Sensitising the next generation to the value of democracy and empowering them to act democratically is an important building block for maintaining peace and freedom in Europe and the European community.

With the implementation of our project "FED" "Promotion of Democracy Education" (FED) based on the didactic approach of game-based learning, we want to do exactly that: to enable every user to better understand democracy and to sensitise them to the value of democracy.

Since imparted knowledge about democratic processes often remains abstract, we have opted for the didactic approach of game-based learning. According to Frank Walter Steinmeier, "discussion is the cement of democracy", and it is precisely this discussion that we achieve with the production of the card game, based on the didactic approach of game-based learning. (game-based learning). It is based on the "Vertellis" game (https://www.vertellis.de), in which there are neither winners nor losers, because the discussion itself is the goal. In a playful way, all players learn what it means to act politically and to shape their own living environment together with others.

They will learn not only to pursue their own interests, but also to put themselves in the position of their counterparts. Because getting to know other points of view, weighing up arguments and understanding and respecting attitudes that differ from one's own opinion are all part of the democratic debate and the goal of our project "FED".

That is why democracy education has such a crucial socio-political significance. If these values are taught, young people learn to look after their interests and to treat their fellow human beings with respect.

The project proposed here is a playful and participatory way of learning. It can be applied in promoting democracy education in non-formal education with the main aim of engaging, connecting and empowering young people.

For applicability to the professional community in adult education and social work, a handout is being produced in the form of a companion booklet with discussion prompts, food for thought and philosophical questions in 7 languages.

With the involvement of politics, we are taking on this transnational educational task in a consortium of GR, BG, ES, NO and DE, with the aim of promoting democracy education in relation to learning about, through and for democracy. The experiences in Europe are different, so it is more important than ever that the value of EU democracy is strengthened through transnational learning.

• a card game based on the didactic approach of game-based learning.
  It conveys knowledge, promotes the exchange of different attitudes and serves as a basis for discussion.
• As a basis for the development of the game and the handout, a comprehensive needs analysis in the form of a desktop research with subsequent questionnaire survey among 100 European parents is carried out, which precisely captures the current needs and topics with regard to democracy education.
• In order to deepen the dialogue in the family as well as to make the game applicable for the professional association and multipliers in adult education and social work, an accompanying booklet is produced as a handout. In addition to the game instructions, it contains thought-provoking impulses, suggestions for discussion and philosophical impulses on various current topics.
• The educational game will be available in 7 languages.

After completion of the project:
The game will be available as a print & play template or for free download on each partner site.

EDUCOMMART is responsible, among other things, for carrying out the needs analysis with regard to democracy education in European families. Furthermore, it will use its experience in dissemination and the existing far-reaching network to disseminate the project idea and results and will be responsible for the documentation and evaluation of the dissemination results.

Programme: Erasmus+
Titel: FED | Promoting democracy education in everyday family life
Acronym: FED
Project No.: 2021-1-DE02-KA220-ADU-000026502
Duration: 24 months
Start-End: 01\12\2021 – 30\11\2023
Coordinator: Miteinander in Europa e. V., DE

• EDUCOMMART – Meeting Point for Creative Education, GR
• UCHEBNA RABOTILNITSA EVROPA SDRUZHENIE, Lernwerkstatt Europa e. V., BG
• ASOCIACION DE INNOVACION FORMACIONY EMPLEO PARA DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, ES
• Systeme in Bewegung e. V., DE
• Nyskolen i Oslo, NO

At the latest since the introduction of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, the topic of data protection has repeatedly been part of the public discourse. The right of every individual to the protection of their personal data is already enshrined in Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The GDPR only concretises this protection.

The General Data Protection Regulation contains provisions on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. It aims to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons - in particular their right to protection of their own personal data.

In other words, the GDPR describes our personal rights to informational self-determination. We ourselves should be able to determine the disclosure and use of our personal data. And these rights lead to obligations and provisions that companies and organisations must comply with.

But especially in the professional environment, data protection is seen by many people as a hindrance. Data protection is often associated only with restrictions and prohibitions. And that is a real pity, because it serves to protect the personal data of all of us.

The GDPRism project aims to support organisations and staff in adult education in planning and implementing projects in a data protection compliant manner. The target group of the project is therefore basically employees who are responsible for the planning and implementation of projects and educational offers. In addition to staff from administration, this also includes trainers and teachers from vocational and adult education.

In developing the content, the project also specifically addresses organisations that run projects in the ERASMUS+ environment. Nevertheless, the project results have a general validity and can also be used by other organisations and institutions. By building expertise and competences within the organisation, the project supports the target group in their digital transformation.

EDUCOMMART is responsible, among other things, for the quality assurance of the project and its contents. Furthermore, it will use its experience in dissemination and the existing far-reaching network to disseminate the project idea and results and will be responsible for the documentation and evaluation of the dissemination results.

In order to establish data protection as a central topic in everyday professional life, the essential basics must first be taught. What is data protection actually? What do we mean by personal data? What rights and obligations does the General Data Protection Regulation entail for me and my organisation? This content is prepared in the form of an e-learning module that enables people from adult education to acquire the basic knowledge and apply it in their own organisation.

This learning unit is complemented by a guideline for handling project data and participant data. This guideline describes the data protection-compliant implementation of a project using an ERASMUS+ project as an example.

In addition, the project documents and makes available concrete instructions, checklists and best practices that help to take data protection regulations into account in everyday life. This includes, for example, the selection of suitable online tools for preparing, conducting and following up lessons conducting and following up lessons according to data protection criteria.

Programme: Erasmus+
Titel: GDPRism | Practical data protection in further education and projects – An upskilling pathway for European organization
Acronym: GDPRism
Project No.: 2022-1-DE02-KA210-ADU-000082396
Duration: 18 months
Start-End: 01\09\2022 – 01\03\2024
Coordinator: Medienkompetenz Team e.V., DE

EDUCOMMART – Meeting Point for Creative Education, GR

This educational project entitled "Death Education" (DED) aims to help overcome speechlessness and to encourage people in the European community to deal consciously with their own finiteness.

"DED is a special project that trains adults in life skills.

Dying is the future topic of an ageing society. Dealing with one's own transience, with dying and the mourning of loved ones, is one of the great tasks of every human life.
Every 17 seconds, a person in Europe died of COVID in 2020, currently countless people are dying in Ukraine as well, and there is no end in sight.
Death is a life event that no one passes by, and the fear of it is a universal human emotion.

In our society, however, it is a taboo subject that even the religious are not sufficiently prepared, says Iva Mechkunova, who organised the first Death Cafe in Sofia. Many people are emotionally overwhelmed because they are also confronted with their own transience. This makes them feel powerless and demands comfort. While there are codes of language and behaviour for central topics of life, there is often speechlessness in the Western cultural area in the face of death. How is it possible to speak about something that is occupied with fear, uncertainty, pain and loss?

For this reason, the University of Regensburg has initiated its own course of study on the topic of "dying" in 2021. This underlines the topicality and encourages people to learn more about dying and death through transnational learning and to talk about it with people from different cultures!

So we need spaces where we can ask questions about rituals, traditions and experiences that are not only exhausted in fear-filled private how-do-you-talks.
We activate this process with our project "DED", because the way of dealing and the experience in Europe are different.
We need transnational learning in professional exchange, in the search for a healing way of dealing with one's own mortality and the associated grief.

The confrontation with finitude challenges us in letting in the "later" and thereby takes away the illusion of a safe distance.

"DED" creates a complementary offer that does not yet exist in Europe in its entirety. It can be adapted to other European countries and ensures lifelong learning in Europe.

Short overview of the most important results during the project period:

• Website with the following results
• Handbook with different approaches from examples of good practice to approach the personal challenging issue
• Implementation of a library on the website
• Interactive art exhibition "End of conversation"

The main objective of the project "DED" is to educate and sensitise adults in the European community to deal consciously with their own finiteness.

Detailed objectives are:

• Encouraging people to open up about this sensitive topic
• Learning how to communicate and behave in relation to dying and death
• To learn knowledge, skills and behaviours that help people to change their attitudes towards death and grief.
• Promote awareness, for a vigilant perception of the finitude that death imposes on our lives.
• Raising awareness for the inner confrontation with one's own feelings in relation to death.
• Intercultural learning by getting to know culture-specific rituals and traditions in living and dying.

Educommart has, among other things, the lead position for project dissemination including the development of the project logo and the development of an interactive art exhibition and country-specific online library for the project site.

Programme: Erasmus+
Titel: DED | Education about death - learning for life
Acronym: DED
Project No.: 2022-1-DE02-KA210-ADU-000084467
Duration: 14 months
Start-End: 01\09\2022 – 01\11\2023
Coordinator: Miteinander in Europa e.V., DE
Homepage: www.deatheducation.eu

• UCHEBNA RABOTILNITSA EVROPA SDRUZHENIE, Lernwerkstatt Europa e.V., BG
• EDUCOMMART – Meeting Point for Creative Education, GR
• Sambucusforum vzw, BE

Fake news and the associated disinformation of citizens has increased extremely in recent years. The Corona pandemic in particular, with its conspiracy narratives and health-damaging false reports, has highlighted the importance of digital literacy.

The whole of Europe has set itself the task of "combating disinformation".
KNOW FAKE wants to make an important contribution to this. Because media literacy is more important today than ever before. Media competence includes:

• the analytical examination of forms of media communication, e.g. news in social networks
• the promotion of critical thinking
• reflecting on the different interests, content, selection and form of conveying information
• teaching practical strategies to see through mechanisms of manipulation and to be able to discuss them better.

Since 2018, the EU has been taking united action against disinformation with an action plan. Democracy needs education that promotes the democratic competences of citizens - the ability to criticise and judge, participation skills, maturityEveryone is needed in the fight against disinformation. All over the world, people are confronted with an increasing spread of false information that destabilises democratic institutions and and undermine the confidence of citizens in them. Combating misinformation and disinformation, as well as foreign interference and influence on elections, requires different political countermeasures.

KNOW FAKE starts with the European Action Plan for Democracy and the fight against disinformation and with its results brings media literacy directly into families in the form of this educational project. Families bring together people who are informed by different sources of information and often get into heated arguments about it. Especially in the last two years of the pandemic, this has not infrequently led to divisions, exclusions and separations.

Families will be empowered with KNOW FAKE and will be given a playful opportunity to learn about and analyse the background and functioning of Fake News and its principles with a modern analogue card game (multilingual).

The results and the dissemination of KNOW FAKE will strengthen families as a place of learning for digital literacy.

The innovative result of KNOW FAKE will also be disseminated as a possibility for school and extracurricular education in youth institutions and can be used in a low-threshold way.

The multiplier events will bring parents, educators and policy makers together and disseminate KNOW FAKE. Political decision-makers will receive an impulse paper.

The main objective of KNOW FAKE is to educate and raise awareness, build resilience and build media literacy with regard to disinformation on the net. Media literacy represents a central key competence for lifelong learning and includes not only knowledge and practical skills but also the safe reflective use of digital media.

Our project aims to promote digital literacy and specifically educate about disinformation on the net.

Detailed objectives are:

• Raising awareness of the importance of digital literacy with a focus on fake news and disinformation.
• To draw attention to a critical and reflective handling to information on the internet.
• Addressing a broad target group with a view to families.

Project results are:

• Development and production of an analogue card game KNOW FAKE with digital elements in 5 European languages.
• Development and production of a handbook KNOW FAKE with digital elements in 6 European languages - with didactic-methodical accompanying material for families and educators.
• Multiplier events in each partner country
• Presentation of the results of KNOW FAKE at the Didakta in March 2024 in Cologne.
• KNOW FAKE website with all results in 6 European languages

In its analogue card game, the accompanying booklet and the app, KNOW FAKE will offer playful learning opportunities for:

• a critically-reflective handling of news on the net
• strategies of research (source checking)
• Knowledge about media forms (recognising and understanding staging and distortion effects)
• Knowledge about online networks (working methods, quality criteria, forms of presentation, interests)
• News analysis
• Strategies for discussing false news and conspiracy narratives in the family
• A web-based app that digitally supports and complements the analogue card game.

EDUCOMMART is, among other things, the lead organisation responsible for the implementation of the project dissemination through a social media campaign and the general documentation and evaluation of the dissemination results

Programme: Erasmus+
Titel: KNOW FAKE | A project to fight against disinformation
Acronym: KNOW FAKE
Project No.: 2022-1-KA220-ADU-000089332
Duration: 24 months
Start-End: 01\10\2022 – 30\09\2024
Coordinator: Stiftung Medien- und Onlinesucht, DE

• Systeme in Bewegung e.V., DE
• UCHEBNA RABOTILNITSA EVROPA SDRUZHENIE, Lernwerkstatt Europa e.V., BG
• PCO – Poklicni center Obala, SI
• EDUCOMMART – Meeting Point for Creative Education, GR
• Österreichische Gesellschaft für Kinderphilosophie, AT