Three ways to combat Violence Online!

Are you a Facebook user? Do your kids chat with their friends online?  Are you a parent or teacher who is concerned about what internet content is available to young people – and how they use it?

The European Project Virtual Stages Against Violence - VSAV (Daphne III Programme) has been developing material for young people 10-16 years old to highlight the dangers of the digital age.  An online game, pieces of interactive educational theatre and a teachers’ toolkit were developed on the basis of the research and needs analysis with the young people, teachers and parents at European schools, and have all proven popular and successful strategies for sensitising young people to the perils of the internet. 

With the Online-game “The Big Brain” and the theatre plays young people may learn how important it is not to reveal personal data or passwords when using new technologies. These innovative materials also show young people how false identities on the internet can be damaging. Besides the risks of new technologies the project VSAV especially addresses the positive potential that new media and other technologies entail:

• The Big Brain: Online-game
• Channel Troy: Watch the whole theater play here
• Teachers’ Toolkit: Download the toolkit for free

The toolkit will be soon available in German for download on the project website. A Training Course  was held in Palermo Italy for educators and teachers coming from the four countries participating in the project (Italy, Romania, Austria and Germany) where the Educational Guide “Toolkit – Digital & Media Literacy Education” were presented.  The text, written by Maria Ranieri (University of Florence, Department of Education, Educational Technology Laboratory), focuses on five key themes: Participation, Credibility, Identity, Privacy, Authorship and Creativity.

During the Training, educators could learn about and experiment the proposed activities in Toolkit which they have tested in the classroom in their countries.  The toolkit was tested in Austria in November 2012. The testing was carried out with pupils of secondary and vocational schools, aged 13 to 17. 

One example of the educational material is in the form of a WIKI – co-authored by teachers and pupils, this tool gave young people the opportunity to conduct guided research and engage in online  classroom discussions, using new media to contribute to web-content.