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Using Online Tools for Engagement and Consultation - part 2

Since 2010 a group of practitioners from Sunderland who work with children and young people have been exploring using online tools in youth work. These changing times need fresh thinking and new solutions; online tools offered us new ideas.

Online tools have helped extend and enhance our youth work practice in many ways. They have proved powerful ways of engaging with young people and given us a wealth of new ways to explore issues, record views, and creatively communicate with young people about the changes they want to see.

We have used some of these tools in our youth work curriculum, at events and conferences, as a visual evaluation, to help shape policy / strategies, as icebreakers, to make interactive posters and an online comic.

We’ve used the tools with children, young people and adults of all ages and all abilities, including young people with learning disabilities, to explore various topics.

Many practitioners had no prior knowledge of these tools and were wary about introducing them in their work. After some ‘practising’ and some basic tuition, along with some fantastic YouTube tutorials, they developed enough confidence to try the tools out with young people.

We’ve had great fun using these tools and have included some examples of our work – we hope some of them are useful in your work.

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http://www.pixton.com/uk/

What is this tool? Pixton enables you to create comics on the web using a click and drag interface.

How we used this toolA community project used this tool with a group of young people with learning disabilities.

A small group of mixed ability young people wanted to make a comic book to put across their experiences of disability discrimination and what it means to them.

These comics were embedded into a Powerpoint presentation. The comics were also printed and put on display. The young people delivered a workshop at the North East 1st ever ‘Youth Work in a Digital Age’ conference. They presented their work and then took part in a discussion about what it was like to be a young person growing up with disability discrimination – it was all their own work, very visual and very powerful.

The next 3 slides show examples of their comic stories.

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Richard's story

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Lesley Anne’s story

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Laura’s story

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Pros• Allows young people to tell ‘their story’ in ‘their words’. It’s narrative writing in comic form, a unique and creative way for them to express themselves.• It’s fairly easy to use.• The scene panels are arranged in rows. You can create comics from 1 row up to 12 rows, using a pre-set formula or freestyle to create a whole comic book – whilst keeping the story in a logical sense.• The click-drag options means young people only see the buttons that relate to the bit of the comic they are actually working on. • There are character modes that can determine expression and movements.• Comics can be printed, downloaded and embedded into websites and documents.

Cons• It’s time-consuming and young people can get caught up in the comic making and sometimes forget about the story telling – you may want to work on a storyboard with them first.

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• For young people who wanted to disguise their identities we created Lego characters with http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini-mizers/mini-mizer-2-0/• Other young people in the group used a combination of MS Paint and Photoshop 7 to create their comics.• We have also used Go!Animate (see slide 13) to create animated comics which contain both classic speech bubbles and voice acted animations.

Possible uses• This tool is very useful with both children and young people but works especially well with those who might not be able to express themselves verbally (e.g. with learning difficulties).• You could consult on any subject relating to how young people ‘feel’ about things – the comic could be their vehicle for showing other young people / adults their views if they are too shy to speak up.• It could be used collaboratively with more than one young person working on the comic.

Watch a tutorial video about Pixton: http://youtu.be/NAIDKGv1qAM

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Security is a huge issue for young people who wish to have an online presence. Some tools enable them to create an avatar to express their identity but still retain a degree of

anonymity. You could even build a session around avatars by discussing why young people might wish to represent themselves in a certain way.

Mini-mizerPros – Really easy to us to create a Lego version of yourself. Cons - You need to do a screen print in order to copy the image as there is no way to export the image.http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini-mizers/classic-kid-safe-mini-mizer/

Build Your Wild SelfPros – Really easy to use to create a unique avatar that is ½ human, ½ animal.Cons – Probably only suitable for very young children.

On the right is a quick example I created.

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Security and online identity: avatar tools

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http://www.voki.com/

What is this tool? Voki is a free service that lets you create customised avatars.

You can add voice to your Voki avatars. You can also post your Voki to any blog, website, or profile.

How we used this toolI didn’t use this tool just as an avatar. I’ve used Voki to record a short message to a group of young people who were helping to organise an event. They were from lots of different youth projects and were based in various locations across the city.

I posted my Voki message on my website with a link from my Facebook page. That way the message reached all the members of the group instantly in a fun way. Some young people typed replies, some sent emails and two used Voki to post back replies!

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Pros• Voki can help participants to remain anonymous.• Embed in social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.• You can choose upload backgrounds.• You can add an audio message.• You can use text-to-speech to make the voice, with a choice of

accents e.g. Australian, English, Scottish. This makes it even more anonymous.

• It’s FREE.• It’s very easy to use.

Cons• Can only record audio for 60 seconds.

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• Voki could be used as an alternative to ‘vox pops’.

• You can add your own voice via phone, microphone.

• You can also use the text-to-speech button or upload an audio file you have already recorded.

Possible uses• You could record your own Voki – ask the young people a question and then get them to respond by making their own Voki’s.• Young people could use Voki to recite favourite poems, or give you quotes for your research i.e. we think ……. because …….. (you’ll then have their answers in their words without them exposing themselves).

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Some other useful tools

Pros• Go!Animate lets you create online animated videos.• Make cartoons without drawing anything – so good for young people who aren't

particularly good at drawing.• Create your own cast of characters.• Upload your own voice and soundtrack.Cons• Limited to 2 minutes / animationPossible uses• Digital story telling on any subject – cyber bullying etc.

http://goanimate.com/

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http://animoto.com/Pros• Animoto enables you to create video slideshows from photos.• You can add music/soundtrack. • Share on social networks, YouTube, email, etc.• It’s FREE.

Cons• Free version limited to only 30 seconds of video – you have to pay for extended videos.

Possible uses• Young people could use this to collate images on a certain topic and present this to decision makers.• Individual stories highlighted by visuals i.e. ‘what it’s like to live in Sunderland?’ from a young person / disabled young person / gypsy / traveller / young carer perspective.

Watch a tutorial video to see how to use Animoto: http://youtu.be/laGv3dogyIg

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Digital graffiti walls could be used during consultations. We had a big screen set up at an event where we asked young people to sum up the event in one word using this tool.

After each young person had written their word we took a ‘print screen’ image, cropped it using PaintshopPro, then put all the images together on one page in our report as a visual evaluation of the event.

http://www.thehideout.org.uk/games/graffiti.asp

Digital graffiti walls

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http://www.ask500people.com/ I like the mapping idea behind this tool and think young people would like to see their questions being answered from all over the world. Example below - there were 90 people online when he posted the question and within 15 minutes he had 4 responses. It would be interesting to compare views from different parts of the world.

If you had a contact with a youth group in another country then you could perhaps share several surveys.

When you click on the survey to answer it rather cleverly tells you what % of men or women agreed with you adding another dimension to your debate with young people. There is also an option to comment on your survey.

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And finally…

This is part 2 of a slideshow created for Young Digital by Amanda Gerry from the Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum (SVSYF) http://www.svsyf.org

The comments in the slideshow should not be seen as an endorsement of any of the online tools covered. Most of these digital tools are run by private businesses with commercial aims. It’s up to you to decide whether these tools are useful for your own work or not.

Also, digital media change fast - by the time you’re reading this, some of these tools may have disappeared, been updated, or there may be newer tools available to do the same things.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.