Supporting the Creation of Audio-Visual Content While Promoting Environmental Awareness: The 2G4N Project

Abstract

Nowadays, social media platforms such as Facebook, Tik Tok and YouTube are the main tools for viewing and sharing audio-visual content. In this context, creating opportunities for students to create digital artifacts able to transmit sustainability and environmental concerns to a wider audience may harness the potential of the online participatory culture and make students active participants in the construction of their own knowledge. In this line of thought, the 2G4N project aims to understand to what extent approaches that combine the production of digital artifacts (namely short-videos) to communicate the importance of preserving the environment with in-nature activities, can foster in younger audiences the development of environmental awareness. To achieve this goal, the project is developing a Toolkit for Video Production, a physical artifact designed to support users with no specific skills in video planning and production to create videos, by using only their smartphone, to alert for environmental problems. The toolkit is being developed following a user-centred design approach, with the target audience involved in the toolkit’s design and validation process. It is expected that, by challenging young students to develop audio-visual contents and to share them in social media channels, this project’s approach may give younger audiences the opportunity to develop environmental awareness and also to competences related to storytelling, communication and creativity.