Aarhus transnational meeting
In June 19-20, the EU-MADE4LL partners met at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) for the second transnational meeting of the project. All partners were present, including Hannover university, which contributed online to the joint discussions. On the agenda, the finalisation of the second intellectual output of the project, namely the development of a common international syllabus that will be taught during Year 2 of the project’s life, that is academic year 2017-2018. Five different classes will be involved in the experimentation, i.e. Rome, Florence, Messina (Italy), Leeds (UK), and Aarhus (Denmark). The teachers/researchers responsible for each research units (Elisabetta Adami, Leeds; Carmen D. Maier, Aarhus; Ilaria Moschini, Florence; Sandra Petroni, Rome and Maria Grazia Sindoni, Messina) discussed several topics, including:
1) finalisation of the baseline surveys that will be submitted to all participants (and thus provide data for the comparison with the project’s results);
2) calendarization of the workshops that will be delivered in each University involved in the project;
3) core and secondary readings that will made up the background knowledge in multimodality and digital literacy for participants;
4) peer-assessment grids that are the backbone of the assessment procedure.
The peer-assessment grids have been developed so as to make sure that all students are equipped with a set of clear and standardised guidelines to assess their peer students from other universities with fairness. Ethics procedures during the project have been also thoroughly discussed to make sure that the most rigorous standards are met and that all stakeholders follow the European standards on protection of sensitive data of students.
Teachers/researchers have exchanged ideas with the IT group from Hannover, with Ivana Marenzi and Phillipp Kemke, who have developed the intellectual output 1, that is a flexible and powerful e-learning platform, EU-MADE4LL, produced in Year 1 and will be used by teachers/researchers in all stages of the development of the intellectual output 2, that is the international syllabus on multimodality and digital literacy in English for intercultural communication.
Marc Rocca, the Managing Director of Rocca Creative Thinking who represents the standpoint of the job market, has greatly enhanced the range of discussions by providing constant feedback on the requirements in digital literacy and critical skills that need to be encouraged for future employees in the context of business, intercultural communication, diplomacy and cooperation, education, media and communication, and IT.
