Report – OpenGame Project

Final Conference of Comanity project in Brussels

28/11/2018/in Report /by John Rojas

The final Conference of the Comanity project took place on November 13, 2019 in Brussels. The results of the project were presented and discussed in a panel with representatives of the European Commission, the European Council, the European Youth forum and with members of the European Parliament.

The project offers to the community of youth workers and of youth work organisations the possibility to develop a new professional profile, the “Community Animateur”.

The Community Animateur’s role is to bridge the existing gap between young people on the margins and ‘mainstream’ institutions by acting as a “Social Mediator”. Community Animateurs come from the community, and are trusted by their peer group. They act as a point of mediation between young people who don’t trust ‘the system’ and the system itself.

During the conference, the experience of the organisations that have experimented the training programme of Comanity where presented and it was shown how – thanks to Comanity – the involved youth workers could create a stronger connection to the groups of youth at the margins living in the area where their youth organization is located, and how engaging them in the solution of problems related to their community improved their situation and mitigated the risk of exclusion.

In the project, UNIR has developed the Comanity online course, which is part of the training programme leading to the acquisition of the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to become a community animateur, and the Comanity Hub, a virtual meeting place for youth workers to exchange learning, experience and knowledge.

Following a piloting phase in youth organisations in the UK, Greece, Spain and Italy, the online course will be available soon to all interested individuals and organizations, stay tuned to know when it will be launched.

To get access to the Comanity Competence Framework for the Community Animateur click here

To visit the project website click here

To get access to the Comanity Hub click here

For more information about the project and to get access to the course please contact:

Stefania Aceto

Project Manager

transfer.opi@unir.net

Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education (UNIR iTED)

Vicerrectorado de Proyectos Internacionales

A UNIR student sets the image of Keystone European Project

25/07/2018/in Report /by John Rojas

Irantzu García, student of the Bachelor of Arts in Digital & Multimedia Design in Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), is the winner of the Graphic Design contest for Keystone project organized by Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education of Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR iTED) through the International Projects Office.

The contest, named “Keystone Project – Knowledge, Enterprise and Young People, Supporting youth transitions in the new economy” aimed to find the more representative image for Keystone project, financed by European program Erasmus+. The project works to stablish a collaborative program addressed to disadvantage young people in order to enhance their abilities and skills required by the labour market.

As Irantzu García -who has just finished her first year of degree- explains, the designed logo reflects simplicity and freshness, but allows keeping the attention focused on the important aspect: the work done during the project with disadvantaged young people. The project reveals the talent of young people and makes them participate in social innovations through the creation of four innovative spaces in Perugia, London, Athens and Lisbon. For García, the final image goes hand in hand with the project: it is simple but nice, and uses a stable figure like the square, although it plays with the perception by breaking the stability in order to make the picture funnier.

“The designed logo reflects simplicity but allows keeping the attention focused on the important aspect: the work done with disadvantaged young people”

Any student of the Bachelor of Arts in Digital & Multimedia Design, Digital Graphic Design Master Degree and Online Art Direction Master Degree of Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR) could participate in the contest. The jury, composed by staff of the Superior School of Engineering and Technology, and the Vice-rectorate for Knowledge Transfer & Technology, evaluated in a first stage the work, based on the creativity, the composition and the coherence between the elements of the design. In a second stage, and according these criteria, the European partners of Keystone project selected the final design.

Different European institutions participate in this project, together with Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR). UNIR leads the instructional design and the implementation of the open educational program.

UNIR iTED and Telefónica help you to improve your employability

16/07/2018/in Report /by Jose

On Friday 29th 2018 took place the virtual visit to the Telefónica’s Human Resources department about employability and young talent. The online session, that was the sixth in the framework of the european project Virtual Tours for Business Culture (Erasmus+), was organized by Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education of Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR iTED), had Eva Atienza, director of Human Resources of Telefónica.

During the event, Eva Atienza, professional with more than 18 years of experience in Human Resources, spoke about the Young Talent Recruitment Programs in Telefónica –as Talentum Programe–, that today are the key in a company that is making a strong bet on its transition to the digital world. Among these initiatives that fill the gap between University and companies, Atienza highlighted Hack For Good, a hackaton set up every year by Telefónica that gathers together young people who works for giving technoloical solutions to big social challenges. In the frame of Telefónica-UNIR Chair in Digital Society and Education, the Institute UNIR iTED gave three prizes about “Education, Culture and Open Society”.

Companies value soft skills like adaptability, team work or passion about technologies

After the presentation, assistants could ask different questions about selection and hiring processes to Telefónica experts Florie Saulnier, Resourcing & Talent Head, and Beatriz Martínez, HR Business Partner. From personal conciliation to tricks to face a job hunting, the main questions were refered to the soft skillscompanies are looking for. As Saulnier explained, companies like Telefónica value the ability to learn and apply the knowledge to new situations, sometimes even more than previous experience. These soft skills include adaptability, creativity, customer orientation, communicational skills, team work or passion about technologies.

V-Tours project, financed by Erasmus+ Programme of European Union, aims to enhance the dialogue opportunities between Universities, enterprises and students in order to promote the acquisition of career development skills and improve the employability of students. Besides the virtual visits, in the frame of the project an online course about business culture has been developed where students can learn the competences that will help them in joining the professional world, and they will have access to activities, videos and lectures that will allow them them to get first-hand knowledge of the companies organization.

Together with Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), in this project participate different european institutions. UNIR leads the instructional design and the implementation of the open educational program.

– Eva Ferreras

The paradox of too much support

24/02/2018/in Report /by John Rojas

13 years ago, a colleague from Utrecht University (in the Netherlands) and I wrote the article The paradox of the assisted user: guidance can be counterproductive. The bottom line looks simple: if somebody gets too much help, they will learn less. Too much support might be counterproductive. Even my grandmother, with no school education, who grew up in a mountain village in central Spain, shared the reflection immediately. As a reminder, I will highlight that 13 years ago means no Whatsapp and Instagram, and almost no Facebook, Skype or Netflix-ish services, not to mention so many other daily tools that today jam the global communication networks with silly smileys, excessive selfies and typo-ed short, cryptic sentences. The students now collect more means, channels and tools to get connected, retrieve and post information, share, create, explore, and spend the time. University teachers, in turn, complain about that diversity and how the individual’s over-exposure to the ICT matrix kills the desire for learning, the ability to focus, the deep thinking process, and so many other beautiful features of a grown-up human being.

The most common self-analysis of our performance shows an over-attention, over-support, over-concerned attitude from the teachers

However, we should look into ourselves. I think that university teachers (and teachers, at large, in every level) spoil our students. We patronize them, summon them, tell them off, and reward them. Sometimes it is as if Pavlov in person was guiding our actions. Instead of teaching we do radical parenting with them. In every workshop, in diverse countries, from East to West, North to South, the complaints resound: the students do not deliver, do not pay attention, do not focus, do not perform, etc. Recently, I was sharing a vivid work session with my colleagues at An-Najah National University (Nablus, Palestine), and the same feeling was discussed openly, irrespective of culture, language and context. And what about us, the faculty members? What about the academic layer? Are we doing just ok, good, excellent or lousily? The most common self-analysis of our performance shows an over-attention, over-support, over-concerned attitude from the teachers; I guess that it comes from some sort of childhood trauma or complex or lack of opportunities when we were younger. However, we are not their parents, priests or parole officers. We support their effort if they show that effort, but we cannot lower the bar just because they do not reach it. We accompany them the full way, if they want to run that extra mile. However, we cannot be pulling up all the time. If we do so, we epically fail, as teachers, as mentors and as supporters. If we support too much, the supported will not be developed by themselves.

We must stop so much care, concern and students spoiling. We play poorly and we complain later about the result. Even worse: we blame others. We blame them. This is not the way. The student is responsible for their learning as a learner, and they are responsible of their lives as persons. We can get along, walk along and come along; however, we cannot do their job and replace their joy for learning by ours. It is immature and ineffective, and I mean from the teachers, and not from the students. We all need to fall, raise, try, fail, win, lose and, in short, grow up. Let the student be a student. Let the learner learn.

Daniel Burgos
Nablus, Palestine
19 de febrero, 2019