The project builds upon the ongoing De Facto project (http://defacto.space) which, for the first time, attempts to place the problem of disinformation and misinformation, (which had been dominated by the conundrum of disinformation-politics-media) in a clear education and training context.It has been proven by cognitive scientists and communication experts that there is one issue which generates numerous obstacles to the communication process and to the assessment of the veracity of information. This issue is the large family of cognitive biases - the things that prevent us from making rational and informed choices, manipulate the flows of information, place unwanted filters, change meanings, provoke actions. So, based on distorted communication, we are bound to shape our opinions and behaviours accordingly. The project addresses the lack of a comprehensive approach to teaching educators about biases, building resilience among learners, promoting critical mindsets. Research shows that there is a widening gap between those who can navigate traditional and digital information masterfully, and those who can not. This divide is cognitive in nature, it can not be solved by better access to technology, affluence, etc. Communication between different cultures and subcultures is negatively impacted by misconceptions and lack of ability to critically process and understand information. Active citizenship suffers from distorted information and here we are, offering an innovative, immersive and practical way of addressing these problems!The key objectives of dBias:> Improve teacher-learner communication via increased awareness and understanding of the number, nature and impact of cognitive biases > Devise a tool for collection of actionable data on susceptibility/resistance, transversal influence and intensity of bias > Analyse collected data to develop teaching strategies (de-biasing) for improved teacher-learner communication and training effectiveness> Introduce an innovative and subject-transversal toolbox (videos and de-biasing strategies) to adult education and training context> Promote active citizenship through the scenarios/topics and improved information literacy> Improve understanding and tolerance among representatives of different groups/cultures and contribute to personal developmentStarting with a collection of around 200 biases, we will produce a toolbox which will encourage the development of critical mindsets for adult learners. We will build upon established science facts and our methodology includes a fully data-driven approach to fighting biases via targeted interventions intermediated by a combination of (1) a unique learning platform (which will serve as (1a) data-collection medium and (1b) de-biasing tool), and (2) fully-developed teaching strategies and assisting didactic materials for more targeted interventions.To achieve this, we will develop scenarios for short videos. The decision on the topics will be made after a survey on the topics which are most likely to be of interest to selected target groups in order to ensure high involvement levels for the project-related activities and experiments. Based on the scenarios, we will record videos which exemplify situations in which cognitive bias is likely to play a major role. These will be related to the education and training context and to everyday interactions and communications.Each video will then be processed into a short clip which will feature a situation, a screen for the user’s choice of action, a second clip showing further development of the situation and containing the clues/info missing in the first part, and then again a choice screen to confirm/change previous choice.A specially developed machine learning algorithm running on a dedicated platform will allow users to watch clips, starting randomly, recording answers, discovering patterns and testing the patterns with the same user and with other users.The platform will calculate in real time several statistics/ratios: susceptibility/resilience of the bias (and intensity) based on individual clip, and based on a series/sequence of clips, and will identify transversal influence (how one clip/sequence influence other clipss/sequences). The platform will be gamified to attract more attention - a key to the success of this tool resides in the collection of large amounts of data. This is why we will be working intensively towards maximum publicity of the tool’s trials..After a solid analysis of the gathered data, we will produce a set of teaching strategies for developing critical thinking, media literacy and communications skills. They will be equally helpful to teachers in any subject area who feel that they are experiencing a drop in teaching effectiveness due to the biases’ impact on cognition processes. The strategies can be used to un-block, de-clutter and de-bias the learning process.

Skillability is a in initiative which is based on project partners' expertise, shared values, commitment to equal opportunities and to design and development of innovative education-based solutions. We are well aware of the specific challenges that many people with disabilities need to overcome in their lives. Many such challenges are in the focus of national and regional policy measures, and within the EU there are a number of common frameworks on coordinated policies and strategies. With Skillability, we are addressing a niche group withing the wider group of people with disabilities: people with talents or skills which can, if supported, become for them an additional source of financial income, contribute to the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, open the road to greater financial independence, reduce the reliance on the social systems, facilitate the return to formal or non-forma education and training systems, provide direct opportunities for digital training in developing new skills and partial qualifications, extend their contact and social networks, help reduce the impact of inaccessible physical enviroment and geography-based challenges.We intend to create a digital platform where people with disabilities can present their talents, skills or products for the visitors of the platform - individuals and businesses - to purchase or to support in other ways. The platform will be people-centric with its main property being a solid centerpiece of a wider and more comprehensive support infrastructure. This infrastructure will consist of specially-deisgned digital training courses focusing on: Personal presentation skills, Digital sales, Product presentation (incl. copywriting, graphics and video), Terms of service in the digital world, Remote services, Logistics and delivery (National/International), Pricing and promotion, and a range of additional topics and subjects which will come up from the direct work of our organisations with the target group of the project. The platform will be focused on bringing the two parties in a typical marketplace together, but in a spirit of support and common purpose. No payments will be made through the platform - all purchases and other support will pass through other standard secure channels for this, and Skillability is not designed to be a commercial platform.We will develop a comprehensive methodology for individual needs' assessment and for designing individualised training paths for each Skillability platform member. A team of trained mentors in each country will then work with interested people and help them on the platform. We expect that this work will also include the various stakeholders in this very specific field - these could be parents or other family members, the immediate support network of the candidate, their case social worker, their doctors, physical or occupational therapists. We will then, based on a thorough assessment and the personal plans and aspirations of each participant, carry a complete training needs analysis and develop an individual training path for them. The training will be a product of the collaboration between key licensed education and training institutions and organisations who have joined the project, and who stand by to develop further digital training courses and resources for Skillability based on the aggregated results from all training needs analyses.To further support the Skillability initiative participants, we will carefully construct and anthology of stories, successes and failures, personal stories and achievements. This will be used to shed light on the potential, on the capabilities, and away from the disability. We expect that such a collection can have an imprtant inspirational and motivational effect for many others - in particular in countries and societies where a disability is still largely a drive for stigmatisation, or where there are still significat obstacles - physical and otherwise - to successful and seamless integration of all people with disabilities in the economical, social, cultural and educational systems.

<< Objectives >>With TACT we want to: improve competences of SE educators; improve learners resilience and active social engagement; come up with a model for teaching competences for active citizenship and information literacy; provide high-quality teaching support and digital learning resources; produce comprehensive learning lines for the two priority domains and map them across the target curriculum and establish the possible training intervention points alongside the continuous curriculum progression.<< Implementation >>We plan to: design learning lines template; map information literacy and active citizenship learning lines across the pilot curriculum; determine training intervention points across the curriculum; design digital impact visualiser tool (IMPACTO); run learners and teachers survey on engaging topics; produce learning resources for information literacy and active citizenship; develop teaching strategies; produce webapp; run demonstration event in Antwerp; conduct 3 partner cooperation workshops.<< Results >>Expected results: practical and actionable definitions for information literacy and active citizenship; detailed and well-structured lists of competences for them; review of existing measures and interventions; IMPACTO visualisation tool; list of topics identified by survey of learners and teachers; a template for learning lines with competence levels and level descriptors; mapping across the curriculum with defined trained intervention points; collection of resources; new teaching strategies.