“You need to consider that when you’re doing online or hybrid activities, people’s perception of time is very different to how they perceive time offline. Eve - ry single activity, every single item on the agenda takes longer and consumes more time overall. The technical issues alone! You need to explain everyt - hing. And then there’s the lack of non-verbal feed - back from participants. You can’t always be sure that everyone’s heard you, everyone’s understood, everyone’s still on board. To make sure you don’t lose that connection, you need to keep reaching out to the participants verbally, which again takes time.” (Team leader, one-on-one interview) Besides the ideal length of the projects overall and of individual online sessions, interviewees were ques - tioned about the online tools they most frequently used for the projects. The three most commonly men - tioned tools were Zoom, Padlet and WhatsApp. The team leaders in particular appreciated Zoom because it was easy to use, plus unlike other programs it offers a simple language interpretation function. However, the participants were not quite as keen about Zoom; they preferred applications such as wonder.me as they are more dynamic. They also proposed incorporating virtu - al reality (VR) sessions because these create a sense of “presence” in the virtual space and help everyone to get to know each other and build more meaningful relationships. One participant said, „And […] this is just an idea. Maybe one could also think of other ways of meeting each other, for ex-am - ple, via VR or something, so that everyone really sits in the room together and we see each other. […] it could be a good way to get a deeper connection with the other participants, because they really see a person, not just this at the laptop or something. (Participant, group discussion) Padlet was mainly used as a file repository and docu - mentation tool and to provide participants with infor - mation and documents ahead of the actual project. Participants also used it to engage in asynchronous collaboration. WhatsApp was mostly used by team leaders to share organisational and logistical information with partici - pants. The participants also used WhatsApp to interact between online sessions.
It is evident that the tools were selected and used ac- cording to their respective specific functions. It is also evident that while it is frequently used as a platform for digital formats, Zoom does not necessarily respond to the needs and desires of the participants, as eviden- ced by their feedback. The tools and media that young people use most often amongst themselves are mainly seen as an add-on, but are rarely considered as the main platform. The primary consideration, however, is how the tools in question are actually used and what functions they offer to the respective user groups when implementing digital formats. 3.2 Access and participation As regards access to and participation in digital projects, the following questions were asked: • Do new channels of access open up if online tools are used? • What new disadvantages can result? • To what extent is (new) potential for participation that can emerge from the use of online tools opened up in the projects? • What challenges to access and participation are there in connection with using online tools? First, it should be noted that in the case of the pro - jects in scope, the use of online tools was shown to have made access easier in many ways: • The elimination of travel expenses made it possi - ble for young people to participate who have few financial means at their disposal. • The digital activities were accessible to partici - pants who had difficulties physically leaving their country because of, e.g., travel restrictions or a difficult political situation. • Some interviewees stated that digital projects are suitable for young people who feel uncomfortable meeting new people or who are anxious about tra - velling. Being able to take part in an online activity from the comfort of their usual surroundings is “re - assuring” to them, as one respondent said (team leader, one-on-one interview). He also said: “[…] an online activity allows us to reach out to people who we may never have been able to reach out to even in ten years. People who maybe would never have dared to travel abroad […]. So we are certainly removing some of the barriers.” (Team leader, one-on-one interview)
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