Central European - 8 month ago

CEU student Matej Cacik presented a TED talk about non-formal education used to combat disinformation, during a student organized TEDx conference at Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu, China on November 23. Cacik is a second-year student in CEU’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics BA program, majoring in politics and economics. As an advocate for rural development and skill building among youth, he discussed bridging the urban-rural divide through education in his talk: “Breaking Boundaries: Empowering Rural Voices in a Globalized World [link TED talk here].”   Prior to joining CEU, Cacik studied for a year at Duke Kunshan University. He was invited to be one of the six speakers at the conference sharing perspectives on creativity, transformation and improving the world. At 18, while studying at the LEAF Academy in Slovakia, Cacik founded the civic organization, Krupica, which conducts critical thinking workshops that aim to teach young people in the country how to recognize disinformation. Prior to that, he studied at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey as an ASSIST Scholar. Cacik’s experiences working with youth to prevent disinformation informed the insights he shared during his TED presentation.  “After I returned from studying for a period in the U.S., I realized the severity of the situation with extremism and fake news among youth in Slovakia,” said Cacik. “I was wondering what I could do from my position to contribute to improving how Slovakian youth are building skills around this topic.”  With the help of fellow students, Cacik’s teachers and methodological resources, the Krupica team created their own workshop for young people in Slovakia. “Our goal through this non-formal education is to get participants to think critically and consider how they consume information, the threats of consuming it and how misinformation happens,” he said. Now four years later, at 22 years old, Cacik is still involved in this project, which this year received funding from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  

Matej Cacik delivering his TEDx talk. Photo courtesy of Cacik. Cacik defines the type of non-formal education facilitated by Krupica as one in which the participants are there to learn as students but do so through experiential methods. “Our education system needs to allow students to learn through failure and exploration,” Cacik said. “Everything we teach our students in the workshops is through successful failures. We guide them with hints, and they must walk the steps themselves and arrive at a conclusion.”    Referencing the World Economic Forum’s findings on the future of work, Cacik also said that educators should be teaching skills, not just theoretical information for young people to be successful in today’s world. He noted that skills such as internet literacy, technological literacy, creative thinking and analytical thinking, are integrated into the workshops taught by Krupica.   Cultivating lifelong learners was another focus of Cacik’s TED talk. He said: “We need to change the way we motivate students in school and grow an interest in learning new things. This is particularly important now because of AI and the fast changes that we re experiencing.” He noted that today’s youth will need to be constant learners for the rest of their lives in order to adapt to new technologies, new abilities and the new jobs that will be created.

TEDx speakers. Photo courtesy of Cacik. At CEU, Cacik is continuing to learn about aspects of disinformation and today’s evolving digital environment through his BA course work. This year he took the course “Political Communication under Globalization”, to further develop his understanding of how people think, react and become convinced through online discourse. He also hopes to join the course “Introduction to Cyber Security” during a future term to broaden his understanding of high-tech warfare. “Without understanding the behavioral patterns of people, we are not going to be able to effectively address the issues that democracies are facing,” said Cacik.  Learn about CEU’s undergraduate studies programs with dual accreditation in Austria and the United States.    Unit: Undergraduate StudiesCategory: NewsImage: Content Priority: High

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