A unique learning experience based on networked participatory approaches to fight against COVID-19.
Last week I experienced once of the most enriching and fulfilling learning experiences ever. A unique participatory, bottom-up initiative for a social purpose (fight against COVID19) in which some thousands of volunteers brought different skill,s working cultures, mindsets and approaches.
All starts with my participation at the Greek Hack Corona hackathon in early April. It was an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with mainstream tools adopted at hackathons (mostly Slack working at full speed- many parallel conversations across the various channels), Airtable, Miro and others. The Greek Hackathon was a revelation, also thanks to very engaged people such as Elena Poughia and others. It was a first opportunity of being part of a big, ambitious, participatory endeavor. Through the Greek Hackathon Slack space I read a post about the forthcoming EUvsVirus hackathon and the call for mentors.
The EUvsVirus was really the opportunity in which I could fully commit. The reason? There were Challenges dedicated to Education, my area of expertise. Although in the Greek hackathon the Challenges were mostly related to health, the EUvsVirus one was offering a range of Challenges, including remote education, remote work, family life, I was thus quickly found my place. I registered as mentor to #Challenge23: Elearning methods & Tools; #Challenge25: Family life during remote working & education; #Challenge27: University specific challenges; #Challenge 28: Students’ challenges.
I was allocated no more than 6 teams:
itda: Local community platform
itda is a local community platform where students can get connected again. Students can study together, get to know fellow students, or give & receive helps.
Digital relations in smart working and learning
How to effectively reconfigure relationships in smartworking and distance learning taking into account: mental and physical health of teleworkers, inclusiveness, motivation and engagement.
Balancever, your balanced daily routine
Balancever can help structuring a work day effectively, provide suggestions what to do during breaks and free time and display a work-life balance score.
#WeStudyTogether: A peer-to-peer learning community platform
#WeStudyTogether is an online peer-to-peer learning community that helps educational institutions to engage remotely with students and to prevent student knowledge gaps and attrition.
HelpMoms
Our aim is to create a matchmaking site with free & paid services, functioning as an online community, offering edutainment sources to help the moms facing their everyday challenges& connecting with others
Mentoring team was an incredible, resourceful experience. I may need to dedicate a new post on this unique experience.
It was very rewarding to see that among the winners of the hackathon, to which almost 2000 projects have been submitted, 3 of the teams I mentored were selected for the next stage (Matchathon). These teams are:
WeStudyTogether, Balancever and Itda.
I truly thank members of all teams for giving me the opportunity to have such an enriching learning experience and sharing opportunity.
Greece overall performed very well also, one can check this insightful blog post.