A quick blog to announce the launch of Home Debate Club 2.0!
Teachers, parents and carers check it out. It’s a 15 minute long group debate activity for classes in school or families/groups at home.
How it started
With the incredible help of Outlandish, we designed and built the first version of Home Debate Club in April/May.
We aimed to connect young people at home with the crisis in a safe, structured way to help boost wellbeing.
It was a bit like Joe Wicks but for democracy and debate, and was a lot of fun to make. At it’s peak, we had around 500 participants taking part. Nerve-wracking, but amazing.
Crucially for us, it focused on supporting young people where debate may not be a typical dinner time activity.
If you’re interested in the techy side of phase 1, there’s a great write-up here.
@SSCCTY Here's our thoughts brought to you by Omar from @GoresbrookSc pic.twitter.com/2xtplM5BbI Natalie (@natzm89) November 5, 2020
Flexibility
With schools returning, teachers and parents told us that a fixed time for a live debate wouldn’t work.
So in our second development we’ve focused on making it possible to participate in asynchronous debates.
We’ve also made the debate 15 minutes long. Easy to fit into an assembly slot or when the kids get home from school.
Around 40% of participants participate on mobile, so it was crucial that we made it accessible in that way.
What we’re really pleased about
- It's fully mobile-friendly so those without laptops can access.
- It's free and there's no login. You just turn up.
- It's supporting young people to lead a debate, rather than being passive like a lot of online learning
What we’re working on
- I'm rubbish at video editing. Need to improve!
- More submissions from young people.
- Spreading the word beyond the Smart School Councils member schools as we’d love as many young people as possible to take part.