Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2026 Newsletter
Today ' s teenagers spend a significant part of their lives navigating digital environments. Social media platforms, online news portals, video-sharing websites, influencers, artificial intelligence, and instant messaging applications shape how young people communicate, learn, and understand the world. While these technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for learning and connection, they also expose students to misinformation, propaganda, manipulation, hate speech, cyberbullying, and algorithm-driven content that can influence opinions without encouraging critical reflection.
Consequently, education faces an increasingly important mission: helping students become informed, responsible, and critical digital citizens. Media literacy is no longer an optional addition to the curriculum but an essential competence that enables learners to analyse information, verify available sources, distinguish facts from opinions, interpret statistics responsibly, and make informed decisions in both online and offline environments.
The annual eTwinning focus theme " Skills for Life " perfectly reflects this educational priority by encouraging schools to develop competences that extend far beyond academic achievement. Literacy, numeracy, scientific inquiry, digital competence, citizenship, communication, collaboration, creativity, and problemsolving are fundamental skills that prepare young people for both future careers and sustained participation in democratic societies.
Inspired by this vision, the project F. A. K. E. – Fact. Act. Know. Empower. was designed as a year-long international learning journey bringing together students from Moldova, Slovakia, and Türkiye. Rather than studying media literacy through isolated lessons, students experienced it through authentic challenges requiring investigation, discussion, collaboration, creation, and public engagement.
The acronym F. A. K. E. reflects the project ' s educational philosophy. Students were encouraged to’’ fact-check’’ information before accepting it as true,’’ act’’ responsibly in digital spaces,’’ know’’ how media messages are created and disseminated, and ultimately’’ empower’’ themselves and others to become responsible digital citizens.
Thus, the project shifted students ' roles from passive recipients of information to empowered agents of media literacy, demonstrating that developing skills for life requires authentic experiences, effective collaboration, and opportunities for students to make a tangible impact in real-life contexts.
Project design and methodology The F. A. K. E. – Fact. Act. Know. Empower. project was designed as a year-long international eTwinning initiative grounded in the principles of project-based learning( PBL), inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning, and media literacy education. Bringing together students and teachers from three European countries, the project transformed English language acquisition into an authentic,
97