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About the project

Together with traditional mass media, the modern forms (information and communication technology) have an indisputable influence on today’s living environments. Culture, everyday life and society are coming more and more strongly under the forming influence of the media. Children and young people need to acquire the knowledge and skills which will enable them to deal with media creatively, with the feeling that they are in command; that they can participate and contribute to the media world, as well as finding their way about in it. Active, practical media competence, together with analytic and critical skills in handling and producing information in the form of written and spoken words, sound and images, are required in order to be able to communicate in both the old and new media.
In view of ever-increasing globalisation this cannot be treated in a European context as a task for its member nations individually. The new world of possibilities and forms of communication need to be examined, discussed and put into practice methodically in schools.
Medi@Culture- Online has taken up this challenge and offers pupils, students, teachers parents and anyone who is interested two platforms: an information platform and a project platform.
The information platform contains learning aids as well as media educational and technically relevant information.
The online project platform provides opportunities for communicating and co-operating via Internet.
European Medi@Culture-Online consists of a number of modules which provide the basis and tools for active, critical media competence in a school project framework, as follows:

	Basic information on media educational and technically relevant subjects: background information on the uses of media, media technology, different kinds of media, instructions on how to produce media (multi-media and publication).
	Production platform for online projects: with the help of an editing system, schools involved in project work create their own cross-border projects in co-operation with classes in other European schools, implementing the media educational material and technical know-how provided by the information base.
	The project platform also provides a platform for interaction: discussion forums on media-related subjects, under the direction of a presenter. These are intended for schools involved in the projects, teachers, parents…..

Project Schedule

To create a multi-lingual fund of basic information, building on the information at present available from partners in other countries (Germany, France, Finland, Austria). The information from media projects and initiatives taking place in these countries will flow directly into the information pool and constitute an important part of the whole. A selection of the most important items will be available in German, English and French. While this fund of basic information is being built up, various types of schools and different grades co-operating in the European partnership agree on ideas for projects which are then carried out from country to country through the use of media. European Medi@Culture-Online offers these schools proven and reliable know-how, ensures inter- and intra-project communication by providing communication services integrated in the platform, as well as a common environment for online productions and publications. These publications can be used – together with detailed descriptions of the methods needed, the tools and results – as motivating ideas, impulses, examples and aids by all kinds of European educational institutions.