Hi everyone,
It was good to meet you all last week, and so sorry I forgot to post week 1 prompt for your diaries!!! SORRY!
It was good to meet you all last week, and so sorry I forgot to post week 1 prompt for your diaries!!! SORRY!
First of all can I ask those of you who haven't yet done the writing task 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!!
Also if you haven't yet notified Giulio about whether you will be using the lab, please do so!
Francesca
First meeting
RispondiEliminaYesterday I had my first session and to me it was really strange! I don’t usually use skype or something similar so it was curious to meet someone who I’ve never seen before, for the first time with a webcam. Some members of my group missed this first meeting; I don’t know why someone reached the room in the very last minutes, but I hope the next time we will be all participating.
At the beginning we were only three girls: we were embarrassed , we looked at each other…someone had to break the ice, so I began writing and we started! After a while the facilitators reached us and we introduced ourselves. Then we play to “2 truths, 1 lie”; we had to say two things about us true and one false and the others had to say which was the lie. It was a funny way to begin to speak, even if we had a lot of technical problems (not me, fortunately I used the lab!) and we had often to interrupt the conversation. I think this was the only “negative” aspect, but I know that for the first meeting it is normal, the next time it will be surely better. We had also to participate to an on line play, I think with members from other groups, but it was not possible, perhaps always because of connection problems.
I was worried about my English, to make too mistakes and to do not understand well , but I was at ease with the others, Claudia the facilitators was really nice and it was not so difficult to me. My personal judgment: very good!
Chiara DM
FIRST SOLIYA MEETING
RispondiEliminaOn Tuesday, I had the first Soliya meeting. When I was connected we were only few people, but then also other guys slowly arrived. Overall we were eight of nine. At the beginning, there was a strange situation. First of all because almost all had several technical problems. Who with the connection, who with the microphone and who with the audio. I had some problems with the audio because there were annoying interferences. Fortunately then I resolved almost completely this problem, but I have decided to buy the headsets for the next time, so maybe I will be able to hear better from the beginning of the meeting. Therefore almost the whole first hour is spent trying to solve our technical problems.
Later, with the help of the facilitators, we began to present ourselves. At the beginning we were very shy and nobody started to talk. However after a little bit of silence we have break the ice. Although not all were able to speak, always, for technical problems everyone said something about himself, and in particular the facilitators asked us to show something of our home and our city and to talk of this. Who couldn't speak, communicated with us by the chat.
Finally, we played a game with the guys of the other groups, or better I played, because not all the members of my group could play.
From the first meeting stand out especially two things, first of all, the excessive technical problems, and in the second place, the shyness of the participants.
Before starting the meeting, I was a little bit anxious or better I was very worried for my English, in particular for my speaking. However I can't give an opinion of my level, because we spoke too little. Surely two American girls and an Egyptian boy seem having a perfect English. However the facilitators help us and feel us at ease. I'm here also for improve my English and I'm very curious to see what happens the next week, hoping that the next time will be without technical problems. Therefore for the moment I can't give a judgment, I'm waiting for an other meeting for a complete opinion.
Matteo Lasen
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RispondiEliminaFIRST MEETING 13/03/2014
RispondiEliminaHi my friends
yesterday I started this great experience. First of all I want to share with u that before to enter in the main meeting room I was few worried because I thought "maybe the guys won't understand me", but at the end I talked a lot, so I'm proud of myself.
In my group there are four girls and I'm the only boy of the class as well as the facilitator who come from Qatar. The girls come from Virginia, Padova, Turkey and Macedonia.
After a short presentation, the facilitators asked us which were our expects and our fears about the session. I said that I hope to talk about different topics not just global warming and religion but for example political situation in some parts of the world especially in Turkey since there is Ece, one girl of the group, who lives near Istanbul. I'm very interested about this matter also because I wrote my thesis on the relation between European Economic Community and the turkish country in 1960s-70s.
During the first meeting we talked about the ground rules for the session and the facilitators gave us some instructions to create the video project for Soliya. Unfortunately we couldn't play to the game with other people of other groups because there was a internet connection problem, so I hope to play another day.
I have to say that I didn't understand everything what they said some guys especially the american woman: I don't like the american accent, I prefer the british one, for me it is more clear and understandable.
At the end I want to underline that it was a pleasure for me to share my knowledge with them and to be honest I really enjoyed my self. I'm looking forward to next week!!!
Matteo Golfetto
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminawho would have thought that Soliya would have made it possible form me and you to get together!
Jokes aside, I had my first Soliya session this past Wednesday. So far it was a fairly good session considering that 4 people didn't show up, the facilitator was late (oh my gosh!), Samira's connection from Cairo gave her (and us) a tough time (she was too shy too). Since the facilitator was late, Heather (a Soliya Connect Program Officer) filled in for her, and when the designated facilitator (Kholoud) arrived, we ended up introducing ourselves twice. Anyways somehow we manged to get ourselves initiated, and after all it was a nice first experience. I met Kholud (the facilitator from Egypt) Samira (from Cairo), Afrah (from Tunis) Tanner (from New York) and Shan (from Lahore, Pakistan). We talked about what we do, where we are from, what we study and what we expect from the Soliya project. The game "two truths and a lie" not only helped break the ice but gave us the chance to know a thing or two about each other. The thing that made my jaw drop was that Shan had met Osama Bin Laden back in 1995! What do you know, the World is really small and shocking ;)!
I'm looking forward to really get started and talk about topics that most interest me about the Arab and Muslim World. Having the chance to get a direct outcome of what's going on in countries like Egypt, Tunisia from people who actually live there it will be really interesting and hopefully enlightening too!
Have a nice weekend everybody, and talk to you soon.
FIRST MEETING - 10/03
RispondiEliminaAnd here we are, my first Soliya meeting! At the beginning I was terrified about technical problems and other things like that but it was very easy for me to access to the meeting room. After that, the silence… the first ten minutes of the meeting were very embarrassing because we all wanted to say something so as to know us but no one had the courage to take the microphone and talk. But I think it is a normal problem that everyone had, maybe! And thanks God there are facilitators: the two girls we have as facilitators did a brief overview of the Connect Program and then they introduced themselves and so we did. Everyone did a personal, and very informal, presentation about who we are, where we live and study etc… By doing that, I knew a lot about all the people of my group and I was very ‘surprised’ to hear something like “I’m 19 years old, I am a volunteer at the hospital of my city and when I’ll finish my studies I’ll certainly be part of the American Marines”. Then, we did two activities we had to discuss about in the meeting room: in the first one, everyone discussed their expectations, hopes and fears for the program; the second was a “three words” activity in which we all had to find three words (by heart) about both the west (America and Europe) and the middle east. A very popular topic among us was ‘respect’, and so we all established some basic rules and guidelines to keep in mind during every session; why respect? Isn’t is obvious? Maybe it’s not. We are young people from all over the world, and we surely will talk about delicate topics such as religion, differences between cultures etc. so we set some rules like “no shouting, cursing or swearing”. What else, I look forward to meet my virtual peers again! It all was very funny, I enjoyed my session very much!
IV
Hi everyone,
RispondiEliminaon Thursday I had my first Soliya session and now I'm really looking forward to next Thursday! I had never used this sort of platform before. I know that lots of people of my age use Skype to keep in touch with their friends from all over the world. I do actually have friends living in other countries, but we usally keep in touch on Facebook. Now that I've understood how great this sort of experience is, I will start using webcam and microphone (and the first step will be buying them!!!).
Now let's say about the meeting. First of all, I arrived at the lab almost one hour before because I was really excited and once there I had to wait because it was definitely too early ahah :P I was also pretty scared because I am the only student from Europe and I didn't want people to ask me questions like “How do you see the relationship between West and Middle East in Europe?” because I don't have a strong idea on the topic (definitely my fault!). Indeed, I applied for this project to enrich my knowledge on the topic and listen to opinions different from the one the Italian news use to report.
So, my amazing group is made up of 9 people and a facilitator, of course. By the way, two of them were missing. On Thursday I met: 3 American students, 2 girls from Jordan and a guy from Egypt. Usually I'm quite shy when I first met new people, but this time I wasn't. All the people were really friendly to me and at the end no-one realised that the session was already over! ;) There were no embarassing silences at all and we all get along well together. Also the facilitator was really nice and she asked us to do an activity called “2 truths and a lie”: each person had to say three things about himself/herself and the other people had to guess which the lie was. This was an occasion to know more about each other. After that, we talked a lot about the weather and the American guys showed us the snow storm outside their windows using their webcam. Moreover, we talked about our languages and a girl from Jordan came up with an idea: at the beginning of each session each people will teach to the others some words of the language he/she knows. We were also supposed to play a game with students from other groups, but unfortunately some technical issues occured and we couldn't do so. Hope to do it in the future.
I'm really looking forward to see how it will go next time, because the first one was great (if it was not clear from what I've just written!).
Federica Tognotti
Andrea Gallo first meeting 11/03
RispondiEliminaDuring my first session with Soliya i was really excited to start this nice and for me new experience with other guys from all over the world.
To be honest i was a little worried because even though I just came back from Erasmus during which i spent six months in a foreign country and where i spoke english all the time i thought my level of' english was still not enough for this program, because i knew in my group i could find american and indian guys who have english as their mother tongue; actually the good thing was that just started the discussion i noted that although there has been some difficulty to understand all the words because the sound sistem was not great, i was able to blend well inside the debate immediately. During this first session after we solved some problems related to the microphones and headphones we began the session with a short introduction of ourselves, we talked about our studies, our university and also we said a few words about our lives to begin to know each other better. So the first session was more like introductory and also our facilitator told us something about the program in general and what we will do, what we are going to talk about during the sessions. At the end of the first meeting i was very pleased especially for the group that i found, in fact, in my group there are three western guys like me, two Americans and one Dutch and the other girls are all from the Predominant Muslim Societies, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and Sushmita, the facilitator, who is Indian. I am very happy and eager to face the second session and maybe start talking about some interesting topic.
Hi everyone!
RispondiEliminayesterday I started my first session with Soliya project.
My first meeting on Soliya was very interesting.
I was a little bit sick, with flu and at the beginning I was a bit scared and nervous because I thought that my english is not very good: I am in particular worried when I have to talk to many people. Furthermore for me it was the first experience of this kind: I had never used this sort of platform before...so I was very excited and worried!
At the beginning I was terrified about technical problems, too…. but at the end it was very easy for me to access the meeting room. I was the first person connected, so I spent few minutes only with Erin, the facilitator, who is very nice and useful, and reassure me about my pronunciation and my english that I consider my principal obstacle.
In this first session we introduced ourselves and started to get to know each other. In my groups there are two american guys, a girl and a boy, three arab boys (from Tunisia) and only one jordan girl. Everybody are younger than me.
We spoke about random and simply topics like our lives, our birthplace or university. At the beginning we were very embarrassed because we all wanted to say something to start knowing each other but nobody had the courage to take the microphone and talk.
Then Erin, the facilitator, ask some easy question to us. His first question was: “What’s your first memory?” While the others were answering to this question, I thought that I would have preferred to discuss about different topics, also because listening to this first part of the meeting was a bit boring for me.
Erin asked us what are our expectations for this program and if we have any fears or concerns about participating in this program.
Everybody told that they partecipate at this program to improve their english (exept the americans, of course!), to know different cultures and have relationships with other person from other countries. The american guy told us that he never speak with people from different countries and for me this is very strange! I hope that I didn’t understand very well what he have said.
I'm participating in Soliya to improve my English but more importantly to know better, and maybe understand better, different cultures and different people who live in different parts of the world. For example yesterday someone told something about ramadan, and I can’t wait to speak about this topics with people who living every day something that for us sometimes seems so far. In fact, I wanted to ask a lot of questions about this topic (I’m wrinting the final thesis about the religious rules related to the food consumption). But at the end I decided to wait, because I understood perfectly that ask a question like that during the first session would have been too difficult. Anyway, I think that the next session will be the right moment to dare.
At the end of the session Erin tried to explain us how to play a game that we were supposed to try. Unfortunately we couldn't play beacuse the link, which the facilitators posted in the text box, was broken.
In conclusion, we closed the meeting and we were quite happy.
I can’t wait to see them next week because I’m very courious to see how the discussion will evolve when we will have some important topics to discuss together.
Marina Molinari