E-learning Partial accessibility
Video Games in Youth Work
Year of production: 2021
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[Music]
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my name is eddie quinn
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i work for an organization in ireland
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called camara education ireland
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at the moment we provide training and
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resources to teachers and youth work
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in the area of using technology with
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young people previous to this i worked
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for
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different organizations in the area of
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youth work primarily focusing
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on young people who would be engaging
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on a level of service position that
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would typically be level
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to high level trees or level fours of
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the hardcore model
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these included family support services
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whereby i would support a family as a
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whole
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focusing on child protection or child
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welfare issues and also as a youth
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worker where i would directly engage
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with young people
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who are at a high risk of entering state
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care are would be in state care and
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had the motivation and ability to come
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home the primary
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difficulties that young people would
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have been presenting we
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would be independent living skills
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engagement with the guardi
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or the the police they're known as in
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europe
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um some levels of self-harm are kind of
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self not um dangerous behaviors that
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would lead to poorer outcomes in later
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life
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so my primary focus would have been
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independent living skills
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so i suppose um going back a couple of
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years ago
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maybe five six years ago um we were
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working with a lot of young people who
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were presenting out of nowhere as a as
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just leaving school
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let's say first year second year second
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year of secondary school just deciding
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i'm not going to school anymore for
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various different reasons and for for
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complex reasons we couldn't get to the
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bottom of it
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communication started to break down so
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what i did notice was
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all young people played games like
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minecraft or different games like that
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so i said look
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i'll give it a shot i log on i'll play a
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game with them with the
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with the approach of kind of the very
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much like the men's shed movement here
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in ireland
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that people talk a lot more comfortably
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shoulder to shoulder so when you're
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engaged in an activity communication
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seems to flow a bit much more naturally
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so i played computer games with them we
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got a conversation going
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um and i saw the real value in in
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a computer game being first of all a
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game that happens to have
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maybe more of a visual cue than
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traditional games like sports games or
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board games or anything like that but
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then when you break it down even further
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i recognize that it's nothing more than
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play
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and why why do any of us engage in
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player it's to it's to assess
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the social dynamics and what is
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acceptable what is unacceptable in the
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world
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how do we find our place and how do we
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excel within our with our own
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level of skill set so using our my
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knowledge of we'll say
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play in the dynamic group dynamics and
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this that another i got to
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a common ground with young people
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whereby you can discuss
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subtly you know that it comes down to
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your own skill of certainly discussing
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complex issues such as as long-term
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impact of certain types of behaviors or
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how acceptable is this how acceptable is
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that
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so i suppose i won't dwell on that that
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minecraft was one kind of lovely open
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space where you can create with purpose
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and
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and do a certain level of role-playing
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and give tasks ask for returns and it
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was re it was a really
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positive way to develop a relationship
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so that i could break down that barrier
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of the therapist
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client kind of dynamic but anyway
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that was that was my first foray into it
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we moved on then to look at other games
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i found
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that it was a great topic of community
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of topic of conversation with young
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people
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even even just talking about minecraft
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traditionally quieter kids
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kids that wouldn't shine in terms of i'm
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the sports person
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i'm the very smart person i'm the
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confident one that i can stand out in
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the group even if i have to clue what
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i'm doing
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the quiet one then becomes the expert
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and if you
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seek that and reinforce that you have a
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value then
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you have a you have a particular value
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that isn't maybe valued among some of
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your friends but it's still something
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you can play on
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still your strengths and there's an
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online community an offline community
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that you can engage with that
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computer games quickly become something
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that a young person can be an expert in
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more so than any adult and thankfully
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now
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being the generation that were raised on
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computer games a lot of us
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in our 30s and early 40s or late 20s are
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now also
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very comfortable with computer games and
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the worlds that they create so i suppose
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going from there then we looked at
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with other young people a lot of other
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computer games computer games like
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worlds of
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world of warcraft league of legends call
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of duty all these games that are kind of
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sometimes in the in the media as real
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negative things but
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as a youth worker everything you do with
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a young person
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is is fun engaging exciting or or
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playing all those things but the real
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purpose you're doing is to get the under
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get to the underlying developmental
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needs of a young person so
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whether you're playing a game of
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football with a young person or playing
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a game of among us
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what you're really doing is giving the
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young person opportunity or given them
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permission
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to express what they're feeling at that
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time so whether it's a game of football
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you're experi you're getting them to
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to be physically exerted you know engage
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with people on a team
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be competitive while it's also being
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cooperative like there are three
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different things
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that and i'll move to that that are also
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really prevalent in among us
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so at one time you have to play your own
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game you have to look at your own
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personal development
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you have to look at how you impact on
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the team you have to look at how the
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people around you impact you
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and how you and that team can interact
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to to achieve a wider goal of that team
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and also
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um my third point which i'm after kind
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of forgetting was
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the overall goal of a team and the
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dynamics you operate within that can be
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both be
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or the physical exertion exposed and
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that brings its own benefits to physical
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health mental health and all the rest
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okay um but let's let's look at that
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thing in terms of a computer game so
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really interesting topics have come up
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lately and in my role as a trainer
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where where we talked about violence and
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computer games
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which is first of all it's oh my god
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what are we going to do but but second
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of all
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we do sex education with young people
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all the time
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who the hell wants to talk about sex
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with a young person but it's a really
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important thing relationships um
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attitudes uh the media and how it
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portrays it
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by playing by playing a game that's
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based that has a violent
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element to it like call of duty or or
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anything that involves
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killing each other you get you get an
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opportunity to discuss it with young
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people so we we actually talk to the
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young people it's like
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call of duty let's talk about that like
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yeah you have a kill to death a ratio
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and you respawn and you come back and
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you
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you're compete you're competing with
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other people sometimes as a team based
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competition
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but what about the realities of war
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let's have a chat about that
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let's let's discuss about imagine that
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was in your country
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imagine that was something that you had
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to go off and do do you have any
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relative that had to fight in world war
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ii
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could you talk to them about it what are
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the realities of it do you know when it
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comes down to morals where would you
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stand would you be the person with the
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gun or would you not
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um and then you can actually talk about
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conflict you can talk about the
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motivation
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as to why countries fight you can talk
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about politics and
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young people are incredibly opinionated
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and they have a fantastic insight into
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this
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and a lot of the computer games through
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single-player campaigns
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really delve into these complex things
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that emerge like
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for example i remember having a really
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good conversation with a young person
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about call of duty and one of the
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campaigns so the single player campaign
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and the level of detail they went into
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between the the relationship between the
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soldiers
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how they depended on each other how they
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interacted with each other you know
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their purpose their values their goals
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their
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their lifestyles like some in some cases
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that the only sort
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of of security or or solace that they
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got was memories of their family
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their loyalty to their country so yeah
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you're shooting each other on a computer
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game
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and again that's your football you as a
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youth worker with the young people
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you're working with
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you're digging under the surface and
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you're saying what else is going on in
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that computer game
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you know you also can look at things
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like addiction um
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self-destructive uh habits things like
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well what's playing too much
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do you know at what point are you any
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good at it
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so i'll jump over to another computer
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game now i'll talk about league of
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legends that the most
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well most played computer game in the
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world it's the biggest player base in
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the world
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and it i played it and it frustrates the
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hell out of me
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it is not good for my mental health but
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i'm quite good at it
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so i'm kind of proud of that too okay
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and a lot of young people are incredibly
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skilled at it
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but the the community itself made up of
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millions of players
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has come out with certain language
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language that young people use every day
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and language that adults just don't get
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terms such as flaming going um
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tilted three terms that to a lot of
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people what the hell does that mean
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you know but flaming is is is a state of
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play
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where a player is is venting or being
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angry
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and if they're flaming you know to
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target that player in the game because
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they're not playing at their best
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they're not cam they're not collected
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they're not playing at their best so
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target that person and they'll they'll
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make so many mistakes you'll win
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okay um things like going home is when
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you're doing really well
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and you're doing so well that you're
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ignoring the risks and therefore you
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will mess up and
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long term you've no chance um
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and there's a really good one as well um
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i can't recall it now but anyway
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there's also advanced concepts in league
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of legends that i loved talking about
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with young people
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um it involves tactics within the game
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and you wouldn't believe
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how advanced some tactics go so first of
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all you you play
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as a character and you're against
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another character and both people are
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controlling both these characters
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so there's an element of
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unpredictability so there's a there's an
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awful lot of mental assessment going on
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while you're doing that
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you have to assess what your strengths
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are what their strengths are when is the
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best time to approach different things
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what behavior are they engaging in so
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that i can engage in a behavior that
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i'll come out positively in
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if i come out negatively how do i
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reassess that so i can reach
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i can go in again and like yes it's a
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computer game
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but these are really advanced tactics
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that need to be applied
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not just in society but in their careers
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in their relationships
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in every element of their lives and
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again you're playing a computer game
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and it's the youth workers job to pull
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that learning out and get them to
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understand
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that yeah you're playing the computer
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game and people are saying you're
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spending too much time on it but let's
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talk about the positives that you're
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learning there
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now let's also talk about the influence
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it has on you before the before the
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pandemic we didn't have the resources to
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have a computer room
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or to physically facilitate young people
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coming in to play computer games
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together
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so in the vast majority of times we
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either paid for them to go to a
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to a lan center which would be a center
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that we'd pay to have access to all
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computers and have them played together
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however the vast majority of times it
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was online play using a platform such as
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discord or zoom or
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or google meets or something like that
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and as much as possible
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i would be participating with young
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people i don't believe
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in youth work from a distance um in
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everything in every activity whether
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it's an in-person activity like i used
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to engage in a project whereby we used
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to bring
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14 young people who are engaging really
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high risk away to an outdoor adventure
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center every
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once a week for a full year to do
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development work with them
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um and you you quickly see the
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difference between really effective
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youth workers and youth workers that are
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there maybe not by choice
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um often you sit with the young people
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on the right you engage in conversation
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with them just like you you are their
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equal for all intents and purposes
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you are privileged to be there to be
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paid to be there
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to encourage some element of learning
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and development
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so in my eyes like there's a big
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movement well there was a couple years
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ago in ireland for youth participation
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and i found it pretty funny to be honest
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because i found the biggest challenge
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for a lot of youth work was staff
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participation
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when you ask a young person to engage in
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something you have to be willing to
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engage in it as well
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whether you're comfortable with it or
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not and in my in my experience young
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people are incredibly forgiving
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if you engage in something that you're
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used to whether it's a game of football
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or a computer game they'll be absolutely
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willing if you have the right attitude
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and respect for what you're doing they
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will accommodate you as much as possible
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so to answer your question in a long way
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i would have been playing with them as
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often as possible now that's not to say
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that i wouldn't stand back
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on some occasions just to kind of
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appreciate the dynamic that's going on a
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lot
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but i found that if i was in the
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situation with them i was able to
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influence a lot quicker i suppose
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the best example i ever had with that
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was was recently even with among us
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so i would have been delivering training
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for youth workers on how to how to play
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essentially
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um among us and whilst i was delivered
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i'd be given
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not advice but suggestions as to how you
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can
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promote the the participation of quieter
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young people or even curb the
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participation of overpowering young
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people
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and one example would be play as a youth
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worker
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and have them tell you die and have have
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them murder you have them influence you
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have them give out to you
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and learn as you go and you know get
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that horrible abuse
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you know because it's constructive in an
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element to one degree you listen to
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young people interacting with each other
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online and you sound it sounds horrible
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but young people have developed such a
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thick skin and an understanding that
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when you communicate online it's very
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different
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than than the rules that present
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themselves in society
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um and the best way to the best way to
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engage in that and raise that
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that raise that awareness is first of
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all to engage in it
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not just be the corrector not just be
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the police so
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you know you don't actually hurdle the
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abuse back but you take it and you
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reflect on it and then you carry that
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message to the young people online
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[Music]
“Video Games in Youth Work” – an interview with Eddie Quinn, a youth worker from Camara Education Ireland, explores how video games can be a great space to meet young people and pull a lot of meaningful topics just by playing a game together.
This video is part of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Digital Youth Work and it has been created by the Lithuanian National Agency of Erasmus+ Youth in Action in cooperation with the National Agencies of Erasmus+ Youth in Action from Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, and Portugal.
Video Games in Youth Work
www.youtube.comAvailable in EN
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