The Idea Foundation’s teacher training programme, InfoGrund in the Digital World, was launched for several groups this summer. Our aim was to start a group in the countryside during the summer, so we approached Győr and its region with the possibility of offering the training. Our experience in organising the training group was that it was particularly difficult to attract teachers, and few applied for the training. One of the reasons for this may have been that the situation and job status of teachers in Hungary became very precarious at that time, making it difficult for many to accept the conditions of the training. In the end, 7 people applied for the training.

We were pleased that colleagues from the same school came in pairs so that they could support each other during the training.

The e-learning part of our training provides participants with new knowledge on nine topics, and they have about six weeks to complete the chapters. During the follow-up training, we always ask participants in a playful exercise which chapters they have learned the most from. In this group, teachers mentioned the chapters on freedom of expression and the press, on the legal environment of fake news and on the psychological background of the mass dissemination of fake news. The chapter on fact-checking tools was mentioned by the group as the most enjoyable.

The training, held in Győr on 16-17 September, was attended by teachers who were open, motivated and enthusiastic. They enjoyed practising what they had learnt about how our information environment works. When we gave feedback on the exercises included in the e-learning chapters, we found that some teachers had difficulties in solving the e-learning exercises, so we were also pleased to see that they were motivated to participate in order to understand the more difficult questions. The motivated presence of the group allowed us to improve their knowledge.

On the second day of the training, the participants were more tired but just as interested. On this day the participants had the opportunity to try out the exercises on their own experience, using the learning material of the InfoGrund package, in order to gain a better understanding of the methodology of the curriculum. The creative and dramatic exercises were carried out by the group members with great effort and attention, in an environment that encouraged collective reflection.

Participants’ feedback on attendance training:
We asked participants for feedback in the form of an anonymous questionnaire after the training. Here they can mark their answers to some questions on a scale of 1-5, but there is also the possibility to give a more detailed answer.