On the 15th-16th of January 2024, the Partnership for the Simply Digitally Included project met for an online workshop-meetings. The projects aim is to educate and provide tools and methods on how to support the social inclusion of people with a migration background and refugees in vocational training. The workshops were discussed with the focus on Challenges posed by the Covid pandemic and digital learning formats.
On the first day of the workshop, the project was introduced and its aims of helping learners with migration background especially during the pandemic. Additionally, because of the pandemic VET teachers and trainers had to think of ways to teach student digitally and use different digital methods to feel comfortable and at ease in digital teaching. Therefore, a toolkit was created for VET teachers that contains 4 chapters, which offers different tools and methods that can be used in classes to make it more interactive and inclusive. Some to tools and tips that were discussed were kahoot, padlet, quizlet, peer learning, group-based activities, checking each other assignments, promoting mentorship etc.
Another aspect that was focused on was the methods to increase student participation and overcoming their fear with participation. Some examples, river of life methodology, encourage self-reflection, interactive contact, breakout session, gamification etc.
On the second day, we discussed the toolkit for dealing with cyber bullying and exclusion. Different measures were given to deal with cyberbullying. Additionally, digital group strengthening was also discussed through different methods such as clear communication, team building activities, training and skill development and integrate SEL.
Overall, the workshop training was interesting and offered a lot of different ways and tools to deal in different ways. Even to our team who are mainly non-formal educators but even, so it gave a lot of insight and ideas on how to conduct our meetings and workshops inclusively and insightfully.