Participants work collaboratively in small groups, moving through three structured phases. Each phase focuses on a guiding question and encourages open exchange, creative thinking, and shared reflection.
Ideas are collected visually on posters or flipcharts so that results become visible to everyone. The process values diverse perspectives and builds on the principle that collective dialogue leads to deeper understanding and better solutions.
The method combines critical reflection, visionary thinking, and practical implementation.
The facilitator supports the process by guiding the questions, encouraging participation, and summarizing key insights at the end.
Contents
Future Workshop
This method is based on the Future Workshop approach developed by Jungk & Müllert. The approach, which usually takes 1.5 days, can be shortened (albeit with certain losses), as shown in this example. Here, an implementation proposal is presented that serves more to raise awareness than to shed light on the problem in depth, inspired by the Future Workshop. Find out more about its general design here: Future Workshop
World Cafe
With the interactive, discussion-based character it has also strong similarities with the World Cafe method.
Goals
- Critically reflect on the environmental and social problems surrounding smartphones and
- Jointly develop visions for a more sustainable device.
Steps
1. Criticism phase (20 minutes)
- Question: What problems do mobile phones cause – for us, for the environment, for society?
- Young people collect points of criticism: short battery life, non-repairable, environmental impact, dependency, advertising, status pressure.
- Everything is collected visibly on posters.
2. Vision phase (30 minutes)
- Question: ‘What would a perfect, sustainable and fair mobile phone look like?’
- Young people are encouraged to be creative: endlessly durable battery, replaceable modules, recycled materials, open-source software, fair mining, no advertising.
- Results as drawings, collages or short scenarios.
3. Reality/implementation phase (30 minutes)
- Question: ‘What small steps could we take ourselves to move in this direction?’
- Examples: Use devices for longer, buy second-hand, visit repair cafés, put pressure on manufacturers (petitions, social media), school project.
- Each group presents a specific idea.
Reflection
- What would need to change for mobile phones to become truly sustainable?
- Which visions can we already implement in our everyday lives?
- What can we do as a youth group to put pressure on manufacturers or politicians?
Variations
Short version: Criticism + vision in a 45-minute unit.
Long version: With prototypes (mobile phone models made of Lego, cardboard, craft materials).
Digital: Online whiteboard (Miro, Mural, Padlet) for the three phases.
Handbook: More than Go with the Flow
- A handbook on Digital Citizenship Education, created in the frame of the project DIYW-ROAD/Competendo. Digital Youth Work - rights-sensitive, open, accessible, democratic.
- Unless otherwise stated, authors and editors of the methods published in the project are Elisa Rapetti, Markus José Plasencia Kanzler, and Nils-Eyk Zimmermann
