Activities

The peer-review lab(C1) and the two impact trainings (C2+C3) were implemented in the frame of innovative co-creation learning labs. Co-creation labs typically involve hands-on activities in which a group of peers expresses experiences and explores potential solutions in a tangible way.
Collaborating in this way provokes discussion and creates valuable insights. The participants become deeply involved and respond in ways that reveal valuable new insights. Thus, we targeted facilitators and practitioners, working in civic education in all educational sectors.
In the peer-review lab, implemented at the end of the input phase, the smart practices had been tested, reconstructed, transferred and reviewed by a group of experienced educators.
The participants had been directly involved into the co-design by teaching them how to translate their feedbacks and feelings into concrete suggestions.
The Impact trainings became integral elements of the learning paths development and building, not only by testing them but also by actively contributing to their improvement. The labs followed the “action learning” approach where learners simultaneously develop their
skills by working together for finding solutions to complex problems. (https://wial.org/action-learning/).

Working with critical thinking and media education in marginalised communities rely on the availability of well-prepared educators who can transfer their knowledge and skills to their colleagues and counterparts, who in turn depend on high quality training activities designed for specific purpose.
 
CONCRIT recognises that training is critical to the achievement of successful operational outcomes. The key objective of the impact training is to build capacities, to enhance the ability of educators to adapt to the steadily changing requirements of civic and media education and to strengthen their capability to deliver high quality training.
 
Learning objectives
At the end of the training participants are able to describe and know how media theories can be applied to implement the learning paths on community narration in the context of critical thiking, reflect on own training and communication style as well as own role as a trainer; Design a community sensitive training, matching training needs and target audience; Facilitate a range of participatory training activities and presentations relevant to their area of expertise and working context; Choose and use appropriate methods of evaluation.
 
Methods
The main goals of the impact training are to review, discuss and test the general learning path (IO1). The focus of the activity will be to create an understanding of how citizens can be empowered through the understanding of media and community narratives, how those narrations work in context of critical thinking and which practices might be applied.The impact lab was held in March 2022.

Co-discovery is an important aspect of peer-review lab. It involves participants to explore a topic, problem or theme in a collaborative setting. The learners (trainer, educators) will trigger each other, but also have time to think while others are speaking, which in turn helps them contribute high-quality responses and questions.  
The per-review lab marked the end of the input phase, and is the moment where the results of the desktop-research are reviewed and tested.
In co-discovery, group activities are always combined with individual assignments that generate reflections in context. By exploring smart practices with the learners, step by step, we build an in-depth understanding of the ways in which participants make sense of a topic. In this phase we will review, discuss and actively test and apply the smart practices, receiving reflections and potential other smart practices.
The Co-Discovery lab was held online, due to the Covid19 pandemic in December 2021.

At its very base, CONCRIT is an exploratory and experimental project. The entry point for digging deeper into the transferability of the learning paths is a closer examination of the spectrum between speculation and participation, with the extraction being highly participatory, the transformation being highly speculative and the final co-speculation employing a mix of the two.
 
Co-speculation in particular, is an exploratory future-oriented practice which might identify a resulting methodological mess that is not yet defined, which calls for our imagination. By creating scenarios around these “what if” questions with tangible and realistic objects, learners and facilitators can fabricate an experience of that possible future. Looking forwards in time allows us to imagine problems that might still be beneath the surface or factors that are unknown but plausible or possible.
 
This speculation will be based on the experiences of the learner and on the tools and methods provided by the smart practices; it will permit to mainstream these tools and methods and to map the need of finding further solutions. The exploration of preferable futures will help the educators to create action plans helping them to quickly implement new methods of structured and social dialogue and media competences in their everyday work.
 
In the context of CONCRIT, co-speculation can support learner to approach and reflect on the future. The Lab was organised in Rome in June 2022.