My Story Map
My Story Map is a project about educational strategies that are based on the pedagogical use of digital narration and digital maps, with the final goal to include youngsters in learning activities and, thanks to the results achieved, to avoid the increasing risk of young people abandoning early the educational system. The project is based on an intersectoral and strategic approach which can be adopted and implemented in schools, institutions, learning centres, youth centres and youth organizations, with the big goal of integrating the social innovation and education.
First partner reunion in Rome (15 and 16 november of 2017).
The Project
This project is based on educational strategies which imply a pedagogical use of the digital narration and the use of digital maps, and the main goal is to encourage the youngsters that has abandoned the education system to involve themselves with new activities of learning. The results aim to create a virtuous system that avoids other young people to fall into the risk of abandoning prematurely the educational system itself.
My Story Map develops an intersectoral and strategic approach that can be implemented in schools, institutions of professional education, long term learning centres, youth centres and youth organizations, with the macro goal of integrating the social innovation into the education.
Context
According to the recent statistics published for the European Union, 12% of students abandon prematurely the school every year. In the countries participating to this project, the number ranges between 7.3 and 23.6% (Austria: 7.3%, France 9.7%, Belgium 11%, Italy 15%, Spain 23.6% ). Furthermore, is highly possible that these students who have given up from the school will end up chronically unemployed, and with a low salary expectation or to end up marginalized. In some cases, the ones who prematurely abandoned the school encounter disadvantages in their professional career, in their financial situation or even for their retirement.
In 2010, the European Union established a strategic plan preventing school dropout prematurely and to contribute to reduce the phenomenon to a maximum 10% as a European average before the 2020, through measures such as:
- Prevention (better access to an inclusive and quality education);
- Intervention (mentoring, support, traininga and cooperation with families);
- Compensation (the possibility of finding new forms of qualification)
Goals
My Story Map project have the aims of:
- Motivate people who interrupted their studies so they return to the educational system (people 15 – 25 years old).
- Avoid the premature withdrawal of the school and the training of those students that are in risk of dropping out (people 15 – 19 years old).
The specific objectives of the project are:
- To investigate the possible causes of early school leaving through the creation of digital maps
- To improve the digital and communication competences among participants, since they are two key skills for those who already left school and fot those who are in risk of doing it
- To raise the awareness about the reasons of the withdrawal and the possible consequences of taking such decision for the person's future
- To promote the conscious elaboration of the own educational path, so to define personal life goals, both in terms of qualifying possibilities and regarding job opportunities
- To create tools for documenting and discouraging the premature school dropoutthat can be used by next generations for the same purposes.
- Contribute to reduce the school dropout rate
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Project Activities
These objectives will be achieved through the digital narration method, by the creation of digital maps: the maps of personal stories allow an insight of the remote or complicated problems they link concepts that seemed not to have anything to do with one another. According to Kriz (2013) , presenting the testimonials through digital maps is one of the best ways of creating and communicating with a visual language, executing it with an interesting perspective and easily understandable, through the interaction between a storyteller (the author of the maps) and an audience (the beneficiary of the story map).
The digital maps’ narration offers a high level of active participation, since it allows the creators to customize their contribution, and it offers the possibility of establishing a creative collaboration between students ; it has the potential of changing the perception and increasing the learning opportunities and to deepen a specific topic, through discussion , and to share the stories for rest of the class.
Hundreds of young people that have interrupted their studies will have the opportunity of participating on a no formal education experiencia to gain the necessary digital skills to express a different way of communication; they will put into a map the experience of their story, the reasons of their choices, the conditions that forced them to take such decision (familiar, social, economical…), and the consequences that this situation may have brought to their daily life. Thanks to the digital maps’ stories, they will have the opportunity to read their own situation with more detachment and consider other alternatives, including the possibility of re-engage the interrupted path, or to change it for best according to their capacities and interests.
These written and recorded histories will be presented to the young people in risk in schools and youth organizations to avoid that they take the same decision. With this method, a hundred students will participate to a school workshop, to learn the necessary digital abilities to put themselves as guiders and holders of this knowledge toward their peers.
For that purpose, seven activities will be carried out, with seven specific learning results:
- Analysis: spread the digital stories to fight against early school leaving
- Learning module: How to tell a story (a life story)
- Learning module: Skills of digital production
- Leading action: Life stories on digital maps
- Story Wall: presentation and online campaign
- Learning module: prevent the early school leaving with the digital maps
- Publication: prevent and fight the early school leaving through story maps
Results
In this link you can find the Story Maps of the youngster we have been working with throughout the project. We introduce you to Khalid's story:
Partners
This project is done and coordinated by the Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore Statale Piaget-Diaz of Rome. The partners have been selected with the criteria of including the higher skill diversity, experience and job sectors, to promote multifunctional actions to prevent and stop the early withdrawal of education. They are EUROGEO (Bélgium), Pistes Solidaires (France), Die Berater (Austria), Replay Network (Italy) and Asociación Mundus (Spain).
Project's activities
- KICK OFF MEETING (Rome, 15th-16th November 2017)
- MANAGEMENT MEETING (Pau, 9th-10th April 2018)
- LOCAL ACTIVITIES PLANNING MEETING (Viena, 5th to 8th November 2018)
- LOCAL ACTIVITIES IN ZARAGOZA (Zaragoza, 8th to 13th April 2019)
- TRAINING COURSE (Bruges, 12th to 18th May 2019)
Newsletters:
- Check out the newsletter #6 of My Story Maps
- Check out the newsletter #5 of My Story Maps
- Check out the newsletter #4 of My Story Maps
- Check out the newsletter #3 of My Story Maps
- Check out the newsletter #2 of My Story Maps
- Check out the newsletter #1 of My Story Maps
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects 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.
