On Wednesday I made my last EDUtalk broadcast of the year. It turned out to be a remarkable show.
The guests were talking about the EAST Project | engineering students collaborating across borders. This involved students from Glasgow University and the Islamnic University of Gazza.
I don’t think I did a very good job of interviewing the participants, I did not really manage to bring out the scope and depth and particularly the organisation of the project but I don’t think that mattered. What was important were their statements about the impacts on the students in all sorts of areas.
This quote from the project about page:
The contacts via synchronous and asynchronous learning environments will of course be valuable in terms of language practice for both groups of students, but team-working, project participation, communication, problem-solving, digital literacies are all transferable skills that will also be enhanced.
Sums up some of the benefits of the project, but you need to hear it from those involved to get a feel for the level of engagement from the learners in the project. Have a listen on #EDUtalk.
We are now starting to organise shows for the new year, if you are interested in being a guest on Radio #EDUtalk please get in touch.
by Ania Rolińska
On 14 December, dr Nazmi, Bill and myself had a great opportunity to present the EAST project to a wider educator community. We were interviewed by John Johnston for EduTalk Radio, which is an online project to gather voices of educators or anyone interested in education, using mobile and web technologies. According to ‘Teaching Scotland’, it is ‘one of the most innovative, interactive professional learning resources in Scottish education’!
We appreciated the chance to talk to John as it was a great opportunity to summarise the project and share the insights we gained during it, to reminisce about the highlights of the project and reflect on the various challenges that both we and the students encountered when working together in the summer. Dr Nazmi, with the usual enthusiasm and determination, outlined the range of shorter- and longer-term opportunities such projects provide to his students and colleagues. It’s a chance for them to try to overcome the varied constraints imposed by the circumstances, for example barriers to do with communication with the wider world, free flow of ideas and exchange of experiences. I had been impressed by IUG students’ dedication in the summer months and dr Nazmi’s account on Wednesday shed more light on the challenges they faced daily when trying to meet the deadlines of the tasks. Neither Bill nor myself could add anything to dr Nazmi’s closing comments – he is a true champion when it comes to emphasising the importance of cross-cultural collaboration. The only thing I was able to throw in was to repeat that it had been a privilege to work with IUG and contribute in one way or another to making tiny changes to the lives of young people in Gaza and to see how technology can support authentic learning in a global classroom. I hope other educators will find our example inspiring to forge relationships with teachers and students elsewhere and expand the walls of their schools and universities to engage in conversations around real-life scenarios and problems as this is what education is about!
Here is what John posted on Twitter after the interview:
and here is a link to his blog post.
If you’d like to listen to the interview, here it is:
http://www.edutalk.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/eastproject.mp3It can also be accessed on the EduTalk website: http://www.edutalk.info/show/ania-rolinska-east-project/
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Thanks again John for hosting us – it was a great pleasure to talk to you. I can only speak for myself but while talking to you and listening to Nazmi and Bill I must say I got overwhelmed by the project myself! And at this time last year we didn’t even have the tiniest idea that such collaboration will take place. Sometimes the best things happen spontaneously – we do hope the project will develop and grow so maybe you’ll hear from us again! Thank you again and best wishes!