City of Learning is an initiative that aims to help connect students to extracurricular activities as well as to use the potential of Digital badges to drive greater participation in non-formal and informal learning and to close opportunity gaps in cities It is based on an online platform that allows young people to easily search through numerous out-of-school programs based on their interests. Among others, the initiative has spread to 6 European cities and regions of learning, which Ljubljana and Cagliari recognised as an example of good practices that should be implemented in their cities. By spreading the use of this infrastructure onto two new cities, young people who live, work, study in or regularly visit these two cities will get access to territory-specific platform and its capabilities, including an interactive map, learning playlists and digital badges. Once different learning opportunities will be gathered in one place, the youth will have an overview of all the possibilities their cities have to offer, making their learning pathways more goal-oriented and their learning mobility more flexible. Once the platform is up and running, it will allow young people in Ljubljana and Cagliari to: - browse through online interactive maps of the two cities where both learning providers and learning opportunities will be mapped; - follow already designed learning playlists or create their own; and - be rewarded with digital badges for their achievements. We will achieve this aim through the following objectives: 1. To transfer the existing online mapping software and good practice experience from Vilnius City of Learning to Ljubljana and Cagliari. 2. To map and connect opportunities of non-formal and informal learning enabling young people to better match them with their needs, interests and passions. 3. To develop capacities of local learning providers to create learning playlists - a youth friendly way to present and deliver diverse learning content online and offline with integrated recognition through open badges. 4. To engage young people in identifying learning opportunities and shaping the understanding of learning according to their needs, interests and passions. The above mentioned transfer of good practices from other European countries to Slovenia and Italy will be based on conducting learning and training activities to train the staff who will be using the platform and concept of City of Learning to do so efficiently. All three activities are planned in such a way that people who have direct personal experience with designing and/or implementing the features of this online tool will be perfectly capable of managing the platform ensuring the needed levels of quality and efficacy and making it possible to populate the map with learning opportunities of the quantity and quality needed to reach the project's goals. The first activity will be a study visit to Vilnius where participants will be able to observe the use of the platform in practice. The remaining two activities will be workshops for transfer of knowledge - one on researching local needs and mapping, the other on designing learning playlists. All three activities will be attended by between 16 and 18 youth workers. Research activities will involve approximately 200 young people. Youth are growingly engaged with new technologies and digital tools and media, making digital youth work one of priorities in the youth sector. This project provides a response to these challenges by employing principles of smart youth work.
By implementing the project, we wanted to: (1) Transfer the existing online platform and examples of good practice from Vilnius to Ljubljana and Cagliari; (2) Map and connect opportunities for non-formal and informal learning, which will enable young people to align these opportunities with their needs, interests and passions; (3) Develop the capabilities of local training providers to create educational playlists, i.e. young people friendly way of presenting and implementing learning content online and in person, with included by recognising achievements using digital badges and (4) Involve young people in the process of identifying learning opportunities and form an understanding of learning that will according to their needs, interests and passions. Through cooperation with young people and the implementation of three educational activities, we successfully mapped key stakeholders and providers of learning opportunities in cities and ensured the introduction of quality and diverse content on the platform. At the same time, we trained local youth workers (and other key stakeholders) to use the platform and promote the concept of learning cities and its active use among our young participants who use the platform.
Cities of learning is an initiative that aims to easily connect young people with extracurricular activities and to use the potential of digital badges to encourage greater engagement in non-formal and informal learning. The initiative is based on the online platform, which allows young people to easily browse various learning opportunities in the city. With the successful transfer of the initiative to Ljubljana and Cagliari, young people who live, work, study or regularly visit these two cities have gained access to an online platform that enables them to: (1) browse the map of Ljubljana or Cagliari, where individual learning providers and their learning opportunities are mapped; (2) follow already created learning playlists or create their own; (3) be rewarded for their achievements with digital badges - a tool for recording informal learning. Thus, various learning opportunities are gathered in one place, young people get a clear overview of the activities their city offers, their learning paths become more goal-oriented, and their learning mobility more flexible. They can discover new forms of learning, opportunities for professional growth, professional support for competences of the future and new employment opportunities.