Helsinki, 19.09-25.09.2010
There was a busy and fruitful atmosphere within the project. The project was organised along the lines of the following phases
Phase I Needs assessment - Getting a common knowledge base
8 months: October 2006 – May 2007
A broad variety of surveys and self-study-activities took helped us to get an overview on the project theme in the participating countries.
Phase II Conceptual phase
9 months: June 2007 – February 2008
The different foci in project phase I formed the basis for conceptualizing diagnostic instruments on reflecting gender specific perception and communication in schools and teacher education and for preparing a Comeniuscourse 'Gender Competence & Media Competence in European Teacher Education':
Phase III Trial phase
13 months: March 2008 – March 2009
The instruments were tested in different contexts in the participating countries and adapted according to the feedback. The Comenius G@ME online training course was designed for a time schedule of 8 weeks in January and February 2009. Six Learning Units opened gradually, in addition we prepared an introductory unit and a final assignment unit. It brought together participants from Europe to jointly learn about and co-operatively reflect upon gender issues in media education.
Phase IV and V Publication and Dissemination
9 months: April 2009 – December 2009
Our project manual “ Promotion of Gendersensitive Media Education - Didactic Material for Use in European Teacher Education”
- provides a summary of research results on media literacy and gender,
- offers diagnostic instruments foreseen to strengthen the diagnostic and self-reflective competence of future and working teachers and teacher educators in media education
- offers a selection of learning contents provided during the Comenius G@ME online training course
Dissemination activities to distribute project results and expertise gained in the project took place throughout the project’s lifespan
The Transnational Project Management comprised:
Preparation of all contractual and financial requirements for the project partnership, regular monitoring & evaluation, preparation, steering and documenting of all project partner meetings, editing key documents, facilitation of adequate dissemination, preparation of all required internal and external reporting
As no project works according to the initial plan, a detailed Project Planning Matrix (PPM) with results, indicators, means of verification and assumptions helped us to regularly revisit the operational plan and to monitor and adapt tasks and activities. The work plan was of course an integral part of our work, but more refined planning took place throughout the lifetime of the project.
The bi-annual Transnational Meetings as indispensable central project activities took place in January 2007 (PH Bern), June 2007 (University Helsinki), February 2008 (Charles University in Prague), October 2008 ( Forth Heraklion), March 2009 (ODN Poznań) and September 2009 (Vilnius Pedagogical University)
Communication between the transnational meetings has been done mainly via eMail and the internal project page. Smaller bi- and trilateral working meetings in between the transnational meetings were especially helpful to speed up procedures and were more efficient than the exchange on the internal site.