Browsing by Subject "nuorisotyöntekijät"

Online youth work is a relatively new area of research in youth work. Previous studies have shown that internet lives in the world of constant change and technological development proceeds apace. For today's young people internet has always been there. Young people use net for the free-time recreation, information retrieval and interaction. The purpose of this study was to examine youth workers' perceptions of the opportunities and challenges of the use of net in their work. The research questions were: 1) How do the youth workers use the net at work? 2) What kind of problems and opportunities do the youth workers see in the use of the net for developing youth work? 3) How do the youth workers describe online interaction with young people? Research data on the internet usage in municipal youth work in Finland was collected by Verke (Verkkonuorisotyön valtakunnallinen kehittämiskeskus) in the spring 2013. This study analysed open questions of a larger questionnaire survey carried out by Verke. The respondents were youth workers at the capital area. The methods of analysis were the theme analysis and phenomenography. The results highlighted three ways to use the net in youth work: narrow, developing and wide. The analysis of the challenges in using the net revealed three kinds of problems: underdeveloped online practices, technical limitations and the lack of support in the workplace. There were five different ways to interact with young people through the net: communication, working together, guidance, care and availability. These conceptions link the net-based youth work to the post-war time key issues discussed in youth work regarding its task in the society. Based on the results it can be pointed out that the youth workers practices, willingness and readiness to use the net are diverse, which tells about different ways of using the net in youth work. Youth workers also expect to get rules and help in meeting with young people through the net. They also wanted to receive support from their supervisors and organization and to get better equipment.