Second Official Digital Challenge Project Activity Held in Timișoara
The second official activity of the Erasmus+ project Digital Challenge / Digitalni Izazov was held in Timișoara on 30 and 31 May 2025, organised by the project partner Asociația One Source.
Preparation for the Next Project Activities
The activity took place at Cowork Timișoara – The Office, one of the city’s important local hubs for technological entrepreneurship, non-formal education and the development of young people’s digital skills.
Although initially planned as a shorter part of a broader programme in Timișoara, the project partners decided to organise it earlier as an important preparatory and methodological activity. Since it was not yet possible to arrange travel and participation for students from Serbia to the planned extent, the focus was placed on teachers, mentors and representatives of the partner organisations.
An Additional Working Day for a Stronger Methodology
During the work in Timișoara, the partners concluded that the importance of the topics and the preparation of future activities required an additional working day. This provided more time to develop mentoring models, non-formal education methodology, workshops, the hackathon format and future activities involving students.
The additional work and preparations were financed from the project partners’ own resources, outside the approved Erasmus+ budget.
Learning from the CoderDojo Timișoara Programme
A particularly important part of the activity was learning from the experience of Asociația One Source and the CoderDojo Timișoara programme, which brings together children and young people interested in programming, robotics, cybersecurity, game development, bioinformatics, biotechnology and other STEAM fields.
The partners were introduced to examples of volunteer mentoring, club organisation, working with children of different ages and supporting students who gradually take on the role of junior mentors.
Learning Through HackTM and the CoderDojo Final Session
The participants also visited two events of particular importance for the development of the Digital Challenge methodology: HackTM, organised by the Banat IT Association, and the final session of the CoderDojo Timișoara programme, held at the West University of Timișoara.
During these visits, the participants discussed hackathon organisation, the role of mentors, teamwork, participant safety and well-being, logistics and youth motivation. Special attention was given to ways in which students can become active participants, presenters, competitors, organisers and mentors.
Preparing for Work with Students
The activity served as important preparation for the subsequent three-day programme at Grigore Moisil High School in Timișoara, implemented in autumn 2025.
As the students were unable to participate to the originally planned extent in May, practical work with them continued during the following activities, particularly at the science and education camp in Idvor and during the later project activity in Timișoara.
A Three-Level Mentoring Model
The joint work contributed to the development of a coordinated partnership approach to non-formal education, peer learning and junior mentoring. The partners confirmed that a three-level model connecting students, junior mentors and senior mentors provides a strong framework for involving secondary school students in practical digital and STEM education.
Results Integrated into the Next Stages of the Project
The knowledge, experience and conclusions gained through this activity were later used to develop educational materials, prepare workshops, organise student project activities and further improve the Digital Challenge / Digitalni Izazov programme.
