michael kimmig

Online Energizers. More Ideas to Activate Your Group | Online Facilitation Tools

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Online Energizers [Jana Sabeth via unsplash]
Image: Jana Sabeth via unsplash.com

Spending a long time in front of the screen during online workshops and trainings can be very tiring. Online energizers can help to maintain attention and engagement of participants. They help to keep the energy up. And they can be very fun.

“Online Energizers. More Ideas to Activate Your Group” is part of a series of blog posts about online facilitation tools. It is the second blog post about online energizers. The first one is here. Other blog posts about online facilitation tools are about online activities to get to know on another and for group- and team-building (Stay tuned!).

When I began to facilitate training courses online, the first online energizers were Youtube videos. Frankly, I was too busy with this new virtual environment and at the same time taken away by technology that I could focus on introducing them myself. It was much easier to share the screen and let it go…

Only later, when the akwardness of acting in virtual space wore off, I used more and more online energizers, that I could facilitate myself (see also Online Energizers to Activate Your Group). However, the following collection is a great source of ideas and inspiration!

Seven ideas for online energizers

  • Finger exercises
  • Left brain – right brain exercises
  • Learning sign language
  • Stretching exercises at your desk
  • Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong
  • Move it
  • Body percussion

You might want to use this list in three different ways:

Best option: Find someone in your group to introduce activities. There is always someone who is talented in games or sports, yoga or dancing, or knows how to do body percussion. Find out!

Second best option: Watch the videos and learn how to facilitate activities yourself.

Or, just introduce the activity, share your screen and start the video…

Finger exercises

Finger Fitness Exercise Dances for Kids

A short activity to exercise your fingers. Not so easy as it looks and definitely not only for children!

Left brain – right brain co-ordination

Left/right Independence | by Joff J-K

Exercises for left-/right co-ordination…

Learning sign language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=kyicdRl3ULg
BSL (British Sign Language) Greetings Basic Signs

With volunteers we sometimes learn sign language, which – some of them – can use in their projects. In this video, Charlie Raine teaches some basic signs.

Stretching exercises

Stretch Breaks at Your Desk (2018)

A couple of ideas you can find here…

Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong

Yoga, Tai Chi or Qi Gong offer various exercises that can be used online.

5-Minute Break – Office Yoga

Yoga, Tai Chi or Qi Gong offer various exercises that can be used online. This is an example for “Office Yoga“, but you can also find plenty of short exercises if you search, e.g. Qigong Exercises to Do at Work or one of the 8 Brocades Qigong Practice

Move it

Bounce | sparkcatcher.com

“Imagine that you are a king or a queen of the party. Your body bounces up and down and with every movement, you feel more confident. Your body moves with confidence also when you don’t feel it – all you need to do is to allow it. Don’t be ashamed of it. Think that nobody is watching you.”

More videos on Awakening through the body on the website sparkcatcher.eu

Body percussion

Bodypercussion | Santi Serratosa and Mariona Castells

Bodypercussion

This one might be a challenge, but if you break it in different steps it is a great experience.

Instead of a closing…

You can also try to check out how this one works and turn it into an energizer…

Arte en el estanque

More Online Facilitation Tools

“Online Energizers. More Ideas to Activate Your Group” is part of a series of blog posts on online facilitation tools. My other tools recommendations for online workshops are here:

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