Press Release: Freinet Educational Radio – 10/01/2025

"Magic cannot be captured through the interpretation of magic, let alone through the description of its interpretation. Either you sing or you remain silent. You don’t say: what I’m doing is a song. Heaven forbid..."

Odysseas Elytis, excerpts from “DOLOMATA GIA KANENAN”, “MIKRA EPSILON”, “EN LEFKO”

Freinet Pedagogy: From Theory to Magical Practice!

The collaboration of Dr. Vasiliki Brinia, scientific supervisor of the Pedagogical Program of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), with the pedagogical team To Skasiarcheio for the Winter Semester of the 2024-2025 academic year began once again this year, continuing a partnership established since 2016. The distinguished teachers Mr. Babis Baltas and Ms. Aspasia Harlampita engaged with students to discuss the principles of Celestin Freinet's democratic school and critical and institutional pedagogy. Following this, the dramatist Maria Zacharopoulou and teacher Katerina Paouri introduced the Freinet techniques "What’s New?" and "Class Council." Lastly, mathematician Stella Badikian organized an engaging experiential workshop on the "Collaborative Classroom."

On Friday, January 10, 2025, the closing event of the Innovative Freinet Pedagogy Program for educator training took place, focusing on “Educational Radio (Educational Podcast)”, as part of the courses “Teaching Practice I” and “Introduction to Teaching Methodology—Curriculum Design.” This event coincided with the conclusion of the Winter Semester of the 2024-2025 academic year. During this pedagogical meeting, two experienced educators from To Skasiarcheio, teacher Ms. Panagiota Siola and philologist Ms. Vicky Spita, presented “Educational Radio” through an innovative experiential workshop applied to economics and computer science. The presentation covered what Educational Radio is, how it works, the processes involved, and the steps required to integrate it into educational practices.

This served as the foundation for the innovative experiential workshop. Students shared their ideas and explored how they, as future educators, could integrate podcasts into their teaching practices to make their lessons more experiential, aiming to capture the interest of their students. In essence, they experienced how they could provide moments of "fresh air" to their students during lessons amidst the often restrictive high school curriculum. This interactive and captivating session concluded with a hands-on workshop. Students were divided into groups, with each group tasked with creating the audio signal of a podcast, selecting the topic, name, and roles, and ultimately producing their podcast. It was an enjoyable experience that can be summed up with the following words: Laughter, teamwork, collaboration, experiential learning, and communication! We sincerely thank the pedagogical team At Skasiarcheio for their exceptional contribution and collaboration!

Below is one of the podcasts created by the groups as part of this magical experiential process!