M3Cube Association

December 2013

Description of GEM Workshops in France

M3Cube Association is a partner is a European cooperation project called GEM – European Intergenerational Memories that is funded by the European Union under the Lifelong Learning programme. GEM-project runs from November 2012 until June 2014. During the first half of the project, M3Cube association has organized different local workshops that aim to reinforce the intergenerational dialogue through the exchange of memories that are related to the memorable events of our modern societies. In addition to the workshops that have been organized in Paris, staff and learners from the association have participated in the international meetings and workshops that the European project partners have organized. This document gives an insight of the M3Cubes activities carried out in the GEM-project.

To understand better the GEM-workshops in France, a short description of the Association M3Cube is necessary. Association M3Cube is a non-profit organisation that aims to reinforce the social inclusion with the use of intergenerational activities. M3Cube acts in different field to put this idea in action: it provides different trainings for persons who wish to be part of the digital society; it participates in European projects that work to increase the intergenerational exchanges and it organises local workshops where different generations can meet and discuss around different interesting themes.

Three different GEM-project related local workshops have been held in Paris by Association M3Cube. The first workshop was collected the participants memories about their first experiences with the ICT-tools. The second workshop was called “EURITAGE”, where the participants re-visited a historical moment by doing a short movie. The third workshop was an online workshop for participants who have a bit more advanced skills with the use of ICT-tools.

1st Workshop – Your First Memories about the Use of ICT-tools

This workshop was organised on the 15th of April 2013 in the Association’s meeting space in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris. The objective was to exchange memories related to the first experiences in the usage of ICT-tools, such as computers, fax or telephones, and then to write short biographical texts about the experiences that could be shared with all the GEM-project partners.

Four senior members of the Association participated in this event that was held by the young project managers. During the two hours, the moderators first presented the different methods for biographical writing and then the participants discussed and wrote their own experiences. These texts were translated in English and shared with all the project partners.

The participants were inspired to share their first experiences, and it was discovered that regardless their high age most (over 60 years old) of the participants had used computers during their professional working years – even thought the technology was not as modern as it is today. All the stories are available online: http://www.e-seniors.asso.fr/GEM_WorkshopResultsParis.htm.

Memories Workshop on the 15^th of April 2013.

The 2^nd Workshop – EURITAGE

This activity was organized in cooperation with another Parisian Association called “Atomes Crochus”. The objective was to gather children and seniors who would work together a short clip related to a “collective memory”.

Five seniors and a group of around 15 children participated in the workshop organised on the 7^th of May 2013 in Paris and this was a whole day session (from 10 AM until 16.30 PM). The day was split in two different phases: during the morning the moderators from M3Cube (Mona Komulainen) and Atomes Crochus (Ronan James) presented the theme of the day which was “What if the Social Media Had Existed when the First Step on the Moon was Taken”.

The idea of this theme was to inspire the seniors to share their memories of this specific moment when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969, an event that was broadcasted all over the world. The role of the children was to insprire themselves from these memories and imagines how these event could have been communicated in the modern Social Media (such as Facebook and Twitter). This way, the different generations would exchange easily and their different knowledge that they have.

During the afternoon session, the group was divided in four different teams and each team was composed of one senior and four children. These teams had one hour to write together a script related to the theme and then about two hours to shoot the short clip. All the work was framed by the good instructions and continuous help for the workshop moderators.

All the four groups managed to shoot a short film, and what is even more important, the different generations worked together and had very fruitful exchanges. All the short movies are available on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raconte-moi-tes-technologies/357405620945081.

EURITAGE Workshop participants working their short film.

The 3^rd Workshop – Online Participation

During December 2013, M3Cube invited its members to share their memories related to their formal and informal education. This activity was done in an online workshop; questions were sent to the participants by mail and they responded by mail in a Word-document. Five participants provided their responses related to their experiences and memories from the Primary School until the Secondary school as well as the informal education that they have received throughout their lives. All the responses were translated from French to English.

The participants’ contribution will be used as input in the GEM-project deliverable that is developed by the project coordinator (Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica, Poland).