15-12-2020

What do Virtual Exchange and a potluck have in common?

Climate change is considered one of the most pressing concerns of our time, and has already had a significant impact on human movement and life on earth. Young people have been a major source of momentum behind climate action in recent years. Through Virtual Exchange we wanted to offer the opportunity for young people to connect with each other on this theme. How do they experience and perceive climate change? And how do they feel about their role as young people? We collected some of the experiences from the Virtual Exchange ‘Cultural Encounters: The Big Climate Movement 2020’.

Over the past 9 weeks, 1131 youth from 84 countries engaged in discussions on the themes of climate change, migration and contemporary political action in the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange course ‘Cultural Encounters: The Big Climate Movement’. They met for a live two-hour session each week, in which trained facilitators helped guide participants in constructive dialogue that put value and emphasis on participants’ lived experiences, identities, and unique contexts.

“At first, some participants were confused since they thought it was going to be another ‘course’ where they would be bombarded with data and taught the facts that they could find anywhere online” one of the group facilitators explains.

“(S)tep by step, as they were asked not only what they think about the topic but why and how they think, feel, or believe as they do, they began getting more and more engaged. As participants grasp the idea that it’s not necessarily about what they know, but how they perceive the issue, they begin feeling confident to contribute, get empowered, and the sessions became cozy and rich potlucks where everyone brings the most authentic things they have without fearing if others will like them or not.”

It is this group and relationship building process in our Virtual Exchange model that allows participants to learn about different experiences directly from the people who lived them, develop empathy, challenge their beliefs and move toward thinking collaboratively about solutions.

When groups are reaching the ‘potluck’ level of comfort and trust, facilitators also observe a high level of activation concerning the course theme. As they heard stories from their peers about enduring natural disasters and seeing less snow in their mountains every year, they often expressed feeling fear and anxiety about their future. However, there was also often a palpable sense of hope and determination;

“We’re gonna go forward and inform other people about the climate”

“I was pessimistic and didn’t see any hope. After these sessions, I got my hope back. What I heard from others in the group made me feel like we can get through this.”

“Even though everyone here has different stories, we all care. If all young people care this much we can create change.”

Here are some remarkable examples to illustrate how groups collectively or participants individually continue their engagement with climate action and other crouse themes beyond this Virtual Exchange:

One group that decided to write a book for kids on Sustainable Development, and have already begun to collaborate on this via Zoom.
A group that did a ‘Two Truths and a Lie: Environment Edition’ activity in which they each completed a number of green actions before their session and then tried to guess which one of the three green action ideas presented by each person they had not done (yet!)
A participant who joined a group of young people in Morocco on a regular basis to clear beaches of plastic waste.
A participant who is a member of UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development who asked one of his fellows to help facilitate an online event with him, and invited his whole group to participate.
A participant who is bringing the knowledge and experiences she has gained from the discussions into an initiative to fight climate change in her country.
A participant who was inspired by this course to do a podcast on the environment, and is now recruiting her fellow group members to be guests in her upcoming episodes.
A participant who founded a startup to help girls in rural areas use their voice to speak up about climate change.

Share on

Drie keer nieuw met ‘The Digital Us’

Drie keer nieuw: Met de lancering van ‘The Digital Us: Allies en Actie Tegen Online Racisme’, start Stichting Sharing Perspectives niet alleen een nieuw project, maar gaan we ook een nieuwe samenwerking aan en verleggen we onze focus naar de Nederlandse context.

FRAMES conference

After two years of working on the integration and accreditation of blended mobility and Virtual Exchange (VE) in Higher Education with the FRAMES consortium, it is time to present our outcomes at a closing conference. On 30 March 2023, FRAMES is organizing its final event on-site at the University of Siena in Italy. The theme of the event is “Framing Virtual Exchange and Blended Mobility in Higher Education”.

Stimulating virtual international collaboration in education, ‘the Dutch way’

Since last year, the Dutch Ministry of Science, Culture and Education is offering subsidy for Dutch higher education institutions to develop innovative virtual projects that foster collaboration amongst Dutch and international students. Any institution that has been granted this specific subsidy is also offered a range of activities to build capacity for designing effective and successful virtual projects. Let us tell you why this is such an exciting initiative.

Toolkit for Integrating Virtual Exchange in Higher Education

The FRAMES Toolkit provides key information, inspiration, tools and case examples of the approaches that HEIs can take to integrate and accredit Virtual Exchange. The Toolkit is a usefull one-stop-shop for educational professionals working in higher education.

5 Fundamental Tenets Of Virtual Exchange

Virtual Exchange (VE) is a great way to allow for genuine interaction, learning and relationship development between people in geographically distant locations. Through VE, spaces for effective collaboration are created and cultivated. Using sustained dialogue as a pedagogical tool during the virtual exchanges, helps to foster healthy group formation processes, even between physically remote people. In order to sustainably enhance these outcomes and impact, there are 5 fundamental tenets of Virtual Exchange that support this process.

Your different virtual personas

Being in front of someone ‘in real life’ obviously assists in clear communication, as it allows us to pick up on small social cues, to establish eye contact, and to have a clearer sense of prosody, tone, and body language. The truth is that we can still pick up on most or all of these in online dialogue, but this requires those involved to make an effort and use the digital tools at hand deliberately.

"Take care of yourselves and the planet"

Towards the end of the 9-week virtual exchange 'Climate Movements', participants reflect and express their gratitude towards the group for the experience and the learning that happened. Facilitators invite participants to bring a ‘(virtual) parting gift’ to their last online session as a way of saying goodbye and celebrating their achievements. Over the years our facilitators have seen this exercise lead to wonderful expressions from participants, like digital cards and even musical performances. This spring iteration, one virtual gift stood out in particular for its relevance to the subject matter of ‘Climate Movements’.