Hi everyone,
This week all of you will be starting Soliya and you will have your first chat session. A lot of the time will be spent resolving technical issues and understanding how the software works, but don't worry, it gets better!
After your session remember to select, copy and paste the text chat into a word document and then send it to yourself and also to me (francesca.helm@unipd.it).
Also you have to write your diaries and send them as a comment to this post in the blog. Also read each other's diaries and comment to them too if you like, you may have advice to give!
Why write diaries?
It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in order to learn. Without reflecting upon this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost. It is from the feelings and thoughts emerging from this reflection that generalisations or concepts can be generated. And it is generalisations that allow new situations to be tackled effectively. (Gibbs, 1988, p. 9)
Reflective writing gives you the chance think about what you are doing more deeply and to learn from your experience. Writing your thoughts down makes it easier for you to think about them and make connections between what you are thinking, what you are being taught and what you are doing. Your written reflection will also serve as a source of reference and evidence for your final paper. It will help you understand the journey you have gone through and see the progress you have made.
In your reflection, you could write about:
• what you did,
• what was good and bad about it,
• why you found it good or bad,
• what you found easy or difficult,
• why you found it easy or difficult,
• what you liked about what you did,
• why you felt like that,
• how you might want to follow it up,
• what other people did and why they did it,
• what other information do you need,
• what you are going to do differently in this type of situation next time,
• what steps you are going to take on the basis of what you have learned,
Enjoy!!
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The first day of the project was very involving. We started to introduced ourselves: there are two Europeans, me and Maleen from Germany; two Americans from Ohio, Sean and Amy; three girls from Jordan Sabreen, Batool and Alaa; and two guys from Egipt Ahmed and Ayman. The facilitators start to rank five activities in order from least important to most important (Religion, Nationality, Family, Personality, Favorite Activities), a sort of game for help us begin to discuss about our different worlds. It has started an interesting discussion about religion and we discovered any differences in the relationship with God/Allah. In Europe we think religion is the last important value, instead in the Arabic word God is at the first place in the scale of values. We had a discussion on the political affiliation affects opinion that people have of us, and it’s an another differences between occidentals and orientals.
RispondiEliminaAt the end of meeting I was very satisfied. The conversation was natural, as friends. At the beginning I was a little bit ashamed, because I’m shy and my English isn’t perfect, but as the meeting went on I became more sure and I start to talk more. Two hours have passed quickly.
Camilla
The first day we didn´t talk about religion or politics. We just introduce ourselves, playing a very funny game called two truths and a lie. Each person told three things about themselves, and we had to guess which one was a lie. It was a very funny way to introduced ourselves.
RispondiEliminaWe are two from Egypt, Mohamed and Samia, one from Morocco, Ismail,one from Algeria, Lokman, two from Jordan, Dina and Sandra, two from United States, Daniel and Marianne, one from Netherlands and me, from Uruguay. I was a little bit nervous about the tecnology and the language, but the facilitators, Sonja and Chris, helped us a lot.
Hi everybody, I am Arianna....
RispondiEliminaMy first Soliya meeting was the 13th October, and I was very worried about it!!! But… There was no need to be worried!!!
My first problem was about the listening and the speaking, I mean, I was not sure to match up to the situation. So, I thought to enter the room (in the university lab) half an hour before the meeting!!! But I realized quickly that was very easy to me to connect myself with the headset and the webcam: effectively, I was the first one! Then, when the other two girls (they are from Jordan University, Dania and Hala) arrived in the Main Meeting Room, I began to type in the chat box greetings in order to say to them what I was really thinking at that precise moment and what it made me feel scared: they understood everything and reassured me that they had the same problem!! That was wonderful for me…
I have to say that, because of my fears, I tried to read all my fellow students’ descriptions before: I wanted to know everything about them to feel myself more confident.
Our first meeting was a bit chaotic because we had lots of tech problems: first Andrew (from USA, Kentucky: he was the only one that had to wake up at 7 o’clock!!!!) with sounds problems, then the other two guys from Palestine (Basheer and Ibrahiem), who were one hour late.
But in the end, we managed to talk a little bit and began to be more confident with each other.
Even though one facilitator (Kholoud, a girl from Egypt) and three people missed (one from USA, one from Amsterdam and one from Morocco), Justin, the second facilitator (from Massachusetts), succeeded in breaking the ice with a game and two tasks: first, a short description of us; second, a funny game (two truths and a lie about ourselves, while the other guys had to guess which was the lie); and, last but not least, we had to order five concept (Religion, Nationality, Family, Friends and Personality) from the most to the least important for our identity.
Such assignment (and of course, the chat transcript I recorded) made me thinking about how much different and interested our group is to face a dialogue between our diverse cultures.
I mean, now that I am reading for the second time the chat transcript and pondering my experience, I am realizing something more about my mates’ personalities: I have seen that Andrew (a cadet from U.S. ROTC, only 17 years old!) was less willing to look for a dialogue, it was a bit difficult to him to mediate and understand the others’ opinions. Indeed, although two girls were too shy to say something, the Palestinian and the Jordanian girl seemed more open-minded than Andrew….
I tried, of course, to mediate and give reason, if the occasion arised, to everybody… But there was already Justin doing this, luckily.
So, now I am looking forward to the next meeting, in order to see what will happen and to get to know much better my mates!!!!
My first Solya's meet.
RispondiEliminaAt first of my first session on Solya's website I did one thing: wait.
Having no things to did I went into the main room 30 minutes before and, there, there was Phil ( an American guy) and Denise (it's really her name?).Then people came, one to one, and we started.
In the beginning the other co-facilitator, explained to us the mechanism and puroposes of Solya Project, talking very friendly, frankly and cleary. He told us the only rule: to be honest.
Later, after a short intoduction, we start to play a game, called two trues and one lie, to know each other better... nobody believed me when I said that my lie was that I like football and one of trues that I have, teorically, curvy hairs.
So we play another game, we had to write in a scheme the first three things which ours minds put out thinking to the two different contests “Arab” and “western”.
Then the weater became more “hot”: I asked to the others, the Arab ones, why they answered only with positives judgements in the arab column... sawing comments, their comments, for west, they were a little bit different: war, misunderstanding, miscomprension,...
I wrote only Kebab, tea and kefia...talking about stereotypes, those were my three ones.
I was also critic with stereotypes about “west”, I wrote war, europe and white.
Despite I underlaid the gap between their answers and mine they answered to me talking again versus medias, wich are against muslims and arabs...maybe they didn't understand me at all, or I was not so undestandable, so I ask them: Are you noting that I ask you about your answers, not about muslims's prospective in the western medias?
But facilitators told us that we were running away... and it was only the first session...
So I'm waiting the next “round”.
Good experience, anyway.
Hi everyone! I' m Josipa. Hope you are doing well.
RispondiEliminaMy first Soliya session. I was worried in the begining, but it wasn't necessary. We began getting to know one another,where we come from, what we are doing or studying and why are we partecipating in the Connect program. In my group there were Aya and Amira from Egypt, Madany, Eva from Berlin, Corey from Ohio, John from Georgia and our facilitator Nahid. We did an identity test, talked about our expetations. With this program I hope to improve my language skills, get the necessary confidence when I'm speeking in English because sometimes I fell stuck when need to spek in public, learn from other about different cultures and habits, to get different perspectives on current events and make a new friends.
1st week:
RispondiEliminaWe began getting to know one another, our names, where we come from, and why we are participating in the Connect Program. We also began asking one another our opinions and beliefs. We did some rules and guidelines to help us in our conversation and discussions.We also mentioned some topics that we would like to discuss during the semester , like the conflict involving Israel and Palestine,the role of media within different cultures, islam and the media in the future...
But most of all we spoke about our hopes and expectations. My expectations concerning this project are to improve my language skills, to discuss about political situation in our country, to get different prospectives on cultural events, and to be able to effectively communicate with one another.