Citizens, governments, and organizations are concerned about the prevalence of fake news, hate speech, ansd self-enforcing echo chambers on online media platforms. Stimulating and facilitating meaningful conversations between students on societal and moral issues is believed to be a key element of civic education, both as a form and a goal.
However, teachers across Europe find it challenging to incorporate civic education in class, in particular the facilitation of healthy discussions on societal themes. Moreover, current methods are often not geared toward the experiences and interests of students, and therefore not engaging and motivating enough.
That’s where we come in! Together with vocational schools in The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Italy, and supported by Utrecht University and AWE Studio, we are building an adaption of the Civinc platform focused entirely on enabling pan-European exchange between vocational students in different countries. Key feature of this platform is the live translation API that allows students to discuss important topics in their own language.
The project is funded by the European Commission, and runs until the spring of 2023. Then, we want to present the results of pilots with hundreds of students, as well as offer the tool sustainably to teachers and students across Europe.