3.5 Team leaders’ skills and training
place, with several participants in the same room con - necting to the session using one personal device each. If one participant speaks on mic, the others in the room may be audible in the background. All participants should be adequately briefed on this .For instance, the group may be asked to give themselves a shared set of rules on microphone discipline and verbal interaction. 3.4 Participants’ skills and preparation In this section, the following questions were asked: • To what extent do young people who take part in digital international projects learn how to use on - line tools? • What additional preparation is required when using digital elements? As for the first question, it emerged that the types of skills participants acquired when using online tools were primarily technical. In other words, in the opinion of the team leaders they predominantly lear - ned how to deal with the instruments that were used. Only few projects focused on other media skills-related aspects, such as a personal reflection on one’s media habits or creative ways to apply media. In these cases, the young participants created digital media products of their own, such as podcasts. These approaches could be used more often in future. Besides actual me - dia production, a debate about young people’s media habits and on the intercultural aspects of media could also be put on the agenda of a digital project, since these issues are understood to be part of intercultural education. The responses to the second question indicated that besides a thorough briefing on the partner coun - try’s culture, participants need to be instructed on how to use the intended media appropriately before the digital project begins. This was confirmed in both the project reports and the interviews with the team lea - ders. The aim was to get the young people ready to deal with the situations that can arise in a digital setting. Specifically, this meant ensuring that all participants had access to suitable devices and knew how to hand - le them. Some participants had to be taught how to use the devices themselves, for which some time had to be set aside.
When it comes to team leaders’ skills and training, the research team looked at the following aspects: • What skills do team leaders feel they need in order to run a digital project? • To what extent do team leaders who run digital international projects learn how to use online tools? • What kind of training would team leaders like to have ahead of implementing a digital project? According to the team leaders, various skills are re - quired in order to run digital projects. For instance, they need to be open to the idea of digital technolo - gies and generally embrace them as a concept. In fact, the interviewees felt that these two requirements were more relevant to running a digital project than actual experience in using digital media for educational pur - poses. Expertise in using online tools for work could then be acquired on the job, as it were. The experts also stated that they would appreciate support in the form of training, for instance (see below), so that they could become more skilled at designing activating methods that relate to the content of the project. The interviewees felt that fundamental (including edu - cational) skills of the kind required for offline settings were instrumental to implementing digital projects. Asked for examples, they mentioned project manage - ment, communication, stamina, intercultural skills, and a good feel for group dynamics. It also emerged that like the participants, the team leaders acquired expertise in using the online tools, especially of the instrumental variety. They did so in particular by learning on the job. One of the project reports analysed by the research team stated that “learning by doing is more valuable than theorising“ (project report, partner B). This approach also enabled the interviewees to acquire methodological experien - ce, something they have been able to expand in recent years. In fact, many team leaders have meanwhile ac - quired an extensive methodological repertoire. As one interviewee put it, “…whether it’s a yes-or-no game, a name game, or if we decide to draw a picture together. Or if we want to do a simple whiteboard seminar. How does all of that work? All these technical issues that we had to look into when we started out so we could actual- ly put something together. And I can actually claim that it’s worked out quite well. We now have a great
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