Nicosia welcomes NewsArcade@Classroom project kick-off meeting
The kick-off meeting for the NewsArcade Classroom – "Seriously Play the News in the Classroom!" project took place on January 22–23 in Nicosia, Cyprus. Hosted at the headquarters of DIAS PUBLISHING PUBLIC, the project coordinator, the meeting brought together consortium members, including:
🇩🇰 PORTAPLAY APS (Denmark)
🇩🇪 IN2 DIGITAL INNOVATIONS GMBH (Germany)
🇫🇷 Association Pour l'Éducation aux Médias (France)
🇩🇰 International People's College (Denmark)
🇵🇹 Universidade Lusófona (Portugal)
Building on the success of the original NewsArcade project, which introduced a gamified approach to news content to enhance young adults’ media literacy, NewsArcade Classroom takes this concept further. This new initiative shifts the focus entirely to education, adapting and optimizing both the format and its authoring tool specifically for classroom use.
The project, funded by Creative Europe – MEDIA, will run for 24 months, aiming to equip educators with innovative tools to engage students in critical news consumption through interactive gameplay.
Óbidos Hub Hosts “Cultural Storming” Ahead of 4th Cultural Game Jam
As part of the build-up to the fourth edition of the Óbidos Cultural Game Jam, a set of inspiring Pre-Jam activities took place on April 28th, bringing together students from Lusófona University and Josefa d’Óbidos High School for a day of cultural exploration and creative ideation.
Organized by the Óbidos Hub, the day began with a historical lecture at the town’s Interior Design Centre. Students delved into Óbidos’ rich and layered past - from the Portuguese conquest in 1148 to the enduring Islamic influences on Portuguese customs, culture, and language.
This was followed by a guided walking tour of Óbidos, where participants visited iconic landmarks such as the Castle and the Gate of Our Lady of Grace. Along the way, they uncovered the town’s many myths, legends, and historical anecdotes that continue to shape its identity.
The day concluded with a collaborative “culture storming” session at Josefa d’Óbidos High School. The exercise invited students to brainstorm creative concepts for the upcoming Cultural Game Jam, scheduled for May 13–16. Drawing from their experiences during the “Cultural Storming,” students began shaping ideas that will soon be transformed into games inspired by Óbidos’ unique cultural heritage.
Online gatherings of the Publics and Audiences working group return for 3rd season
The Online gatherings with the Publics and Audiences WG, co-coordinated by researcher Maria José Brites (Universidade Lusofona, CICANT) together with Marisa Torres da Silva (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, ICNOVA) returned this January 2025 for their 3rd series, after two ‘seasons’ full of sharing and interconnections.
The first session of the 3rd series sought to articulate themes associated with the Advertising and Media Policies, Regulation and Economics WGs with the dimension of Audiences and Publics.
The session featured interventions by Paulo Pinto Silva and Paula Dias Aguiar (respectively, professor at the Viseu School of Education and doctoral student at the University of Minho) and Mariana Lameiras (researcher at the United Nations University Operational Unit for Public Policy-Oriented Electronic Governance and co-coordinator of PolObs).
The session is now available on YouTube and can be rewatched here.
Online roundtable celebrates the International Easy Language Day
To mark International Easy Language Day, the MeLCi Lab - Media Literacy and Civic Cultures Lab - and GLOW partnered with the Easy Language International Network (ELIN) to host an online roundtable on May 28th at 14:00 (UTC+1).
The session, held via Zoom, focused on the role of Easy Language in scientific research, highlighting its relevance for inclusive communication and knowledge accessibility. Easy Language – or easy-to-read communication – plays a crucial role in ensuring that complex information can be understood by people with intellectual disabilities and other groups with specific accessibility needs.
The event was chaired by Cátia Casimiro, PhD student in Communication Sciences at Lusófona University, and was moderated by Dr Carlo Eugeni, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds. Both are active members of ELIN, an international network of researchers and practitioners dedicated to promoting accessible communication.
This initiative reinforces CICANT’s ongoing commitment to fostering accessible communication, civic inclusion, and media literacy for all.
Over&Out 2025: Lusófona’s Film and Media Arts Showcase Returns with the Theme "Navigation"
The Department of Cinema and Media Arts (DCAM) at Lusófona University announced the return of Over&Out, its annual event celebrating student-led artistic and academic work. The 2025 edition will take place from 7 to 10 July, under the guiding theme “navigation”.
Organised by DCAM, Over&Out serves as a platform to present the most recent outcomes of student creativity and research developed throughout the academic year. The event features a rich and diverse programme, including short and feature-length films, media installations, live performances, and research presentations, offering insight into contemporary practices in cinema, media arts, and visual culture.
By foregrounding the theme of "navigation", this year’s edition invites reflection on how we move - conceptually, politically, artistically - through complex media landscapes and evolving cultural environments.
The preliminary programme is now available and promises four days of dynamic and thought-provoking work from emerging voices in the field.
Perspectives on the Future of Film Education in Europe: New Article by Manuel José Damásio
Manuel José Damásio, coordinator of FilmEU, has published the article Perspectives on the Future of Film Education in Europe, exploring the evolving landscape of film education and the impact of the Samsara pedagogical framework within the FilmEU European University.
The article examines how emerging technological, social, and institutional transformations - including virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and shifting audience behaviors - are reshaping both the film industry and educational methodologies.
Manuel Damásio advocates for a shift from teaching about film to educating through film, emphasizing FilmEU as a trans-European and interdisciplinary model for creative arts education. The Samsara framework is presented as a project-driven approach that integrates technical training, media literacy, and critical thinking.
By discussing initiatives like FilmEU, the article provides insights into how film schools can adapt to the continuous changes within the cultural and creative industries.
To know more, read the full article here: https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/bsmr-2024-0006?tab=references.
Recommendations for Digital Wellbeing
The Directorate-General for Education (DGE) publicly announced the document ‘Recommendations for Digital Well-being’ on 29 January in Coimbra, at the Convento de São Francisco, at the ‘Learning More Now’ Seminar. This document is the result of an invitation to various experts on the subject in Portugal who were part of a working group led by the DGE during 2024. Maria José Brites and Teresa Sofia Castro, coordinators of the YouNDigital - Young News and Digital Citizenship project (DOI 10.54499/PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021), are part of this working group and also sign this document.
The ‘Learn More Now’ Seminar provided an opportunity to reflect on and discuss strategies centred on ‘Improving Learning’ and ‘Integration and Success of Migrant Students’ with heads of school groups and non-grouped schools, heads of school association training centres, education experts and representatives of the various bodies of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation.
Among the topics discussed at the event were: the integration and success of migrant students, psycho-pedagogical tutoring and digital well-being in education.
Verso e Reverso: Re-reading and Reinventing Camões in a Decolonial Key
To mark Portugal Day (10 June), the Virtual Museum of Lusophony (University of Minho) and CICANT (Lusófona University) are jointly organising the webinar “Verso e Reverso: Re-reading and Reinventing the Work of Luís de Camões”, to be held on 18 June 2025, at 17:00 (Portugal time), via the Zoom platform.
The event will feature contributions from Lurdes Macedo, integrated researcher at CICANT and Assistant Professor at Lusófona University – University Center of Porto, and Maria-Benedita Basto, Associate Professor at Sorbonne University (France), with moderation by Isabel Macedo, researcher at the University of Minho and Director of the Virtual Museum of Lusophony.
The session will open with an intervention by Lurdes Macedo, focusing on Jorge de Sena’s visit to Mozambique in 1972, interpreted as a politically charged gesture against the colonial regime and a call for a renewed reading of Camões’ work. This will be followed by a presentation by Maria-Benedita Basto on As Quybyrycas (1972), a poetic text authored by Frey Joannes Garabatus and originally published in Lourenço Marques. Conceived as a continuation of Os Lusíadas and centred on the defeat at Alcácer-Quibir, this work - prefaced by Jorge de Sena - is presented as a significant contribution to the decolonisation of the Portuguese imperial imaginary.
The webinar offers an opportunity to revisit Camões’ legacy through critical, intercultural, and postcolonial perspectives, promoting dialogue across literature, memory, and identity within the Lusophone space.
Further information is available on the Virtual Museum of Lusophony website.
