Erasmus in Schools: Mark your mobility

ACTIVITY 1: Mobility opportunities

Focus on Youth exchange and Erasmus+ programs. They are written on color A4 papers.
Show them to the participants and give a quick description of both programs.
Descriptions can be found here:
https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/14565/download
https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/apply-for-youth-mobility-funding
https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/15059/download

Debrief quickly by explaining that what you did was to define what mobility is and that different programs exist to give the opportunity of mobility.

Make the link with the next topic by remembering the freely and easily part of the definition and that we will see if it is as free and easy as it was mentioned in our situation (as related to Youth exchange and Erasmus+ mobility programs).

ACTIVITY 2: Benefits and challenges

Participants are divided randomly in groups of 4-5.

Best case scenario: There is the same amount of Erasmus students and groups and each Erasmus student goes with a different group.
- Worst case scenario 1: There are more Erasmus students than groups. You can decide to put 1/2 Erasmus student per group.
- Worst case scenario 2: There are more groups than Erasmus students. In this case you can include ESNers with “ideal” stories or have videos of Erasmus telling stories.

Instructions:

Before forming the group, explain to the participants that each Erasmus will their exchange stories to their group and the groups must point out the benefits and challenges of a mobility program.

Deliver the material:

Give the groups post-it’s with different colors (one for benefits, one for challenges) and pens or markers. During the stories, the participants will write one benefit/challenge of mobility per post-it that are related to the story they hear. Emphasize the fact that they must write big and clearly. The Erasmus students should not mention the words “benefit” and “challenge” in their stories.
Each Erasmus student must focus on 1/2 different points of the following ones:
a) The preparation before going abroad and the reasons why they applied for their exchange.
b) First days in the country (how they met people, how they found their accommodation, what was their first impression of the country and its culture, what did they learn in the first days...).
c) Adaptation after few weeks/months(first approach to the university, how was the relationship with their friends and how it evolved, how was the relationship with locals...).
d) A fun fact/a specific moment/an interesting story...
e) The current feeling and the reasons why they are doing an EiS activity.

Erasmus students should describe their feelings and learning outcomes so far during their stories.

Back in open circle: We ask the participants to go back in open circle.

The flipcharts “benefits” and “challenges” are on the floor in the middle of the circle. Turn-by-turn each group will tell a benefit they pointed out and stick the post-it on the “benefit” flipchart.

When benefits are over, they do the same with challenges on the “challenges” flipchart.

If you think there are not enough post-its on the flipchart, ask the participants if they come up with other benefits/challenges of going abroad apart from what they heard in the stories.

Debriefing:
Make a short debriefing of the activity to make a connection with the next one.
Ask the following questions to make sure everybody understood the goal of the activity:
- “What did we just do?”
- “How did you feel while pointing out the benefits and challenges of going abroad?”
- “What can we learn from this activity? What did you understand about mobility
thanks to this activity?”
- “What can you do to have the best mobility experience?”
Use the last question to make a transition to the next part of the activity.

ACTIVITY 3: Overcome the challenges.
In Best case scenario participants will think that the solution for a better mobility is to overcome the challenges. Facilitator will then ask the question: “How can we overcome challenges of a mobility?”.
In Worst case scenario participants will not mention that they must overcome challenges to have a better mobility experience. The facilitator will then use an example of challenge pointed out by the participants and ask them how we can try to avoid such a challenge and then ask: “if we find solutions to all challenges, wouldn’t mobility be better for you?”.

Facilitator summarize each solution that is given by the participants, write it on the post-it papers and stick it on the challenge’s flipchart. Some of the challenges may move to the benefit flipchart.

The aim of the discussion is for the participants to understand that the benefits are more important than the challenges that could be encountered during the mobility, especially because many of them can be overcome quite easily. Emphasize that each challenge that
was written down, has now a post-it on it or was moved to the benefits (meaning you can
learn from the challenge).

In case the discussion is not hitting the main point as expected, use the example of challenges that were pointed out.
For example:
- “For what do you need a travel budget?”
- “What do you need to plan for your mobility?”
- “What is the best way to learn a language?”
- “In what way the increasing number of low-cost flights can help you during your
mobility?”

ACTIVITY 4: Internationalization at home

The flipcharts “Erasmus”, “Tandem”, “Volunteering” are in different place of the room with 1-2 facilitators next to the poster.
Participants are free to go to the flipcharts, get information and the facilitators encourage them to ask questions.

Debriefing
Participants come back in circle. Ask the following questions:
- “What did we do in this session?”
- “How did you feel? Did your feelings evolve during the session?”
- “What can we learn from this session? What can we think about when we go abroad? How do you understand the concept of mobility now?”
- “What can we do to make the mobility easier? How will you prepare your future mobility?”

Conclusion:

Emphasize the importance of going abroad with any program. There are challenges of course, and it is good to keep them in mind to be prepared. The experience is a big personal and social enrichment. Important benefits such as competence development, intercultural understanding and language development are acquired and help to grow up. Connect the conclusion to the very first definition of mobility with the words “easily and freely”, by showing participants that if they have proper tools to be
prepared for the mobility it gets easier and that they would be freer to choose how to spend their time abroad.
At the end ask them who thinks about going abroad for a study period and encourage them to discuss between them and with the Erasmus students.