The EdMedia group recently hosted a highly engaging and successful half-day workshop at the ‘Makes Will Make’ makerspace. The workshop explored Human Rights Education (HRE) through the lens of collaborative design and making. Participants were immersed in experiential HRE activities, reflecting on the importance of empathy as a core element in empowering both learners and educators to actively contribute to social justice. Rooted in these foundational HRE principles, participants worked together to co-design solutions that embody values of dignity, inclusion, and human rights for all.
The workshop culminated in an exciting co-design session, where two interdisciplinary teams of professionals came together to create innovative toolkits that promote democratic competences such as critical thinking, empathy, and the ability to understand diverse perspectives. Using hands-on experimentation with materials and tools from the makerspace, participants transformed abstract values into tangible components, including game rules and scripts that will guide the use of their toolkits in practice.
This workshop is part of the “Making Democracy” project, a collaboration between the CYENS Center of Excellence’s EdMedia Research Group (extension of the Cyprus Interaction Lab), the Cyprus University of Technology’s Serious Products Lab, and Lemesos 2030, the European Capital of Culture Candidate City.
We are thrilled to be leading this transformative project and look forward to further developing these toolkits into final products that will continue to inspire social change and the promotion of human rights in educational settings.
Stay tuned for updates as we move forward with this exciting journey!
Photo credits: Katerina Kountourioti