Working on the REVIVAL project has allowed us to be a part of an important European collaboration project with six other Saint John of God organisations across Europe. The REVIVAL project gave us the opportunity to Relaunching Theatre Education via innovative virtual stages by creating eLearning resources to allow remote teams to access digital drama resources.
Across our centres, we organised workshops where the instruction materials were presented to the men and women in SJOG Liffey Services. The workshops were an excellent opportunity to see what worked and what needed to be changed in the instructional materials. On the other hand, it allowed us to see how the instructor would adapt the video to suit their men and women and the kind of delivery modules used to achieve the objectives of the instructional materials. Some changes that needed to be made to the videos were discovered during the workshops. Nevertheless, the general feedbacks from the participants and their social workers were positive.
Editing the videos with suitable images and easy-to-read language and sharing them with the respective partners for the texts and audio translation into their local languages allowed us to have constructive interaction with them. We discussed numerous edits that needed to be made to the instructional materials to improve and make them suitable for the respective partners’ use.
The opportunity to attend the transnational REVIVAL meeting in Graz, Austria, allowed us to meet the other partners we have been working with face-face. It also provided the avenue to review materials that have already been completed and get feedback from other partners who had introduced them in their centres. Other modules that were yet to be developed by the creative partners were also discussed. Although we participated in workshops where we introduced the instructional material/videos to our men and women, the host partner implementing the instruction material for their men and women gave us the chance to see how they utilize the material and their delivery method.
It was also great to see the resources used in the instructional materials video being created in practice by the creative partner, Aratos, at the meeting. Fatima.
The meeting also enabled us to see a bit of Austria and explore the Lebenswelten der Barmherzigen Bruder Steiermark centre, where the meeting took place. The tour of the centre allowed us to discover other methods of care practice the country adopted and see what aspect of it We would like to see in our centre. The centre’s creative kitchen, where the men and women bake incredibly gorgeous cakes and sell them in shops, was the first place we liked. Oh, and the music room, where they have arrays of different musical instruments for various purposes, was another room that we loved at the centre. Based on the latest Neuro – Science research, drumming and fun interactive rhythmic music activities have been shown to increase emotional regulation, improve social connection, and reduce levels of anxiety and other elements of psychological stress. So, giving their men and women a place where they can have access to music activities is impressive.
The meeting was a success because, as the technical partners, we were able to provide technical support to the other partners having issues with the eLearning material, and we got the opportunity to teach them how to edit the website. We resolved many of the other partners’ technical problems at the conference. The partners were able to discuss issues face to face and provided feedback on the instructional material already used in their centres for their men and women. Overall, it was a great experience as this was our first international meeting outside of Ireland.
By Fatima Badmos and Eoin Reardon Rush, Saint John of God Liffey Services