AMEDY project completion: Publication of results
The Erasmus+ project AMEDY (Active Media Education for Disabled Youth), which ran from February 2019 to March 2021, is now officially closed. The project developed a free online training for educators, a handout with support strategies and a toolbox with good practices and a guide for awareness raising activities. All results are now available as OER materials on the project website.
The AMEDY project addressed the challenges of the digital world for young people with intellectual disabilities and the resulting need for know-how and support for educational professionals working with this target group.
Children and young people with intellectual disabilities use digital media intensively in the socialisation process. Nevertheless, they are particularly affected by cyberbullying and structural disadvantage in the digital world. For young people with intellectual disabilities, it is often more difficult to use the advantages and opportunities of digital technologies - and they need special support in dealing with risks they may encounter.
The aim of the project was to promote the active participation of young people with intellectual disabilities in (digital) society. In doing so, the project followed a strengths-based approach for working with children and young people.
The three project results are now available free of charge as Open Educational Resources (OER) to all interested parties in German, English, Dutch and Greek on the project website:
Online Training: Active Media Education for Disabled Youth
The online training, which can be accessed via the Moodle learning platform, is aimed at educational professionals who work with intellectually disabled young people. The three modules Media Use and Data Protection, Digital Trends and Risks and Creativity and Participation are used to explore the opportunities offered by digital media and to raise awareness of their risks. The online training provides basic background knowledge on all topics and gives valuable suggestions and tips for practice.
Click here for the Moodle platform.
Paper: Support Strategies
The aim of the handout is to give a better insight into the needs of young people with intellectual disabilities and their media use. What do they need to navigate safely through the online world and what support can and must caregivers provide? For this purpose, it will first be explained what exactly is meant by media literacy and different media literacy models will be presented. In addition, the method of Design Thinking is illustrated in its application by means of examples and it is demonstrated how action and support strategies for practice can be derived from this.
Toolbox: Awareness Raising Activities
The toolbox aims to raise awareness of the situation of intellectually disabled children and young people and their educational companions and to generate more attention for the topic. It offers a collection of good practice activities across Europe that raise awareness of the needs of people with disabilities in our digitising society. In addition, the toolbox includes a catalogue of concrete tips, practical guidance and useful resources to implement your own actions.
The project was carried out by the Stiftung Digitale Chancen in cooperation with UC Leuven-Limburg (Belgium) and IASIS NGO (Greece). The project outcomes were developed collaboratively and piloted and evaluated in all three partner countries. For questions or feedback, please contact the project consortium at amedy@digitale-chancen.de.