Booklet "Youth Work Going Digital"

BOOKLET Training course "YOUTH WORK GOING DIGITAL"

4-10 November 2021

Bansko, Bulgaria

www.provisionbg.org

Dear Reader, Here we the project consortium of organizations from across Europe we gladly present you the Booklet Youth Work going Digital.

We do hope this will be an inspiration for youth workers, youth leaders and NGOs to integrate digital tools in their daily work. In the booklet you will be able to find free digital tools that can transform your regular activities with young people, some useful tools and resources for creating cool digital content and design, digital gamification tools and resources and other tips and trick, related to digital youth work.

Trough the booklet you will be able to create Great campaings with zero budget using digital platforms and tools, explore interesting and engaging tools for Education trough Gamification; tools to help you communicate with your partners, volunteers and other stakeholders in a more easy and efficient way; how to create podcasts; project management tools where you will be able to divide tasks among your teams and track the progress of the task easily trough one click of your mobile phone.

The project was financed by Erasmus+ program of the European Commission and is coordinated trough UK National Agency.

About the Project

Project objectives:

The overall aim of the project is to provide youth workers and NGOs with the adequate and up to date measures-knowledge, skills, competences and experience in digital youth work in order to engage more effectively young people, even those who are marginalized.

-to provide deeper understanding of the concept of digital youth work, digital education, online activism -to provide practical tools and increace the digital skills and knowledge for better volunteer management, online activism and online communication -to strengthen the potential and capacity of the NGOs to better correspond to the nowadays needs of the young people by integrating technology and digital tools into everyday youth work. The project directly correspond to the priorities of the Erasmus+ program.

The project also responds to the objectives of the KA1 and to raise awareness and understanding of foreign cultures and countries.

About Digital Youth work concept

Technological development and digitalisation impact society and the lives of young people in many ways. Indeed, one of the focus areas of youth work is to support the growth and development of young people in an increasingly digital world.

Youth work also plays an important role in closing the digital divide and promoting digital agency.

Digital youth work is based on the idea that new technology must be utilised in youth work to make services and activities intended for young people better, more accessible and more meaningful.

Digital youth work can be used to create opportunities and spaces for young people to develop their critical, ethical and creative thinking related to technological development and the digital future.

Digital youth work is focused on digitalising the youth work sector and the practices within. Digital youth work is not a separate discipline or method within youth work, but rather something intertwined with all areas of youth work. Digital youth work can, for example, be implemented in the context of cultural youth work, youth participation, youth information and counselling, open youth work or outreach work – in other words, any and all forms of youth work.

At its best, digital youth work links seamlessly with other youth work performed by the organisation and the related goals.

Project activities

Great campaings with zero budget? Mission possible How to use digital tools for great online presence in non profits?

1. Canva Canva is a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. The app includes templates for users to use. The platform is free to use and offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality. Great for everything from social media graphics to presentations. Easy to use with beautiful results

2.Later Later is the all-in-one social marketing platform for the top social networks.

Plan, analyze, and publish your content in a few clicks – so you can save time and grow your organization.

3.Mailchimp Mailchimp is the All-In-One integrated marketing platform for small organizations, to grow your business on your terms. It's easy to use – and you can start for free and sent newsletters to 2000 mails for free.

4.Hootsuite Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Free profile: ·Manage 3 social profiles in one place ·Schedule 30 posts in advance ·Generate leads with social contests The free plan also includes basic analytics for tracking followers and various growth and content statistics and two RSS feed integrations.

Digital Youth Work. Gamification as a tool in youth work.

Gamification is the application of game elements and digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. This is a psychology and motivation-based approach to increase the motivation, engagement and contribution of the target

audience, as well as achievement of the necessary results through their active involvement.

Gamification goals are related to productivity; a game doesn’t have that need. Gamification concept differs from the use of game-based learning too. Considering the game-based learning includes the use of games in learning process, then gamification is turning the process of learning as a whole into a game. Also, gamification should not be associated solely with digital technology, as it can be materialised in more the ways other than by digital media.

Similarly to the game, gamification strategy uses the motivational power of a game and includes components as: a goal that has to be achieved, rules that specify, how the goal is to be reached, feedback system that shows the progress achieved, and the principle of voluntary participation, listed

by Jane McGonigal4 , as well as elements like time, competition, cooperation, reward structure, levels, storytelling, curve of interest and aesthetics, added by Karl Kapp5 . Elements can be classified more specifically or generally, depending on the author of this classification.

With development of digital technology and changes of social standards, plenty of new communication tools and methods of games have been developed during last decades and those are overtaken by young people.

The motivational function of gamification has increased in importance, as there are plenty of opportunities and comfort for youth, which make them less active in general sense.

On the one hand, youth is the most dynamic social group, on the other hand constant information flow and engagement in too many things make person less responsive to something new, therefore creativity used in promotional, engaging and motivational activities increases each year, giving the scene for gamification. First young people should pay attention to “a thing”, get interested in and motivated to take part (or do something particular), or if the task is obligatory to carry out - gamification should make it enjoyable and easier to accomplish. Therefore, the needs, interests and motivations of young people should always be taken in account, leaving the space for observations, research and other activities, initially related to “marketing” (which is also considered as one of the first fields to implement gamification strategies in). Even not being aware of “gamification concept”, organisations and individuals working with youth constantly search for new ways of engaging young people and communicating with them in youth’s language. In 21st century it involves the usage of social media, project managements and assessment tools, competition elements, special design for tools and campaigns, digital solutions, development of special trainings and programmes supplemented with different ice-breakers, networking and leisure activities, team works, semiformal events and many more. Basically, gamification in youth sector is all about supplementing any of activities with elements, which can help to engage people and maintain their interest in a topic or activity. This can be reached in different ways; as different types of gamification exist.

Gamification Tools

1. Kahoot Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology in schools and other educational institutions. Its learning games, "kahoots", are usergenerated multiple- choice quizzes that can be accessed via a web browser or the Kahoot app.

2. Minecraft To help kids who are going back to school in a virtual environment, we've created a custom Minecraft world that provides a fun new way for classmates to introduce themselves to one another and remind themselves of a few rules for good digital citizenship in the process.

When students arrive in this Minecraft classroom, they’ll first meet the teacher who will prompt them to explore and create something unique on the platform to introduce themselves to their new class.

3. Gimkit Gimkit Live can be used in any classroom to introduce or review concepts; it's like a mashup of Kahoot! and Quizlet, but with some unique features neither have. The live gameplay is fast-paced and engaging, but when it's assigned for independent practice, Gimkit Live functions more like flash cards. Getting started is easy; search for kits (question sets) created by other users and copy/modify them for your own use.

You can also import existing question sets into Gimkit Live from other flash card platforms or a spreadsheet. Students can help you build a kit in minutes by submitting their own questions using the KitCollab feature. This makes it easy to insert an interactive review game into your lesson with minimal prep.

Teachers can also use the assignments feature to give homework. Teachers set a due date, and students work through the kit at their own pace, answering questions until they reach a set goal.

4. Quizalize Engage members of your organizations and youth you are working with fun, standardstagged quizzes. Get instant data on student mastery. Automatically assign differentiated follow-up activities.

Other Digital Tools for Youth Work Podcasts 1. Anchor Anchor is a free, beginner-friendly platform for podcast creation, containing tools that allow users to record and edit audio, arrange it into podcast episodes, publish podcasts to listening platforms, and monetize content by collecting listener contributions or adding advertisements into episodes.

2. Headliner Easily create videos to promote your podcast, radio show or blog. Share to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin and anywhere video lives. Up to 4 free videos per month.

3. Cleanfeed An online studio for live audio and recording, in your browser. Easy to use. Basic version is more than enough for start in the world of podcasting.

Other Tips and Tricks Creatives Without Borders > creativeswithoutborders.org Creatives Without Borders connects nonprofits in need of graphic and web design skills with creatives that are willing to do the work pro bono for a good cause and increased exposure.

Creatives without Borders is a nonprofit startup collective that connects designers, thinkers and doers with nonprofit associations in need of creative expertise.

Pablo.buffer.com Pablo by Buffer enables social media managers to easily create inspirational quote and powerful stat images perfectly sized for social media.

Piktochart piktochart.com Piktochart is an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop infographic design tool that allows hi-res image and PDF exports. Piktochart is an online tool for creating infographics, presentation slides, reports, flyers, posters, and more, for both print and online audiences. Combining charts, graphs, text, and built-in graphics, teachers and students can easily assemble and present information using the drag-and-drop interface.

BOOKLET Training course "YOUTH WORK GOING DIGITAL"

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.