SCHOOLS AND DOCUMENTARIES

The project will further build on previous successes and empowerment of teachers, students and will provision support to institutions on national and municipal level. The current outbreak of global pandemic COVID-19 showed the clear need for functional online tools to support the education system worldwide. The project will aim to further expand the film catalogue and didactic materials for the Online Teacher Resource in all local languages, and create film-linked lesson plans for different subjects. DokuFest has created a new platform to respond to this need. Teacher's Digital Library has been redesigned to respond the both offline and online classrooms, and are simplified to be used as a tool for all teachers that teach in listed subjects. Apart from the partnership with the WHY Foundation in Denmark, and with supplementary financial support by the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands we have managed to incorporate the films that were produced by DokuFest through previous NED support as well as the titles that were produced through EU and Luxembourg support. 

These titles have expanded the catalogue of moving and thought-provoking film titles to be used by facilitators and thematic experts for professional teacher development. The project will also focus on expanding the teacher’s network through Multimedia Education. Through this facilitated process, teachers will develop film guides aligned with Kosovo Curriculum Framework, be used as online and offline Teacher's Digital Library and made available through website. The film guides will be used as a tool by other teachers, primarily in public schools to achieve a wide range of effective learning outcome in their use of film. DokuFest aims to extend the program availability to Middle School Teachers and through outsourced expertise to develop Facilitators Guide for use of film in the classroom to strengthen the resilience of youth and develop their social-emotional skills to overcome the doubts and engage constructively in society without having to resort to violence. 

Film Guides are developed as a free resource to educators to utilize and to provide students the opportunity for meaningful engagement with the extraordinary medium of film. It also includes activities to use in the classroom after the film screening. Guides will be prepared and uploaded in the online platform of DokuLab continuously. The content management of the platform is providing access to films, film clips, film guides as well as activity sheets to be used by teachers in respective schools. The download of the educational material will be made available to all teachers of Public Middle and High Schools throughout the country. Rise of hate speech is the kind of discrimination that is so strongly present across the whole Western Balkans, and has now become a part of public life. Therefore, the thematic experts and facilitators will assist the teachers to develop the film guides and ensure alignment with the Kosovo Curriculum Framework, with particular emphasis on lessons that include misinterpreted data and encourage hate speech. 

The current institutional collaboration is functioning at 17 municipalities across the country, through signed agreements with Directorates of Education. The project will also utilize the Manual for use of film in classroom in Serbian language that was produced through the previous collaboration with People in Need and supported by NED. We will expand the systematic professional development of teachers in Serbian language to use films materials in the classroom. In addition to the specific film guides there will also be teaching resources for educators to learn about how to properly utilize film in the classroom on the website. The project will continue to support the voices of High School students in school year 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 through training program for visual storytelling. The production of previous years has been instrumental in development of the training resource for teachers. The films are being utilized in schools through direct engagement of DokuFest staff as well as through teacher’s engagement. 

DokuFest program pillars are developed to build synergies and therefore the project will be promoted throughout all pillars. It will be initiated through the festival where the young people, in addition to their own film screenings will have the opportunity to attend numerous workshops that are directed at young storytellers. The travelling Solar Cinema “Cinema at Your Door” will take films to young people in most rural areas of the Prizren region. The new two-year approach will also expand Regionally through introduction to the Multimedia Education in Montenegro. This approach will initially transfer the knowledge to project partner in Montenegro to align the program with National Curricula and organize the first teacher training in Montenegro. DokuFest has identified UnderHill Fest in Podgorica as a partner that has basic capacities to introduce and grow the successful Kosovo model in Montenegro. The process will include identification of the films, translation of existing titles produced in Kosovo through NED support and creation of the first Guides to be used in the schools nationwide in Montenegrin and Albanian languages. This will lead to creation of a first Digital Library for teachers in Montenegro by 2022.