Digital media literacy training in Plovdiv

Digital technologies play a vital role in contemporary life. They can enable young people to seek and share information, and to connect with others, but they can also pose risks to their safety, privacy and well-being. The project “Digital media literacy for youth employment and social realisation” (YDML) addresses these challenges and seeks to provide youth workers with useful tools to help the young people navigate safely in the digital world.

This was the focus of the third international mobility in YDML project, which took place from 19th to 23rd of September 2022 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The host of the event was the Center for Creative training, coordinator of the project. 

Thirty seven educators and trainers from the 5 partner countries participated in sessions dedicated to different topics from the digital media literacy realm like digital forest and the power of influencers, among others. The major aim of the training was to elaborate more on the content of the youth trainers’ training program in digital media literacy. 

One pleasant surprise was the young high-school student, Patrick Vodrážka, from the Smíchovská secondary technical school in Prague, who wants to become a trainer. He introduced interprepation of the problem of fake news in a workshop for the youth workers and teachers.

As part of the mobility, the participants had the opportunity to visit the professional high school for food technologies in Plovdiv (PHFT), which is the first vocational school in Bulgaria to be granted the status of Google Reference School (GRS). GRSs are recognized by Google for their outstanding use of technology to drive positive learning outcomes. The hosts at the school invited the youth workers to attend blended classes where 4 classrooms were virtually connected through cloud technologies and visible on a screen so that the students and teachers could collaborate in real time on a common project. One of the classes was conducted in a chemistry lab where different cosmetics products are created and tested by the school’s cosmetic company “Sky Beauty cosmetics”. At the end, each guest received a set of cosmetic products as a gift from the young beauty-entrepreneurs. 

The training experts from South Africa’s partner CloudEdu engaged students from the PHFT in workshops on cyberbullying and digital addictions. 

What is an international mobility without cultural experience? The sunniest (and quite windy) day, which happened to be the national holiday of the Independence day, was dedicated to a historical trip to the Asen’s fortress and the Bachkovo monastery – two important strongholds of Bulgarian history.  

In the following weeks till the end of the project partners will work on the training materials for a comprehensive and a state-of-the-art training program for youth workers that will allow building young people competences for safe and effective use of the digital technologies.