Explore the forefront of digital literacy in Portugal with our latest post, featuring pioneering initiatives from Escolas de Freixo, mochila.com.net, and Oficina dos Media. These platforms embody the spirit of innovation, fostering media literacy and digital skills among students. Join us in discovering how these projects are shaping the future of education and communication.
Digital literacy resources from Portugal
Escolas de Freixo’s (Viana do Castelo, Portugal) Communication Group is responsible for the creation and dynamisation of the digital newspaper “Comunica”. The publication is produced by the students of the Freixo School Group. It was born in October 2019 and the following year it won 1st place in the Público na Escola competition organised by the Público newspaper. Published daily with contributions from students (pre-school to 9th grade), Comunica is divided into thematic areas, ranging from Miniseries, Thematic Notebooks, Health Education, Culture, Weather, Interviews, TV News, 1Minute and many other. The editorial team has always wanted the newspaper to be primarily a repository for students’ work, done in the classroom or spontaneously, and for them to find here a means of individual expression of their personal interests and tastes. Film reviews, books or information on music and sport are among the sections most sought after by young people, who see Comunica as a way of keeping up to date with what’s going on at school, but also with the world around them.
Visit here: www.aefreixo.pt/comunica
mochila.com.net is a media literacy club that carries out activities as part of the online school newspaper of Sta. Bárbara’s School Group (Fânzeres, Porto). Over the past three years, the club has acted as a subsidiary resource for the conducting the activities developed as part of multi- or transdisciplinary projects, but its actions have always been aimed at creating an online school newspaper. With this new project the aim was to:
Articulate the development of media literacy with other forms of literacy;
Enable students to experience the world of current media communication in a critical and interventional way; Take advantage of the resources and opportunities provided by the media and communication networks to enrich personal and social development, so that each student could socialise, learn and study with greater quality;
Enable students to appropriate digital tools to enable them to make conscious use of the potential of the media, as well as making them aware of the dangers to which they are exposed;
Promote the use of different media languages, namely in the areas of the press, music, photography, comics, radio, television, advertising, cinema, video, video games – in both analogue and digital media and formats – but also on digital platforms and networks, mobile phones, tablets, smartphones and other forms of message circulation and dissemination; To help decode the language of the press and the media in general;
To promote the development of critical thinking;
To provide proposals for classroom / school library activities;
To publicise activities carried out at the school;
To promote links with other school projects. In short, the mission of mochila.com.net is to train the school’s students in media literacy, in accordance with the guidelines of several national guiding documents such as the Media Literacy Guidance and the Students’ Profile by the End of Compulsory Schooling.
Visit here: https://jornalescolar606.wixsite.com/mochila-com-net
Oficina dos Media
Oficina dos Media began in 2012 with the aim of promoting media literacy in the Ferreira de Castro School Group (Oliveira de Azeméis, Aveiro). The project has two strands: a curricular one, with the subject “Medi@rte”, and an extracurricular one, with the radio, television and school newspaper projects.
The Medi@rte subject is attended by all 8th grade students and its themes are related to communication: visual, through comics and animation; audio, with the production of podcasts; social media, tackling topics such as cyberbullying and fake news; and multimedia, teaching students how to make presentations and present them efficiently.
On the non-curricular side, Oficina dos Media counts with a school radio (Rádio Impacto), a newspaper (Jornal A Selva) and television. Rádio Impacto stands out. It is celebrating its 25th anniversary and is one of the oldest school radio station to operate uninterruptedly in Portugal. As well as regulating the daily life of the school, replacing the bells since 1999, the radio promotes the school’s activities, publicising the school library, school sport and other projects and clubs. It also promotes the school throughout the country and is frequently invited to take part in media literacy congresses and meetings. The school television has a studio and broadcasts everything that happens at the school via two TV sets placed in strategic locations. The school newspaper has been on hiatus since 2015, but is now returning as part of the TRUE Project (an initiative of Público na Escola). The project regularly collaborates with the Directorate-General for Education (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science), and children’s radios Rádio ZIGZAG and Rádio Miúdos.
Visit here: https://oficinadosmedia.wixsite.com/projeto/o-projeto
As part of the ASAP project, our partner CICANT suggested these invaluable resources for you to utilise and grow your skills.
CICANT hosted on of our co-creation workshop, in September 2023 (read here). The first one was hosted by our Slovenian partner, DOBA (read more here).
Exciting news and collaboration ahead, stay tuned.
