Vox Pop Academy Europe

Project number: 2020-1-NL01-KA226-VET-083133

“MixUp: A Digital Space for Civic Dialogue among Vocational Education Students at European Level”

As part of the VOX POP project, co-funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus Plus program, partners from Romania, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands have developed a platform called MixUp, which offers young people the opportunity to discuss various topics and issues with peers from other countries. During the development of the tool, seven tests were organized, including a large session on Europe Day, in which a total of over 500 students exchanged 17,000 chat messages and were involved in 2,400 conversations. These tests were carefully monitored by Utrecht University’s Department of Social Studies through questionnaires, focus groups, and feedback from teachers.

So how does it work and what are the results? Upon entering the platform, students are asked to give their opinion on several statements related to topics that young people consider important, such as discrimination, freedom of expression, and gender equality. A student is then paired with a student from another participating country who has a different opinion on the same statements. Through a chat function with automatic translation, students can communicate anonymously about the issues they consider important. Anonymity is essential to give students the confidence to communicate freely. A chat lasts about five minutes before students move on to another conversation. A full session with students from different countries can last up to an hour.

Testing also showed that a MixUp session can be further improved through careful preparation by teachers and by placing the results of the session in a broader context. Therefore, the project partners, as part of the MixUp handbook, developed preparatory and follow-up lessons around the main themes. What is the role of this MixUp Platform? First, it opens minds and encourages students to discuss serious topics with peers from other countries. By giving students control, they feel free to ask questions and share, which prompts them to open a conversation in a way that feels comfortable for them. It also shows that, with careful preparation and follow-up, it can be a useful complement to citizenship education in the vocational field. Finally, it also proves to be a simple and easy-to-use tool at home and at school. This highlights the opportunity for students to expose themselves to a European and even international environment.

Website proiect VOX POP ACADEMY: https://www.voxpopeurope.eu/

MIX UP Platform: https://www.letsmixup.com/