BECID Team’s Achievements: November 2024 in Review

Here you will find a comprehensive review of the BECID team’s achievements in November 2024. This overview includes events organized and attended by the team. You will also find our team members’ latest publications and media coverage. 

BECID organises 

Inger Klesment was in Malta from 26.10 to 02.11 to conduct digital security games with the local pupils and to train local teachers. Read more here.

As a part of T4.4, Maria Murumaa-Mengel, Inger Klesment, Gretel Juhansoo and Kaarel Lott (UTARTU) conducted media education gamification training for teachers working with foreign language students in October and November. 

In cooperation with students from University of Tartu, project ‘MIL by MAIL’ was held from 11.11 to 15.11, during this period young people from all over Estonia could develop media literacy. Read more here and here. 

In October, BECID and Estonian children magazine Täheke organized a comic competition “How to be good on the internet?”. All kids aged 5-10 years were welcome to participate and submit their work. In November, the jury had a look at all the submitted comics. Two winners were chosen, read more here. A selection of comics was also published on our webpage. The competition was coordinated by Annaliisa Post (UTARTU). 

Publications and media   

On November 27, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) wrote about technology-mediated violence. ERR.

BECID is represented   

On October 29–31, Delfi Melo Detektorius (Delfi Lie Detectors) participated in the conference “Enhancing Information Resilience and Empowering International Cooperation to Combat Malign Influence”, organized by “CRDF Global”. The event provided an invaluable opportunity to connect with European journalists, researchers, and NGOs. They exchanged ideas on strengthening resilience against hybrid warfare tactics employed by Russia and China. 

On November 4, Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) gave an e-lesson “How are algorithms shaping our experiences on social media?”.

On November 7, Maia Klaassen (UTARTU) gave a lecture “Artificial intelligence in the context of project writing” at a project writing training. 

On November 8, the representative of Vytautas Magnus University professor Auksė Balčytienė participated in a conference dedicated to the issue of public safety “Saugumo kodas” (“Security Code”). During the session on disinformation she shared her insights on the importance of psychological preparation and recognizing the internal response to the source of the information. 

On November 14, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) participated at a conference organized by Integration Foundation. She participated in the panel discussion “Discussion: Information space, culture space, values space – how to bridge them in era of digital bubbles?” and gave a short lecture “Some bridges should be burnt?” 

On November 14, Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) conducted a training on AI to 4th–6th graders of TäheTERA school. 

On November 15, Inger Klesment (UTARTU) gave artificial intelligence training to career and entrepreneurship teachers working in Tartu schools. 

On November 11, Maia Klaassen (UTARTU) gave a lecture “Information interference, attention economy and artificial intelligence” to the participants of the project Talents to Tartu. 

On November 22, Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) conducted a training on media and digital literacy to 6th–9th graders of Rapla Kesklinna School. 

On November 25, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) and Maarja Punak gave an e-lesson ” How to stand up to cyberbullies”.

On November 26–17, Annija Petrova (Re:Baltica) participated in the EDMO fact-checking training event in Athens, Greece. Investigative techniques and tools for Telegram, methods for analyzing political ads and building trust while countering disinformation were among the topics discussed. 

On November 28, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) held a seminar “Ideas for lessons: possibilities of human intelligence and artificial intelligence” for teachers.  

On November 28,  Inger Klesment (UTARTU) gave a lecture “Will artificial intelligence replace the project writer?” at the information day of the Nordplus program. 

Evita Puriņa (Re:Baltica) gave three lectures and fact-checking workshops to journalism students at Riga Stradiņš University and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. 

Varia

Delfi Melo Detektorius (Delfi Lie Detectors) has been selected to participate in the second stage of YouTube’s Video Pilot Program for Fact-Checkers. This initiative aims to enhance the organization’s expertise in producing high-quality video content for fact-checking purposes. This year they entered the program’s second phase, as they have been part of it since last year during the initial pilot stage.