Open Parents

The project

OPEN PARENTS promotes a systemic and participatory approach to improving media literacy education and countering disinformation, by engaging an actor often overlooked in media education initiatives: parents.

Building on the experience of Open the Box, Dataninja’s media education initiative for schools, the project will develop and test an ORRI (Open Responsible Research and Innovation) Toolkit for teachers, educators, and community stakeholders.

Through co-design workshops and a reflection process within the two partner organisations, OPEN PARENTS aims to strengthen families’ information resilience, enhance intergenerational dialogue, and integrate inclusive and participatory practices into educational strategies.

The project embraces the principles of Open Science and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, ensuring that all results are openly accessible, scalable, reusable, and adaptable across different European contexts.

An educational game

The OPEN PARENTS educational toolkit has taken shape in “On the Trail of the News”, an investigative game that bridges schools and families, helping players learn how to recognize and combat misinformation and disinformation. “On the Trail of the News” is an activity in which adults and children collaborate to fact-check a news item, recognize misleading content, and understand how misinformation and disinformation spread online.

It can be used during an event organized by schools or libraries with teachers, families, and classes, or offered as a homework activity to be reviewed later in the classroom. In both cases, the investigation serves as a starting point to compare observations, questions, and verification strategies.

For students, it is a hands-on way to train critical thinking, examine sources, and learn by doing. For families, it is an opportunity to talk together about news, social media, and manipulated content. For teachers and educators, it is a flexible tool to integrate into media literacy programs.

Partners

Bomberos Design

Funding

Reinforcing Grantee, an EU-funded program