Agorá

The E-EVALINTO project was included to the Booklet of case studies, testimonials and collaborative programs that was created within the framework of the Mediterranean Migration Network (MMN) project. In detail, CARDET is the coordinator of the Mediterranean Migration Network (www.migrationnetwork.org), an initiative that aims to establish a multilateral network with countries in the Mediterranean region. One of the objectives of the MMN is to support the exchange of information and best practices among organizations active in the fields of migration, integration and diversity.

You can access the booklet here.

In this post, Sofia and Cristina, the young colleagues who made the WYRED video, talk about the ideas behind it.

Adults tend to view “youth” as a homogenous group, talking of the concerns of youth as if all of us shared the same opinions and values. We are, of course, as diverse as adults, though like adults we may share some concerns.  One of the key aims in the WYRED project is to reflect and explore this diversity, and to give young people not just one voice, but as many as possible. This was the principal concept we were asked to capture in the WYRED promotional video.

When it comes to advertising an important and innovative project like WYRED, there is a need to make something different, attractive, but at the same time functional. We wanted to create a video with a strong visual meaning, with a different look to other work of this kind, and we decided to use a metaphor to transmit the central idea of WYRED.

Of course the other vital aspect is to attract the attention of the public. The metaphor technique we chose allowed us to capture the meaning of the key idea through the use of an object, in order to make it more concrete and eye-catching, and to ensure the effect of the video as a whole would be more immediate and arresting.

During the pre-production phase, we considered a wide range of objects that might be used to represent the idea of youth metaphorically. The object chosen needed to be attractive to the eye, easily recognisable, with a range of possibilities to play with (shape, colours, movement…) to show the variety and heterogeneity of youth. It also needed to be an object in some way associated with this age group. The balloon has a range of characteristics that make it an appropriate choice. It was really just what we were looking for: it’s attractive from an visual point of view, it has a large range of different forms and colours, and movements, which provided a lot of flexibility, and most important of all, it is an object that is related with youth. Adults don’t use balloons, they no longer see them as fascinating. Not only is it associated with childhood and youth, but it has associations of lightness, play, movement, lightness, vibrancy, colour and so on.

Another very important tool that we used to represent the challenge and solution involved in WYRED is light itself. We played with it as much as possible. During the first 15-20 seconds of the video the balloons are not well lit, but as the voiceover moves to describe the potential of young people they become more and more well-lit until eventually they are freed to float in the sunlight as the WYRED solution is described.

And last but not least, another key element was the voiceover. The images were very important but the tricky part came with the sound. We didn’t want that the weight of the meaning and purpose of the video to be carried only by the images or the sound. There needed to be a balance with voice accompanying image and visa versa. Furthermore, to reinforce the notion of diversity we chose to have a combination of different voices rather than just one, We hope you like it!

The post WYRED Video: “Young people should have a voice” appeared first on netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society.

My school’s “intercultural profile” is a survey developed by the E-EVALINTO team with the objective to provide the schools interested in dealing with the challenge of the integration of pupils with migrant background, with a tool for the evaluation of the school context as regard to the management of intercultural issues (identification of needs and individuals potentially at risk and development of specific action plans).

It is composed by a set of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to be applied to the different school actors, school managers, counsellors, parents or legal guardians and pupils, because we consider that in order to obtain a multi-perspective picture of the context, it is crucial to identify the “intercultural profile” of an entire school instead of taking isolated assessments oriented to single individuals or groups.

This tool has been applied during the Spring 2017 in 5 pilot schools in the project partners’ countries and the four target groups have been involved by questionnaires or semi-structured interviews depending on the target group to be addressed. The results helped the project teams to design, with the support of the schools, a specific “tailored” training for the teachers, which will be held next November in each school.

The package is composed by:

• Technical Datasheet of the survey
• Informed consents models for the application of the survey
• Template for reporting the survey’s results

We invite other schools interested in identifying their intercultural profile to use this tool and bring back their feedback.
Further information here.

A key aim of WYRED is to engage children and young people (C&YP) in a process of social dialogue giving them a voice to share their thoughts, fears and feelings in relation to the online world and explore a range of topics and themes that interest and/or concern them

26 face to face and including 2 online social dialogue sessions took place by end of June 2017 across 8 countries involving 436 C&YP! The Dialogues engendered lively and energetic debate among the children and young people using a range of creative techniques to motivate the C&YP.

The process of social dialogue allows for engaging and building alliances and the diverse nature of the groups reflected the inclusive nature of the WYRED project. C&YP proved themselves to be active decision makers. They felt heard and listened to in the process and willing to be challenged in relation to their ideas and concepts. Sound relationships were formed between groups of young people.

The dialogues facilitated by the 9 WYRED partners provided the opportunities for C&YP to explore both the digital and physical worlds in which they live. The themes identified throughout the Delphi process provided the stimulus for the later conversations to begin and to grow. However there was room for a number of other issues and topics to be explored which were initiated by the C&YP themselves.

The results from both rounds of the Delphi show that young people consistently attribute the highest importance to the issues of “self-image and self-confidence”, “tolerance to different cultures/opinions”, and “necessary changes in education”. One issue, mental wellbeing, is also perceived as very important and emphasized in some of the initial face-to-face social dialogues with young people carried out by the project team.

A wide range of potential research areas were identified throughout this process by some of the partners and this will be explored further.

The social dialogue phase has provided a unique opportunity for a range of stakeholders and most importantly our C&YP to be fully engaged in a process that will put them at the heart of research involving the online world which is part of their everyday lives. Research questions identified lend themselves to manageable and accessible projects which we are excited to take forward in the next phase of the WYRED project using a wide variety of expertly designed innovative research tools to appeal to the broad age range of the C&YP involved in the project.

The post WYRED Social Dialogues appeared first on netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society.

Only 17% of Google’s engineers, 15% of Facebook’s, and 10% of Twitter’s are women. (Ref)

“the gender gap is not at all connected to innate ability; girls are not less likely than boys to be good at these subjects.

In fact, The Engineer reports that in the UK girls outperform boys up to GCSE level (exams taken at age 16). But after this, the further on you go, the fewer women you find pursuing these subjects.

For instance, women make up just 12% of engineering students at universities in the UK, and just 4% of those taking engineering apprenticeships.” (Ref)

+ info

The post TACCLE3 Coding: Evidence shows that girls (relative to boys) start disengaging from IT and technology at age 7 appeared first on netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society.

We are glad to introduce the faces of the winners of the WYRED Slogan competition!

In the pictures Elif Çalışkan from IB World School (Turkey), David Furtschegger from University of Innsbruck (Austria) and the youngest Vincent Lowry with the friends of Saint Macarten’s Youth Club (Northen Ireland).

Click here to read their slogans.

The post WYRED FACES appeared first on netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society.

Are teachers able to manage the assessment of a learning activity properly?
How to design an evaluation tool where the role of assessor can be undertaken by both teachers, mentors and students, through self-assessment or peer assessment?

Gregorio Rodríguez Gómez, Professor of Educational Research Methods at the Didactic Department of the University of Cádiz (Spain), trained the E-EVALINTO team to design, manage and implement evaluation tools by using the EVALCOMIX app for Moodle during a workshop held in Florence last 5th of July.

The workshop was performed by proposing the development of several activities to the attendees, through an active learning methodology, aimed to let them become aware of the steps required to design different learning activities with their assessment tools to be analyzed by the E-EVALINTO environment.

The propose of this training is to spread the skills to use the environment by turning each attendant into a trainer in their own institutions and school contexts.

To learn more about the E-EVALINTO assessment tool, have a look at the Getting Started Guide.