RIGHTS project "pRomotIng Global citizensHip education Through digital Storytelling"

RIGHTS "pRomotIng Global citizensHip education Through digital Storytelling" is a two-year Comenius project co-funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Program. The project started in October 2011 and will finish in September 2013. It is addressed to high schools in the seven partner countries involved in the initiative: Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway. The project's specific target groups are teachers and students.

The current global scenario, marked by social, political and environmental crisis which become more and more frequent, requires Education to assume a greater responsibility than ever in forming new citizens, with a strong focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). School, as a social institution, is always called to contribute significantly to the continual re-foundation of social cohesion and teachers must be prepared to help their students developing the global consciousness. Still, the present Education system in many of the EU countries has to improve the tools and methodologies to reach this goal. The Council of Europe indicates as the primal goal of Democratic Citizenship Education as "not just equipping learners with knowledge, understanding and skills, but also empowering them with the readiness to take action in society in the defense and promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law" (GDV/EDU/CIT 2003).

RIGHTS addresses this specific need, promoting the Education for Global Citizenship (EGC) by enhancing interactive teaching in secondary schools in Europe through the use of Digital Storytelling (DS). EGC is a comprehensive approach to the challenges of the present globalized world, with an emphasis on individual and social responsibility and consequent capacity of action. It points out to the empowering of the individual, not only to the transmission of notions. RIGHTS focuses on the use of DS, as it has proven to be a powerful and effective learning tool in stimulating creativity and critical thinking through the combination of the ancient art of telling stories with different digital tools.

RIGHTS will allow both teachers and students to approach EGC in a creative and interactive way, and at the same time to develop transversal key competences such as digital, social and civic competences and cultural awareness.

The RIGHTS didactic methodology will be firstly tested through the delivery of an online training course to teachers, and secondly through the organization of workshops with students and teachers, supported by facilitators in producing their personal digital stories. This will enhance interactive teaching on EGC and will empower EU students with the readiness to take action in society in defense and in promotion of human rights and democracy.

The main project result is the RIGHTS pilot course delivered in two parts:

• E-learning course for teachers, focussing on Education for Global Citizenship issues and digital storytelling techniques

• Workshops where teachers and students produce their digital stories on Education for Global Citizenship.

The following main activities will be carried out throughout the project:

Research aimed at understanding and comparing current experiences and expectations around ICT, Digital Storytelling and EGC from an EU wide perspective.

Course content development aimed at designing and producing the syllabus and contents of the online training course addressed to high school teachers and focused on Global Citizenship Education and the use of Digital Storytelling as learning tool in secondary schools of the partners involved.

Experimentation phase aimed at testing the RIGHTS didactic methodology in secondary schools of all the seven partner countries. In order to effectively test and assess the project's didactic methodology, at least 10 teachers will be selected to partake in the e-learning training course in each country; workshops will be organized involving teacher trainees and at least 15 students in each country, supported by a facilitator in order to produce at least two digital stories.

Quality assurance aimed specifically at assessing the RIGHTS course and methodology evaluation in terms of effectiveness and efficacy and impact on target group.

Dissemination strategy aimed at obtaining significant results to increase the project visibility reaching a great number of target group and stakeholders.