Abstract:

Within the new European Higher Educational Area (EHEA) framework…How can technology help acquire horizontal skills such a Critical thinking and Ethics in the Language Classroom at university level?; and, How can digital formats help actively engage university students in contemporary debates while promoting common good from their specific field of study ?

Answering these questions,from the Language department of Francisco de Vitoria University, in conjunction with Complutense university Research group SIIM- Studies on Intermediality and Intercultural Mediation https://www.ucm.es/siim/ we are currently exploring digital posters such as infographics and inter-artistic intermedial formats such as transmedia-narratives (3-5min videos) as emerging forms of communication and expression among young people. With the specific purpose to help university students develop critical thinking competence and ethics within Bologna degrees, since 2016 we are implementing an Interdisciplinary Innovation project called New Narrative for Europe Project from the Humanities https://www.ucm.es/siim/new-narratives-for-europe.

In this project, through intermedial digital representations, we examine the current crisis of values and identity that the European union is undertaking, with an emphasis on creativity and artistic forms as promoters of a humanistic conscience. Offering students the opportunity to participate in the European project relaunched by the European Commission in 2016 A New Narrative for Europe http://europa.eu/youth/new_narrative_for_europe_en the aim of this project is to actively involve them in the current debate on the crisis of values and identity in the European Union while improving both speaking and written English skills and developing critical thinking in the field of ethics and social responsibility.

The way we do so, is working with two sub-skills of Critical thinking, one being the development of a contrasted opinion and use of reliable resources to justify one´s reasoning (learning outcome: infographics), and the second, problem-solving skills (learning outcome: 3-5 min video with a social entrepreneurship proposal to promote common good in a European context) https://www.ucm.es/siim/transmedia-social-intervention .With both activities, we focus on the relationship between the degree of acquisition of critical competence, ethics and entrepreneurial capacity of university students in a European context, while developing written and oral skills in a second language (English)

Keywords:

EHEA, intermedial digital formats, Critical Thinking, Ethics, competences, new narrative for Europe project, common good.