Europe@Home: European Civic Education through the Mobile: Resource Manual

Aims of the tool

This manual was devolped to enable youth workers and (non-formal) educators
-To maintain a deep and meaningful contact with young people;
-To engage young people in non-formal learning, this time online whilst still responding to their learning needs and interests;
-To keep discussing and influencing EU-related issues and policies within a network of young people;
-To take advantage of the possibilities that ‘online’ offers, particularly regarding opportunities to reach out to more young people and use various forms of online engagement and interaction;
-To gain competences that allow online learning to happen with quality, respecting safety and non-formal education principles.

It was designed aiming at
• Supporting the work of youth organisations, and especially JEF Member Organisations and OBESSU on European Civic Education;
• Increasing the quality of the online activities implemented by youth organisations on European Civic Education;
• Compiling and tailoring of activities bringing out their online potential.

Description of the tool

The manual presents twenty-one activities, which were tailored and designed based on interactive approaches and can be used for implementing educational experiences around the “Europe@School programme”. These tools were co-designed by experts and youth leaders bringing in their expertise on online education and European Civic Education. In the manual you will find a comprehensive explanation of the online learning process and critical aspects you may pay attention to while conducting online sessions, namely under the sections “European Civic Education Online” and “Tips for facilitators” where you can find reflections on:

• The essential values to have in mind when designing, implementing and evaluating online activities, in order to continue having young people and their rights, needs and motivations at the centre of our activities,

• Some of the competences for facilitating online activities to reflect on when designing, implementing and evaluating European Civic Education online activities with quality and confidence,

• Tips for facilitation that should be supportive when you want to translate the required competences into concrete behaviour before, during and after the implementation of online activities in the role of a facilitator, also tackling logistical aspects,

•The current approaches to online activities that can help in expanding our understanding of what can be considered “online”,

•Some of the opportunities and challenges faced by young people when designing, implementing and evaluating online learning activities for young people, providing a list of scenarios with possible solutions addressing these challenges.

In addition, while developing the manual, the experts and partners have considered a wide range of topics relevant to European Civic Education, from active citizenship education to the sustainability aspects of a broad range of educational approaches. The manual also offers a detailed description of how to implement each activity, provides tips for facilitation and adaptation of the various activities and appropriate online tools. Furthermore, it helps facilitators, trainers or educators to support reflective learning processes.