The question above, "How can an app strengthen young people to make more ethical reflected choices linked to social media?" Is a question we wanted to answer when we were asked to encourage children in children- and youth school to wanting to learn even more.
We were asked to pick a subject and an age group to focus on. We chose youth school (13-16 years old), and we wanted to make better use of the social studies classes, especially now that we 're in another area with technology all around our children.
It soon became clear to us that a good potential answer could be to create an app. Children quickly pick up on (especially) apps, and an app would also provide a good and educational approach for the teachers - to meet the children on their arena.
The pupils we spoke to told us that to be successful in social studies often mean sharing reflected thoughts in class. The issue comes both when needing to speak loud in the classroom, which not everyone is comfortable doing, but also when speaking in small groups. Here also there are personalities which are more prominent, and can take up space that is meant for everyone.
The solution was to make a scheduled hour program, led by the app, where the students are assigned different roles without feeling like they are forced to do something they don't necessarily want - but to make them feel like their role is important and of value for the team.
We made four individual roles, which can either be assorted by the teacher in advance of the class, or being assorted randomly.
The time-taker is supposed to keep track of the time, so that no-one speaks too much or too little.
The specialist has preselected articles available regarding the theme that can be used in the delivery.
The reader har the task of reading out loud the question or theme, and is also responsible for taking short notes during the discussion.
The motivator has a list of additional questions they can ask if the person speaking is feeling out of inspiration.
Example of the motivator modus on screen.
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Afterwards, the class discuss in plenum. The app generates a list of key words from the pupils which they add themselves after each question.
On the right here you can see both the teacher- and the student mode login.
