Conclusion
Since the first stages of this project were not originally planned as a substitute for an in-person meeting, but were designed to be digital from the start, the team did not sense any frustration as regards the format used. Nevertheless, the children needed a little time to get used to meeting a group of children who did not speak the same language. Judging from their feedback, it grad- ually became clear that the children found alternative non-verbal means of communicating (see below) and were also able to have fun with children from another country far away. Generally speaking, the children gave very positive feedback, which became more and more positive the longer the project lasted. Very good feed- back overall was also given on the project activities. It was not unusual for the children to ask to do a game again. The last stage, in which the two groups spent a week sep- arately at a third location, was key as regards further co- operation. This stage enabled the youth leaders to gath-
er all the children in their group together in one place and give them the chance to have a group experience in shared accommodation. Being away from home in it- self already poses a special challenge for children in this age group, and that applies all the more to many of the children in this specific group on account of the various challenges they have to contend with. The various hybrid and blended phases before the project started therefore contributed a great deal to the success of the last phase. Language and communication During each phase of the project, each group was sup- ported by someone who spoke both German and French. All the activities were designed so that the children were able to get to know the other group’s language as well as different ways of communicating (e.g. show-and-tell, drawing, gestures). Besides, great importance was at- tached to choosing activity-centred methods to facilitate and promote interaction within and between the two groups.
Opportunities and challenges
Practical recommendations
» Even after thorough preparation, technical challenges are likely to arise at any time.
» Bear data privacy in mind. 11
» Do not plan too many online elements.
» The team spent a great deal of time preparing the three phases, at a great distance and without a common language (consecutive interpretation was provided during all the meetings). This posed a huge challenge, especially since health regulations in the youth centres in both countries constantly changed and dates and activities (e.g. cooking permitted in one country but not in the other, a youth facility having to close owing to COVID infections, etc.) thus had to be changed.
» Do not use too many different online tools.
» Adjust the length of online sessions to the group (max. 30 mins in this case).
» Choose simple activities based on what the group is interested in.
» Choose online activities that have lots of non-ver- bal elements and do not require too much lan- guage interpreting. » The team needs to prepare and coordinate well before the project. Agree who will do what and when.
» Stay flexible so you can adjust activities to the group dynamics where necessary.
11 There is a section on this in the French-German bilingual brochure Fascicule franco-allemand outils d’activités numériques – Deutsch-französische Broschüre digitale Aktivitätswerkzeuge , which is available to download as a PDF file at https://www.dfjw.org/media/fascicule-fr-all-activites-numeriques-blossin.pdf.
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