Training participation - through blended learning to action plans
EURBANITIES understands that a game alone is not enough to activate and teach participatroy processes, thus we developed three training modules which can be applied in a blended way (combining online and offline phases) for different contexts:
  1. A 4-5 days training designed for trainer, facilitators and teacher, who will deliver the two training modules above, but have no practical expereinces on urban participatory processes.  (Module A)
  2. A 4 Day Training for inexperienced local actors, students,school kids, which  do not have any experience in urban participation. (Module B)
  3. A two day training for experienced local actors, wishing to improve their ongoing campaings/projects. (Module C)
  4. A one day training for university students of urban geography (Module D)

What is done?

The learners are divided in four teams which form a mini-NGO and they have to decide which story they would advocate.

The mini-NGOs have to work in a role play, creating a strategy to be presented to a local commission (formed out of the trainers), during this process they are interrupted by interventions (e.g. media, investor) and all strategies are denied in favour of an investor.
The real frustration the learners will feel, are the same as real NGOs or active citizens have.

In order to improve their strategies, the “NGOs” are invited to a training with anonline game, which is telling the story of a typical urban invention. While playing the game, the process will be stopped by real-time interventions, which will help the “mini-NGOs” to improve their strategy, work on campaigns and learn to uses strategic SWOT analysis and learning to cooperate and negotiate.

After ending the game, the mini-NGOs will face again the commission, which will now grant the projects.

After the blended part is played, the learners receive the chance to reflect on the experience and transfer the learned into their real-life experience.

The train-the-trainer part  (Module A) and the module for inexperienced local actors and general learners (Module B)  is containing the whole training circle. This module was tested in Palermo and Bonn.

The part for experienced local activist (Module C)  just contain the blended learning part, as they usually bring already their own experiences and frustration into the training and an additional stimulated frustration is de-motivating them. A test could be done at the next meeting in Sassari

The development of the training and the online game is based on a model developed out of 32 urban experiences (stories) which had been deconstructed and generalised, in order to identify a kind of sample storyline out of which the online game is created.