Experience with online workshops

The examples of the DT’s were presented in the beginning via teams, in order to have an idea of what it is and what it is supposed to ‘do’.

For the workshop online we used a combination of Microsoft Teams as well as MIRO. Our plan was to walk through the same rounds of conversation as we do in the live workshops, but use the possibilities of MIRO for the presentation of the content of the cards and Teams to share and discuss thoughts about it. In our experience, however, there are two challenges that have to be taken into account:

• Getting acquainted with MIRO needs time for participants, preferably prior to the workshop;
• the conversation is more static, as in an online meeting people cannot talk at the same time or jump into the conversation when they have urgent things to say. A firm and attentive workshop leader needs to make sure that everyone gets to share thoughts, one by one. Furthermore, participants need to be instructed prior to the workshop that they can comment on things being said in the chat, or by raising their virtual hand. The workshop leader needs an assistant to keep track of the chat and raise attention to what is said there, as well as to make sure that people who raise their hand get speaking time.

There is also added value of MIRO, as MIRO allows to engage with the content of the cards provided, add comments or co-produce scenarios. These options could be explored further: perhaps it is possible to use them to engage participants in a personal reflection prior to the start of the workshop.

Possible future scenarios (or ‘vignettes’) of DT’s were also presented via Teams, which reveal alternative ways they could impact on the lives of end-users. Afterwards, we made a round and asked every participant for their intuitive preference for one or more of these scenario’s, and tell their reasons for that choice to the group. In this phase participants are asked to reflect, based on their intuition.

To get acquainted with MIRO, we asked participants first to choose an avatar to represent themselves virtually. Then we asked them to look at the scenarios, which are presented as little card-like texts in MIRO and to put a ‘like’ with the scenario of their preference. This was meant to get acquainted with MIRO (but it lasts too long to do it during the workshop; it is preferable to do it prior to the workshop, or to skip this step entirely and move to step 4 right away).

Important notice:

What is important to keep in mind is that MIRO presents a series of canvasses on which participants can work. But participants need help to see that it is possible to go to the next canvas by going to the right and to explain them that each canvas presents new assignments. When participants simply enter MIRO and move around, they easily get confused as they see all assignments at once, without order. It is perhaps better to keep the work done in MIRO limited: work only with one or two canvasses, not more. If participants get confused, you lose precious workshop-time.

Each participant is offered an overview over the scenarios and the personal value cards in MIRO. Each participant can look at this by him or herself and choose the values that he or she prefers by swiping them to the scenario of his or her preference. A conversation follows on teams about those preferences, as well as how they can be related to the scenarios: what scenarios deserve prioritization according to these values? Do the scenarios need further elaboration? This is the phase in which participants are asked to reflect, based on their personal values

If there are possible societal issues related to the digital twin, it is possible to add a new set of cards in MIRO, which present societal issues that digital twins might raise. In this round participants are asked to choose the issue that they want to debate by means of inserting their likes. The issue that receives most likes is discussed further in Teams. This phase invites participants to reflect as citizens on the future with the digital twin.

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