The Covid pandemic we are dealing with brings out a lot of weaknesses both at an individual and collective level, but also offers some important opportunity, one of the most important being the development of new ICT tools and the increased diffusion and use of already existing ICT tools for supporting our daily life. Young people have a greater propensity to any ICT tool and this is both an opportunity – especially for education- and a threat as many youngsters fall in dangerous addictions to games, social media networks etc. with serious long term effects. One of the most dangerous effects is youngsters’ isolation in front of a computer, that leads to an even higher disengagement in social and civic life, with negative impact both as individuals and community. The risk that young people will be alienated in front of the computer is greater in a period of the pandemic when we are forced to stay home.
On the other side, Young Europeans do value democracy but the way young citizens get involved in the democratic life is changing and the challenge consists in helping the younger ones to find a proper way –closer to the millennials style– to be active in the civil life of communities.
Fondazione Toscana Sostenibile (Italy), Asociatia Pro-Xpert (Romania), Mobilizing Expertise (Sweden), CEBS (Poland) and Real Time Video Ltd (UK) works to find out new strategies to inspire young people and involve them in civil life and to find together with their young participants new ways to shape their role in the decision-making process.
In this framework, the idea to use participatory videos and Virtual Reality arises with the objective to:
1.Foster youth participation in civil life and in general promote citizenship competencies for a democratic culture by offering innovative and interactive non-formal educational instruments.
2.Develop skills related to communication and ITC since a group of 20 youth workers will learn to make videos using VR with the purpose to involve young citizens in active participation in the democratic life. Creativity and a reflection on democratic life issues to develop the contents of the messages. Technical competences to create the videos using VR.
3.Implement high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of individuals – especially from different marginalised groups (that are more difficult to reach and involve)
4.Promote the international dimension of non-formal education for a democratic culture.
