At the end of last week, I spent 2 hours with Gaëlle Vandenberghe’s class at the Philippe Cousteau High School1. I co-facilitated a workshop with about twenty teens, organised around a card game that summarised the major challenges of digital technology through the construction of a mobile application.
Future Of Tech is a workshop proposed by the association Latitudes, supported by the French Ministry of Education, Réseau Canopé and several education authorities. Latitudes takes care of the logistics as well as the training of the facilitators, following a very well-constructed curriculum that I followed throughout February, comprising a dozen themed modules and challenges to be taken up within the community.
The cards are really fun.
The Future Of Tech workshop deliberately emphasises the use of non-digital media (cards) to encourage reflection, and to emphasise the role of digital technology in social issues rather than technological innovation. The workshop looks at tech careers, but above all seeks to awaken the critical minds of teenagers about its social and environmental components.
During the workshop, the teenagers learn about the digital professions, but they also talk about commitment, diversity and designing technologies that are more respectful of people and their lifestyles, accessible to all, sustainable and encouraging citizenship.
I loved taking part in this first workshop and knowing that I had the support of my employer, Contentsquare, which every year offers its employees the chance to carry out voluntary work. We recently adopted the Benevity platform and I was delighted to discover, after starting my training as a facilitator, that Latitudes was listed on it.
I’ve contacted several local high schools to repeat the experience and see what other questions and ideas emerge from young people who want to and can change the world. I also signed up for training courses for other Latitudes workshops, designed to run in unis and entreprises (Bataille de la Tech, Bataille de l’AI). This is so exciting!
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There’s even an article on the school blog (in French). ↩