General methodology in the various project phases The main goals of the overall project were » to facilitate a first meeting with children from a neigh- bouring country,
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandem- ic, Blossin Youth Education Centre had been testing and adapting its methods to a digital format. The focus was on hybrid digital group exchanges (one group together at one site, another at another location). The Franco– German Youth Office’s educational expert in Blossin, Anne-Laure Leroy, worked with intercultural team leaders to
» to develop soft skills,
» to build self-confidence,
» to learn to value one’s own living space,
compile a brochure detailing these methods 10 . The ma- jority of them were used in the online child exchange, some were adapted, and some were newly developed. Anne-Laure Leroy closely supported and coordinated the entire project, especially during the conceptual stage and content and programme preparation phase. Setting and methods The technical infrastructure varied at the two project lo- cations. The minimal equipment available comprised a laptop, a microphone, a camera and a projector – and lots of creativity. During each phase the groups had their own room (e.g. a room in the youth club and a seminar room in Blossin) where they were able to meet and where the technical equipment needed for the online exchange was set up. The exchange was moderated in various ways. First, there were online sessions in which the two groups communicated with each other using various videocon- ferencing tools (e.g. Zoom, Jitsi). Second, team members worked individually with each group to prepare them for the video conferences and lead up to those activities that took place simultaneously. This format enabled the media and formats to be varied in both countries and also for the exchange and interac- tion to be structured in as balanced a manner as possi- ble, either directly on- or off-screen or indirectly. The teams used messenger services such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram to communicate. Team members were in contact between the individual activities, during specific activities (where necessary) and at the end of the day to do a follow-up.
» to prepare for an in-person exchange with a group of children from another country.
Activities were designed so that the children had the op- portunity to get to know the language and culture of the partner country actively through play. The children were also given the opportunity to get to know where the oth- er children lived and learn about their hobbies and inter- ests. The aim was for the children to be prepared in the best possible way for the planned in-person phase and to improve the quality of the intercultural exchange as a whole. The programme comprised » activities aimed at getting to know each other and discovering the two groups’ living environments, » digital Language Animation to get to know each other and find out more about the languages spoken in the other group, » joint activities that generally comprised a preparatory phase (e.g. making a video about where they live) fol- lowed by a short online phase (presentation of videos plus time for exchange), » cooperative activities (adventure education methods) during which the children gained concrete experience of mutual support and solidarity (jointly or separate- ly), after which they told each other during an online session about the activities they had done,
» time to prepare the in-person meeting that was origi- nally planned.
The children in the two groups ultimately did not meet in person, and yet the exchange and dialogue was very important. The idea, from the start, was to create op- portunities for intercultural exchange. That was how the exchange was advertised. It was the first time all the children had had any contact and connection with the
WeTransfer was used to share photos taken and videos made by the two groups.
10 Fascicule franco-allemand outils d’activités numériques – Deutsch-französische Broschüre digitale Aktivitätswerkzeuge, bilingual brochure in French and German only, available to download as a PDF file at https://www.dfjw.org/media/fascicule-fr-all-activites-numeriques-blossin.pdf
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