iWELL

  • Project Overview

    The iWell project focuses on empowering primary school students, aged 6 – 12, to lead a healthy online life and boost their social well-being. Better levels of health are pivotal to reach well-being and happiness, as there is scientific evidence supporting that healthier populations tend to live longer and have a better rate of development (WHO, 2015).

    With an emphasis on the health and social well-being of students, the project pays attention on the development of their health literacy skills and the creation of supportive environments to enable them to control the determinants of their health and “improve their health”.

    Nowadays, students’ well-being in European schools has become a challenge for numerous teachers to confront, partly due to the needs of the new digital world. A gap that directly arises from this is to develop effective tools for students to have a healthy online life (JRC, 2020). Specifically, the European Commission pays attention to the online safety and digital wellbeing of young people. According to the Digital Agenda for Europe, actions and policies of the EU should focus on maximising the benefits that the digital era can yield by 2020. Significantly, all educators and school leaders should acquire the necessary skills to teach their students to benefit the most of this great potential that is provided to them (Eurydice, 2018) and try to enhance their health and digital literacy skills. However, there is substantial research evidence, which suggests that young people do not have the appropriate skills that a person needs in the new digital world (European Commission, 2015). Any form of misuse of the internet could jeopardise the well-being of students, as well as their success at school (OECD, 2017). In addition, according to the PIAAC survey, there is an alarming need to develop the life skills of young people to increase their well-being.

    At present, learning about the digital world is a process that takes place among peers and mainly concentrates on entertainment. Scientific data indicates that young people preferred to use the internet for online games and to visit social networking websites. A prevalent concern is expressed among the EU member states with regards to the use of the internet and the children’s online safety and digital wellbeing. Specifically, research indicated that the inappropriate use of internet resulted in behavioural changes of young people, such as the increase of solitude and the need of avoiding other people’s company to stay alone in order to surf the internet (Eurostat, 2015). Furthermore, many young people were unable to handle cases of being exposed to inappropriate online content that resulted in stress and/or aggression.

  • Objectives

    iWell project will put emphasis on:

    • Supporting and building the capacity of educators in becoming “active health agents”, to promote the health literacy and social well-being of their students through a bespoke curriculum and innovative teaching practices.

    • Enhancing the digital and life skills (decision making, social skills and self-confidence) of primary school students, paying emphasis on maintaining a healthy balance of digital media to use through the development of innovative material (e.g. Mini health literacy games and Training material).

    • Facilitating the teaching process to develop health literacy and critical thinking skills of students for their online safety and to maximize their learning opportunities at school through the development of gamified resources, training material and a MOOC.

    • Providing European educators with new approaches, ICTs methodologies and research-based evidence to foster social integration and integrate new tools into teaching activities through the development of a Toolkit with Policy & Practice Recommendations.

  • Outputs

    IO1: Library of Health Comic Strips
    In Supporting and building the capacity of educators in becoming “active health agents” to promote the health literacy and social well-being of their students, a suite of comics will be developed that is anticipated to support teachers to empower primary school students, aged 6 – 12, to lead a healthy online life and boost their social well-being. The narrative of the comic strips is adapted to ensure that age-appropriate content is presented and approved by health professionals before the implementation with students.

    IO2: Curriculum and Training Material for Educators
    iWell curriculum and innovative teaching practices give the opportunity to the teachers to explore ways of empowering students to lead a healthy online life by mediating to help them use their life skills practically to live in the new digital world.

    IO3: Health Literacy Mini Games
    The Mini Games promoting health literacy target primary school students who have to make decisions to experience a simulation of a real-life scenario related to addiction in using computers, cyberbullying, online harmful situations and other possible real-life situations they encounter. During these scenarios, primary school students, are required to put in practice some of their life skills to overcome obstacles and handle real-life situations. Scenarios form the learning process of the gamified environment and Storyboards accompany the content of the scenarios and complete the environment with attractive illustrations and images.

    IO4: Teacher Professional Development MOOC
    The project facilitates the teaching process to develop health literacy and critical thinking skills of students for their online safety and to maximise their learning opportunities at school through the development of gamified resources, training material and a MOOC.

    IO5: Health Literacy Toolkit with Policy & Practice Recommendations
    The project provides European educators with new approaches, ICTs methodologies and research-based evidence to foster social integration and integrate new tools into teaching activities through the development of a Toolkit with Policy & Practice Recommendations.

  • Methodology

    iWell project consortium makes use of a participatory method, bottom-up approach in designing the project outputs, in order to ensure the development of quality and relevant intellectual outputs and activities. The project proposes a participatory learning approach to promote health literacy and digital wellbeing and partners work with local stakeholders to ensure that the development of all intellectual outputs can be traced back to needs that are time and place-specific.

    In addition, skills-based health education approach is employed as an effective mean of changing health behaviours, with this change being sustainable (Schools & Health Organisation, 2018). The approach is relatively new; however, it is widely applicable and increasingly employed by a wide audience.

  • Partners

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    This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website and all its contents reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
    [Project Number: 2020-1-BG01-KA201-079041]
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