Presentation on digital youth work at "Baltic sea dialogue" seminar by Juha Kiviniemi.

1. Digital youth work
Policy and practice now and in the future
Juha Kiviniemi, Verke
Baltic Sea dialogue, 24.10.2019

2. slido.com
Event code:
#BSD

3. Verke - National Centre of
Expertise on Digital Youth Work

5. Verke’s goals 2018-2019
1. Knowledge of ways of using digital media and technology
will increase and expand in the field of youth work
2. The structures of youth work will support the use of digital
media and technology in youth work
3. Innovative youth work services and concepts using digital
media and technology will be created

6. Some perspectives:
(adapted from Arthur C. Clarke)

7. ”The only way of discovering the
limits of the possible is to venture
a little way past them into the
impossible.”
(Clarke’s second law)

8. ”Any sufficiently
advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.”
(Clarke’s third law)

9. ”Every revolutionary idea —
in science, politics, art, or whatever
— seems to evoke three stages of
reaction. They may be summed up
by these phrases:
(Clarke’s law of revolutionary
ideas)

10. 1. "It's completely impossible —
don't waste my time”;
2. "It's possible, but it's not worth
doing”;
3. "I said it was a good idea all
along."

11. 50 MILLION
DAILY USERS?

12. 38 years
lähde: www.sxc.hu

13. 13 years
lähde: www.sxc.hu

14. 4 years

15. 2 years

16. 7 months

17. 19 days

18. Digitalization is not
something in the future.
It’s happening now.

19. The ownership of information
has irrevocably changed.

20. Digital skills = citizenship
skills

21. Digital skills = digital life
skills

22. Digital divide
(It’s not only about age!)

23. “The idea that someone would understand
everything about digital media [or technology] just
because of their young age is just just as ridiculous
as the thought of me understanding all there is to
know about the world just by sleeping in a library.”
- Anu Pöyskö, WienXtra - medienzentrum

24. Digital divide
• Access to technology
• Skills to use that technology
• Level of understanding how technology works
• Participation vs. Access to information - who is in control?

25. ”If youth work fails to embrace the
use of technology and social media
there is a risk of becoming
outdated and irrelevant to young
people who use youth work
services. ”
- Youth Worker, Screenagers -study
(2016)

26. Digital youth work

27. What is digital youth work?
• Digital youth work means proactively using or addressing
digital media and technology in youth work.
• Digital youth work is not a youth work method – digital youth
work can be included in any youth work setting (open youth
work, youth information and counselling, youth clubs, detached
youth work…).
• Digital youth work has the same goals as youth work in general,
and using digital media and technology in youth work should
always support these goals.
EU Expert group - definition of digital youth work

28. What is digital youth work?
• Digital youth work can happen in face-to-face situations as well
as in online environments – or in a mixture of these two. Digital
media and technology can be used either as a tool, an activity or
a content in youth work.
• Digital youth work is underpinned by the same ethics, values and
principles as youth work.
EU Expert group - definition of digital youth work

30. The diversity of digitality in youth work
Digital Youth Work
Digital Services
Digital Solutions
Digital Infrastructure

31. Recent examples from the field

32. mBot

36. Fisucraft, a Minecraft -server run by a local parish in Finland

37. Vlogs by youth workers

38. “Youth work values are what’s
most important, and then we build
the technology around that:
It’s less about building technical
skills and more about being a tool
to express themselves.”
- Youth Worker, Northern Ireland

39. EU YOUTH STRATEGY 2019-2027
Youth goals include aspects of digital
inclusion & accessibility, information
literacy, new digital forms of participation

41. 2019: Council conclusions on digital youth
work. Promoting the organisational
development of digital youth work and
competence building.
2020: EU-CoE Partnership - Youth
Knowledge Book & Research on "Social
Inclusion, Digitalisation and Young People"
What’s next?
What’s next?