News

24st December

Here they are!

We have finished working on all the deliverables. Below we present them all. We encourage you to use them!

Effective Communication is a toolkit that covers topics such as working in the cloud, social media, email communication, time management, delegating tasks, tools useful in communication or scientific digital media.

The second digital toolkit is about communicating safely online. The toolkit introduces data security managers and encryption software for passwords and content, while an additional publication offers a mini-guide on how to use the Internet confidently. The booklet also addresses cyber attacks and provides information on how to protect yourself.

The handbook How to Communicate in the Digital Age? Basics of good offline communication, which was created within the project, is the result of international cooperation. Specialists in speech therapy, communication and linguistics worked on the content. The publication is a kind of hypertext – it contains many references to films, curiosities or mini-lectures, and the whole is divided into padawan and master/mistress zones.

The fourth result of the Be-com project is an educational strategy game based on the concept of action mapping and the idea of gamification. Each chapter has its own master, a guide. In the course of the game you can meet a mermaid, who reveals the secrets of the beautiful sound of voice, a fierce pirate, who teaches active listening and other interpersonal skills, we will also encounter a kind bear, a Zen monk, who teaches how to maintain balance in any conflict, and an ancient woodsman – he will focus our attention on exercises of mindfulness and the art of self-presentation.

The publication entitled How to teach about communication in the era of web 2.0? is the fifth result, it contains 14 (10 by Polish creators 4 by Greek partners) original scenarios of classes prepared on the basis of a manual and a game.

These materials make up a modern educational compendium, which takes into account both the student’s and the teacher’s perspective.

1st December

Scenarios of educational activities

We have just finished working on an additional result – we have prepared new materials. The publication entitled How to teach about communication in the Web 2.0 era? contains 14 original lesson scenarios prepared on the basis of the handbook and the game. It is a natural extension of the results obtained so far. 
We hope that the development of teaching materials and ready-made lessons will allow teachers, educators and lecturers to use the content of the textbook and the game efficiently.

Scenarios to download here

 

20st September

We have just finished work on the fourth result of our project. We are proud to present you with an educational game in which you will be able to explore the secrets of good communication! You will be guided through the adventure by Monk Arnold, Mermaid Irenka, and Bear Henryk.
The game is available in the Three masters valley tab.
We cordially invite you to embark on a journey of communication!

21st June

We would like to remind you that as part of the first two project results, we create not only short guides on tools for efficient, safe and effective communication in the digital world.

We also published two interesting texts on online safety and digital communication. For the inquisitive, we recommend reading the text entitled Digital communication – why and how do we communicate online? and Safety on the Internet. These suggestions are suitable for every season of the year, not only summer!

April 30th

Monk, Mermaid and Bear will show you around the world of communication!

Soon we will present you a set of great communication games! They will test the knowledge of effective, correct, aesthetic communication, as well as self-presentation, careful listening and the use of humor in everyday life. This is another result that we are currently working on.
A monk will introduce you to the world of conflict, tell you how to resolve disputes, communicate without violence and communicate effectively. The mermaid will teach you relaxation, careful communication and give you knowledge about voice emission and hygiene. With the Bear, you will learn the secrets of politeness and linguistic etiquette. Thanks to it, you won’t have to worry about committing a faux pas while in company – he has savoir vivre in one finger (that is paw!). It’s still not everything! We are working hard on new characters!

5th November 2020

Meanwhile, our Lithuanian team from the Kazimieras Simonavičius University is happy to report that they also are not idle. They met online on 2nd August to plan the next steps connected with the Digital toolbox – Secure communication in the era of Web 2.0 and on 28th September they met face to face to check their videos and to have long discussions on ways to improve this result even more. Their work is still in progress, but they are on the home stretch.

2nd November 2020

A few members of our three local teams (University of Silesia, University of Malta, Agere Aude) met online to talk about the progress on the handbook of communication in the digital era. The next actions in working on the communication game were also the important subject of this discussion. Our last result looks so promising we would like to play it already.

21st October 2020

Today we had a fruitful meeting within our Polish group responsible for the results number three and fourth. Members of this subteam discussed the next steps in working on the handbook („How to communicate in the digital era”) and the communication game. These outputs also begin to take shape and we are hoping for the smooth sailing in the next few months.

9th October 2020

The academic summer is over, so we can work on our assignment with the new energy now. We are going to finalize the stage connected with our digital toolboxes. Today we had the next great conference call with our partners. We met online with the teams from Lithuania and Cyprus to discuss the details, including the issues with the translating of the finished materials. We are going to show you soon the results of our work on the toolboxes supporting communication and safety in the digital word.

21st July 2020

Another „Be-com” video conference took place. This virtual meeting of our team members from the University of Silesia and the European University Cyprus allowed to clarify, how the next steps in working on our first and second project’s intellectual outputs (Digital toolbox – Effective communication in the 2.0 era, Digital toolbox – Secure communication in the era of Web 2.0) should proceed.

14th July 2020

Intensive work is underway to prepare the next  project’s results! The team creating an educational game based on the idea of mapping and gamification has an unlimited number of ideas in terms of concepts and the use of modern technologies in teaching. Today we can safely say that an educational game is a coherent story in which the user will be able to play the role of the hero, and while visiting each of the five worlds (corresponding to the 5 chapters of the manual), the player will gain and / or verify knowledge in the field of communication. The developed result will complement the handbook. Both students and teachers will be able to use the game.

7 July 2020

We had another project’s conference call. This time we discussed the details of the handbook and its structure. The works in the Polish-Maltese team are divided. Although summer is outside the window, we work hard.

19th June 2020

Our teams work intensively on the further results of the project. We are preparing a handbook „How to communicate in the era of the web. 2.0 „, which consists of five thematic blocks. It will be directed to students, academic teachers, as well as school students and their teachers. The educational game based on the mapping concept and the idea of gamification will complement the handbook.

22nd April 2020

Teleconferencing

As we were not able to see one another in real life in Cyprus, we used our digital skills, considerably improved in the last few weeks. On 22 April the teleconference attended by all “Be-com” partners took place. We summed up our previous work on the results, divided our next tasks, discussed the project website and planned our future steps. We keep on working and the chance to have at least this kind of virtual meeting in the international group made us feel better and gave us the additional dose of the motivation to act.

20th March 2020

#stayathome

We had to cancel our April short staff training event and interim meeting in Cyprus, due to the current pandemic. Meanwhile, we communicated with the University of Silesia digital team and held a meeting on 2 March 2020 to discuss the best way forward for presenting our intellectual outputs on the project website. We also went through the first video tutorial, edited by Agere Aude, and divided our next tasks. We have also been working from home (#stayathome) to upload on the project website the first elements of the digital toolbox about effective communication.

 

30th November 2019

Kick off meeting

On 28-29 November we welcomed our partners in „Between interaction and innovation – creating communication space in the digital world” project (funded with support from the European Commission) as guests. The Be-com project focuses on improving digital and communication skills of academics and students following humanities and science programmes of studies.

During the first day of the kick off meeting we discussed the following together with our partners involved in the project: European University Cyprus, University of Malta, Kazimieras Simonovičius University, Agere Aude Foundation for Knowledge and Social Dialogue:

• set goals,
• division of tasks for each partner institution,
• plans regarding the project’s intellectual outputs (i.e., Digital toolbox – Effective communication in the 2.0 era; Digital toolbox – Secure communication in the era of Web 2.0; Handbook – How to communicate in the era of Web 2.0; Educational strategic game based on the action mapping concept and the idea of gamification).

The next day we discussed:

• dissemination plan,
• evaluation plan,
• use of impact tools,
• project management tools,
• financial issues,
• reporting.

Meanwhile, we agreed to keep on working on the projects within our institution and will have ongoing communication, particularly by digital means.