLuhan’s theory in a very thorough and descriptive way.

https://eavi.eu/marshall-mcluhan-digital-prophecies-the-medium-is-the-message/

In addition, the Following EAVI’s video clip „A Journey to Media Literacy“, a 7-minute cartoon, will also offer us, in a fun and simple way, what Media Literacy is all about, and why it is essential in order to live freely and participate fully in society.

During the presentation entitled “Media Literacy and Inclusive Education in the framework of the CrAL project” the results of the project, the development of the CrAL platform by the DAISSY Research Team of HOU and in general the actions aimed at the educational community were presented. The main goal of the project to enhance the digital skills, creativity, active citizenship, critical thinking and media literacy of both teachers and students via audiovisual creative writing and reading, as well as the project’s partnership, funding, structure, target groups, benefits for the educational community and all other main elements were also analyzed.

The DAISSy’s Research Group event was completed with great success and the CrAL’s project presentation aroused the interest and the attention of the organizers as well as of the participants. This was the first live event in which the CrAL project was presented, after the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

For more information on CrAL and other DAISSy projects and activities, you can visit:

• Website   : https://daissy.eu/projects/cral/
• Facebook: @DAISSyResearchGroup
• Linkedin   : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• Twitter     : https://twitter.com/daissy_research
• Instagram: @daissy_researchgroup
• Email        : info@daissy.eap.gr

During the event, extensive reference was made to the three-year and co-financed Erasmus + / KA3 / Social inclusion project. It was noted that the CrAL project is aimed at young people (aged 14-19) and seeks to strengthen them so that they can reinterpret and lead the production of audiovisual content on contemporary topics of interest.

In addition, the multiple benefits of the project implementation, both at the level of the educational community – teachers, students, parents, and the local community – as well as at the level of formulating a proposal for the reform of the educational policy of the youth audiovisual education were noted.

An emphasis was placed on the crucial contribution of the DAISSy Research Group of Hellenic Open University, which actively participates in all work packages of the project, while it has undertaken:

1. The development of the Online Platform of the CrAL project (Work Package 3) in which multilingual and multimedia educational content will be available for teachers training. A blended learning course will be provided to secondary school teachers and non-formal educators in order to teach to their students the audiovisual creative writing, reading and production. This will enhance active citizenship, audiovisual education and develop their critical thinking. It will also promote the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Thus facilitating the transfer of the innovative methodology of audiovisual creative reading and writing in five different educational systems of all the participating countries.
2. The development of the International Online Community of Practice which will be focused equally on the knowledge and information sharing aspect of the media literacy concept, as well as on critical thinking about the information and the knowledge creation and
3. the Creation of an Online Showcase for the posting of all the audiovisual contents (videos, short films, interviews) produced by young people during the implementation of the project. It will encourage  the generation for the social, democratic participation of the youngsters in the current issues of the society’s emerging discourse.

It was also pointed out that DAISSy Research Group also participates in the development of the Quality Assurance Plan, as a responsible body, in the development of the multilingual educational program, in the pilot implementation in Greece, as well as in the dissemination and utilization of all project results.  The pilot implementation of the project is going to start with the trainers training in June-July 2022.  The CrAL presentation aroused the interest and attention of the participants of the event and received positive feedback from the moderators of the session.

It is worth noting that the DAISSy days 2021 initiative was posted on the map of the 5th consecutive operation of the Erasmus+ days.

Following a series of presentations on projects’ benefits for teachers, students and the educational community, CrAL has been presented at the final part of the event as a newly initiated European project. Its main aim, i.e. to enhance the digital skills, creativity, critical thinking and media literacy of both teachers and students via audiovisual creative writing and reading, as well as the project’s partnership, funding, structure, target groups, benefits for the educational community and all other main elements have been analyzed.

CrAL’s presentation aroused the interest and received a really positive feedback from both the participants as well as the event’s facilitators. A number of teachers’ and key stakeholders expressed their interest to learn more about the trainings that will follow within the project’s context. 

DAISSy, the Greek partner of CrAL, will contibute to all project outputs; implement all actions in Greece, and is leading the project’s Quality Assurance actions as well as the Platform’s developmet.