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IncludeMe+

The project Inclusion, Participation, and Peace Building through Mediation in Media (IncludeMe+), aims to empower higher education institutions, media, civil society organisations, and students to become responsible and active collaborators in shaping the future of communication, to promote and establish inclusion, participation, and peacebuilding across Europe. The project will increase participation and civic engagement by raising awareness and understanding of the context and values of the European Union, the principles of unity and diversity, and by providing new ways of thinking about and creating media content. 

To achieve the above objectives and address the priorities, the partnership creates a set of tangible outcomes, including a report based on participatory action research on the topic, an innovative training program accompanied by a training and transferability guide, and a video vox pop showcase docuseries.

Experience Lab is coordinating the project, which is led by Emmanuel Acquah, Associate Professor in Education at Åbo Akademi University. In addition, Experience Lab is involved in all project activities, ranging from dissemination to research and the design and development of the outcomes.

The project is co-funded by the European Union and the duration of the project is 1.12.2023-31.5.2026.

Project partners are:

University of Barcelona, Spain

International European University, Ukraine

European E-learning Institute, Denmark

Momentum Marketing Services Limited, Ireland

Outside Media & Knowledge, Germany

European University Continuing Education Network, Belgium

TC Tuzla Kaymakamligi, Turkey

Anette Bengs

MetaCity

How do you make a city pleasant, productive, accessible and easy to interact with? These are issues that are being worked on within the URBACT program, which consists of networks of cities around Europe that work together to strengthen the development of localities by exchanging experiences and building networks between regional and local actors.

Åbo Akademi University’s Experience Lab is the first academic project partner in URBACT, which today includes all EU member states and also Norway and Switzerland.

The Metacity network , which focuses on small and medium-sized cities, aims to increase competitiveness of small and median tech-aware cities, benefiting from the opportunity to enhance service efficiency and citizen satisfaction provided by the metaverse. By integrating metaverse technologies, cities can create immersive digital environments for education, healthcare, tourism, and public services, enabling streamlined communication, remote access to services, and personalized experiences, levelling the playing field with larger cities. Metaverse-driven urban planning fosters innovation, economic growth, and ensures that citizens have access to cutting-edge solutions, ultimately improving their overall quality of life.

Experience Lab works with the city of Nykarleby in Metacity. The network also counts actors from nine other European countries participate, including Härnösand in Sweden, with which we will collaborate closely, and is led by Fundão in Portugal, with whom we have collaborated in previous URBACT and INTERREG Europe projects.

https://urbact.eu/networks/metacity

Kimmo Rautanen

SPROK

The project SPROK has received Research to Business funding from Business Finland for the years 2023-2025. The overarching aim is to evaluate different commercialization routes to find the best business strategy for our digital second language learning game. SPROK’s development stems from the significant achievement gap between students with immigrant and native backgrounds, and the challenges many adult immigrants face in obtaining work due to insufficient language skills. We hope to encourage growth in the Finnish and international community by developing linguistic skills as a core class material in mainstream and immigrant classrooms. Sprok is designed to complement traditional workbooks while still allowing teachers to understand student progress. Although Sprok is designed to meet the needs of immigrants and mainstream classrooms, it is well-suited for private consumer use, thus, has benefits for increasing the number of highly qualified workers, which fills the gap in the ageing Finnish and global population.  

The target groups are migrants, mainstream classrooms, and private consumers. 

Sprok is a digital second language learning game targeting migrants, mainstream classrooms, and private consumers. 

Supporting L2 learning is essential to improving educational, economic, and social opportunities for immigrant populations. Sprok’s design will encourage growth in the Finnish and international community by developing linguistic skills as a core class material in mainstream and immigrant classrooms. Sprok is designed to complement traditional workbooks while still allowing teachers to understand student progress. Although Sprok is designed to meet the needs of immigrants and mainstream classrooms, it is well-suited for private consumer use, thus, has benefits for increasing the number of highly qualified workers, which fills the gap in the ageing Finnish and global population. 

The uniqueness of Sprok is that it is based on the highly reputed Finnish national core curriculum, the Common European Framework of Reference for language (CEFR) skills, academic research, and cultural knowledge. Additionally, it will have the following educational features: a teacher backend, a monolingual approach (uses Swedish to teach Swedish), collaborative gameplay, an explorable environment, a design enabling expansion to a broader audience, and a feedback algorithm to enhance learning. The game will be developed in an iterative process that requires the active involvement of potential end-users. This ensures the game is both educative, fun, and attractive for various stakeholders. 

The project has received Research to Business funding from Business Finland for the years 2023-2025. The overarching aim of this project is to evaluate different commercialization routes to find the best business strategy for our digital second language learning game SPROK. in order to make it a highly successful global educational game for digital second language learning. An additional aim is to continue the applied research of Sprok. 

Funding from:

https://research.abo.fi/sv/projects/sprok

Anette Bengs

AILIT

[en/sv]

Målet med projektet AILIT är att utforska den AI-litteracitet eleverna inom den grundläggande utbildningen har, alltså färdigheten att använda artificiell intelligens och förmågan att förstå hur tjänsterna är konstruerade. Utgående från resultaten ska projektteamet skapa konkreta undervisningsmodeller för att introducera och inkludera AI-litteracitet i årskurserna 1–6.

Rent konkret utforskar vi bland annat följande frågor:

• Hur uppfattar barn i årskurs 1-6 AI? Vad känner de till? Vad funderar de över?
• Hur upplever lärare och lärarutbildare att AI-litteracitet kunde ta sig uttryck i undervisningen i årskurs 1-6?
• Hur kan man utforma aktiviteter för att ta in AI-litteracitet i årskurs 1-6?

Projektets samarbetsskolor är Malms skola i Pargas och Vasa Övningsskola.  Utvecklingsarbetet i projektet är alltså åldersanpassat, men ger en bas för hur motsvarande kan göras tillsammans med andra målgrupper i framtiden.

Projektet är ett samarbete mellan Experience Lab vid Åbo Akademi och Helsingfors universitet.
Arbetet finansieras av Svenska Kulturfonden. Projekttiden 1.5.2023 – 31.12.2024.

Länk till webbsida: https://ailit.fi/

Kontakt: Yvonne Backholm-Nyberg

AILIT – Exploring AI Literacy

[en/sv]

The goal of the AILIT project is to explore the AI literacy of students in basic education, meaning their ability to use artificial intelligence and understand how services are constructed. Based on the results, the project team will create concrete teaching models to introduce and include AI literacy in grades 1-6.

Specifically, we are exploring the following questions:

• How do children in grades 1-6 perceive AI? What do they know? What do they wonder about?
• How do teachers and teacher educators perceive that AI literacy could be expressed in teaching in grades 1-6?
• How can activities be designed to incorporate AI literacy in grades 1-6?

The project’s collaborating schools are Malms School in Pargas and Vasa Practice School. The development work in the project is age-appropriate, but provides a basis for how similar work can be done with other target groups in the future.

The project is a collaboration between the Experience Lab at Åbo Akademi and the University of Helsinki. The work is funded by the Swedish Cultural Foundation. Project period: May 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024.

Website link: https://ailit.fi/

Contact: Yvonne Backholm-Nyberg

Yvonne Backholm-Nyberg

Inclusivehubs

The purpose of the INCLUSIVE HUBS project is to help make school spaces places for inclusion where all learners will feel welcome, respected, and valued, particularly those with fewer opportunities like migrants. Through the project implementation, we will support holistic approaches to teaching and learning as well as collaboration among all actors relevant to schools (school staff, communities, migrant learners, and their families) to transform schools into inclusive hubs. According to the European Commission, low proficiency and early school leaving can be a result of the struggle in learning and social exclusion, a phenomenon faced by many European areas. Several European Union (EU) countries have already developed national strategies to facilitate stronger communication between schools and local communities, and provide measures to foster inclusion. Therefore, the project will contribute to those efforts by developing materials and tools focused on wellbeing, inclusion, mental health, and personal development.

Objectives

• Develop an evidence-based whole school and community program to transform schools into inclusive hubs
• Build the capacity of school leaders, teachers, school staff, and local actors to better support migrant learners’ inclusion in the education system and society at large.
• Develop the language skills, wellbeing, and resilience of migrant learners and their families.
• Build the capacity of migrant parents to act as cultural mediators and interpreters in local schools.
• 1 school per country participant will be developed into an inclusive hub.

https://inclusivehubs.eu/

Anette Bengs