This document summarizes a workshop on using personas and design thinking to develop strategies for engaging eTwinning participants. The workshop introduces eTwinning personas, has participants brainstorm strategies for engaging different personas, and develops an action plan or "tool kit" of best strategies. Improv activities are used to encourage collaboration. The document provides context on personas, design thinking, and improv techniques to facilitate participation and idea generation.

1. Workshop
Personas i eTwinning

2. Who am I?
! Riina from Finland
! First training: teacher in Finland,
studying abroad (exchange
and postgraduate studies)
e.g. hypermedia,
web, research, Doctoral ( 09)
! 2000-2011 in European Schoolnet as Senior Research Analyst and Project
Manager
! 2012 -> Free agent: part time in-house expert in European Schoolnet/CSS
! TODAY: YOUR WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

3. Outline (12.45 – 16.00)
Goal: Ambassadors creating strategies and a “tool kit” for
• activating existing eTwinners (persona work) and
• recruiting new ones (invisible eTwinners + new)
Introduction
• Improv activities
Design challenge 1: • What are eTwinning personas ?
What are the most efficient
Design challenge 2:
strategies to engage each
What are the most efficient strategies for
persona in eTwinning? invisible eTwinners and the ones who
do not know about eTwinning yet?

4. About today’s method
Use design-thinking framework to innovate new
ideas in groups.
Engage in inprov activities to accelerate
meaningful collaboration that results in tangible
action plans.
Improv activities =
Improvisational method of
achieving cooperation
Design thinking is a creative
process based around the
"building up" of ideas.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking

5. Improv goals
To give participants tools to collaborate
during the workshop—new ways of being
together
! To help see that they
individually don’t have to have
! To have them experience “Yes, “The Amazing Idea”, it can be
And…” as a technique to discovered together
achieve this.
To build trust within their groups
source: http://wiki.oercommons.org/mediawiki/index.php/Improv

6. Tenets of improv
Suspend judgment. Stay present—evaluate later.
! Make your partner look Be flexible, be open.
brilliant. Build on what they say
(“Yes, ..”)
! Build on what you receive. Connect
Look for connection/ and move forward WITH your
partner. (“and…”)
what you can accept
•
• source: wiki.oercommons.org/mediawiki/index.php/
Improv

7. Improv 1:
Name gestures

8. What are eTwinning personas?

9. What are personas ?
Different meanings (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona)
! a "character" of a theatrical performance, stage name
! in psychology: a mask or appearance one presents to the world
! in marketing: represents a group of customers so that the company
can focus its efforts
! in design: an artifact that consists of a narrative relating to a desired
user's daily behavior patterns, using specific details, not generalities.

10. Personas in product design
! Represents the different user types within a targeted
demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site,
brand or product in a similar way (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_%28marketing%29)
! A real human with a name, face, motivations, and goals - yet
fictitious
! In companies like Ford Motor Company, Microsoft and Reuters,
personas are used to help better understanding of customers

11. How could you use personas as an
Ambassador?
! Understanding the existing eTwinning
personas in your country can help you manage
your work more efficiently
! Help you focus your efforts where you can get
the most gain!

12. 2. eTwinning personas
http://www.slideshare.net/europeanschoolnet/etwinning-personas-12956565

13. eTwinning personas

14. Instructions for the 1st groupwork
! A good post-it vs. a bad one
! How to share post-its?
! About brainstorming

15. Brainstorming – diverge!
Ideas inspired by what you already know
– Data, experiences, observations,..
Build on each other’s ideas
You cannot
! Make your partner look brilliant! be wrong!
“Yes, Ideas without limitations of resources,
and…” time, money and people to make them
work
! Explore ideas, possibilities, go to fantasy land!
I source: http://wiki.oercommons.org/mediawiki/index.php/Improv

16. Improv 2:
“Yes, and…”

17. Design challenge 1:
What are the most efficient
strategies to engage
each persona in eTwinning?
Time until
14.00
Think of
“follow-through”
rather than “follow-up”!

18. Design challenge 1:
" Sharing the ideas
" Voting for the “keepers” (converging)
" Developing and documenting the
best ones in the “tool kit” in the
TwinSpace
Think of
“follow-through”
rather than “follow-up”!

19. Improv 3:
Static pose
- and then coffee!

20. Design challenge 2:
What are the most efficient
strategies for
invisible eTwinners and the ones
who do not know
about eTwinning yet?
c
Time until
How can the strategies 15.30
from personas
be reused here?

21. Design challenge 2:
" Sharing the ideas
" Voting for the “keepers” (converging)
" Documenting the best ones in the
“tool kit”
Time until
16.00

22. Improv 4:
Yellow ball, thank you!

23. Thank you!
! TODAY: YOUR WORKSHOP FACILITATOR
! www.riinavuorikari.net
! http://twitter.com/vuorikari
! http://riinav.blogspot.com
! http://fi.linkedin.com/pub/riina-vuorikari/2/470/736
! Check out also:
http://www.slideshare.net/europeanschoolnet