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Using Online Tools for Engagement and Consultation - part 1

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.fix8.com/index.html

What is this tool?Fix8 is web software that lets you animate yourself or create a full scale avatar.

Record and upload to YouTube, MySpace etc, or make a movie.

How we used this toolSVSYF used this tool to deliver a key note speech at a Digital Youth Work Conference.

We worked with a young person to record the key messages and edited the clips using

We uploaded the finished video clip onto our channel. We then embedded it into our website, e-newsletter and into a report about digital youth work.

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Pros• It’s a visual way of getting a message across to a large audience• The video can stand alone or be embedded into a website, uploaded onto YouTube or shared via a number of online media.• The basic version is FREE!• Young people enjoy using digital media and tend to pick up the concept very easily.• You don’t even need to be in the room when the young people are making the movie. After the initial discussion, and making sure they know how the technology works, you could just leave them to get on with it (you can always edit bits out later with movie maker).

Cons• You must be aged 13 yrs + to register with Fix8• It looks easy but it’s not, you do need some technical knowledge.• It takes a lot of time - to develop our 5 minute film it took about 1.5 hours of recording time.

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Possible Uses

• This is really fun and interactive and is an ideal tool to use with young people who want to tell their story but don’t want to identify themselves, or if you want to cover a sensitive topic. We changed the voice (we used an actress) but there may be no need to do this.

• Practitioners working with Looked After Children are exploring using this to encourage children and young people to tell their stories / raise issues to senior members of the Local Authority.

• You could combine a number of individual stories into one film – if you export the finished clips into a programme such as moviemaker you can also then add text.

• Get the young people to make a storyboard first - we wrote down our key messages, looked at the characters and assigned a personality to each character we wanted to use. • We shot the whole film in sequence (which could be a bit confusing for younger children and obviously we had to keep reminding ourselves to change personality and accents!)• You could however just make a film with 1 character and 1 voice (or own voice) - it’s an ideal way of delivering a message in the words of young people.• We bought the full version (the film quality is better) and we were able to buy some add on packages that meant we have a bigger set of avatars / characters to choose from.•You can download the Fix8 Software onto your PC instantly – we recommend downloading onto a laptop so you can take it with you.• Beware - you cannot load onto more than one machine even if you buy the full version.• The camera takes some getting used to – get the young people to practice movements first!

You can watch the video we made here: http://youtu.be/gLtsnIaEyO8

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How we used this toolOn a trip to London, the Youth Almighty Project Girls Group were each given a camera and asked to document their trip. They were asked to consider certain themes, i.e. their best memory, the thing they least enjoyed about visiting London, something they wanted to discuss at a later date, etc.

Back at the youth club they used Shape Collage to collate and display their photos. The Girls Group are notorious for not completing or contributing to evaluations and none of them will write anything! Photo Collage was the ideal way to get their views in a creative way, and the finished products also created discussions around the themes.

http://www.shapecollage.com/

What is this tool? Shape Collage optimally arranges thousands of photographs to make a collage in a matter of minutes. It’s a fun, visual, practical way of displaying a number of images together that can be embedded into documents, on a website or used for display purposes.

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Pros• Shape Collage is the only collage maker that: optimally arranges photos; creates collages in different shapes; can handle thousands of photos, generates super high-resolution images (up to 200 megapixels); makes collages in just seconds; exports to Photoshop PSD file format.• Quick to use - create picture collages with just a few mouse clicks. • Make collages in any imaginable shape or form.• You could use this tool with very young children.

Cons• Unless you pay for shape collage pro you get a watermark.• You will need to have access to digital cameras.• To make the shapes look good you really need quite a lot of photos.• If you don't like the collage, save it as a PSD and edit it yourself in Adobe Photoshop (you will need to download this, Google for a free trial version).

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• Don’t use Shape Collage on its own - pictures can say 1000 words, but it’s good to have some text to support this.• If you want to manipulate the images (i.e. rotate them so they are all the same way up – which will look much better in presentations) then buy the licence for the pro version

Possible UsesYou could use Shape Collage for any form of visual documentation or journey, e.g.

- Homeless young people – where they feel safe / unsafe.- Health issues – what really bothers young people?- Poverty – what does poverty look / feel like in your town?

Watch this video to see how Shape Collage works in practice:http://youtu.be/iMrSkUzg7ws

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What is this tool? Wallwisher is an internet application that allows people to express theirthoughts on a common topic easily.

The ‘wall’ is basically a 'web page' where people actually post messages.

How we used this toolWe love this tool and have used it a lot. At a recent Anti-Bullying Professionals Conference we used it as part of a consultation workshop – we asked ‘What do you think the next steps regarding anti-bullying are for Sunderland?’

http://www.wallwisher.com/

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Pros• It’s FREE.• Completed wall wishers can be embedded into docs and websites.• Comments are visible instantly.• People don’t need an account to be able to post to your wall.• You can change the backgrounds to suit –you can even add your logo to the page.• Share via Facebook, Twitter and a number of other online apps.• It’s really easy to use – just double-click anywhere on the wall, start typing, then press enter.

Cons• You need an internet connection for this to work – it works in ‘real-time’.• The number of characters is restricted for each post (but you can always continue on another post!)

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• If you have lots of people in your focus group / at your event you may need to limit the number of posts.• At a recent consultation event we had 6 rotating workshops – we used a separate Wallwisher (with the same question on each) for each workshop.

Watch this tutorial video about Wallwisher: http://youtu.be/PBn1EVzh6wk

Possible uses We have used this in a focus session to record feedback from a group of young people after a discussion about poverty. We asked them, ‘If you were in charge of ending child poverty how would you do this?’ One young person said ‘Give every child an equal chance’. This is now the title of the 10 year Sunderland Anti-Poverty Strategy.

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How we used this toolWe have used this at a Visioning Day to gather instant, anonymous feedback. We asked a large staff team for their thoughts on what should be the priorities for the organisation for the next 12 months. We then used the key themes for group work discussion in the afternoon session.

Combining this tool with we made a graphic that illustrated the key themes. Wordle makes ‘word clouds’ in seconds by entering data into the programme and pushing a button to load the graphic. You can randomise it if you don’t like the shape, colours, etc. We then inserted this image into a Power Point presentation and displayed it during the group work discussion to show people the common themes (the bigger the word the more times it was repeated in the AnswerGarden):

What is this tool? ‘Plant a Question – Grow Answers’. This tool is very similar to Wallwisher – it’s a digital scribble space for discussion or debate, but with a 20 character limit for responses.

It can be used by anyone interested in getting very concise feedback from a group.

http://answergarden.ch/

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Pros• It’s FREE.• Use it live or embed your AnswerGarden on your blog, site or social network page, using the provided embed code. • You can post a link to your AnswerGarden on a forum or email it.

Cons• You only get 20 characters (but if you just want one word…..)• You can’t stop bullying / foul language – but if you supply an admin password when you create an AnswerGarden, you can delete these unwanted answers.

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Possible uses• You could use this in small or large groups – it’s anonymous so young people can answer the questions without feeling judged.• You could post a question with one word missing and ask the young people to fill in the word.• You could use this as an icebreaker – see our example on the next slide.

• If you combine this with the Wordle tool, you can turn the discussion board into a graphic that can be embedded into documents and reports to illustrate them in a fun, visual way.• If you leave the room once you’ve discussed the question, you may find young people are more responsive – there is a huge temptation to look at the answers as the young people are typing them, and they may not be honest if you do.

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Here’s a question we posted for fun as an icebreaker!

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http://www.glogster.com

What is this tool? A Glog is a virtual interactive poster loaded with text, graphics, music, videos, etc.

How we used this toolThe City of Sunderland YMCA used this tool for digital storytelling with a group of homeless young people to explore the question ‘How did I become homeless?’

The young people portrayed their answers using a Glog – inserting images, music and video clips to record their stories.

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The City of Sunderland YMCA has also used this tool to create posters to advertise events for young people – in this example the tutor has included a video message:

http://bit.ly/JeA89w

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Pros

• It’s FREE.

• It’s extremely creative and allows young people to express themselves using any media they want to including music, videos, graphics, etc.

• The posters are visually appealing.

• Privacy – you can restrict the access to Glogs you create.

• You can share Glogs with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr.

• Glogster EDU for educators – allow you to collaborate so could include young people from different areas or projects to contribute to one idea.

Cons

• It runs on Adobe Flash, so it won't work on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad).

• You need basic technology skills.

• There is no spell check.

• This tool could be challenging for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities.

• Young people can become distracted by the graphics and sounds instead of focusing on the main point of the project.

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• Glogster EDU is for educators (you have to pay) but it can be used for collaborative work – why not get a group of young people working collectively on an idea?

• You can rotate, resize, add effects and animations.• You can publish your Glogs on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Tumblr for

others to see and comment on – perhaps this could continue the discussion?

Possible Uses• Get young people to mash up music, photos, videos and more to express what they care about – this could be on any theme.

• This Glog http://liebermanc.edu.glogster.com/glog-9993-8940/highlights a number of different techniques for one theme including a video of a rapping teacher.

It also includes a video clip that is a collaborative class story ‘My Life Story‘, where young people have used six word memories, and illustrated these with text and photos. These individual stories have been collated into a video and uploaded onto YouTube, then embedded into the Glog.

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http://www.floorplanner.com/

What is this tool? Floor Planner is a tool that enables you to design a plan of any building with precision down to the centimeter. Every item can be reshaped, resized and rotated, giving you exactly the floor plan you want.

How we used this toolNone of our organisations have used this tool yet, but on the right is an example of a floor plan developed by a 13 year old. A church invited the local community to input ideas regarding the redesign of the church space (and include facilities for young people).

Once logged in young people can produce a plan for a building and insert different furnishings. What is more impressive is a button that allows you to convert your 2D plan into a 3D building for walkthrough.

We asked organisations if anyone fancies using this tool to redesign their youth club or outside space.

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Pros• Floorplanner is easy to use, but professional enough to use as part of a large scale consultation exercise.• You can make both 2D and 3D models at the click of a button.• It’s fun and young people seem to enjoy working with this tool, and can pick it up fairly quickly.

Cons• It takes ages to put in all the furniture.• On the free account you are limited to one floor plan and can’t export the finished pictures (although you can screen print them and open in paint shop pro for editing etc. You can download this for free, just search Google).

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• If you have the money it might be worth investing in the PLUS Account. With this you can save up to five complete projects, export 2D and 3D images up to 1024x768 pixels, add external media like photos and videos, and browse without adverts.• You can showcase the finished article by embedding the image into your website – and then inviting further comments / consultation.

Possible usesYou could use this tool as part of any consultation that wants input re: redesign / new ideas:• A new youth club• A revamp of a community venue• A number of different designs could be presented to a large audience. This would invite further discussion.

This tutorial video shows how to use Floorplanner:http://youtu.be/qpei9xpdPnU

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A few things to note…

This is part 1 of a slideshow created for Young Digital by Amanda Gerry from the Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum (SVSYF) http://www.svsyf.org

Watch part 2 for more ideas about using online tools.

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.