TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Michele Di Paola
.- experiencing popular digital tools that can be used in youth work focusing on outdoor activities
- sharing experiences and good practices of youth work dealing with digtial reality
- discovering the concept of digital youthwork
- develope creative digital activities and project ideas for youth work
The training had 28 participants from around of Europe and Trainers from Italy, Austria and Poland.
The target group were youth leaders, youth workers and trainers, willing to enhance their competences, flexibility and readiness in using digital devices, online mode and social media in their youth work.
We selected participants who work with young people and:
- who know just the names of the most famous applications, are digital-shy and don’t know how they work,
- who use some apps fluently, but are willing to find out what more could be done with them,
- who are able to communicate and work in English ( working language for the whole training course);
- who wish to learn and teach others during discussions or peer evaluation;
- who are willing to share and use the learning outcomes of the TC in their organizations and with young people.
Using the gamification approach (that is, transforming a learning experience in a game, often borrowing rules, points etc from video-games themselves) we proposed 4 full working days of activities in a group of youth workers and trainers from around Europe. Our challenge was doing it either online and offline, to prove and learn that there is not such a difference between these two worlds, they can talk to each other, and the activities we offer to our youth can start in one realm, continue in the other one and go back to the beginning, keeping an identity and a meaning.
We offered a learning-by-doing experience, or a hands-on approach, in the hackers’ slang: all participants were be driven into games, activities, treasure hunts, multimedia creations etc to learn techniques and approaches involving open air and online worlds. Participants discovered the fun factor of including these tools in their youth work.
Additionally we wanted to bring on a discussion and reflection on the impact of social media on youth education, through input coming from TED-talk videos, sharing of experiences and best practices.
We were open to different levels of knowledge and use of the technologies, and we gathered information on these topics before the actual activity through an online survey and quiz-activities/ games run inside the participants’ facebook group, before the meeting.
We focuse on digital outdoor activities!
Participants learnt how to produce a lip dub video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkZ6S5TyRdo&feature=youtu.be
and how to include technology in non formal education activities like this one: http://educationaltoolsportal.eu/en/tools/briantheonion
We are preparing a publication covering the complete outcomes of the activity.
I was member of the team which designed and delivered the whole training and wrote the followup publication.