Hi everyone,
It was good to meet you all last week, I hope some of you doubts were clarified and that you are now ready to embark on Soliya.
First of all can I ask those of you who haven't yet done the survey to complete it please.
It was good to meet you all last week, I hope some of you doubts were clarified and that you are now ready to embark on Soliya.
First of all can I ask those of you who haven't yet done the survey to complete it please.
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. If you want you can also send it to me (francesca.helm@unipd.it).
Also you have to write your diary and send it as a comment to this post in the blog. If you DO NOT want your diary to be public, write it in a word document and send it to me by mail.
After your session remember to select, copy and paste the text chat into a word document and then send it to yourself. If you want you can also send it to me (francesca.helm@unipd.it).
Also you have to write your diary and send it as a comment to this post in the blog. If you DO NOT want your diary to be public, write it in a word document and send it to me by mail.
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!!
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!!
The first group meeting was pretty interesting although we lost a lot of time until everybody was set up, technical issues recurred all the time such as microphone problems etc. But considering the fact that we were all from different places and time zones and trying out the Soliya Connected Program for the first time, such problems were to expect. We didn't really solve all of these issues in the 2 hours but eventually we were all online and able to start to get to know each other, share some thoughts, expectations, hesitations, concerns. It was nice seeing all the different faces for the first time and I'm excited to see them again next Monday. I'm sure then the discussions will get more lively as we have reading materials assigned and as we get more familiar with the camera and the usage of the microphone we'll have more fluent debates.
RispondiEliminaUnfortunately I couldn't do the game at the end, as I had to leave the office and so I only got a glimpse of the game,, don't really know what it is about.
Despite the technical issues which dominated the 2 hours I have a pretty good first impression about the program and I'm looking forward to the next weeks.
Carmen
Monday I had my first session, from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm. It was really interesting!
RispondiEliminaAt the beginning I was not sure I could connect because I was not in Padua with my computer, unfortunately I was at home because of health problems and I had some audio problems with the computer I have at home. I informed my facilitators who helped me, the tech support, Mohammed, helped me a lot and at the end everything was well working and I managed to connect and I had a great session.
We were 9 students coming from different parts of the world, some from US, some from the Muslim world as for example Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt. The session didn't start punctually, because we had some technical issues, as it was to expect, especially microphone problems. We didn't really solve all these problems in the 2 hours, it happened that sometimes when a person was speaking the others could not undesrstand very well, and in this cases the chat was fundamental. When we could not communicate we typed our messages on the chat, so that everyone could read and understand.
Our facilitators Arwa and Steve were fantastic, they stimulated us, they asked us to do different activities which were important to try to know something about each other. Of course the time was not enough, technical issues filled a lot of time, and in fact they said we will have other time to do similar activities in the next sessions, so that we can better know the students who are working with us. Although the few time, we shared some thoughts, some expectations, one of the most important questions was in fact: “Why did you enroll in the project? What are your expectations?”. The first session was certainly interesting, seeing all new faces and hearing different thaughts and motivations. But i’m sure the next sessions will be more interesting because we will start to discuss different global issues, we will talk about articles we are supposed to read or video we should see. For example the next week we will discuss about the relationship between the Western and the Muslim society and I’m sure it will be interesting.
Our facilitators also gave us a brief introduction to the Soliya Connect Program, they explained us some activities such as for example the video assignement.
At the end there was a 20 minutes game, but unfortunately I could not do it because some students had to leave for classes and we were not enough to play as it was a group game.
In general, despite the techical issues which caused some problems during the session, the meeting was great, I had a good time and I’m looking forward to see all my mates next Monday. I’m sure this program will be a fantastic and useful experience!
Marta
.Thursday 24 October 2013 I had my first session, from 15:45 p.m. to 17:45. It was really interesting despite some technical issues we had at the beginning of our online conversation.
RispondiEliminaWe were students from Europe (me ) , U.S. and some from Muslim world. Our facilitators Cameron and Eleanore encouraged as to interact , to put questions , to propose topics ,ideas about what we would like to talk in our future sessions?
I am very curious about the Islam world . Let’s say that I don’t know anything , so please forgive my ignorance.
Someone proposed a topic ‘’Children and women in society’’ and I asked if she was referring to a society in particular? (To be honest, I was curious to learn about women’s rights in Islam society) the answer was that the topic would treat the society, women and children in General . I didn’t know if I could go on and express my idea anyway . I was afraid to not offend someone, somehow with it. I will try to be less shy and more courageos and fervourly interactive next time .
Our facilitators gave us a brief introduction about Soliya Program, they explained us activities such as the video assignement. We will start to discuss different global issues like ‘’ The relationship between the Western and the Muslim society’’ and many others.
I had a pleasant meeting session and I look forward to see all my mates next Thursday. Definiteley thanks to this Program we gone discover together interesting ideas, facts , the real world , different views and opinions as well.
Emanuela Stefan
Today I had my first Soliya meeting. It was fantastic! We had only few technical problems, sometimes someone disappeared, sometimes we couldn't hear well who was speaking, but all went on well.
RispondiEliminaWe were in 9, I think a girl was missing, and there were people from US, Tunisia, Egypt and UAE. The facilitator, Rabih (today there was only one of the two) briefly explained what Soliya is, which are the purposes of this program, and then we immediately started with pronouncing our names and presenting ourselves a little bit, than the facilitator asked us to tell our expectations, our fears and to propose some topics we would like to discuss.
Than a boy asked if we could use “bad language”, profanities, and everyone agreed on the fact that we had to be as natural as possible during those meetings, and so we could talk as we talks “outside” since we hadn't offended someone. Starting from this point, we set some other little rules.
After that we played a game in order to get to know each other a little bit more: everyone had to tell 3 things about him/herself, but one of these should be wrong. The other members had to guess which one was wrong. It was funny, and I've found out some interesting information about my mates!
Finally, in the 20 minutes left, Rabih asked us to play a virtual game but unfortunately I didn't managed to do it since there weren't enough participants.
It was a great experience! We all talked a little bit, anyone had been too shy to do that and I think that was great! Mainly due to different pronunciations and some background noise, it was not all that easy to understand everyone and everything, but fortunately our facilitator always tried to summarize what other people said by typing it in the chat box, and there was always someone who asked the speaker to write what he/she had just said.
There's a thing that really impressed me: a 21-years-old Egyptian girl was wearing the burqa and was already married! This is completely shocked me, and made me understand that our background cultures are very different! And since I'm so curious to learn new things, to see things from other points of view, I'm looking forward to do the next meeting!
Francesca Basso
I had my first session on Wednesdays 23 October from 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM. In our "class" there are only girls from different parts of the world, and some of them weren't present at the first video meeting. It is a pity because we didn't speak a lot in the first session. In addition to this, i had a lot of technical problems with the microphone and the video. Fortunately there was Virginia, our facilitator who understood all of us and typed into the main chat the fundamental things that were said. Because of technical problems, it happens that you can’t understand so clearly the others but Virginia helped us a lot.
RispondiEliminaThe one thing that stroke me most was that, despite i was very shy and embarrassed in speaking to the others (i was afraid of my english and of not offending someone), i felt to be part of a new virtual “family”. I expressed my fears and concerns to them and every time i finished to speak, they put their thumbs up, smiled to me and encouraged me in speaking more. They made me feel very welcomed.
But first we made a brief presentation about our name, age, university and hobbies and we answered to questions like: What is the most interesting fact about you? What do you wish were most different about you?
We also expressed our fears, concerns, expectations and topics we would like to discuss the next sessions.
But there was a very interesting question, the facilitator asked: "Why do you think Muslims hate the Americans?"
Actually i didn't know what to say because i'm not muslim and i don't hate Americans, but a muslim girl from Pakistan said: “what you feel, when your country is suppressed economically, is that you need someone to blame and the first foreign entity is the US. In this way you take you frustrations out."
These words let me without nothing to say, i was very surprised. I think that the first step to show your maturity is to take your own responsibility but i also think that the answer to this question has deeper reasons that i can't understand because i live in a different culture, far away from the American and the Muslim culture.
I hope we'll explore more deeply the different cultures, because i think it is a quite interesting issue. When you know the culture and the context where a person live, it is easier to understand his thoughts.
In the 20 minutes left, we played a virtual game and our crew won.
Can't wait to "meet" again my new virtual "family", and i hope that for the second session there'll be not so much technical problems and certainly that we'll be not shy but brave and more fluent in conversations.
Cristina Leonte
The first session was a bit awkward at first. No matter how kind and patient everybody was trying to be it still felt like the facilitators were the only ones at ease. We also were all a bit shy, afraid to be the first to speak.
RispondiEliminaFor the session we only introduced ourselves, spoke about our hopes and fears regarding the program, in fact two hours felt a bit long... Also, the technical issues some of the students were facing made it harder to get to know them, it felt like they were not really involved in the conversation.
I am sure that the next session will be more interesting because we will have something to talk about. Some interesting facts have already come up (i.e. Youtube is banned in Pakistan), and I think that hotter topics will bring to the stimulating exchange I am hoping to see.
I must admit that I was a bit nervous to speak... I was not concerned about my English skills, but it seems like everybody is older than me, and that makes me feel a bit self-conscious.
I am very curious to see how the next sessions will turn out!
Margherita Malvestio
Well, the key-word for this week with Soliya has been TECHNICAL PROBLEMS: firstly I had problems with the headphones during the session so I couldn’t hear some other students, secondly later that day my personal computer broke down so I haven’t been able to write my diary until now.
RispondiEliminaI must admit that during the first meeting at some point I thought “OMG the audio quality is so bad, I think I’ll never understand what he/she is saying!”. But then the mediators were so kind and they would write down everything I didn’t understand..this really cheered me up!
As for what we did together, we started with a round of brief presentations and then we moved on to a game. We had to listen to some clues that our mediator Lisanne was saying in order to describe an animal that is very common in Africa and we had to draw it. Almost all of us thought about an elephant but she was referring to an anteater. This game gave us the idea of the importance of listening carefully to each other in order to avoid misunderstanding.
This game has been really useful also in order to be less shy, as we all laughed when we saw our “masterpieces”.
Then we were asked to express our hopes and fears about Soliya and also what we would like to talk about during the following meetings. I was really impressed because almost all the members of my group were open and during the entire session I could see the happiness in my mates’ faces.
Later we did an activity that was quite challenging: Lisanne asked us to write down 7elements that define ourselves, then we had to delete 2 of these and later again two more elements. We had to say which were the 3 elements left of our list and why we chose to delete the others.
In this point of the meeting I felt I really was getting to know other people: the Arabic girls for example had “religion” in their first three elements, as they said that Islam in a big part of their lives. This is just an example but it game me the idea of how different my life is if compared with theirs.
Finally we did an online game with other students attending the Soliya project.
I felt really tired at the end of the conversation because it was a big effort to try to listen to every single word in various accents and at times with poor quality audio. And yet, I felt optimistic: the technical problems didn’t ruin our beautiful conversation and I really looked forward for our next meeting, which is taking place today in the afternoon.
I can’t wait!
Last Wednesday it was my first session of the Program. It was interesting and very relaxing atmosphere in the group. I am very happy with the members of my group because all of them are very open-mind and respectful people. Before the session I read profiles of the members in my group and have an idea about where are they from, in which university they study and something about them. We have just one guy in the group and we was kidding about that and I was perfectly in the context because we laughed many times all together. The structure of the session was very informal and friendly. We introduced ourselves in a short description and the place where we were during the session. Then we did a little game with languages and after that we moved on the main item of the session, asking every member about what are we interesting to talk in our sessions. I reflect about that in the week after. I was worried for difficulties to understand what people said for technical issues. The sound wasn't good enough. I also realized that middle-est accent in English is difficult to understand. I also hope don't talk so much about Politics. I really hope - in my group- that culture exchange could be the main topic in-between our discussions. I am happy and exciting about this Program and curious to look forward the next session.
RispondiEliminaSince I attended only for half of an hour (due to technical problems) I’ll write about that 30 minutes. Spending a lot of time in order to arrange our microphons and things like that, finally the conference started. There were two facilitators, Heidi and Ibrahim, then 1 boy and 5 girls but I believe that someone was absent. I think it’s a bit hard understanding what every person says because the most speaks English very well and fast. Anyway the facilitators give us the opportunity to talk whenever we want to, so expressing your opinion isn’t a problem except for initial embarassing moments. We introduced ourselves and then, we played a little game: everyone had to tell 3 things about himself, but one of these was wrong. All had to say which was wrong in their opinion. Then, unfortunately my internet connection disappeared.
RispondiEliminaNext time I hope everything will be right. We’ll see next week.
Bye
Clarissa