Select a partner and read a summary of its hightlights, results and best practices.

There are three dimensions to address the SMaRT-EU good practices in Portugal.

1 – The construction of the repositorium (http://smart-toolkit.eu/guide-on-disinformation-social-media2/ ) was a challenge. One of the main challenges was to create a participative dimension to the repositorium. We found out that the form is an interactive way to assure the collaboration of SMaRT-EU’s audience, in an easy and organized way. We think this is a good practice. Thus, in a truly collaborative way, the spreadsheet can be updated with inputs from the project’s team and other academics, but also from ordinary citizens and end-users. In this sense this is not a static repository and clearly aims to be an interactive source. This repository collects materials, in a systematised way, targeted at each of the end-user groups and related to the three main themes covered by the project. In turn, the new materials developed by the project team aim to provide useful and easily usable content for ordinary citizens or  diverse educational contexts. In line with the participatory approach that guides the project, we decided to ensure the possibility of each and any citizen to make suggestions for content to be included in the repository. 

2 – Workshops – the transposition of the workshop to an online model was maybe one of the most relevant challenges of the project. 

Portuguese PDFs available here: http://smart-toolkit.eu/participatory-workshops-portugal/

These are some of the reflections that came out of it:

• Journalism students: two levels of participation – The Portuguese team worked with journalism students that acted as project young researchers and at the same time as project participants. This was an interesting and fruitful approach. On one hand they started to work with the team adapting and reinforcing the workshop’s contents. They were important for instance specifically in the workshop on Influencers, also because one of them was an influencer himself and they brought refreshed knowledge to the team while they also improved their research skills. On the other hand, they were part of the team in the delivery of the workshops, acting at the same time as participants and actively participating in the conversations. This allowed students to gain more knowledge about the topics covered, to acquire research skills and also to test their ability to get actively involved in participatory action research projects.
• Technical difficulties – internet connection, availability of devices, technical conditions;
• Recruitment of participants – difficulties in recruiting older groups of participants. Online environment can be a demotivating aspect. However, this aspect can also be a positive, because we were able to approach in the same workshop people that were in different cities. If we were working in the offline world it would be unlikely to happen.
• For the older ones the encounter through digital tools allows overcoming the constraints of the encounter in presence, but does not replace it.In some cases, the barrier of the screen was an inhibitor. 
• Participants over 90 years old considered that they had never been on the internet, even though they used the internet for conversation during the pandemic;
• Some of the participants had their internet search experience during the workshops.
• Preliminary results indicate the existence of different positions based on gender, both with regard to the topics addressed and the online methodology implemented. It is suggested that in the groups with greater knowledge about the themes addressed, there was a male predominance in terms of participation; This was a group of people that are really interested in knowing more about these issues. One of them is a digital strategist and digital activist. The research team learned a lot with some of the participants. In these workshops participated 2 siblings and a grandparent; and also a father and a daughter. 
• In the groups coming from areas marked by social and economic inequalities, female voices dominated the discussions, especially regarding the concerns with the risks and potentialities of the social networks and in the curiosity for topics they did not know or wanted to know more about.
• Adults were more participative in the sessions than younger people. Participants presented practical examples from their daily life. The session about Influencers was the contrary, it was fully participated with young people. They prepared a radio show related with the themes of the workshops, particularly about Influencers. 

3 – Focus groups – the specific focus groups with intergenerational pairs were very rewarding for us, as we were able to see in a truly intergenerational perspective grandparents and grandsons interacting in helpful manners about digital uses, thoughts and future perspectives. 

Existem três dimensões para abordar as boas práticas implementadas ao longo do projeto SMaRT-EU em Portugal.

1 – A construção do repositório (http://smart-toolkit.eu/guide-on-disinformation-social-media2/ ) foi um desafio. Um dos principais desafios foi conceber esta ferramenta com uma dimensão participativa. Por isso mesmo, asseguramos que o formulário segue um modelo interactivo, procurando proporcionar a colaboração do público, de uma forma fácil e organizada. Julgamos que o modelo permite uma prática que também favorece a palavra das pessoas que interagem com projeto. Assim, de uma forma colaborativa, o formulário pode ser atualizado com contributos da equipa do projeto e de outros académicos, mas também de cidadãos comuns e utilizadores finais. 

Neste sentido, este não é um repositório estático e visa claramente ser uma fonte interativa. Este repositório recolhe e organiza materiais, de forma sistematizada, dirigidos a cada um dos grupos de utilizadores finais e relacionados com os três temas principais abrangidos pelo projeto. Por sua vez, os novos materiais desenvolvidos pela equipa visam fornecer conteúdos úteis e de fácil utilização para cidadãos comuns ou contextos educativos diversos. Em linha com a abordagem participativa que orienta o projeto, decidimos assegurar a possibilidade de cada cidadão fazer sugestões de conteúdos a serem incluídos no repositório. 

2 – Workshops – a passagem dos workshops para um modelo online foi talvez um dos desafios mais relevantes do projeto. 

Os PDFs portugueses estão disponíveis aqui: http://smart-toolkit.eu/participatory-workshops-portugal/

Estas são algumas das reflexões que resultaram das sessões:

• Estudantes de jornalismo: dois níveis de participação – A equipa portuguesa trabalhou com estudantes de jornalismo que atuaram como jovens investigadores e ao mesmo tempo como participantes. Esta foi uma abordagem compensadora e produtiva. Por um lado, começaram por trabalhar com a equipa de investigação, adaptando e reforçando os conteúdos dos workshops. Foram importantes, por exemplo, especificamente no workshop sobre Influenciadores –  também porque um dos estudantes era um influenciador -, e trouxeram conhecimentos atualizados à equipa, ao mesmo tempo que melhoraram as suas capacidades de investigação. Por outro lado, fizeram parte da equipa na realização dos workshops, participando ativamente nas discussões. Isto permitiu que estudantes adquirissem mais conhecimentos sobre os temas abordados, competências de investigação e também que pudessem testar a capacidade de se envolverem ativamente em projetos de investigação participativa.

• Dificuldades técnicas – ligação à Internet, disponibilidade de dispositivos, condições técnicas;

• Recrutamento de participantes – Houve alguma dificuldade no recrutamento de grupos de participantes mais velhos. O ambiente online pode ser um fator desmotivador. No entanto, este aspeto também pode ser positivo, porque foi possível juntar no mesmo workshop pessoas que se encontravam em cidades diferentes. Se estivéssemos a trabalhar no mundo offline, seria pouco provável que tal acontecesse. 
• Para os mais velhos, o encontro através de ferramentas digitais permite ultrapassar as limitações do encontro em presença, mas não o substitui. Em alguns casos, a barreira do ecrã era um inibidor. 
• Os participantes com mais de 90 anos consideraram que nunca tinham estado na Internet, apesar de terem utilizado a Internet para conversar durante a pandemia;
• Alguns dos participantes tiveram a sua primeira experiência de pesquisa na Internet durante os workshops.
• Os resultados preliminares indicam a existência de diferentes posições baseadas no género, tanto no que diz respeito aos tópicos abordados como à metodologia online implementada. Sugere-se que nos grupos com maior conhecimento sobre os temas abordados, houve uma predominância masculina em termos de participação. Este grupo em particular era constituído por pessoas que estavam realmente interessadas em saber mais sobre estas questões. Uma delas era um estratega digital e ativista digital. A equipa de investigação aprendeu muito com alguns dos participantes. Nestes workshops participaram 2 irmãos e um avô; e também um pai e uma filha. 
• Nos grupos provenientes de áreas marcadas por desigualdades sociais e económicas, as vozes femininas dominaram algumas das discussões, especialmente no que diz respeito às preocupações face aos riscos e potencialidades das redes sociais e à curiosidade sobre temas que não conheciam ou sobre os quais queriam saber mais.
• Os adultos foram mais participativos nas sessões do que os mais jovens. Os participantes apresentaram exemplos práticos da sua vida quotidiana. A sessão sobre Influenciadores foi diferente, tendo os jovens participado em pleno. Em resultado das sessões, os jovens prepararam um programa de rádio relacionado com os temas abordados, particularmente sobre os Influenciadores. 
•  

3 – Grupos de foco – os grupos de foco específicos com pares intergeracionais foram muito gratificantes, uma vez que pudemos ver numa perspetiva verdadeiramente intergeracional, com avós e netos a interagir e entreajudar-se de forma útil sobre os usos digitais, os seus pensamentos e perspetivas futuras sobre as questões abordadas. 

Mediawijs would like to address 2 dimensions to the best practices for Belgium, the b-learning course and the organisation of workshops during these times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

B-learning course

The biggest task for us in this project was the creation of a short online course for educators.

Before starting the development of the course we decided that it was important that participants could take the course at their own pace, that it was free to access by all, that participants should be free to follow only part of the course – choosing the topic that is most interesting for them, and that we should provide the possibility to quickly get some theoretical concepts and/or to dive deeper providing extra exercises and tools.

The content of the course relies on many of the other outputs and lessons learned from the SMaRT-EU project, as well as the experience and knowledge of all partner organisations; for example the workshops and focus groups conducted with educators, youngsters and elderly people. You can also find some of the products that were developed during the project in the course, there are booklets on fact checking, expert interviews and a repository of existing tools.

With a short course, one of the challenges is choosing what to bring and what not to bring. What do we consider to be essential parts of information when working on misinformation and fake news? And how do you bring this information in a language that is easy to understand for many? Eventually we created 5 chapters in the course: 

• “Introduction” where we briefly describe the topics that will be covered in the course, how the course works and which partners created the course
• “What is fake news and why do people believe it” where we explain some theoretical concepts on fake news, and equally as important we explain why people believe news that is not trustworthy. We also put the participants to work and suggest a discussion activity they can do with the public they work with
• “What is the role of social media” where we dive into the mechanisms behind search engines and social media platforms. We also challenge the participants to try some things for themselves.
• “Different approaches for different groups” where we discuss points of attention when working with elderly people or youngsters or intergenerationally.
• “Our own power and responsibility” where we emphasize that each and every one of us can have an impact and play a role in this story.

Organising workshops and activities in Covid times

Just like everyone else during covid times we had to rethink the way we work and interact with our target groups. Organising workshops, especially with the elderly, online was quite challenging. By involving people they trust, like volunteers or family members we succeeded in reaching them and in organising workshops.

If we talk about the outcomes of the workshops, one of the things that surprised me most was that elderly people do not consider all digital actions as being online. Whats’apping for example for many is not a digital action. Which means that they often underestimate their online presence and capabilities. What surprised me as well was the distrust this group had vis-a-vis traditional media, often resulting in a drawback from news.

Ik wil graag twee dimensies aankaarten voor best practices voor België
1. B-learning cursus
Onze grootste taak in dit project was het creëren van een korte online cursus voor lesgevers.
Voordat we de cursus ontwikkelden, besloten we dat het belangrijk was dat deelnemers
deze cursus op hun eigen tempo konden doorlopen, dat hij gratis toegankelijk moest zijn
voor iedereen, dat het deelnemers moest vrijstaan om maar een deel van de cursus te
volgen – bijvoorbeeld de onderwerpen die voor hen het interessantst waren, en dat we de
mogelijkheid moesten bieden om snel theoretische concepten of verdere verdieping te
vinden via extra oefeningen en tools.
De inhoud van de cursus steunt op andere output en lessen die we getrokken hebben uit het
SmaRT-EU project, en op de ervaring en kennis van alle partnerorganisaties: bijvoorbeeld
de workshops en focusgroepen die met lesgevers, jongeren en ouderen georganiseerd
werden. Je kunt ook sommige van de producten die tijdens het project ontwikkeld werden
terugvinden in de cursus, en hij bevat boekjes over fact-checken, interviews met experten en een overzicht van beschikbare tools.
Eén van de uitdagingen van een korte cursus is kiezen wat je wel en niet bespreekt. Wat beschouwen we als essentiële informatie wanneer we rond disinformatie en fake nieuws werken? En hoe presenteer je die informatie in een taal die voor een breed publiek gemakkelijk te begrijpen is? Uiteindelijk creëerden we vijf hoofdstukken:
 “Inleiding”, waarin we kort omschrijven welke onderwerpen in de cursus aan bod zullen komen, hoe de cursus werkt en welke partners de cursus gemaakt hebben
 “Wat is fake nieuws en waarom geloven mensen erin”, waarin we enkele
theoretische concepten rond fake nieuws uitleggen, en – net zo belangrijk – uitleggen
waarom mensen onbetrouwbaar nieuws toch geloven. We zetten deelnemers ook aan het werk en suggereren een besprekingsactiviteit die ze met hun doelpubliek
kunnen uitvoeren
 “Wat is de rol van sociale media”, waarin we de mechanismen achter zoekmachines en sociale mediaplatformen bekijken. We dagen de deelnemers ook uit om enkele
dingen zelf te proberen
 “Een verschillende aanpak voor verschillende groepen”, waarin we enkele aandachtspunten bespreken wanneer we met ouderen, jongeren of
intergenerationeel werken
 “Onze macht en verantwoordelijkheid”, waarin we onderlijnen dat ieder van ons een
impact heeft en een rol kan spelen in dit verhaal.
1. Workshops en activiteiten organiseren in tijden van COVID
Net als iedereen moesten we tijdens de pandemie de manier waarop we werken en interageren met onze doelgroepen helemaal omgooien. Online workshops organiseren, vooral dan met ouderen, was een grote uitdaging. We slaagden er toch in om hen te bereiken en workshops te organiseren door mensen te betrekken die ze vertrouwen, zoals vrijwilligers of familieleden.
Aangaande de resultaten van de workshops was ik het meest verbaasd dat ouderen niet alle digitale acties beschouwen als ‘online’. WhatsApp gebruiken beschouwden velen bijvoorbeeld niet als een digitale actie, waardoor ze vaak hun eigen online aanwezigheid en mogelijkheden onderschatten. Ik was ook verbaasd over het wantrouwen dat deze groep vertoonde tegenover traditionele media, wat er vaak voor zorgde dat ze niet meer naar het nieuws keken.

We have found new perspective of media literacy thanks to the intergenerational approach developed within this project.

We’ve learned how important it is to help elderly people and we were thrilled to coordinate all intergenerational workshop in our partner countries. In these pandemic
times we have implemented workshops in online and offline circumstances. Thanks to the support from local partners in Croatia we were able to continue the work in Retirement home st. Ana and in Foudation “Zajednički put”. Their commitment has made it possible to provide workshops in small groups even in time of pandemic.

One of the first things we have realized is that there is an urgent need to provide support and help to elderly people in digital environment. In 2020 and 2021 they very often relying on applications such as WhatsApp and Viber, Skype or Zoom to connect with their families. In the workshops we were able to learn more about their motivations and knowledge, competences and skills. As most of the participants didn’t have any kind of previous experience in media literacy programs we have witnessed a strong need for long term educational programs to learn more about all digital aspects of our societies. However, one of the most important highlights of our project were INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS. As we were becoming aware of the need to provide help to elderly people, we have organized a set of 10 individual consultations offline – face to face. Initially we didn’t plan this to have a large-scale impact. This has been improved during the project as we learned about the specific needs of our participants. For this reason, we have provided support from May to September. These one-on-one consultations, often outside the institutions, have revealed a totally different type of problems and perspectives. We faced a set of practical problems that our participants have tried to resolve but couldn’t proceed without our support.

We were surprised by the curiosity of the eldery people and their willingness to share their concerns and doubts with the social media environment.
Here is just a small introspective:

“Can you please teach me how to make my own FB profile, but without being visible for the others? Can you help me with cookies? I would like to open my e-citizen profile. How hard is it?”

However, we also learned how their experience differs through three main categories:
a) access challenges – they are indeed very diverse and that is why we believe that individual consultations can provide answers for most of the challenges.
b) the professions they have practiced are important — those who have previously worked in professions that had at least some contact with media, information and communication technologies and social sciences or STEM have a better background and prerequisites for easier navigation in the digital world.
c) digital technologies help them to participate more easily in society and all social processes – without technologies and apps their voice would be almost unheard in our society. Finally, they are willing to learn even more about how to make better use of e – technologies and services.

Što smo naučili kroz ovaj projekt?

Zahvaljujući međugeneracijskom pristupu koji smo razvili u sklopu ovoga projekta pronašli smo posve novu perspektivu za medijsku pismenost.

Naučili smo koliko je važno pomagati starijim osobama i bili smo oduševljeni što smo mogli koordinirati radionice i u drugim partnerskim institucijama u drugim državama. U ovo pandemijsko vrijeme provodili smo radionice uživo i online zahvaljujući potpori naših lokalnih partnera
Doma za starije osobe sv. Ana i Zaklade Zajednički put. Zbog njihove zauzetosti mogli smo organizirati radionice i susrete uživo što se pokazalo kao neprocjenjivo iskustvo.

Jedna od prvih stvari koje smo shvatili na početku radionica jest da postoji velika potreba i da stariji trebaju našu pomoć. U 2020. i 2021. oni su se često oslanjali na aplikacije poput WhatsAppa, Vibera, Skypea, Zooma ili sličnih, kako bi se spojili i vidjeli sa svojim obiteljima koje nisu mogli susresti uživo. No, veći dio njih nije bio upoznat s izazovima zaštite privatnosti dok se koriste s navedenim aplikacijama.

Osim toga, u radionicama smo mogli naučiti o njihovim motivacijama i znanju, kompetencijama i iskustvu. Budući da većina polaznika nije imala gotovo nikakvo prethodno iskustvo u medijskoj pismenosti iskazali su potrebu za dugoročnim radionicama kako bi naučili još više o digitalnom sudjelovanju u našim društvima.

Ipak, jedan od najvećih rezultata našeg projekta su individualna savjetovanja. Nakon što smo postali svjesni potreba starijih organizirali smo 10 individualnih konzultacija – licem u lice, jedan na jedan, u čemu su nam pomagali studenti novinarstva i komunikacijskih znanosti, članovi našega društva. Inicijalno nismo planirali kako će ove konzultacije imati značajniji doseg i reakcija korisnika nas je uistinu iznenadila. Zbog toga
smo osigurali trajnu pomoć za korisnike od svibnja do rujna. Konzultacije smo organizirali i provodili često izvan institucija, u vanjskom prostoru što je u velikoj mjeri olakšalo uspostavu učinkovite komunikacije zahvaljujući kojoj smo prepoznali druge probleme. Korisnici su svjedočili kako bez naše pomoći nisu mogli riješiti neke od osnovnih ICT problema na koje su naišli.

https://djecamedija.org/smart-eu/ 

Although ERYICA didn’t participate in all the activities developed in the framework of the project, we did organise two focus groups with youth information experts. These experts work with young people daily and have long experience in building their media and literacy skills.

During the sessions we gathered really valuable feedback that helped us to draw the needs of the newer generations in this regard. The experts pointed out a change not only in media literacy skills of young people but in the youth’s literacy in general, making it harder for them to play an active role in society in the years to come. This shows a great contrast with the other year group in this project (+50) whose, despite their media literacy skills are not as built as their successors, they have a vast experience in reading long papers and writing- abilities that are starting to get lost with the younger generations.

Should society adapt to the new generations and make things easier for them, or should they catch up with the established pace and habits?


Besides the focus groups, ERYICA has been leading in the dissemination activities. By introducing SMaRT-EU to dozens of youth information services all over Europe and stakeholders and institutions working in european youth policy, we have been able to showcase the project in different spheres and make it more accessible for both educators and policy-makers.

Bien qu’ERYICA n’ait pas participé à toutes les activités développées dans le cadre du projet, nous avons organisé deux groupes de discussion avec des experts en information de la jeunesse. Ces experts travaillent quotidiennement avec des jeunes et ont une longue expérience dans le développement de leurs compétences en matière de médias et d’éducation.

Au cours de ces sessions, nous avons recueilli des commentaires très précieux qui nous ont aidés à définir les besoins des nouvelles générations à cet égard. Les experts ont souligné un appauvrissement non seulement dans les compétences en termes de médias des jeunes, mais aussi dans leur éducation aux médias et à l’information  en général, ce qui rendra plus difficile leur participation active à la société dans les années à venir. Le contraste est grand avec l’autre groupe d’âge de ce projet (+50 ans) qui, bien que leurs compétences en matière de médias ne soient pas aussi développées que celles de leurs jeunes successeurs, ont une grande expérience de la lecture de contenu long et de l’écriture – des capacités qui commencent à se perdre chez les jeunes générations.

La société doit-elle s’adapter aux nouvelles générations et leur faciliter la tâche, ou doit-elle rattraper le rythme et les habitudes établis ?

Outre les groupes de discussion, ERYICA a joué un rôle de premier plan dans les activités de diffusion. En présentant SMaRT-EU à des dizaines de services d’information jeunesse dans toute l’Europe ainsi qu’à des parties prenantes et des institutions travaillant dans le domaine de la politique européenne de la jeunesse, nous avons pu présenter le projet dans différentes sphères et le rendre plus accessible aux éducateurs et aux décideurs politiques.