POCODIMA - Positive Conflict and Difference Management Project
ICT tools for training on positive conflict and difference management
(MINERVA/SOCRATES PROGRAMME)
In the end of 2003 POCODIMA Project under the MINERVA PROGRAMME financed by the European Commission was launched which is focused on issues concerned with the constructive management of conflicts and differences by use of new information technologies .
The POCODIMA project was created in order to help us to deal with differences and conflicts and to better manage them, using the new technologies but most of all interaction with others.
POCODIMA aims at:
• a long distance mini-course, including a set of interactive training modules that are easily re-usable and adaptable to different training contexts and contents (such as principles of active listening, confidence-building, mediation and reconciliation techniques, de-escalation techniques, etc.) for the positive management of conflicts and differences.
• A European virtual community of practice together with different national ones including operators that are interested in the development of educational instruments for the positive management of conflicts and differences.
Conflict is a natural and inevitable occurrence in human life. The way we handle interpersonal and social conflicts is decisive for our individual well-being, to make working within an organization more efficient and pleasant, and to contribute to creating a fairer and more balanced society.
The ability of interacting with others and being able to identify the early signs of tension and misunderstanding or the ability to manage positively conflicts and differences is a crosscutting expertise, unavoidable for the multicultural world of Information Technology to become more efficient in situations needing communication between persons of different social and cultural background. That ability is an important component of tutors' capabilities in sustaining a high motivational level between leaners with conflictual differences (implied or explicit ones).
The tutor / trainer can have difficulties in managing personal and cultural differences, both in situation of attendance and on-line or blended training, especially with learners from heterogeneous groups or those with conflictual identities in comparison with the main culture (as for immigrants or disabled persons).
A CD-Rom including a series of educational modules that are structured according to the MUST method ( Models of Simulated and Tutorial Universes) is the short-term outcome of our work. The course includes two levels: an interactive game (universe of simulation), within which it is possible to experiment and make choices, and a Tutorial system providing the necessary information and including the theoretical contents of the course. Through the simulation the user is assigned a role and a task s/he must accomplish: s/he will have to immerse her/himself in the story, deal with the difficult situations it shows and eventually reach the stated objective. The situation is fictional and may not have any direct link with the user's real life. In fact, in most of the cases, the paradoxical or fictional settings are specifically aimed at allowing the user's critical detachment, which is necessary for the learning process to be more effective. By doing this, the simulation is then perceived as a game, the user/learner is called to take part to by playing a specific role within it and he/she feels "free" by reality inhibitions.\
DIA-SPORT_IT_June2005.ppt (1.38 MB)
GALLERY (4 pictures)
http://www.isoc.siu.no/isocii.nsf/projectlist/110697