Digital skills & soft skills

EDUCATIONAL COURSE

Digital skills & soft skills

Start

The course was developed within the framework of the projectYes We Can! 2019-1-PL01-KA204-065197

Index

TOOL 2

TOOL 1

TOOL 3

TOOL 4

TOOL 5

CollaborativeStorytellingwith Google Docs

Tool

Introduction:

Google drive is an online platform (a so-called cloud service) from Google that allows people to create digital content (folders, documents, tables) and access it from different devices. It allows to create different types of files – the most common ones are word files (texts), excel sheets (tables with formulas) or presentations (documents that include text and images).

The text documents created on Google drive are called Google docs and are a simple way to create and share content online with other people who can edit the document from another device at another place at the same time as you or at another time.

LO: LO1 and LO2

Through the exercises foreseen in this tool, the caregivers will learn how to create a Google Doc, share Google Docs, and support elderly people to collaborate with each other on Google Docs in collaborative storytelling exercises.

Structure:

• Warm-up activity
• Main activity (can be split into two)
• Debriefing

The tool step by step:

• Warm-up Activity:

- “Have you ever wanted to change the ending to a story?”- “Have you ever read a choose-your-own-ending story?” (An example of such story is To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North. Caregivers can look for other examples in their own language). - “Have you ever seen a theatre play where the audience gets to choose the ending?”

Use the shared experiences as a basis to discuss the consequences of choices. Discuss why story endings are important. Ask participants to tell a life story or a fictional story whose ending they would like to change. This story will be the basis for the main activity.

• Main Activity:

Make sure elderly people have Google accounts and can access Google Drive and Google Docs. If they do not have an account, an additional activity should be included, whereby the caregiver assists the elderly person(s) to create an account and log in it. Ask the elderly people to create a shared word document on Google drive and to write down the story that they want to change.

A menu will appear, from which the user can select the type of document. To create a simple text file, select “google docs” -> “blanc document”.

A shared document is created on https://drive.google.com by clicking on “New” on the left-hand side of the screen:

Don’t forget to give your document a title by going to the top left-hand corner.

Once your document is ready, you can choose who to share it with through the “Share” button on the top right corner.

You can give access to anyone who has the link, or you can restrict the access, so people need to ask you to allow them.

Another important aspect is to define what people can do on your document – you can allow them only to read it (Viewer), to suggest changes (Commenter) or to edit freely (Editor). For this activity, we recommend the “Commenter” access, so that the initial author of each story can easily see the new ending proposed by their peer.

A basic tutorial on how to create and share a Google doc is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haKzqSULaPs

(in EN, but automatic subtitles in different languages can be enabled for this video).

Then, divide the elderly people in pairs and ask them to imagine that they have the power to change the end of the story of their peer (elderly person A changes the ending of elderly person B and vice versa). Ask them to share the link to the created document with each other by email (e.g., via their Gmail account, in which they are already logged).

They should open the link of their peer, read their story, and change the ending. If they have full editor access, they can still choose to write the new ending via the “suggesting” feature, where the changes will remain visible, so that when the links are exchanged again, the initial author can review and accept those changes he/she agrees with or reject the changes he/she does not agree with. To close the activity, organize a session where the elderly people can read and discuss the new stories in the group.

Tips for the Caregiver:

• Debriefing:

Ask the elderly people about their experience with the shared Google docs:

- Did they encounter any technical problems? - Were they at ease with the devices beforehand? Are they going to be able to use these tools again autonomously (without your assistance)?

Required material

Useful resources

Blackout poetry with Google docs

Tool

Introduction:

This activity is aimed to get elderly people acquainted with the creative writing technique “Blackout poetry” by using a shared Google doc. “Blackout poetry” consists of selecting a page/text from a (favourite) book, newspaper, magazine, and “deleting/striking through/blacking out” part of this text, leaving only the words which we want to include in the poem we want to create. This method can be applied not only by aspiring poets, and writers (e.g., when they have a writer’s block), but by anyone, as it has proven benefits with regards to stress relief, concentration, and creativity.

This method is usually applied offline, by cutting off a page of a newspaper or an old book or copying a page of a book with a copy machine, and striking through the text, making drawings, etc. to highlight only those works which make the poem.

LO: LO1 and LO2

Here we will use Google docs to manipulate the text. The aim is two-fold: to encourage the elderly people to unleash their creativity and work with a text that they would otherwise consider as “static” and unchangeable, and on the other hand – to get acquainted with Google docs’ more advanced options.

Warm-up

Main activity

Debriefing

Structure:

The tool step by step:

Main Activity

Warm-up Activity

Tips for the Caregiver:

If a full-page text of a book or a news article is too much for the elderly people, another option for the “source” text of the blackout poem could be the lyrics of a favourite song. The caregiver could ask the elderly people for their favourite song, or a good memory about a song, or a singer, and then search for the lyrics to create a black-out poem of that text. A good idea could be to search and listen the song on YouTube, or Spotify.

An interesting twist of this activity can be starting with the same original text. The final poems can be compared to see what similar themes came through, or how completely different moods and ideas were expressed by the different elderly people, and discuss those.

To make the poem look more “beautiful”, once it is ready, images can be inserted onto the black spaces. A video tutorial on how to edit a poem on google docs and insert images using the “Explore” function directly from the document can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAg-k5Vn2PM. Google docs Explore Tool is available right on the page. A basic search using a key work (e.g., one of the words in the poem) yields relevant results and displays a variety of types of information beyond text (e.g., images). Useful content- specific buttons allow users to insert links, images, maps, and citations into a document with the click of a button. This powerful research tool provides convenient access to information in manageable chunks that are ready for use. Another way to make the poem more visually appealing is by adding an image as a background. The steps to do it are explained in this article: http://sciencenotebooking.blogspot.com/2017/03/blackout-poetry-with-google-docs-and.html.

Debriefing:

Ask the elderly people about their experience with the shared Google docs:

- How did the process of the creation of the poem make them feel? - How to they feel about the result? - Did they encounter any technical problems? - Were they at ease with the devices beforehand?

Are they going to be able to use these tools again autonomously (without your assistance)?

Required material

Useful resources

Creating a poster/invitation/photo collage with Canva

Tool

Introduction:

Canva (https://www.canva.com) is a graphic design platform. It includes templates for users to use. The platform is free to use. It also offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality, but the basic free functions are sufficient for beginner level use. Canva is very user-friendly, and it comes with countless templates for every type of resource you could imagine to start off from. Here are some examples: Posters, Invitations, Graphic organizers, Videos, gifs and animations, Presentations, Name cards, Menus, Recipes, etc.

LO: LO1 and LO2

Debriefing

Main activity (2 exercises)

Warm-up activity

Structure:

The tool step by step:

Warm-up: METAPHOR CARDS

Metaphor cards are a reflective tool that use metaphors or symbols to represent participant’s reactions to an experience. These cards are useful as introductory activities, for processing a specific experience, for closure, or even as tools to help participants resolve conflict. Metaphor cards activities are appealing to the participants, can be used in many ways, and are appropriate for all age groups. Because participants talk about a card rather than directly about themselves, they are often more willing to share. Popular metaphor cards are for example Dixit cards, but it is also possible to run this activity online using online resources with metaphor cards, e.g. http://imaginari.es/new-metaphors-downloads/.

Metaphor cards can be used as an introductory activity to “break the ice” and help group members get to know each other. As a check-in activity, the caregiver asks each person to pick a card that best represents how they are feeling at that moment. Then ask the elderly people to share why they picked the card they did and why that card represents them.

You can also do this at the end of the day or after an activity. Ask each participant to pick a card and share why they picked the card they did and why that card represents them or an experience they have had.This can be a starting point for a discussion on the topic of images and how images can represent the way we feel or provoke certain thoughts and actions.

Main activity:

Exercise 1: Make a photo collage with Canva

Overview:

The traditional way of making a collage is to cut out pictures and glue them into place on a background. Using Canva to create a digital collage from photos or images enhances design and layout, encourages creative expression, and actively engages. The elderly people will be encouraged to bring out their ‘inner artist’, while at the same time they can use ready-made images of high quality. The advantage – if they don’t like the result, they can start again until they arrive to a satisfactory result.

Start the activity with an introduction to Canva. If the elderly people already participated in the activities related to using Google docs, they can login to Canva using their Google account and don’t need to create a separate Canva account. Once they are logged in, the different types of templates will appear.

Process:

• Elderly people select “Photo collage” and choose a photo collage template which they like. • They upload their photos and drag or drop them into the design template. • They can personalise colours and fonts and add captions to the photos. • They can use their creativity to add stickers, graphics, and illustrations. • They can share their collage by posting it online or downloading a copy.

The collage can be done with a specific theme to create a story, e.g., my family, my best memories, my travels, my city, my hobbies. They can use personal photos from their smart phone but can also download free photos from websites such as Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/) or Unsplash (https://unsplash.com). The created collage can be used to illustrate a story that was already discussed in a previous session.

Exercise 2: Create a poster or an invitation with Canva

This exercise is best to be implemented in the context of another activity, e.g., to promote a documentary theatre or danse performance, or to invite friends, neighbours, relatives to a specific event/occasion. Therefore, the background to this exercise will vary according to the occasion and interests of the elderly person(s) that the caregiver is working with. Ask the elderly person(s) to imagine an event that they would like to organise. It could be anything from sharing a hobby like cooking or knitting to celebrating their birthday. The idea would be that they use Canva to create an invitation to this event, which they could then print and put into their neighbours’ mailboxes or send by email.

The steps of this exercise are similar to the previous one:

• Once the elderly people are logged into their Canva account, they are asked to select among the templates “Invitation”. • They change the text on the template with the one they wish – the minimum information provided should be the date and time of the event, the address, and the topic (in case any specific topic is foreseen). • They can personalise colours and fonts. • They can use their creativity to add stickers, graphics, and illustrations. • They download the invitation and send it by email or print a copy.

Debriefing

Ask the elderly people about their experience with Canva:

- How to they feel about the result? - Did they encounter any technical problems? - Are they going to be able to use the tool again autonomously (without your assistance)?

Useful tips for the caregiver:

Canva is available in most languages, however, changing the language is only possible once the user is logged in their profile, and this option is only available when accessing the platform through a desktop device, and not on mobile devices. Therefore, the initial contact with the platform is always in English, so we recommend the caregiver to support individually each elderly person to set up an account and set the language to their native language. To do that, each user needs to go to Account settings -> Your account -> Language and select the respective language in from the drop-down menu.

Keep in mind that you will probably need to support the elderly people throughout the process of registering and using Canva. If you are working with a group of elderly people, make sure to foresee enough time for individual support.

Required material

Useful resources

Daily routine with STORYBOARDTHAT

Tool

Introduction:

Storyboardthat (https://www.storyboardthat.com) is a drag-and-drop online creation platform offering a free version and a premium subscription version with extensive funtionalities. It allows users to create storyboards. It offers a library of drag and drop images that include scenes (settings), characters, and objects, and users can select from different layouts. The free version is limited in the number of layouts (only two) but for this training it is sufficient to introduce the elderly people to the tool. The tool is of higher complexity as compared to the previous ones, but the exercises foreseen are at beginner level. Nevertheless, the caregiver should evaluate whether the tool is manageable for the target group. The tool is available in English and all project languages except Greek. A tutorial on the main features of the platform is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0yg5k1RqY.

Debriefing

Main activity (2 exercises)

Warm-up activity

Structure:

The tool step by step:

Warm-up: My daily routine

Ask the elderly people to describe their daily routine:

- What time does their day start? - What do they do in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening? - Who do they usually meet? - Tell about the events of a day that they particularly remember. What was different on that day as compared to their daily routine?

Main activity:

In this exercise the elderly people will use Storyboardthat to present their daily routine. It will be implemented through the following steps:

To close the activity, elderly people could compare their daily routines and discuss what is their favourite part/activity of the day.

Here is an example of what a very simple daily routine storyboard created via STORYBOARDTHAT could look like:

Debriefing

Ask the elderly people about their experience with STORYBOARDTHAT:

- How to they feel about the result? - Did they encounter any technical problems? - Are they going to be able to use the tool again autonomously (without your assistance)?

Useful tips for the caregiver:

Since this tool is of medium to high complexity, caregivers should expect a very low level of autonomy from the elderly people

Required material

Useful resources

Digital storytelling through still images

Tool

Introduction:

Digital Storytelling with still images means creating a digital story (a video) by using a sequence of still images which represent the different phases of the story, accompanied by a voice over of the narrator who is narrating the story (usually the author of the story him/herself). In a digital story, the narrator describes his or her own personal experiences or personal points of view on a particular topic by putting together images, sound, music, text and voice.

Digital storytelling is a simple and accessible way to tell a story through a short film without requiring extensive technical knowledge or skills. This method is suitable for people of all ages and with different educational backgrounds and language skills. People who cannot read or write can also tell their personal stories with a digital story. A manual on how to use digital storytelling with low-literate people is available here: https://huristo.eu/methodologie/.

Structure:

We start with warm-up activities to get people talking, becoming familiar with telling stories and install safety in the group. Next, we present how to organize and lead a story circle. Once the stories are ready, we focus on selecting the images. What makes images “strong” and where to find or how to create them? When we have our text and images, it’s time to bring them together by editing our video and presenting it to the world!

Structure:

We start with warm-up activities to get people talking, becoming familiar with telling stories and install safety in the group. Next, we present how to organize and lead a story circle. Once the stories are ready, we focus on selecting the images. What makes images “strong” and where to find or how to create them? When we have our text and images, it’s time to bring them together by editing our video and presenting it to the world!

Main activities

Warm-up activity

Debriefing

Structure:

The tool step by step:

Warm-up:

We talked about what are metaphor cards in the tool “Creating a poster/invitation/photo collage with Canva”. In this activity, elderly people will use DIXIT cards to present themselves and their expectations. Participants choose one DIXIT card that represents their mood at the moment and a second card that represents their expectations towards the training. Each participant takes turn to show their selected card to the others. The others try to guess why a participant chose their cards, and then each participant explains why they actually chose the card.

Main activity:

Creating a digital story consists of 3 main parts:

1) Brainstorming and writing the story: Thinking of an idea: what do you want to talk about? Making a scenario and a film script 2) Making or collecting pictures, sound, and music: Research and collecting source material Recording of sound and video, scanning pictures and archives 3) Editing and finishing the movie on the computer or tablet + showcase Editing on a computer: video, pictures, sound, effects, and mixing Finish with closing credits, exporting the movie Show or publicize your movie online

To introduce the elderly people to what a digital story can be, the caregiver can show two or three stories that are different in structure and content. Discuss the differences in the group. Here are some examples of stories that were created during a storytelling workshop and that you can use:

• “My future in quarantine”: https://vimeo.com/107569681 (in FR with EN subtitles) – keep in mind that this story is very sad and it might not be suitable for some elderly people, who are suffering from depression, for example. • “Cruise on my tears”: https://vimeo.com/173594959 (in FR with EN subtitles) – keep in mind that this story is very sad and it might not be suitable for some elderly people, who are suffering from depression, for example. Wannes Hendrik’s story –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0h5tHc5P8 (this is a “lighter” story made by a young person, more stories from this project can be found on the BRIGHTS project YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCrrHy69oB5WbQ6e6X4jH4g/videos; stories on the topic of migrant integration can be found on the Digital Welcome project YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_QwcaojJv6Rhq7Gm_7q0lg/videos).

Tip: show 2-3 stories which are on different topics and with different emotional charge, to show how different stories can represent different emotions and provoke different reactions in those who see them.

Find the story:

This first step is the most difficult for many people: which story do I want to tell? What will my film be about? Often this phase is difficult – many people can't think of a story at first or they can think of several, but they don't seem important and relevant enough. In order to counteract this, it is useful to specify a topic, e.g., love, most memorable encounter, a special gift, etc. This narrows the search for a story. Overall, there is no story that is unimportant or boring - this must also be clear to the elderly people. Basically, the stories can be about anything: a happy childhood experience, a bad or sad situation, a gift from friends or family, or societal topics such as increasing flows of migration, the presence of multiculturalism in society, economic crises, and the challenges linked to climate change, intercultural understanding, citizenship education, respect for diversity and tolerance, and inclusiveness. Personal stories often convey strong feelings and are therefore very effective.

Ask each participant to write down their story on a piece of paper or using google docs. Participants do not have to write down the story word for word. It is enough to make a few points or write down the story in a few sentences.

The Storytelling Circle:

After the participants have found and written down their story(s), they are invited to the storytelling circle. All participants and the caregiver sit in a chair circle without tables and the participants tell their story(s) one by one. Invite the participants to give respectful feedback to the narrator after each story:

• What is the most memorable part of the story? Why? • How do they find the narrative structure of the story? • Was the story comprehensible? Or is more information needed? • Is there another way to tell the story that might make it more exciting? Start with the end or a question? • What is the length of the story? • Was it one or more stories?

Caregivers also give feedback and motivate the participants again and again, even if this process may be difficult. The narrative circle is a very important element and can therefore last a little longer until the stories are shaped.

Creating the scenario:

After the story circle, the elderly people work individually on their stories. The task is to structure their stories in such a way that the search for images is easier afterwards. Important points that they should think about are the following:

• Who are the characters in the story (Who)? • What is the story about (What)? • Where does the story take place (Where)? • When does the story take place (When)? • What is the starting point of the story (Why)?

Selecting images:

The digital stories are based on still images. Participants can use their own pictures, take pictures of their own or search for pictures on the Internet (some free databases are mentioned in the previous tools). In this step of the process, it is important to convey two things: (1) Images have several meanings and can convey emotions and (2) only free images may be used. Selected images should be saved on the computer or iPad from which the video will be created.

Video editing:

The next step, and probably the most technically demanding, is editing the video. For this task, caregivers can choose a preferred video editing software, if they already have some experience. Here we propose some free programmes for video editing.

iMovie

iMovie is an application that is free and can be downloaded on any apple device – an Apple computer, iPad or iPhone. For more information on iMovie for iOS: https://www.apple.com/imovie/. If elderly people work with iMovie on an iPhone, keep in mind that they will have to work on a very small screen. Once participants have written their story, selected images, photos, and possibly sounds and music, they are ready to start creating a project in iMovie.

Here we show you step-by-step how to start, edit, finish and export your iMovie project. We illustrate this manual with screenshots of the iMovie-project of one of the participants in the Huristo ‘Train the trainer’ workshop from February 2018 in Turin, Italy. It’s the digital story ‘HOW COULD WE MEET AGAIN?’ made by Camilla. Her film is a very colourful story on the romance between a girl from Morocco and a guy from India. Camilla used photos, sounds and music, like in every other digital story. And of course: there is her own voice as the narrator.

iPad can be used to create the complete film with it, without having to use other equipment, because it is a hard disk and camera and microphone and editing machine in one! This makes it a very suitable device to create films with people who have no experience in filmmaking and editing and maybe are not even very digitally skilled. iPads (and Android tablets) are very low-threshold and intuitive to use.

Working with iMovie is very creative and not so technical. The only thing that is a bit more technical, is to get resources (images) into the iPad, and once created, to export the film out of it afterwards. That could frighten beginners a bit.

Getting resources into the iPad

If you don’t want to start creating iCloud accounts for your participants (too confusing for them), you have one easy option: e-mail. Ask them to send their photos, sounds, music to their own e-mail address. They can open their mail on the device and download the attachments.

Step 1 – Open iMovie

This is what the icon of the application looks like.

It can be useful to put it on the main screen of the iPad, so it’s easy to access. Tap on it and the application opens.

Step 2 – Create a new project

If you tap on the + (plus) on the left upper side, a small window will open -> Choose ‘Movie’.

Step 3 – Select media

Assuming that the media (photos and images, to begin with) are already in the Media folder on the iPad. Tap on ‘Select’ (above, right) and start selecting the images you want to use in your film... just by tapping on them once. They will get a blue mark. The images do not have to be in the exact order of the story yet! When you have selected all, you tap on ‘Creat Movie’. The project will open. Standard it’s called ‘My Movie’ (you can change that later). If you want you can already press on the PLAY-button and watch your film.

But of course: the order of the images is not correct, there is no sound, all images are too long... it’s time to start editing.

But before we start editing: let’s save the project and change the project name.

Step 4 – Organise your timeline

Before starting to change the duration of each photo, you have to put them in the right order. That’s very easy in iMovie: put your finger on the image you want to move and hold it. It will come ‘loose’ from the timeline and you can slide it between the two images wher you want it to be.

Image by image you can repeat this, until all images are in the order you want them to be.

When you have finished talking, just tap on ‘Stop’. If you are not satisfied, you can ‘Cancel’ or do a ‘Retake’. If you are not sure, you can listen to your recording (‘Review’). If your recording is OK, you can insert it on the timeline by tapping on ‘Accept’.

Step 5 – Edit narrative voice

When you tap on the sounclip you want to edit, it will be highlighted with a yellow shape. In the options for ‘Actions’ you will see: ‘Split’. Tap on it and the clip will be split in two:

Now you can start adjusting the timing of your photos: adapted to the duration of the lines of the narrative voice.

Step 6 – Adjust timing of images

To make the duration of a photo longer or shorter, just tap on the photo on the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow. Now you can slide the right side of this frame to the left (to make it shorter) or to the right (to make it longer). Your film really starts to get shape now! It can be a nice moment to show it to somebody else in the group and see if the story is clear to him or her.

Step 7 – Edit transitions between images

You should tap on the little dissolve-sign between two images on your timeline to go to the options. You can change the ‘dissolve’ into a ‘slide’, a ‘wipe’, a ‘fade’... just experiment a bit with them to get to know these different types of transitions. The story is completed now: all the images are there, and the narrative voice guides you through the story. More editing options such as adding music or other sounds, adding titles to the images, etc. are available in this guide:

https://huristo.eu/wp- content/uploads/2018/05/243_20180309_Huristo_manual-14-web.pdf.

Publishing the story online:

Since the elderly people would assumingly already have a Google account, we suggest sharing the video via YouTube. It’s possible to publish the film as ‘Public’ (it can be seen by everybody, all over the world) or ‘Private’ (and you can decide on who can watch it, by sending people a password or a hidden link). Uploading a video on YouTube us quite intuitive by clicking on the “upload video” option and following the instructions. YouTube, just like other google apps, can be used in all languages.

Debriefing

The essence of this tool is learning by doing and the end result is a digital story in form of a video. To assess the final results, every participant has to present his or her video to the rest of the group and to answer questions from fellow participants. Ask the elderly people how they feel about having created their own video.

Useful tips for the caregiver:

Other video editing software should be used if you work with Android devices, such as:

- Vivavideo https://vivavideo.tv – tutorial on how to create a video using images is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz1xkSkhSXc. - Powtoon https://www.powtoon.com (tip: you can upload your images in PowToon and add it to your project. A quick tutorial is available at https://www.powtoon.com/labs/tutorials/powtoon-studio- tutorial/).

OpenShot Video Editor https://www.openshot.org/en/ (a tutorial for beginners is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeKRsMO_6Rw).

Required material

Useful resources

EDUCATIONAL COURSE

Digital skills & soft skills

The course was developed within the framework of the projectYes We Can! 2019-1-PL01-KA204-065197