Web Summit: Speaking about Democracy, Ego and Empathy (Day 1)

After a 3 days amazing experience, it’s time to return to the reality. However, before do it, it might be a good opportunity to reflect on everything that I learned and heard in the Web Summit during these last days. This way, the aim of this article is remind me about the messages that I listen and I would like to retain.

Despite being a mechanical engineer student (usually interested in technology), almost all the talks that I attended were related in some way with global challenges (global warming, poverty, social movements), education, gamification and storytelling. As result, when I crossed all the talks that I would like to attend, the shedule said that most of my time would be spent on the “Future Societies Conference”. 

The filter bubble versus democracy

One day before Trump was elected as the new United States President, it was discussed the fragility of the democracy. One of the speakers, from the European Commission, spoke about how fortunate we are for living in a democracy and about the importance of the communication. Using her own words: "democracy it's communication", the possibility of being able to express our feelings and our thoughts. 

She predicted that the probability of, in the next 4 years, having someone non democratic being elected was quite high, which was proved as being right in the following day. However, she also said that maybe it’s what we need right now, take a slap in the face to help us realize the advantages and the benefits of the democracy.

Finding your calling in the digital economy

Why do we help other people? Is it because we want to satisfy our ego and be recognized, or is it because we feel empathy to the other people? How can we distinguish these 2 feelings?

Tricky! That was the answers of the speakers. It depends on what moves us, however in most of the situations the ego might not be enough. Once in a while, we should stop and take some time to reflect and think about what we are doing and the reasons that are moving us to act. Are they the right reasons or not? If what we are doing isn’t going as planned, it’s hard to be recognised and have our ego satisfied. The worst part in these cases is: probably we are going to end by giving up. Also, if we are helping other people, the expected outcomes might not be instantaneous, this way we need a considerable amount of time until we receive the recognition that we are waiting for.

During this talk, it was also discussed the role of technology in our society and how it's changing our working methods. The evidences are obvious, in the last few years everything is becoming automatized, the robots are replacing the humans’ jobs, by doing the needed tasks faster and without making any mistake. As it was said during this talk, this new tendency hardly is going to stop. This way, it’s urgent rethink all the people jobs in order to be able to adapt to this new reality. The world and the society is changing, we need to learn to evaluate these changes and understand how can we keep with them.

BEST: The Regional Meeting experience

Last weekend I went to Coimbra, in Portugal, for an internal BEST event, in this case, to a regional meeting - an event that gathered all the local BEST groups of a specific region.

Even knowing that my English it’s not so great as I would like, I was crazy enough to go as EDU-ID (BEST Educational Department) delegate, where my role would be facilitate and deliver some sessions about the work developed within the department.

Apart the material missing, the first session it was "okay" and was about the process of writing a paper, since we (department) receive the outcomes and the reports of some events (related with education), until we attend a conference, in order to present our work. Because I wasn't understanding the standard case study that I was supposed to deliver, I decided to change it for something that I was familiar with. In other words, I applied the knowledge acquired on the Erasmus+ TC (training course), in Czech Republic, about storytelling.

Using the Hero’s journey, also known as The Monomyth, I split up some papers all around the room with different stages of the journey. In each stage, there were a sentence of a movie, with the aim of contextualize the participants about what was happening in that moment of the story. At the same time, I was doing a parallelism between the passage of the movie and the work that a paper team is supposedly doing at that moment.

Maybe because I’m still lacking in English skills, the message wasn’t transmitted as I would like, however the session it was quite nice. It was the first time that I used this technique, which allowed me to see her potential as a facilitation tool. This way, I’m quite sure that I’m going to use it again.

                   

This session was followed by a discussion group that happened in the next day. The participants were quite amazing, they were very active, which was felt through the quantity of distinct points of view that were shared. 

After 2 days just speaking English, my confidence increased a lot, however in my last session everything fell apart. The last session was quite terrible (at least the beginning). For some reason, I got too nervous and my pronunciation disappeared completely, which was really scary. Once that I was sure that I hadn’t been able to transmit the message, I asked the participants to organize a Local Event on Education (LEoE) as they were doing it in their LBGs (local group). In the end, they had to present their work and give feedback to the other groups. This way, I allowed myself to make sure that they were understanding how to plan an event like this one.

As conclusion, I’m just happy that I went to the TC in the Summer, it allowed me to learn a lot of techniques and exercises that can be used during all the kind of workshops. About this regional meeting in Coimbra, it wasn’t perfect (or I should say I wasn’t perfect), I still have to improve myself in some many ways, however it was an amazing experience, allowed me to evaluate my skills and analyse my progress. In other words, my English, my facilitating skills and the tools that I know now aren't the same as when I began the EBEC Study, or when I was in Denmark as a facilitator, which is quite satisfactory. 

*I've to say that going to this type of experiences is allowing me to meet wonderful people. In this case, it was a pleasure to meet the portuguese neighbours (from Madrid). 

All the hero's managed to finish the session!!!

[Workshop] Gamification & Way of Council: Skills Assessment

It’s been some years since I realized that I would like to become a trainer. This way, I began by taking the CCP (Certificate on Pedagogic Competences) in Portugal, however it wasn’t enough. I had the certificate, but I was lacking in knowledge. Due to that, I started to do e-learning courses on EdX and Coursera, they gave me the information that I needed, but I was still feeling that I didn't have the necessary experience in delivering workshops. After being a volunteer in the organization SPEAK, where I was teaching English to foreign people, and a facilitator in a full week course in Denmark, the experience that was missing began to appear.

By this time, there was just one thing missing, the confidence to do it! Fortunately, it didn’t take much to obtain it. A month after being in Denmark, I went to an Erasmus+ training course, where I had the opportunity to meet people that really inspired me. The secret of the inspiration it’s that also brings with her some motivation and a sense of adrenaline. This way, I returned to Portugal with the willing of facilitate my first workshop.

The workshop happened in the organization BEST Almada, where I was a member, and it was about the topics approached in Czech Republic, gamification and way of council.

The gamification part it was great. I began by doing a get to know activity, that it would be used during the workshop. I asked to the participants to draw the face traces of their peers in a paper sheet, the final result it was a nice avatar.

As the workshop was going, we talked about what is gamification, why gamify, the advantages and disadvantages of it, what is intrinsic motivation, which game elements can be used, how can we apply them, the type of players that exist and, in the end, we did an exercise where the participants had to apply the knowledge that they acquired by gamifying one of the events of the organization.

On the second part, I did a briefly introduction to the storytelling technique way of council: what was, the intentions behind the technique and how can be used. We proceeded by applying the technique on ourselves, which resulted in a very nice sharing moment. To finish the workshop, I asked to the participants to draw their feelings about the organization BEST (after the way of council) in a big paper.

The workshop it was really nice. I really appreciate this opportunity, that was given by BEST Almada. It allowed me to evaluate my competences, mainly where I need to improve, which in my opinion it’s my communication and also the content that it’s being delivered (once that I wasn’t really mastering it). Also, a big thank you to the trainers of the training course of Czech Republic, this workshop it wouldn’t be possible without the knowledge and the inspiration that they transmitted.

*Sorry for the mistakes, but for some reason I think that I know how to write in english. Anyway, if I want to improve, the best way to do it is through practice.

Environment: How far are we from the Hunger Games

There were no stars this night. If we looked to the sky, the only thing that we would see, it would be a dark cloak waiting to be painted with the stories of the people that were living under it. At least just for some of them, the night it isn't dark for everyone! In my case, I was in my sunny living room, illuminated by five 45 watts bulbs, laying down on the new coach (bought because my sister was going to get married, we need to keep the appearances!) and surrounded by at least 4 eletronic devices: a smartphone, a playstation, a tablet, a heater and the television that I was watching.

Hunger Games, it was the movie that I was watching. A movie that represents a fragmented society, divided by districts, that should contribute with resources for the wealth of the Capitol.  A place where it's possible to identify the distinct life conditions between the people that are living here and the people that are living in the districts, which are marked by hunger, poverty and lack of resources. 

The movie ended and I really enjoyed it. As a consequence, I bought all the books and went to the cinema to watch the following sequel. As I commented with my friends, it's a good fiction story! However, if we tried to transpose it for our reality, how is it far from it?

Maybe I can't answer clearly to this question, there are however some facts that can make me think and reflect about it. We just have one planet, however we need 1,5 earths to meet our demands. Even more scary! In 7 billions of population, one third don't have proper access to the electricity and 2.7 million people already experienced water scarcity during at least one month (WWF, 2011), which indicate that there aren't an homogeneous distribution of resources all over the world. 

In this world where I live, it's easier to throw away than fix or repair our devices. In the last month I broke the screen of my smartphone (a samsung s3), with one year of use. I went to the shop in order to get a draft of the budget for the reparation, however soon I discovered that it would be cheaper buy a new one rather repair my old cellphone.  

Nowadays, each company have a section in their website speaking about sustainability and what they are doing to stop the climate change. However, when situations like the one that I just described are happening in one of the biggest worldwide companies, such as samsung, I keep myself asking, does this make sense?

The size of the problem increase, when we take in consideration that in the developed countries this becames so commom that noone is argueing about it. In his book Farewell to growth, Serge Latouche speaks about the negative connotation of sustainable development, a concept that was created inside a capitalism paradigm. He says that development or growing are associated with the increase of our production and, consequently, to the use of more and more the resources, which are being consume with a higher rate than the one that are being regenerated.

Letouche says also that, from an economical point of view, we should accept that we live in a finite world and, instead of promote an unconditionall growth and the infinite increasement of the GDP, we should strenghten our economy, like it happens with a snail. After their shell reach a determined size, they begin by fortifying the smaller layers of their shell, instead of building bigger ones that will difficult their movement.

This view it's shared by Annie Leonard, in her book the Story of Stuff. She explains that our production system it's linear, instead of circular, it promotes disposal instead of recycling. She also tell us some interesting stories, for example, how the capacitors of the playstation are produced. They required the use of a material called coltan, which can be found in the Congo Republic. Let's just say that, the conclusion of this story it's, while in a part of the world there are several children playing playstation in their sofa and the only thing that concern them are the next videogame that they are going to play, in the other part of the world, there are children, without any life conditions or health system, working as slaves in fields with coltan to be later used to produce the playstation capacitors.

Kids in the Congo were being sent down mines to die, so kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary alliens in their living rooms. 

Oona King, 2005

After all these information, I think that it's the right time to ask again, "how far are we from the hunger games?". It's possible to find several organizations working in human rights, the media were not so developed as it's now, however it seems that there are information that it's not being transmitted to the consumers. This situation it gets worst when we think about the paradigm that rules the developed countries, where there is this pressure to have a smartphone, a iPod or a playstation, otherwise we are not going to be cool. When everyone are using a cellphone to communicate, if we don't use also one, easily we are going to be consider a non social person and be excluded from the society. The question is, how can we change this situation?

I finish this reflection with a video made by Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff:

Source:

WWW (report)

Farewell to Growth, Serge Letouche

Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard

Training Course: Share the Right Story (Reflection)

In the last months, after long reflection, I set some goals to accomplish in the next years. Due to my recent work in EduCo (BEST Educational Department), I'm aware that there exists an inconsistency between the skills that universities are providing and the competencies that the companies are looking for, also called employability skills. For these reasons, I would like to dedicate part of my life to finding and organizing activities that would help to close this gap.

As my university studies aren't directly connected with my goals, I was worried that my degree wouldn’t give me the needed knowledge. This way, I began to search for trainings that would help in my mission, by giving me the confidence and the information that I need to proceed.

In my research, I found the Salto Youth website with several training offers. This discovery left me really excited, however as I was reading the course information, some thoughts came to my mind, "maybe the training courses are just for trainers". With nothing to lose, I applied for some courses that were going to happen between July and September.

After some answers of "we are sorry but you were not accepted", finally I received a positive answer in my inbox, saying that I was accepted in a course in Czech Republic, called "Share the Right Story". I was really happy, firstly that it would be an opportunity to learn more about gamification (that was my main goal), but also about storytelling (the essential structural elements in a story and how to use it to build bridges between people).

After being on the course for 2 days, I realized that it wasn't what I was expecting- it was much better! The participants and the trainers were awesome, people who were running their own organizations and I was really inspired. The course, on the other hand, it had a spiritual approach that I wasn't expecting. Due to that, maybe I didn't avail of this part as much as the other participants, however it helped me to clarify my goals and the journey that I intend to follow in the next months and years.

Now that the course is finished, I have returned to Portugal a "richer" person. Not because I have more money, but because I brought (right in my pocket) a lot of stories and experiences that were shared with me.

Besides these aspects, I now feel capable of delivering some short workshops (with some extra research) about how to use storytelling to connect people and how to use gamification to learn about a specific topic or to promote an event.

In the end, I'm just grateful for this opportunity. It's hard to put into words, but after meeting all these people and hearing their stories, I feel this strange energy spreading out all over my body and I can't take the smile off my face.

The ecological center of Olomouc (Sluňákov)

BEST: Speaking about Higher Education, Attractiveness of Engineering Degrees

Three weeks ago I went to Copenhagen (Denmark) in order to facilitate a course about higher education. It was an amazing experience! Unfornately, it showed me that I still need to improve my English skills. However, if I exclude this fact, I couldn’t be happier about the outcomes that we got during this course (we were 4 facilitators).

The topics that we approached were (i) attractiveness of engineering degrees, (ii) self-direct learning and (iii) the role of the professor in higher education. Because I was responsible for the first topic attractiveness of engineering courses, it’s the one that I can speak the most. This theme it was divided in 3 sessions: (a) Interdisciplinary Curricula, (b) Learning Techniques and (c) The role of the engineer.

Attractiveness of Engineering Degrees approach the fact that young people tend to pick other degrees rather natural sciences or engineering degrees. For example, the quantity of women’s picking engineering it's very low, usually they're more interested in social sciences, economics or areas where they can deal directly with other people. Due to this, during these sessions we tried to answer the question: “what can we do to invert this scenario?”.

There are different measures that can be taken to change this scenario, during the first session we discussed the one that it’s been proven as having more impact, her name it was “Interdisciplinary Curricula”. It approached the fact that, the creation of a curricula that embraces subjects as technical sociology, entrepreneurship, economics and languages, it’s attracting more students (female and male) than a mono studies engineering curricula. The world is not just mathematics or physics, through the creation of an interdisciplinary degree, the students have the opportunity to understand how all these different fields of studies can be related in a real world situation.

In the second session we discussed, according to their impact, the measure that follows “the creation of an interdisciplinary curricula”, which was “Learning Techniques”. The students tend to pick degrees and subjects that are more dynamic, which can be achieved by using innovative learning techniques and teaching methods. Are examples of learning techniques: brainstorming, six thinking hats and presentations. On the other hand, when we speak about teaching methods, we are discussing topics such as problem based learning or self-direct learning.

In order to finish this cycle, the last session it was about the engineer role in the society. Depending on the country where we live, the way that society see the engineering roles is different. The reputation of an engineering profession it's different from country to country. The same happen with the salary or the employability. All these 3 indicators are affecting the quantity of people that are enrolling in engineering degrees.

These were the themes that we discussed under the topic Attractiveness of Engineering Degrees. In the next days, I want to write about the other 2. However, because it wasn't me that prepared those topics, before writting about them I need to get some more informations.

Of course that this experience it wasn't just about facilitation!

Environment: The Path for Sustainable Development

I still remember the first day that I’ve heard about climate change. I was 13 years old and I was in my science lesson paying attention to my teacher words as they were coming out. In that day I understood that, due to the emissions of greenhouse gases, we were increasing the average temperature of our planet.

Probably that was the day that I felt in love with environmental sciences. However, to be honest, the teacher didnt’t waste much time speaking about the causes or the consequences of the climate change. Maybe because this reason, I never thought that the size of the problem were so big and complex.

When I was 2 years older, I’ve heard again about it in the chemistry lesson. Until that day, if my love for this topic was asleep, then that was the day of his awakening and it’s burning until today.

Nowadays, I know the problem it’s more complex than I ever thought. It’s not just about the pollution and the climate change, it’s also about the exhaustion of some resources, such as fossil fuels, and how are we going to do the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable or nuclear energy.

More than ever, I’m aware of the seriousness of this challenge and the fact that I just woke up for it 7 years ago it’s scaring me, mainly because there are already several of old documents, which goals are to alert the people about this problem, that I just knew about 4 or 5 years ago. If this is happening to me, and I’m interested in this topic, then what are happening to the other people, mainly the one that is older than me?

I’m writting this article to speak about some of this documents. I’m going to do a brief summary of some of them.

1st. Declaration of Stockolm (1972), also known by Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Link)

This document speaks how the human race have evolved and how created tecnhology strong enough to change the shape of the world. It alerts also for the preservation of the nature and the resources. Due to population increase, it’s our obligation to take care and use our resources in a rational waw, in order to ensure their use by the next generations.

2nd. Our Common Future (1987), also know by Bruntland Report (Link)

The concept of sustainable development was spoken for the first time in this document. It is described as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”  It says that the economic and social goals should be determined in terms of sustainability in all the countries, and all the generations, between and each, should be threated with equity.

3rd. Rio 92 (1992), Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Link)

After the Declaration of Stockolm, this report reinforce the need to follow a path of sustainable development, eliminating unsustainable practices and preservating the resources. Main attention to the 20th article that presents the women as vital for the environmental management and development.

4th. Kyoto Protocol (1997)

This protocol had the goal to reunite the maximum number of countries, where they pledged to decrease their greenhouse gases emissions. The goal was to reduce the emissions of each country by 5% related to the levels of 1990. This objetive should be accomplished between 2008 and 2012.

5th. Rio+20 (2012) The Future that We Want (Link)

Like it happened in the Rio92, institutions and governments were reunited one more time to discuss the future of the societies and how to achieve a sustainable development, tracing new goals to finish with poverty and fight the destruction of the environment.

There are more documents, I just wrote about 4 of them, probably the most known. I leave some more links below.

United Nations - Sustainable Report