The “Multimedia Crossroad”
In the second half of July 2001, the Hellenic institute of Education and New Technologies planed and implemented a multimedia meeting on the Greek island of Chios with 60 young people between 15 and 25 years old coming from 10 western and eastern European countries.
The countries that were invited to participate were: France, Italy, Greece, Norway, Germany, Portugal, Finland, England, Spain, Belgium, Rumania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey.
This project was a follow-up with the previous years idea “Multimedia camp 2000” that took place in Cologne on August 2000.
A common feeling for Europe. Other people can and want, through the Intercultural exchange, diminish prejudices and hostility. We also wanted to demand the exchange in the formation sector. We all know how important is Multimedia. That’s why the Multimedia Crossroad was not only holidays. All the young people paticipating registered for Workshops.
It iwas planned and impliemented for the Workshops: 5 participants of different origin in each workgroup.
The following workshops were planned and the working language was English.:
Crossweb:
- – Internet storm creating & publishing together…
- – Theoretical and practical teamwork for creating a European youth website.
Soundworld:
- – Music has no borders – Musical performances and sound mixing from North, South, West and East.
- – Teamwork on creating new music and new songs.
‘Action’ Video-Adventure:
- – Two multicultural groups write, direct, produce and play (act) their films in two middle-aged castle villages (Pirgi, Mesta).
Flash into tradition:
- – From another point of view – Culture and sightseeing (Photography)
Radio Europe:
- – Radio broadcasting in the local radio stations.
- – Young people interests, feelings etc
Who is HIEnet The Hellenic Institute of Education and New Technologies cultivates and advances new technologies and works on their joining with the Hellenic Educational System and Culture. It also exploits Internet’s capabilities on educational, cultural and youth issues. It trains teachers and students on how to use computers and programs effectively. It arranges lectures on social and educational matters and constructs and maintains WebPages. It deals with the development of programs in an educational, cultural and scientific level and provides the means for networking and communication of Educational organizations, teachers, students and young people with the help of W.W.W or future Technologies.
Multimedia Crossroad Is appropriate from a geographical point of view, Greece being at the center. And we precisely wanted to meet in the center.
Here, during 10 days, young people from ten different countries crossed each others ways in order to exchange ideas and then realize them concretely in creative workshops. To learn, understand and communicate in different languages. The young prticipants had their own cultural exchange and had fun altogether!
The following leisure time activities were planned and implemented:
Cultural:
- – Nea Moni, the birthplace of Chian Orthodoxy
- – The stone-constructed village of Avgonyma
- – The dead-town of Anavatos
Euroforest:
- Make your tree come true (ecology & Environment)
- Trees from all countries.
- Plant your own one.
- Make a new green point on Earth.
Sports & Fun, It was summer after all!:
- Sailing, swimming and games on the beach.
Analytically, the activities that were implemented:
“CROSSWEB”
A European Web Page
There will were ten participants, one from each country, who had previously chosen this project and could exchange ideas in the message board in our web page in Internet before arrival. The only condition of this future web page was that it had to be a European Youth Web page, because the creators would be European youngsters the thought was that the best idea was to give them the chance to write about what they know better, being a youngster in Europe.
It was a good opportunity, the connection for some days of different youngsters from different countries, to create their own space where they can express freely their creative spirit and they can present their worries and interests.
One suggestion was that the youngsters, inside their web page, would reserve some space to make their comments of the Multimedia Camp.
This would be an opportunity to contact with a new technology and learn about the steps of the creation of a web page. A technical support was given and a multimedia specialist was there to help. But the subject is something that concerns only the youngsters, so we recommend them to use the message board to find a common idea and interest before coming to the island.
This website was presented at the end of the Multimedia Crossroad and it was online for several years.
“Action”
VIDEO- ADVENTURE
There were ten participants, one from each country, who had previously chosen this project and could exchange ideas in the message board in our web page in Internet before coming. The scenery was the stone-constructed village of Avgonyma and the dead-town of Anavatos. We hoped that this old scenery was a good inspiration for the youngsters, because we were looking for an interesting exchange of ideas between the past, in this case the old scenery, and the present, the youngsters and their reality. The historical places of Chios were seen with different eyes and this was important for the Greek people who found a different point of view (or different points) and for the youngsters who experienced a new environment. The youngsters saw in advance the place using Internet and they worked from their homes before visiting the island. It was the young participants who made all the steps of the production of the video: under the guidance of an expert they discovered the more technical steps of a video production. So, started with the decision of the subject: all together chose it they did reach to an agreement through Internet before coming to Chios.
Once they had it, they did write the play. With the script they directed and played their own creation. Finally they produced it and made it ready to the public exhibition.
The play was executed in a local TV station during the final presentation. The Videotape was sent to all the organizations so all the youngsters could get it from their sending organization.
EURO FOREST
We dedicated one special day of our “Multimedia Crossroad” to the protection of nature. We wanted our hosted youngsters to return to their countries with a new sensibility about the importance of environmental care.
As we lived together these days in an island in the middle of the old Mediterranean Sea, we considered that our guests could not leave us without facing the problems that the Mediterranean has today.
Mainly these are related with the natural protection and the bad use the humans make with the natural resources of our mother earth.
Some campaigns wants to raise the general consciousness about the pollution in the sea, but this is not the only threaten. These last years, Greece faces a new challenge every summer.
With the heat of these hottest months, the fire can be a real serious danger for all the inhabitants and the life of the place.
Chios had suffered some fires as well as others parts in Greece.
Unfortunately we know that this is not only a problem of our country, so it was worthy to make a symbolic act all together searching to make our youngsters more conscious about the disaster of fire.
This could be a huge drawback to the development of a place and also it is an ecological disaster that our grandchildren will be still paying.
With this aim, we invited our youngsters to plant some trees from their countries that our organization would provide. The idea was to create a park in Chios with theses trees. We saw that this park was to commemorate this “Multimedia Camp”, with trees from all the countries that took part, as well to raise the sensibility about nature conservation in our participants and in all the potential visitors that this park would have in the future.
All together we did our best so that this area, destroyed by the human advantage, would be again a wonderful park full of trees, flowers and moreover to have this great feeling of satisfaction that we did something for our nature, which would help us take more seriously this huge danger in our environment.
RADIO EUROPE
There were ten participants, one from each country, who had previously chosen this project and could exchange ideas in the message board in our web page in Internet before coming. The youngsters in this team had to express themselves through their own program in a radio. They had the chance to visit the local radio station and learn all the steps for the creation of the radio program and experience by practicing the basics of radio production. This gave them an amazing feeling of satisfaction, as they had to be the only responsible of their show; radio is a great way for the youngsters to say freely some of their ideas, to express themselves through the media and entertain the listeners by their music choices and their comments, interviews, histories etc. The youngster used our message board in advance so as to meet each other and find common interest. They were daily On Air so they wouldn’t suffer from the pressure of having a very restricted time. This was a great advantage because they could talk about all they want: their present worries, the Multimedia event, their daily life, the cultural exchange with others participants and their different tastes in music. The youngsters to brought with them their favorite records and CDs so that they could play them on air and say a few words about these and the bands. The two workshops related with the sound experimentation, “Radio Europe” and “Sound World”, cooperated closely together because the creations in music were on air with the help of the radio group. The radio was daily on air and the program was recorded so that at the end of the Multimedia camp a tape was sent to all the sending organizations, and from there the participants received one copy.
FLASH INTO TRADITION.
There were ten participants, one from each country, who had previously chosen this project and could exchange ideas in the message board in our web page in Internet before coming. The object of this workshop was to practice in the art of photography, but not only that, it was an opportunity to exchange ideas between youngsters of different environments. The team visited some places on Chios and also they did cover this multicultural event in their daily life. There was a message board available in Internet where the youngsters could find a common interest. This intercultural point of view enriched the Greek (a different way of seeing their island) as well as the participants who had the opportunity to discover a new culture. Surely we all learnt something from the photographs and we found surprising points of views of the same and old object, Chios’ island, because all lot of new things can be said about this so much photographed island, specially if the photographers in this case are so young and from a lot of different places. Besides, another interested object was the youngsters themselves, because it is not something so common this intercultural event where different cultures shared opinions in an old and small island of the Mediterranean. So the daily life can was covered, being another interesting opportunity to the youngsters to practice their art and express freely their feeling. Othe other hand, in this case we saw the connection between the old, the island itself, and the young, the youngsters and creators.
SOUNDWORLD
There were ten participants, one from each country, who had previously chosen this project and could exchange ideas in the message board in our web page in Internet before coming.
The youngsters, who participated in this team, had to show the best traditional music clue of their own country. As we all know, music has a magic power of connecting people and is one of the most favorite and expressing activities for the youngsters; it helps them to forget their problems and create their own world by this, but besides that, it concerns an entertaining and communicating purpose. The last one was what we mostly wanted to achieve; the youngsters in this group worked together and they tried to do their best so that every participant in the ‘Multimedia crossroad’ would go back home having enriched knowledge concerning the music and traditional instruments of other European countries. Each of the youngsters had his/her own view and taste in music and the fact that there were people, in the same age, from so many different countries, this inspired them to develop their creativity and their music talent with the best way; The participants brought with them some of their countries traditional songs or their favorite popular ones so they could do rehearsals all together before the final performance. So, the collaboration and the sound mixing from the North, South, West and East gave a great satisfaction to our group and also to the outside listeners; with this young team full of modern and new spirit in music, we gave to the others an enormous time full of fun and pleasure, as there were musical performances by our group, and a great chance to our musicians to express themselves through songs. We arranged live performances, including the final workshop presentation, in various and interesting places (the beach etc) where all the youngsters created new music or played their country’s songs with their own way. The youngsters were given the chance to communicate with the others who were interested in this workshop, learn more about the particular workshop and exchange ideas through the message board in the Internet so that they could get a small clue and prepare some of their ideas in their mind before coming to Chios. In the end, each of the sending organizations and the participants received a CD including the musical creation of the youngsters.