Power Of Internet

BY MS ABIGAIL CAMILLERI

Students are living in a technological world. They are surrounded by disinformation and fake news, cyberbullying and hate speech. They know how to use the devices, but do they know how to identify what is real from what is fake? Do they know how to behave, where to get help if they end up victims of cyberbullying or hate speech? This project aimed at helping students become more media responsible and media literate and to become wiser users of social media and was a success as a result of a great collaboration between the Eramus+ Team at Sir Michelangelo Refalo comprised of 4 teachers (Ms Abigail Camilleri, Ms Maria Bortone, Mr Gordon Grech and Ms Stephanie Azzopardi with the total support of the Head of the Institute), and Ms Jennifer Cauchi and her team from Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the Cyber Crime Unit, as well as Mr Tomasz Musial from Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych i Technicznych w Wojkowicach in Wojkowice, Poland and the amazing students from both schools. ‘Power of Internet’ helped in developing the students’critical thinking skills enabling them to recognize biases and different perspectives of information being projected on social media. These skills gave them the necessary guidelines to be able to distinguish real news from fake news and to decipher what is credible and what is not, to be aware of hate speech and most important to learn to reflect and to be wise - not to believe everything that they read, watch or listen. This project also helped our students to make new friends and learn about other cultures. It also made them more confident and gave them a different and enjoyable educational experience outside the classroom

setting. The following are some of the students’ and teachers’ feedback: “Both mobilities became possible thanks to Erasmus+ funds a n d

the extraordinary cooperation between me and Ms Abigail Camilleri as well as Mr Gordon Grech and Ms Stephanie Azzopardi, Ms Maria Bortone and the Head of Sir Michelangelo Refalo Sixth Form Mr Daniel James Cassar, who all came up with the plan for the mobilities which allowed 10 students from Poland to go abroad for the first time in their lives. This exercise helped to expand their skills related to internet safety, self-organisation, communication, creativity and how to react to hate speech. Most of all it was an enriching experience where our students became friends with Gozotians, who stole our hearts. Luckily this exchange of good practices between us is not the end as we are already planning further mobilities!” Mr Tomasz Musial

“Our main aim was to get knowledge of cybercrime. We were already familiar with the topic, but the workshops and lectures extended our knowledge. Working in international teams and communicating with each other sometimes wasn’t easy but all these experiences made me step out of my comfort zone. Apart from that we made new friends. The students were kind and open-minded. There was always space for new opinions, views. Everyone was tolerant and curious about our culture, languages, but at the same time they were eager to tell us about Maltese culture and teach us Maltese words. Whatever we asked about, students and teachers from Malta always answered patiently, their love for their home country was evident. We admired their commitment to the Erasmus project.” Maja Kiciak “It was an amazing experience, amazing people with a beautiful culture that I will never forget. The opportunity to learn new things abroad country was terrific.” Kinga Matecka “This was an amazing experience mainly because I met these wonderful group of students and we all became friends. I enjoyed all the outings that we did together and also the informative talks we had about on using the internet safely. I loved learning about their culture and learning new facts about Poland. I also enjoyed telling them about our country; our lifestyle, traditions; taking them to historical places and teaching them some Maltese words too! I hope that one day we will get the chance to visit their country. It was such a pleasure getting to know these people and learning about Poland too.” Simon Zammit “At first I wasn’t very optimistic about this project, but the story turned out to be a very different one. We became a big group of friends and it seemed that we had known each other for a very long time. We learned, we laughed and we enjoyed exploring our little island. I thank you all for this amazing eduational experience.” Mark Attard