In today’s world, being good with technology and speaking English well is really important for work and social life (The Economist 2021). But because of the global outbreak, people haven’t been able to interact much (EU School Net 2021). We need new ways for people to communicate and work together so they can be more social and interactive. The usual methods of teaching languages skip the important parts like interaction, creativity, and critical thinking. And now, because of the outbreak, communication is even harder. So, students we can reach don’t feel motivated to learn languages. Helping them communicate and work together is super important because the old ways of teaching won’t help today’s digital kids. Virtual teamwork and communication are vital for the next generation. Without these skills, it’s tough to keep up with the changing world (WORK OF THE FUTURE OF THE WORK 2020).
That’s where #OPEN@ comes in. We want to use journalism to get students excited about learning languages. Journalism involves research, and creative language use, and helps build soft skills and digital literacy. Teaching English through journalism might be challenging, but it’s also super inspiring and fun.
#OPEN@ has three main goals: first, to make language lessons more interesting; second, to help the digital transformation of six associations by creating a special digital tool; and third, to train language teachers in better ways of teaching. The aim is to prepare students for the future using modern methods because the old ways just won’t cut it in today’s media-rich world.