3D LAB: Making with brain, technology and hands

Project summary

CONTEXT Informal creative workshops with digital and manual tools bring concrete benefits to young people: - Research data document the value of youth interest-driven, peer-supported and production-centred activities with digital technology. - Our own educational practice proves that young people eagerly participate in making activities supported with prototyping technology which lead to production of concrete physical objects of artistic and/or practical value. - ‘Maker spaces' which transform the traditional artisan workshop with inclusion of digital technology exemplify the above insights. However, such opportunities for young people are very limited. We have investigated the situation in our countries with particular focus on our own regions. - Digital craft workshops are virtually non-existent in the region of Wadowice, Poland where Foundation EST, the project coordinator, organises learning and creative activities for young people. A recent development results from growing availability of 3D printing technology. However, in most cases the machines just sit there, their role is to astound visitors with what technology can do. But this is far from the essential challenge: what the young can do with the amazing tech. - At Metallo Nobile, our Italian partner from Florence, young people pursue a hobby of jewellery making in a space equipped with traditional tools and 3D design and printing technology. The workshops attract participants from all over the world. They acknowledge the unique value of making objects of beauty in a process bridging high-tech designing and manual elaboration. The growth of 'new artisans' is clearly visible in Italy in the commercial sector but very few such initiatives emerge in the sector of inclusive youth practice. - CTI, our Greek partner from Patras, have conducted a number of studies into innovative education and young people's learning lives. Digital creativity is seen in Greece as one of the key pathways to provide social learning opportunities to young people facing an unprecedented challenge of unemployment and exclusion. Still digital maker spaces which offer not only soft skills development but also foster acquisition of hard competences essential for work are very rare. OBJECTIVES Our main objective is to foster growth of informal learning environments which provide opportunities for young people to engage in craft making with support of digital technology. Specific objectives: - to develop such a workshop programme for youth work practice - to validate it in concrete inclusive educational setting - to propagate it widely - to guide potential users on how to implement/adapt the model PARTICIPANTS OF ACTIVITIES - Young people taking part in 3D Lab workshops: interested in digital technology and making physical objects, with limited access to such opportunities due to their distant location, price, etc., in need of support to develop competences essential for employment - 100 - Youth workers/educators taking part in online course: those who organise creative activities for young people, seek new opportunities to extend/improve their programmes, work in organisations with relevant potential - 150 OUTPUTS - 3D Lab workshops with digital and manual tools providing learning paths from designing and prototyping objects to elaborating them into crafts - Online platform for learning and communication of both young participants and youth workers involved in creative artisan projects - Online course guiding youth educators on how to integrate digital design and prototyping technology in a craft making space - Project support tools: management tools (management plan, partner agreements, risk strategy, etc), dissemination (profiles on social media, PREZI, leaflets, posters, newsletter), monitoring/evaluation (respective plans, surveys, questionnaires) OUTCOMES & IMPACT - For young participants: increased competences in craft making, increased sense of creativity and entrepreneurship, more positive attitudes to out-of-school environments open to their interests as well as European projects - For youth workers/educators: improvement of their youth practice through acquaintance with new methods to facilitate creative activities of young people, enhanced ability to set up more inclusive learning environment taking into account the participants’ varied competences, experiences and interests, new opportunities for networked learning in a European dimension thus raising appreciation of EU projects - For partner organisations: reinforced capacity for European cooperation with partners bridging youth work, lifelong learning, vocational training and research, willingness to integrate good practices/methods from other contexts - At systemic level: strengthened argumentation for opening traditional forms of youth work practice to new digital technologies, better awareness of learning outcomes of such activities