In beautiful Czech Krkonoše mountains, in July 2021 there was held an international Training Course “Think Twice”. Read impressions from the project collected by the Polish Team consisting of Magda, Piotr and Michal.
How often does an average person get an opportunity to spend a week abroad and meet people from eight different countries? It is not exactly an everyday situation, and that is exactly what happened during the Think Twice project, which took place July 4-12, 2021 in Černý Důl, Czech Republic.
Like any training course organized thanks to the Erasmus+ program, it involved daily workshops related to the project topic, conducted through informal education, which means using group work, case studies, simulation games and regular evaluations. Think Twice specifically focused on media literacy, financial literacy, and critical thinking. Participants learned about tools to efficiently assess the quality of information, the most common cognitive errors, and other mechanisms that make it easier for informed “consumers” of news to live today. As far as media literacy is concerned, after getting familiar with necessary definitions, the participants dissected the techniques behind fake news, looked at the motivation behind its spreading and for the mechanisms enabling the spread of false information around the world. After having learned that, they were able to try their best at becoming a fake news tycoon – either in a computer simulation or by trying to fool their fellow participants. The financial topic was also presented with an interesting twist thanks by the use of a simulation game. In two-person teams of “families,” the students went through their virtual lives taking out a mortgage on their own home, investing money in various fields, and managing the balance of expenses and income. In doing so, they learned the unpredictability of investments, but also their long-term benefits, setting financial goals, diversifying portfolios, the importance of insurance, and the impact of inflation.
An integral part of any short-term Erasmus+ project is the beloved cultural night! Each participating country prepared a booth with their typical food, drinks, sweets and other snacks. People from outside that country had a change to also learn about interesting historical facts, characteristic elements of the culture or dances and music representing that nationality.
