A transnational Service-Learning Project on Disinformation

Online safety and fake news have been hot topics in European media, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students spend a lot of time online, and some have experienced cyberbullying and online violence. As the internet is a global space and students consume online content from all over the world, the project is specifically designed to be transnational, with partner schools in five countries.

The process

As part of a training course on the eTwinning platform, a German teacher establishes valuable contacts with colleagues from Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Portugal. Together with their students, the teachers develop the idea of a transnational project in which the students want to find out whether they can believe everything they find in the media. 

The students work together throughout the school year in both national and international teams to develop the project. Goals for the next phase of work are set in regular meetings and tasks are assigned to the teams. Exchange and joint work phases take place in regular online meetings. Communicating in English, the students compare their experiences in Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Portugal and get to know each other better over the course of the school year.

By the end of the project, the students have jointly developed an e-book with information, e-safety games, and puzzles. The topics covered are based on topics from the curricula, and the knowledge and competences acquired are taken up in class tests. The project is evaluated and reflected on in a final survey developed by the students.

Cooperation between teachers

The teachers from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Germany work together to develop the learning objectives of the project and to exchange information about the links to curricula in their respective education systems. They cooperate in lesson planning and implementation, support each other, and evaluate the lessons together.