How to adapt educational resources to local contexts

While there is a wealth of excellent educational resources available in different languages, simply translating them may not be sufficient to meet the diverse needs of different target users. To truly engage and empower learners, it is crucial to adapt educational content to local contexts. By localising resources, educators can bridge cultural, linguistic, and contextual gaps, making learning more relevant, relatable, and effective.

In this interactive online event on Wednesday, 20 September the EDUmake project partners and KAVI representative shared their valuable experiences, tips, and tricks in the art of localizing educational resources.

Presentations

EDUmake project

Tim Van Lier (VRT, Belgium) presented the EDUmake project. Key takeaways:

• EDUmake is a project to internationalize the concept of EDUbox and create an easy-to-use format to contextualise  
• In EDUmake NTR & FPZG have experimented with the contextualisation of 2 EDUboxes.  
• Based on the learnings EDUmake will create a new EDUbox about politics in the run up to the EU elections.

More information about EDUboxes can be found here.

Pitch EDUbox Content Offer can be found here.

EDUbox on Culture for the Croatian audience

Igor Kanižaj & Stela Lechpammer (University of Zagreb, Croatia) presented how their team adapted the EDUbox* on Culture for the Croatian audience.

Presentation can be found here.

EDUboxes for the Dutch audience

Annique Reinink (Schooltv.nl (part of the Dutch public broadcasting organisation), The Netherlands) presented how the Schooltv.nl team adapted EDUboxes* for the Dutch audience. Schooltv.nl team has already localised the EDUbox* centered around ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI )and they are currently in the process of localising another EDUbox focused on ‘Teamwork’. To make these resources more relatable, they have taken on a unique approach. Specifically, they have chosen a chat format for the localised versions. Within this interactive chat, students engage in conversations with a central character who acts as an expert in the subject matter. Throughout these conversations, students are presented with explanatory videos and quiz questions, all designed to deepen their understanding of the topic.

Key takeaways:

• Lots of interaction and variety will keep students engaged. 
• Keep the desired length of the lesson in mind for your target audience. In The Netherlands, a lesson hour is 50 minutes. We adapted the material to fit this. 
• Keep accessibility in mind from the start. Will the way you’re presenting the material be accessible with, for example, a screen reader? 

Presentation can be found here.

Inclusive and Creative Media Education (ICME) project

Ella Airola (PhD) (KAVI, Finland) presented the Inclusive and Creative Media Education (ICME) project that aims to develop operational models of innovative media literacy activities that can be shared and scaled up successfully in different media educational contexts crossing cultural, national, and linguistic borders from inclusive and creative perspectives.

Key takeaways:

• Media education always takes place in a specific context. Therefore, we should focus on local specificities rather than high conceptual levels and overly abstract ideas. 
• Contextual co-development requires time, tolerance of uncertainty and understanding of different ways of working but the end result is rewarding. 
• Local stakeholders play a key role in localizing materials: organise surveys, interviews and comment rounds to find out what the needs are on the field. 
• Piloting a material in different environments and with different target groups helps to identify areas for development before it is published. 

Presentation can be found here.

*EDUbox is an educational concept developed by VRT to introduce secondary school students to specific social topics.