Katerina Nikolakopoulou's scientific contributions

In the modern world, the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) boosted a widespread influence of the media. The media provide knowledge, uninterrupted information and indirect experience, which sometimes become as vital as the direct experience. Young people are undeniable big media consumers in our digital world: through the media young people’s outlook of the world is shaped as well as the way they interact with the others and the perception of themselves. However, neither the educational system nor the media themselves promote audiovisual skills. Media literacy is of crucial importance for human and young people development and for a society that upholds equity and diversity, active citizenship, transparency, social inclusion, and recognition of values. Therefore, media education modules need to be incorporated into teachers’ training at all school levels. Furthermore, the establishment of online Communities of Practice could capitalize the effect of any pilot or permanent effort on the achievement of this educational target. The european, three-year Erasmus+ KA3 project CrAL aims to introduce the Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy by scaling up and disseminating a good Italian practice on inclusive learning targeting to foster the 21st century skills for globally competent young people, who effectively combine knowledge about the world and critical reasoning whenever they form their own opinion about a contemporary issue. In this project partners from six countries (Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Lithuania) will foster critical thinking and media literacy among learners, parents and educational staff. This will be done through the interesting methodology “Creative Audiovisual Writing and Reading” and with the creation of two main, important tools: 1. An online platform, an innovative and already tested as effective tool that will include: (a) the online training course, offering an interesting training path to teachers and trainers to transfer the methodology “Creative Audiovisual Writing and Reading” to secondary schools and to the non-formal sector in other EU Countries and (b) a showcase of the audiovisual materials produced and uploaded by the students. The platform will provide a virtual space for all those (students, teachers, tutors, parents, community) who share this common interest about media education and work towards the shared goal. 2. An online International Community of Practice (CoP) which will be established within the CrAL project. The CoP will also be technically supported by the platform. This virtual CoP will serve as a vehicle for offering teachers and tutors access to the educational material for media literacy; ensure their preparedness; manage training in the most suitable and effective way and enable professionals of all levels of education to promote collaborative learning and co-creation of content in a virtual environment. Both tools, the Platform and the virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) will be developed within the project in order to effectively achieve the ultimate aim of CrAL that is to promote the social inclusion of beneficiaries through the provision of skills, abilities and capacities in order to act as active citizens through social environments and to bring positive social change. Keywords: Digital pedagogical tools, media literacy, social inclusion, platform, virtual Community of Practice (VCoP)