CyberEthics at Radio Pafos 93.7FM

Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, was invited to discuss safer Internet issues on the Radio Pafos program 'Προχωράμε Μαζί', hosted by Olga Ioannou. The two discussed the importance of understanding the Internet as a beneficial tool which however can contain hidden hazards for the inexperienced. With this in mind, the program focused on the responsibility of the parents to become educated in ICT in order to be capable of giving proper advice and guidance to their children, as well as avoiding hazards themselves. The discussion attracted the attention of the audience who called in and asked questions and also challenged the position that parents can make a difference when it comes to a child's behaviour on the Internet. As a concluding remark, Lawrence stated that parents should not turn a blind-eye to their children's activities on the Internet, but should not spy on their children either. With that in mind, a spirit of collaboration and mutual understanding should be developed in order for the youngsters to feel comfortable discussing these issues with their parents, not only because they feel that it is acceptable but also because they need to feel that their parents are also knowledgable in the subject.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at Aradippou Primary School

After being invited by the Parents’ Association of the Aradippou Primary School, Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, gave a presentation regarding Internet safety.

The parents listened on as Lawrence explained how to keep their children safe but also how to give them enough liberty in order to not be suppressive. This view generated much discussion since most people consider the Internet to be a source of danger rather than as a source of knowledge and democratic expression, which the parents agreed with and wanted to become more informed about how to keep their children’s Internet use productive rather than harmful.

The school’s officials extended their gratitude for the presentation and have already invited Lawrence back in order to give the same presentation directly to the pupils of the school.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at Lykeio Kykkou B’

Lawrence Kalogreades, the coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, had the opportunity to give a presentation to the students of the Lykeio Kykkou B’, in Nicosia, Cyprus. A total of about 70 students were present, who eagerly participated in the discussion and in fact had many valid points and questions regarding Internet use and their own perceptions about how to use the Internet properly. Due to the student’s requests, Lawrence focused the discussion on how to stay protected from phishing scams, keeping one’s personal details safe, and how to make sure that a student can stay safe while on Social Networking Sites.

CyberEthics at “Elefthero Vima” on CyBC Radio 1

Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, and Yiannis Laouris, director of the CyberEthics Awareness Node, were the guest speakers at the CyBC Radio 1 discussion show “Elefthero Vima”.

Yiannis and Lawrence were given the opportunity to inform the public about the role of CyberEthics in regards to Internet safety in Cyprus and how its role has evolved over the years into including a Helpline, Hotline, and also running relevant research projects on Internet use and video game addiction. The discussion also covered popular issues such as the use of Instant Messenger programs and their dangers, how to protect one’s computer from viruses, to how to use Social Networking Sites safely. The discussion ran from 7:25 until 8:25pm.

CyberEthics at CyBC-1’s early morning programme, “Epta Deka”

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator, Lawrence Kalogreades, and the director of the CyberEthics Awareness Node, Yiannis Laouris, were invited to the CyBC-1 early morning program “Epta Deka” on Tuesday the 20th of April.

Yiannis and Lawrence discussed with their hosts the activities of the CyberEthics project as a whole, the role of the national Helpline and Hotline in dealing with Internet related dangers and distress, and how parents can best inform their children as well as themselves about how to stay safe and most of all productive while on the Internet.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at the Youth Board Multimedia Center in Paphos

Lawrence Kalogreades gave an hour long presentation to a group of children, teenagers, and parents at the Youth Board Multimedia Center in Paphos on Saturday the 17th of April, 2010. Lawrence explained to his audience his role of being the coordinator of the Cyprus Internet Helpline, as well as how CyberEthics can help them with advice and guidance on how to stay safe on the Internet.

Associates of Paphos TV were also present, who filmed the presentation and also interviewed Lawrence in order to highlight the importance of CyberEthics’ work in keeping the youth of today safe.

Interested in learning Turkish or Greek with your mobile phone?

Are you interested in learning Turkish or Greek with your mobile phone? If yes, then the project entitled 'Intercultural Dialogue & Linguistic Diversity via MobLang’ – a EU funded project with partner organizations from Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Basque Country, Greece and the UK is just for you!

Specifically, we aim at teaching basic language skills, such as survival phrases, short dialogues, numbers etc through the use of mobile phones.

In Cyprus, we will teach basic Greek to Turkish Cypriots and basic Turkish to Greek Cypriots, respectively. We hope to help bridge the gap and therefore reinforce dialogue between both communities through the acquisition of basic conversational language skills.

At the moment we are in the process of designing the language curricula. And here is where we need your input! In order to find out what you want and how exactly you want to learn a language, we developed a short online survey for your input. We appreciate if you take 5-10 minutes of your time to answer the few questions that will guide us in our curricula development. We need your opinion in order to create a language course that you will want to use in a few months time for free!

The survey is available in English, Greek and Turkish. Please click on the link below to chose your preferred language:

Turkish: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Tr/
Greek: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Gr/
English: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Eng/

Thank you very much for your support!

For more information on the project please refer to our website: www.moblang.eu

Launching Event of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project

Future Words Center and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, European University Cyprus hosted University students from Cyprus at the Launching Event of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project on 21 April 2010 at the Amphitheatre Delta, European University Cyprus.

The project aims to involve Student Youth in the development of multimedia tools to promote Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

During the Launch Event University students had an opportunity to learn more about the scope of the project and about how they can become involved. There are multiple trainings focused on using new media as an innovative tool for the promotion of development issues. The trainings will take place in Italy, Peru, Kenya and Poland in summer 2010. Two University students from Cyprus will be selected to participate in the trainings on behalf of the project and then become multipliers of the knowledge they have gained.

Petra Daniel, Senior Instructor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, European University Cyprus opened the Launch Event.

Students then had the opportunity to hear from Kongnso L. Cyrille, Sec. General of the International Students Association (ISAC) who inspired the youth leaders with his speech “How do the MDGs relate to youth leaders in Cyprus?”.

Nicolina Markidou, Global Education Unit, Future Worlds Center then gave a presentation of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project which was followed by a question and answer session.

For more information about the project and to obtain an application form please click here

Future Worlds Center, a Cypriot Non-Governmental Organisation based in Nicosia is a partner in the project: “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” (contract no. DCI-NSA ED/2009/202-170) that is being coordinating with two other European countries (Poland, Czech Republic).


“The project MDGs – Media for Development Goals is funded by the European Union. The contents of this publication is the sole responsibility of Future Worlds Center and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union."

FWC coordinates Cyprus' first European conference on Development Education

Future Worlds Center, welcomed teachers and NGO leaders to Cyprus for the island’s first European conference on Development Education. Participants from Cyprus, Scotland, Ireland, Bulgaria, France, Poland, England, Slovenia and Lithuania have started to gather for 3 days in Limassol to discuss opportunities and challenges faced integrating a global perspective into schools across Europe. A representative of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus opened the conference with an address to the participants Thursday morning. Educational authorities from the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and the General Teaching Council of Scotland will also address the attendees.

Interactive workshops for participants will be conducted in parallel over the entirety of the conference as well as a Structured Dialogue with relevant educational stakeholders. These will help participants exchange experiences, learn what is happening in other EU member states and create new links among teachers Europe-wide.

“Global Education is very important for Cyprus and teachers here are very responsive”, said Kerstin Wittig Future World Center’s head of Global Education and Coordinator of the project “Accessing Development Education” who is hosting the European conference in Cyprus.

“Development Education is still a fairly new concept in new member states and the European Commission promotes the idea by supporting NGOs who work in this area. The Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus has been very supportive of these activities and the project itself”, she said

The EU funded project “Accessing Development Education” has been active for the last two years and engages educators and schools in Development Education activities and equips them with relevant training and materials, thus making them promoters and multipliers of national campaigns and initiatives that aim to create awareness about development issues and global interdependencies.

The project is coordinated by Future Worlds Center (Cyprus) and implemented in partnership with Scotdec (Scotland), Youth Career and Advising Centre (Lithuania), KADE (Ireland) and C.E.G.A. (Bulgaria). The conference will run from Thursday 8 April to Saturday 10 April at the Navarria Hotel in Limassol.

FWC at 3rd COST International Training School

"Dr Yiannis Laouris and Lawrence Kalogreades attended the 3rd COST International Training School on Toward Autonomous, Adaptive, and Context-Aware Multimodal Interfaces: Theoretical and Practical Issues, which took place in Caserta, Italy. The training school took place on the 15-19th of March, 2010.

Lawrence Kalogreades documented the work he is doing in collaboration with Dr Antonis Loizou at the CNTI/FWC Neuroscience Lab through his presentation entitled "The effects of violent gaming on psycho-physiological and electrophysiological measures of stress". An abstract of the presentation follows:

The primary aim of this study is to investigate whether experienced video‐game players demonstrate fewer physiological stress markers (i.e., elevated heart‐rate, respiration, blood pressure, ventilation, and forehead muscle conductivity) in comparison to inexperienced gamers. With the aid of the Nexus 10 biofeedback recording hardware, the physiological responses, as well as integrated brain wave activity of the subjects will be recorded while playing violent and non‐violent video games. This psychophysiological multimodal data profile will be correlated with their Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory personality profiles as well as the type of game being played."