Offline Twitter is a non-formal education method which can be used to engage all participants in a conversation, no matter their experience and self confidence, to express themselves in a big group.
Aim: Encouraging all the participants to have their say on important topics where they can
express an opinion or ask a question, develop their creative thinking and encourage them to express themselves through other means than verbal communication.
Practitioners:
This method was developed by Gabriel Brezoiu (General Manager) and Diana-Adela Ionita (Head of Digital) and refined through several youth mobility projects (training courses and youth exchanges). Gabriel is a trainer, youth worker, social media expert, and project
manager working in the youth field since 2007. As a non-formal education trainer in entrepreneurship, Gabriel is specialised in using design thinking, Business Canvas Model, creative expression, and digital tools methodologies to enhance young people and youth workers’ entrepreneurial spirit and to support them to transform their ideas into actions. Diana has academic studies in Communications with a focus on intercultural discourse
(BA and MA) and complementary training in Advanced Facilitation, Psycho-pedagogy, Global Education, or Education for Development in a multicultural environment.
Objectives:
The objectives of this method are to:
> Develop the participants’ creative thinking
> Encourage the expression
> Foster collaboration between participants
Structure of the process:
Everyone has to grab a pen and write something. No one is allowed to talk. On different flip chart papers (3-4), there are written different questions and pax are given time to individually reply to them (write a short comment), to support other answers by liking them (by drawing a heart next to it) and ask other questions (write new tweet), as if using a real Twitter account. They can add as many comments/tweets/hearts they want, the only rule is to keep it simple and short (approx.140 characters). They can sign their contribution or not. At the end, make the Twitter pages visible and give pax time to see them and discuss in plenary the outcome of the activity.
Your Approach:
Not everyone is comfortable with expressing their thoughts verbally, so this method has been created following the need of including everyone in the “discussion”. For some people, expressing themselves through writing is much easier, therefore a certain mental block doesn’t exist anymore and they are able to think creatively and outside the box, without the fear of someone judging them if they speak up.
Further readings:
Remarks
> Suitable for topics pax know about. You can best use it during the sessions at the end of a project.
> This activity is suitable to encourage pax to formulate opinions, ask questions to clarify
doubts, and break down big topics.
> We use it a lot for formulating recommendations for stakeholders (NGOs, media, the
governments, the EU, etc).
> Put on some music to stimulate people to „tweet”.
> Make available pens & markers of different colours. The Twitter pages will be very nice.
Source/Acknowledgments:
Written by: Gabriel Brezoiu & Diana-Adela Ionita, GEYC, Romania
The European Commission’s support for the production of this website does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Project No. : 2020-1-FR02-KA227-YOU-018692