ReConnect

Research shows that more than 80% of young people in Europe use the internetfor social activities. Whilst mobile access to the internet significantly increasedover the last years, the use of technology for educational purposes lags behind. Through this project, the educators will learn new skills on how to harness the soft-skills as well as robust digital skills needed by the learners and educators tothrive in their future employment and life. This project will also be instigating educators to adjust and take advantage of new digital technologies.

ReConnect Main Results

The main results expected out of the ReConnect project is to develop a new pedagogical approach for educators and to increase media literacy of the learners within aschool environment.

Furthermore, the project harnesses the interplay of social media and youngpeople. Young people from an early age are being exposed to social media andonline tools for leisure, socialization and education. This makes the younggeneration, also referred to as Millennials, very savvy and skilful when it comesto using online tools and social media. However, this generation is criticized forthe lack of social skills when it comes to face-to-face communication. Thisgeneration is perceived as disconnected from the ‘offline’ aspect of life, due totheir immersion into the online aspect.
For the above reasons, this project is linked to the EU’s Digital Education ActionPlan which speaks about three main objectives:

1. Making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning
2. Developing relevant digital competencies and skills for the digitaltransformation
3. Increase students’ media literacy

Data Analysis

The project partners are San Gorg Preca College, Blata l-Bajda Middle School (Malta), PRISMS (Malta), Stichting Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (Netherlands) and Arsuz District National Education Directorate (Turkey). Currently the project is in the data analysis phase.

After the data analysis we will:

• Change the perception of educators towards the internet as a tool for learning
• Assist educators to understand the sociological and psychologicaleffects of Internet
• Explain the new pedagogical approach
• Think of ways how to implement the new approach into theclassroom environment in practical terms
• Create a number of case studies which educators will use inclassrooms after the training
• Eequip educators with skills to be able to integrateonline and offline strategies when working with young people.