Introduction:

In today’s digital age, audiovisual tools and techniques have become a crucial part of our daily lives. From social media to virtual communication, audiovisuals have revolutionized the way we interact with each other and the world around us.

For teachers and youth workers, incorporating audiovisuals into their work is not only a fun and engaging way to teach and communicate but also an effective tool for enhancing the learning experience. Audiovisuals can help students understand complex concepts, encourage creativity and imagination, and make learning and sharing more interactive and enjoyable.

However, the audiovisual field is a vast and multifaceted domain with a lot different skills, techniques, workflows, hardware and software tools involved and with a huge number of possible outcomes: dealing or incorporating audiovisual materials into teaching methods requires certain skills, knowledge, and equipment that may not always be readily available to teachers or educators.

It isn’t just the visual arts that provide benefits. A study found that music engagement, visual arts therapy, movement-based creative expression, and expressive writing all had positive effects on health and promote healing. Music was shown to calm neural activity in the brain which may reduce anxiety and increased immunity. Art gives us a way to express ourselves in ways words cannot. Movement-based creative expression such as dance has physical as well as psychological benefits, including word recall and increased self-esteem. Expressive writing (journaling deep thoughts, feelings, and emotions) has been shown to reduce depression and lessen pain severity.

Finally, it appears that creatively working with our hands in projects, also boosts happiness by way of decreasing stress, relieving anxiety, and modifying depression. The repetitive routine allows our minds to rest and may help us to enter a “flow”state in which we become fully absorbed in a task, losing track of time. Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, one of the founders of positive psychology, studied this flow state and discovered higher self-esteem, engagement, and greater long-term happiness as a result of being in flow.

All very good reasons why it is crucial to organize creative activities for our youngsters’ well-being. The list of benefits is long and we are sure that you have experienced many as youth trainers. One not to forget is that our future is very much in need of creative thinkers and creators who can tackle the many challenges awaiting us. Thus, we hope you will find some inspiration in this kit to organize new creative activities in your organizations.