Media creativity lands at school with pan-European platform Euro Creator.eu
Teachers and students, stay tuned and mark 1 March 2009 on your calendars! The final countdown to the official launch of the pan-European platform www.eurocreator.eu has started! As of launch-day, the EuroCreator website invites students and educators to upload media pieces to express their creativity and share it with peers all around Europe. Media pieces can be uploaded and shared on any device (Ipod, PSP, mobile, laptop...) and posted anywhere you like (Facebook, Bebo, school websites, etc.). European Commissioner for Education, Training Culture and Youth Ján Figel’ will certify your participation in the EuroCreator project.
In the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, whose priorities include "sectorally targeted objectives such as awakening and reinforcing creativity and innovation or developing innovative pedagogic approaches involving the creative arts and science in schools", the launch of the EuroCreator Project aims at fostering creativity through the use of digital media and highlight its benefits in teaching and learning in 2009 and in the years to come.
All pupils from age six and teachers are invited to go free and creative and produce at least one piece of media. The genre, format, length is up to the participants, providing they are creative, from animation to comedy, radio narrative or action. The site can be accessed in normal or mobile format, which means the children can create the media on anything, even mobile phones, so the equipment used can be basic. The EuroCreator team moderates the media before it goes live on the site, which also means they check for copyrights issues etc., so teachers do not have to worry about that.
How to do it in practice? It is very easy: the teacher registers to www.eurocreator.eu, the EuroCreator team validates the school and provides a username and password, and then you are ready to begin. In fact, one of the most important features of EuroCreator is its Validation System for ensuring safe and proper content. Once the class has created its media piece, the teacher can upload it. The EuroCreator Team then reviews it and offers feedback to the students via email. If the work needs to be improved it is sent back for resubmission with guidelines on how to do it.
Then comes the moment to share the work and get rewarded: on any device and for free, the students can view their piece of media not only from their computer or laptop, but also from their mobile phone, ipod and Iphone, PSP, PDA, Palm, blackberry and so on. They can also embed it on the school website and on their favourite social networks such as Facebook or Bebo. Eventually, Commissioner for Education, Training Culture and Youth Ján Figel’ will award them with an official certificate congratulating them for participating in the EuroCreator project.
The Euro Creator website homepage has a system of rating and hits similar to YouTube and allows students and teachers to 'stay tuned' with their peers' creations. www.eurocreator.eu, besides sections dedicated to watch and share, also offers one dedicated to international news and events about creativity and one for teachers. In fact all educators are offered free training via downloadable video samples and 'how-to' tutorials (on audio, video and animation) guiding them through the production of their students' media work.
The website, which is a full technical cross-platform solution, and its material are available in 10 languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. The EuroCreator project is supported by the European Commission Directorate-general for Education and Culture (DG EAC), the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), the FIS Community, the British Computer Society (BCS) and Apple Creativity Regional Training Centres.
More info
- Euro Creator:
http://www.eurocreator.eu
- The European Year 2009 of Creativity and Innovation:
http://create2009.europa.eu/index_en.html
