Educating in the Cooperative Model through a Structural Dialogue Between Face-to-Face and Digital Environments

This abstract presents the European Coopcamp project, launched in March 2020 in 5 countries: Belgium, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden. The project aims at proposing a training course in high schools to improve the knowledge and values of the cooperative model (mutuality, democracy, participation) and related skills (Fazzi, 2019). Very rarely, a cooperative economic model is a choice for young people. However, they are a particularly suitable target group for a business model that focuses on personal skills rather than on the availability of capital. In a preliminary research phase, a questionnaire was administered to some of the project partner schools, based upon the experiences of previous projects and the EntreComp framework. The analysis of the results contributed to the design and implementation of a training package, taking into account three main conceptual pillars: 1. a narrative framework on cooperative values in line with young people’s imagination; 2. a gamified structure eliciting interest in content and training activities; 3. the design of experiential learning activities based on problem-solving, challenges and simulations, to be carried out either face-to-face or online. All this, by using a digital tool created specifically for the project, with the function of providing teaching materials, guiding groups of students and teachers in scheduled meetings and keeping track of the training process. The choice of this approach is due to two main reasons. On the one hand, the choice was made to stimulate students’ interest by going towards their habits and imagination (Bolin, 2017), betting on the meaningfulness of learning experiences (Ausubel, 2000). On the other hand, it is necessary today to rethink training interventions in media education and media construction of reality framework (Couldry, Hepp, 2017). To facilitate learning, technological tools are embedded into a constructivist and collaborative logic, focusing on the quality and quantity of interactions: between students and teachers and between students themselves. In concrete terms, the digital tool consists of an online learning environment that gradually indicates the activities to be carried out, guiding teachers and students in their learning process. The online environment is not seen as a ‘mere’ expansion and continuation of what happens in the face-to-face context; it enhances the offline experience by guiding the educational process, just as a dashboard to refer to in order to conclude the learning path. The project is currently in a pilot phase. Actual testing will take place in schools in the project partner countries by April 2021. So far, about 150 groups of students and 50 teachers registered in the online environment, exploring sections and functions of the digital tool.