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YASY (Youth Association South Yorkshire)

Summary

Working with young people exploring how they can reflect on their day-by-day experiences, take and own the learning from them; and transfer learning outcomes to ‘Web-based Credit Bank’ via a New Form PDA.

Description

People are the Learning Machine – DNA is Delivering New Attitudes

The Web Based Credit Bank where you can log your experiences and which will be enabled to help you sort them and store them into Key Skill type categories for later accreditation. YASY GEMS converted to software application will do this.

The ‘New Form PDA’ which has as a central part a ‘tamagotchi type’ Mini Me or in the case of young mums – possibly a tamagotchi baby (as long as we can ensure it never dies!!). This will enable a dialogue with self which we think is one of the keys to this process. With the young parents it will be what have I done today/this week that has been a learning experience for my baby and what have they learnt?

Then there is the linking helix between the web and PDA, the process by which people see themselves as learning machines who are always learning – good things and bad, and see how they can document their learning – take responsibility for it – and then start on the path of self-directed learning. YASY FLAGs (Facilitated Learning Action Groups) will be their starting point.

How it might be used

YASY works with young people who might usually be described as ‘disaffected’; representative of these groups, Blake who has been out of school for 18 months and Natasha who is just 17 and has a baby of 10 months, could both use this idea.

To start we each put stuff on our PDA to make it ours – using skins or stickers, digital designs and sounds. We will use it too in different ways. There will be something like a tamagotchi which will be ‘Mini Me’ – and we feed it with activities, experience and knowledge. We could use it to record an event where we are or what we are doing (take pictures/video or dictate into a microphone), and then we will send it to our ‘Credit Safety Deposit Box’ on our YASY Website. The Credit Bank will be able to sort out what we have done and store it so we can look at it later and see what we have been learning while we have been going about our business. The baby thing will give me a way of watching them grow and see what they have learnt and how I can give my baby a better life experience.

Contact

Susan Atkins

YASY (Youth Association South Yorkshire)

sue@yasy.co.uk