"<< Background >>Climate change is the greatest challenge of our times. Humans are recognized as a major cause of Climate Change (UNESCO, 2009) and hence their active involvement in mitigation and adaptation actions is crucial. The EU has launched the Green Deal initiative to raise awareness on climate change, industry innovation and more, while the European Education Area initiated a special Education for Climate Change Coalition, pledging for concrete actions made by individuals and collective actors at the local, regional and national levels. In this respect, the role of education in addressing climate change is increasingly recognized. Despite the efforts happening on an EU level, it seems that there is no specific behavioral change towards a greener future and not the appropriate attention has been given especially now, where the focus is on the covid-19 health crisis; meanwhile climate education so far has not the desired impact (Anderson 2012, Bancay 2010, Bangkok 2012, Sezen-Barrie 2020, Monroe 2019). It seems increasingly difficult to build meaningful educational experiences able to involve young people in transformative processes and overcome the ingrained ""nihilistic sense”. The teachers need, therefore, to be renewed to better deal with knowledge and skills in an interactive environment, promoting creativity, aesthetics, global and critical thinking and to promote relevant societal change. Unfortunately, the teaching today is more cognitive-based and more theoretical than action-based as part of a problem-solving procedure. Τhe sector needs teachers and role models that take responsibility. To be fully involved and engaged. Critics of environmental education have argued that teachers must have a comprehensive knowledge of environmental concepts to be better environmental teachers. It is also expected that if teachers have a more refined conception of what environmental education entails, they will feel equipped to include it within their existing curriculum. In addition to subject knowledge and skills, there is a need to develop general competencies (critical thinking and problem-solving skills, creativity, communication and collaboration skills, empathy) which enable learners to solve the complex issues they will face (OECD/CERI 2008; Binkley et al., 2014). Given the increasingly active role of the learner in the learning process and the use of inclusive learning methods in schools, learning through play is also gaining popularity. The use of the games in education has become the interest of many practitioners and researchers (Qian & Clark, 2016). Well planned usage of games for learning, enables students to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills, creativity, communication and teamwork skills while boosting confidence. Teachers are expected to incorporate in their teaching methods 21st century life-skills (critical thinking, flexibility, imagination, problem solving, creative disruptive innovative mind, resilience, meditation-mindfulness), develop emotional intelligence (EQ) like self-control, empathy, self-knowledge, management of emotions. Manuals and learning material often distributed are quite theoretical and scarce practices are being implemented for 1-2 hours during school schedule and most of them are extra-curricular. One of the most impactful ways to learn in an experiential way and memorize content better triggering also intrinsic motivation is Live-Action Role Playing (LARP). It has been confirmed by research, that learners memorize content better when they are actively involved in the learning process, as in the case of dramatizations, simulations and role play. This has lead us to explore within this GreenEduLARP project the potential of EduLARP for Cimate Change Education (CCE).<< Objectives >>Project GreenEduLARP aims at using the tool of EduLARP (Educational Live Action Role Playing) for Climate Change Education (CCE). This way students but also teachers – as involved participants- will be connecting the topics related to Climate Change learned in classroom with real-life situations, therefore more easily relating them to their own life, making connections also on how green their life and attitude is. The aims of the project are: i) to empower teachers with new competences in environmental education using LARP, ii) to enhance students with confidence and agency skills through the LARPing methodology and teamwork while also learning about climate change and building concepts around it, iii) to create accessible online material for further use and capitalization, iv) to build a transnational strategy on how to adapt EduLARP methodology in school curricula.<< Implementation >>To achieve these objectives, the project will bring together stakeholders and target groups (teachers, students, LARPers policy makers, education designers, environmental activists) and engage them in co-design, co-creation, testing, piloting, validation, sharing and promotion activities. Teachers and students will be involved in building stories related to green actions adapted to the ΕduLARP game methodology trying to shift towards greeneer attitudes while developing soft skils. Through the AV Hub tutorials will be widely disseminated on EU level while the designed Strategy will advocate for more experiential learning through EduLARP for more effective Education System. connecting to other schools and projects via the Connecting platform. Teacher training offline and online activities, video tutorials and animations will complement these activities to demonstrate the educational potential and impact of GEL on teachers, students and community and contribute to the development of future oriented curricula that will empower young learners to become agents of change in the environmental transformation, better citizens and great team workers.<< Results >>The GEL expected project results are:1. GEL Curriculum is the learning and teaching material aiming to support teachers and students to develop the necessary soft skills such as agency, creative thinking, environmental literacy and problem solving that will transform them into green changemakers with greener attitudes. Through targeted EduLARP activities this result aspires to empower teachers with new competences for CCE and serve as a good practice for designing and delivering green EduLARPs.2. GEL Teachers´ Toolkit aiming to support teachers on the smooth and effective implementation of the project´s curriculum, on how to introduce EduLARP methodology in class for climate change actions. 3. GEL AV Hub where videos, animated presentations, interviews and tutorials will be produced in cooperation with technicians with practical and useful tips for future applications, ready to use activities and digital resources.4. Strategy on LARPing Adaptation to National School Curricula, the first ever and unique document with transnational power, to highlight the importance of the interdisciplinary approach of EduLARP and open the discussion on future curricula with concrete recommendations for policies and practices."

Over the last few years Educational LARPing (LARP=Life Action Role Play) and simulation approaches increasingly grab more attention in the non-formal and formal education field. The approaches proofed to be effective and esp. productive in educational topics that need empathy, awareness and self-reflection. The educational LARP method incorporates some techniques of education through art-methods like the role-play, the improvisation theatre and theatre of the oppressed as well. Many other educational approaches that aim to tackle stereotypes, prejudice and bias are failing to reach their goals due to the lack of focus raising empathy and self-reflection capabilities of their learners. Mainly because the pedagogy against populist, racist and antidemocratic attitudes and behaviour need to interact with their learners on a personal level and cannot just focus on knowledge transfer and cognitive procedures. LARP has proven that its merits consist especially on the emotional and self-reflective capacities of the method.In this strategic partnership project we are involving five partners form four different European countries that are working with this methods for a good practice exchange. Five partner-meetings and three joint staff trainings will set up an extensive opportunity for the staff of the organisations.Though EduLARP is considerably a new method for many educational institutions and therefore extensive exchange and sharing experiences and best practices are still needed. There is a strong need to exchange experience and learn from each other concerning digital formats of the art- and cultural related educational approaches. This project aims to create a space for knowledge transfer, to experience digital formats and their didactic techniques and to exchange ideas for the digitalisation of methods as well as new development. The primary target group for the project are the staff members of our organisations that are working with experience-based cultural and art related learning approaches, especially LARP and simulation.During the project we will especially focus on the topics inclusion-exclusion, diversity and discrimination that are especially addressable by experience-based learning approaches. Many educational institutions - esp. in the non-formal field - are aware of this advantage and consider this approaches as a chance in the actual social and political situation in a lot of European societies. Polarized and stereotyped society discourses forced by populist political movements and the natural defence-psychology of people against accusations making authentic experience necessary. EduLARPs can be used to work on this topics and they have the advantage that they can be used with target groups of all sectors and milieus and they can be applied in digital and non-digital formats.

"<< Background >>Both EU Parliament and EC highlight the role of social media in distribution of disinformation, undermining EU democracy and questioning our European common values. Despite EU actions (from both 2018 and May 2021) to control social media giants, the social media have appeared to have still be ""stirring the pot"". Thousands of Facebook documents revealed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen demonstrate why of the EU population must develop media literacy skills and exercise their civic engagement and participation in tackling disinformation to make EC’s efforts on preserving EU democracy effective. This especially concerns young people, who constitute the majority of digital citizens of today (45% of the world's internet users are below 25, according to UN’s #YouthStats). The youth of today live in the world of diverse social media, densely saturated with disinformation. Particularly when consuming information on social media, they require Media Literacy skills to be able to tell what they can trust. Media literacy can and should be taught to youth, to defend EU values and democracy and preserve youth’s mental health and the future.Therefore, the problem our project addresses is youth lacking media literacy (ML) skills, required to identify and counteract disinformation in the poorly controlled environment of social media. Social media of today are flourishing with fake news, political propaganda, fabricated / manipulated / sponsored content, deep fakes and other types of disinformation that are still emerging following technological progress. As youth processes information visually, they are likely to receive information from YouTube influencers rather than from established media outlets. The same time, they do not possess enough ML skills to judge the falsehood of the information they consume: “Navigating the complex online landscape circumspectly requires a certain level of literacy and maturity that children and young people may not have acquired” (UNICEF.)In today’s difficult times, however, Media Literacy must be endorsed among youth educators as well. Everyone working with youth should increase their own media literacy competence in order to successfully help youth also develop these skills. Furthermore, youth workers and trainers must utilise pedagogical methods that would be effective in teaching modern youth. Specifically, the project will develop the Toolkit, The Guide, and the Mobile Game with disinformation larps to support youth educators, in order to boost their competences and the resources available to them to promote media literacy, critical thinking and digital competences amongst youth with the ultimate aim to prepare them to take part in a democracy.The current project proposals seeks to meet these needs by harnessing the enormous potential of popular education (folkbildning). Young people, most of whom are representatives of Gen Z (everyone up to the age 25), want to actively participate in the learning process, be creative, and their learning to be more connected to the real-world (according to the research of Adobe Educate). Popular education (folkbildning) is the foremost way to satisfy this kind of learning needs. As a part of their popular education mission, Studiefrämjandet arranges gaming study circles, with Live Action Role Play (larp) being an in-demand direction among youth. Larp is a combination of re-enactment, storytelling and gaming, when players are given a role and act out their character. Due to larp’s high engagement and connection to the real-world, the project intends to use this tool for teaching young people about disinformation.<< Objectives >>Social media is the main channel for disinformation among youth, being their main channel for both consuming news and communicating their opinion, views, and experiences with others. 87% of European youth 16 - 24 y.o. use social networks. 14% of European youth 16 - 24 y.o. also post opinions on civic or political issues on social media. (Eurostat, 2020). According to UNICEF’s analysis (August 2021), youth “find themselves more attuned to social media and the online world than their parents, caregivers and educators, and are both comfortable with this world and curious about it. With increased digital use comes increased exposure to mis/disinformation: in one 2020 study, 76% of 14–24-year-olds reported seeing online mis/disinformation at least once a week, a rise of 50% on the previous two years”.The same time, youth is the target group that is most susceptible to disinformation due to lack of media literacy and civic competences, as well as simply life experience. The same analysis from UNICEF states that “children may be particularly vulnerable to mis/disinformation because their maturity and cognitive capacities are still evolving”, and further: “A study found that only 2% of children and young people have the critical literacy skills they need to judge whether a news story is real or false”. (UNICEF Office of Global Insight and Policy, 2021).That's why the problem our project addresses is youth lacking media literacy (ML) skills, required to identify and counteract disinformation in the poorly controlled environment of social media. To confront this problem, the project aims at pedagogically equipping youth workers with methods and tools for increasing ML skills of youth to ultimately reduce disinformation on social media. These ML skills will include identifying disinformation, its different types and intentions behind it, reacting to social media disinformation responsibly, and reporting it with regards to these being one’s democratic participation and civic duty. Importantly, the proposed pedagogical methods and tools will be relevant specifically for the youth of today (Gen Z, 15 – 25 y.o)The specific project aims:• Providing youth workers with a toolkit containing scenarios for live role plays that develop youth’s ML• Supplying youth workers with a guide on how to educate youth on disinformation and use the toolkit• Developing a mobile game for young people 15-25, where a player will face simulating reality social media disinformation cases and will have to make choices to enhance their MLThe project will allow youth workers and educators both to boost their skills of verifying the trustworthiness of social media information, and to be able to integrate live action role play into their courses in organic and effective way. Youth workers and trainers will have a new powerful educational tool to run their lessons with; the tool that will increase young people’s critical digital literacy and their ability to succeed in the global digital community.The aims set are intended to facilitate the following changes in the final beneficiaries of the project, the youth:- Increased awareness of the power of the social media and their influence on democratic issues;- Improved knowledge to critically assess the information and identify disinformation- Increased competences to manage a media-saturated environment- Increased interest in being more active in society- Provided with a challenging and attractive new way of learning (larp) and fun mobile game- Increased self-confidence to engage in social activities- New contacts and network for further support and/or development<< Implementation >>In terms of the development of the Project Results, the activities to be carried out will be as follows:Project Result 1 - TOOLKIT WITH LARP SCENARIOS ON DISINFORMATIONA1.1 The Toolkit draft: development of 5 larpsA1.2 Focus groups: testing the larps with educators and youth workersA1.3 Pilot testing: testing activities with young people in all countriesA1.4 Toolkit finalisation: implementation of the pilots feedback, fine-tuning and production of the final versionA1.5 Translation to the partner languagesProject Result 2 - GUIDE ON ORGANISING DISINFORMATION LARPS A2.1 Development of the Guide’s draftA2.2 Focus groups: testing the Guide’s draft with educators and youth workersA2.3 Pilot testing: testing the Guide by educators and youth workers in all partner countriesA2.4 Finalisation of the Guide: implementation of the pilot feedback, fine-tuning and production of the final versionA2.5 Translation to the partner languagesProject Result 3 - DISINFORMATION ROLE-PLAY MOBILE GAMEA3.1 Development of the structure and functionality of the appA3.2 Adaptation of larps and creation of the game content: converting larps into scenarios with choices, as well as creating new scenariosA3.3 Designing the product: the animated app with integrated larp scenariosA3.4 Implementation of necessary changes based on the obtained pilot feedbackA3.5 Finalisation of the app and its placement onto App store and Google PlayOther project activities to be implemented include:1. Setting up effective administration, communication, reporting and quality assurance:• Signing of bi-lateral agreements• Organisation of 4 transnational meetings and monthly Teams meetings• One partner responsible for overall PM and communication in the project (Studiefrämjandet)2. Organisation of effective promotion:• Production of promotional materials• Elaboration of a Dissemination & Exploitation Plan and reporting templates• Promotion through face-to-face meetings, presentations, and a multiplier event in each partner country • Promotion reports by partners at the Progress and Final project stage• One partner responsible for coordination of the promotion activities (HVV)3. Quality Assurance will include:• Agreement on internal quality assurance strategy at the first month of the project• Development of Quality Assurance Plan and evaluation questionnaires/templates• Internal monitoring will be a responsibility of one of the partners (Studiefrämjandet), who will continuously evaluate the work of the consortium and will produce two (Progress and Final) internal quality reports<< Results >>The main Project Results (PR) to be produced within the project are:PR1 TOOLKIT WITH LARP SCENARIOS ON DISINFORMATIONThis is the key result of the project, representing the solution that both provides youth educators with the quality training materials and corresponds to the new Gen Z learning style of today’s young people. The Toolkit will contain 5 larp scenarios on spotting and tackling disinformation on the internet, thereby directly addressing the project’s main goal of increasing capacity of youth educators for fostering young people’s Media Literacy (ML) to combat social media disinformation. Thanks to the proposed Toolkit, youth educators will have a powerful resource they need to implement learning activities with young people to increase their ML capacities in order to confront disinformation on social media.PR2 GUIDE ON ORGANISING DISINFORMATION LARPSThe Guide is intended to establish a bridge between the worlds of education and civil and digital societies, providing educators and youth workers with a turn-key solution for fostering young people’s Media Literacy to combat social media disinformation. Specifically, the Guide will support youth educators in setting up courses or study circles on disinformation, containing recommendations both on the format and implementation of such courses / study circles. The guide will introduce youth educators to the Gen Z learning style, the pedagogical method of larp, and how to run it correctly using the developed larps from R1 – the DIS-PLAY Toolkit as a training material. PR3 DISINFORMATION ROLE-PLAY MOBILE GAMEThis Project Result is an animated scenario-based app for smartphones, which educators can use to facilitate practical application of the ML knowledge, acquired by their young learners within any disinformation on social media course or study circle. In the game the player will face simulating reality disinformation cases and will have to make the right choice not to lose and proceed with the game scenario.In a qualitative perspective, the project will achieve the following results:- The above-listed Project Results providing educators with necessary pedagogical resources to teach Gen Z youth the skills and competences to identify and tackle disinformation on social media-Internal training of educators and youth workers in each partner organisation-Fostered cooperation and sharing of teaching, learning and training resources, enhancing each partner’s knowledge in the field of Media Literacy-Involved and committed relevant stakeholders, participating in the design and validation of the Project Results and in their further use and application-The Project Results promoted for its future application in other geographical areasIn a quantitative way, the following results will be attained:- 160 young people trained during the pilot implementation of the Project Results and the Training Activity in Germany- 50 youth educators with increased ML competences after their participation in the project pilots implementation and the Training Activity in Germany- At least 500 organisations (education providers and other stakeholders) will be informed about the project, being reached with the project promotion activities - At least 120 relevant participants will attend the project’s Multiplier Events"