Collaborating with Kids – PREVIEW

Posted on: Tuesday 24 June 2014 8:00pm by Olivia Dickinson

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This year, for the first time at CMC, we have 35 local children coming along and getting involved in a Wednesday Workshop. Fearless producer Olivia Dickinson outlines what we can expect: 

In the 4-hour workshop (from 1-5pm) on Wednesday July 2nd we have a panel of five experts from theatre, publishing, research and digital, each of whom will run a mini-workshop for adults and children to collaborate, play and learn alongside each other.

The children will be asked to take the lead in shaping the ideas that come out of each mini workshop, and the adult delegates will be learning from the 30+ kids, aged 9-11.

Adults who come along will pick two workshops out of a hat on the day – so come prepared for the luck of the draw! Here is some detail about the mini workshops:

1. Play Dough: led by Clare Duffy, a scriptwriter and author for young adults, this is a workshop about money, played with two teams of equal numbers (mixed adults and children), about understanding the recent financial crisis and more

2. Build Your Own Adventure: led by Coney, who specialise in creating hands-on adventures for primary age children, using interactive theatre and technology. The children will be the experts, becoming the facilitators and shaping the final adventure, but the group of adults and children will need to draw upon the skills and expertise of everyone in their mini workshop to work collaboratively.

3. Collaborating on a manuscript: Reading a pre-publication manuscript of a novel for kids by Jeff Norton and then giving feedback live to the author, with likely structural and plot changes to happen from the feedback. Jeff has worked with school children on his latest novel for 9-11 year olds and will be showing how he collaborates with kids as his novel progresses. The children will have already read the manuscript beforehand.

4. Play to Innovate: The Pineapple Lounge will use co-creation and psychology techniques from the world of innovation research to encourage kids and adults to collaborate to create a new app, or social network, or character.

5. Digital Me: A workshop about co-design and digital badges. This workshop is run by Digital Me and will engage children in creating a design for a badge they can earn.

What can go wrong?