Digital technologies are changing and influencing the way we experience the world around us. Every day we immerse ourselves in the virtual dimension of our reality, which shapes the way we perceive the world, the way we think about things and the way we interact with the environment. Sometimes, in this sea of possibilities and information, we don’t manage too well – we believe fake news, fall under the influence of people who handle information better than ourselves, or don’t realize that some information was placed on us because someone planned it in advance. There are many reasons for this, and one of them is definitely insufficient knowledge of tools and methods for content creation and the consequences that their use can have.

In order to address the problem of insufficient media literacy among young digital natives (the term digital natives is used for people who were born and grow up interacting with digital technologies), partners from six European countries united in the project “CrAL – Creative Audiovisual Lab”, with the goal to encourage young people to think critically about the importance, responsibility and power of their voice in the media space and to increase the media literacy of young people, their parents and teachers in schools.

The project will improve and expand the recognized Italian good practice “Creative audiovisual writing and reading” in Croatia, Greece, Lithuania and Spain.

The target group of the CrAL project is young people aged 14 to 19 who will be involved in the activities of (re)interpretation and production of various audiovisual content. Secondary school teachers and other educators from non-formal educational institutions will also be involved in the project: they will improve their skills in transmitting knowledge about audiovisual culture, critical thinking and media literacy. Parents and other members of the local community will represent active protagonists who will strengthen the impact of education and project activities at the national and European level.

Young people involved in the project will have the opportunity to acquire digital skills such as active communication, peer collaboration, creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and self-confidence. The project will simultaneously promote the involvement of vulnerable groups and young people as active creators in creating positive social changes.

The specific goals of the project are:

• To provide school teachers and educators from informal educational institutions with knowledge, skills and competences on audiovisual education and the methodology of creative audiovisual writing and reading.
• To empower young people (14-19 years old) to critically (re)interpret and produce audiovisual content, with a focus on acquiring critical thinking skills and media literacy.

How will we succeed in this?

• We will conduct innovative education for school teachers and educators from the informal sector, which will help transfer the methodology to secondary schools and the informal education sector in other European Union countries.
• We will create a course that implements a new methodology using multilingual and multimedia educational content.
• We will pilot the methodology of creative writing and reading on three levels (tutors-professors-students) in five European countries, which will result in the creation of audiovisual content by young people.
• We will train 15 tutors in transnational training, 60 professors through a five-week combined course and 250 students (50 in each country included in the project) who will participate in the creation of audiovisual content.
• We will create an international community of people interested in audiovisual education and an online platform so that we can increase the impact of the project’s results. All audiovisual content that we will create in the project will be available on the platform.
• Through the organization of events, we will open a dialogue about the potential of audiovisual content in education to promote critical thinking and social inclusion, and encourage cross-sectoral cooperation with the local community, parents, decision makers and other key stakeholders in the field of education.
• We will produce recommendations for decision-makers on the use of audiovisual content in inclusive education, which will be presented at the end of the project at an international event in Brussels.

We implement the CrAL project as part of the Erasmus+ program, in cooperation with partners: ALL DIGITAL (Belgium, project coordinator), Association Langas į ateitį (Lithuania), European Grants International Agency SRL (Italy), Hellenic Open University (Greece), Istituto Centrale per I Beni Sonori e Audiovisivi (Italy) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain).

The project is co-financed by the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual Activity and Culture of the European Commission, the Office for Associations of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Agency for Electronic Media.