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 save 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,
I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences!
Francesca
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaOn Monday afternoon was my first Soliya’s Spring meeting.
I felt a bit nervous initially because I didn’t know what to expect from the other students, but I was very satisfied to have participated.
First of all, we met our facilitators: Manar and Anee.
Both of them immediately helped us to settle our connection’s problems and explained how to use technically Soliya’s program.
Manar is from El Cairo but now is living in Germany and Anee in from Romania. Anee lived in Italy when she was studying at university about five years ago and for her was the first time as facilitator, while for Manar the second.
At 5 pm, there were only four of us logged in, instead, one girl, whose name is Bochra, had many connection’s problems and connected after an hour.
At that point, facilitators gave us their welcome to this new experience and asked us first to introduce ourselves and second to express why we join into the program.
In my group there’s only one boy, his name is Bryan and lives in the mid west of the US.
He decided to back to the college at the age of 49 and is studying history as a part time student.
The other American girl is Michaela who lives in a small town near Massachusset and she is 25.
Then was Meryem’s turn.
She described herself as an ambitious person and is the youngest of us because is only 18. She lives in Marrakesh and is studying English Literature in her school.
The other girls were Paula and Santasia. Paula lives in the US while Santasia in South Africa.
Both of them had connection’s problems and we couldn’t hear well at the beginning.
After this short introduction, facilitators had a nice idea and asked us to turn the camera for showing to the others a small tour of our room.
The next question was to talk about places where we would like to go in the world one day and the answers surprised me very much!
Most of us has never been abroad and the motivations were quite similar, instead Santasia and Michaela had traveled a lot.
The first had the opportunity to study in India and also visited many places in Europe, except Italy, while the second moved in many North America’s State.
To know each other better, facilitators asked to take few minutes and write down in a paper our fears and expectations from the program.
We made a “personal list” and the main expectations were: meet new people, gain more knowledges about important issues, respect to everyone, learn about new cultures and share opinions with people from around the world.
Our fears instead were different because some of us were worried about language barriers and misunderstanding each other’s view’s, other about culture’s stereotypes and prejudices.
After listening our thoughts, facilitator asked us to answers to three questions saying if we prefer debate or dialogue form, how we can build a good conversation and how they can help us in getting our expectation accomplished.
Brian took the initiative and expressed his personal opinion inquiring if we should separate religion from politics interactions.
We suggested that dialogue could be the best way to communicate and to exchange informations, but it requires listening what everyone has to say in the group. We concluded that trust, respect and tolerance are the base for a very good conversation!
Anee and Manar were very proud about our answers and the two hours passed fast.
The last ten minutes we talked about the weather bad/good conditions in our area and surprisingly in the Usa was snowing while in Morocco there were 20 degrees!
Meanwhile, Anee summarized the best topics of our first Soliya’s meeting and thanked us for our interest and sympathy.
I had very appreciate this first Soliya’s meeting because I had a great fun and I’d like to thank our facilitators for their courtesy!
Looking forward hearing next Monday!
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThis week has been my first time at Spring Soliya; unfortunately I had some problems with the diagnostic test that the project requires before entering the meeting room and I could only connect about 45 minutes after the set time, so I missed the presentation of the members of my group.
I’m so sorry for this drawback, because I wanted to know some information about the other students and how to use Soliya’s program. I hope to resolve the problem and that, in future, it will not happen again. There was another guy, from Alaska, who had difficulties getting a connection, so he logged in after an hour.
When I finally connected, the members of my group were talking about diversity and how it can be a positive or negative thing. It’s a mixed group, composed by males and females, and most of them come from North America, two of them come from Marrakech and one of them comes from Tunisie.
One of my facilitators asked me to introduce myself and why I decided to join in this project, then we started to talk about influence of media; everybody agreed that media can influence people negatively or positively. We considered food media and we concluded that it’s easier to sell food than save our health; this is a problem especially in the USA and in Morocco, where there is a lot of fast food.
The next topic was about difference between dialogue and debate; most of us think dialogue is more relaxed and friendly than debate, but we can speak freely in both.
At last, facilitators asked us what were our fears and expectations; to my surprise most of us do not have any fears and hope to hear different points of view.
Unfortunately the audio quality was not very good, so sometimes I couldn’t hear very well and I needed the help of the chat. However I am very happy to participate in this project and I think it will be interesting.
Omega
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminathis week I started the Soliya program! From my home on Monday 9th, at 12 p.m. I connected my computer to my meeting classroom. I felt excited but at the same time I was nervous because I didn’t know who I’d have in front of me. The first person who spoke with me was Sushmita, the facilitator, a very kind girl from India. At first I had some problems with my audio and I couldn’t hear clear, but Sushmita and the technical support helped me solve my troubles immediately.
Initially, for about twenty minutes, the conversation was held between the facilitator, two American guys and me. Nicholas is an international affairs student and he lives in Colorado; Elise is from Boston and she studies intercultural communication and liberal studies. During the session other five people connected in the meeting room but unfortunately they had many connection problems.
To introduce ourselves, Sushmita asked us to tell our names and then to slowly move the webcam around the room to show where we were and if we had anything that represented our lives. I was in my living room and I showed my university books that were next to me, because in my opinion they represent my interests and my future. Elise said that out of her window it was snowing while out of my window it was a beautiful sunny day! In that moment I realized we were from different parts of the world, far away, but everyone were there to meet and interact.
The rest of the class is composed by Mohamed, he is Egyptian; Ammar, who is another Egyptian boy and who had a lot of connection problems. Ketura is a girl from Ghent (NY) and Aseel is a Jordanian girl. An hour after the beginning of the session another muslim girl, Manar, tried to connect but her microphone didn’t work.
After our presentations, Sushmita introduced the aim of the Soliya project: we had to try to communicate and share our experience of life. We had to look at the situations from different angles, and not alone our own. The sessions should become a weekly appointment in which we have to demonstrate participation and respect for all group members.
To deepen our knowledge and our origins, the facilitator asked us the meaning of our name; most of the names had a religious meaning or a connection with our religion.
Connected to the article that Sushmita sent us last week, the question after was about the difference between dialogue and debate: the main points emerged were that the dialogue is usually more open than debate; in debate you want to defend your opinion while in dialogue you can share your ideas and different points of view. The focus of the discussion was on what’s needed for a dialogue to be successful and what’s our role in this dialogue. We will answer to the questions during the next sessions.
The aims of the Soliya program, as Sushmita told us, are : to create a dialogue in which we can listen to other people from different parts of the world, to share curiosities, to be open minded, respectful and self-aware.
In the last part of the session, we started talking about education: the question in the center of the dialogue was “how common is going to college in everyone's country?”. We talked about the differences between American and Italian education and the price of education – equally expensive in each country. Ketura said something very interesting: “In the USA it is socially unacceptable not to go to college”. In Italy the situation is different; fifty percent of young people decide not to go to university because they find a job to help their family. We all agreed that education is still a luxury item in each country.
The first session finished with a reminder from Sushmita for us to read the articles by next week and then we concluded with our considerations about the first meeting. There were a lot of connection problems, anyway the conversation has been interesting and I was happy to meet new people from other parts of the world!
Veronica
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaon Wednesday, March 11th, I had my first Soliya session, from 05:00 pm. until 7:00 pm, I logged a bit earlier so I could make the requested diagnostic test, which went well.
I must confess that days before the meeting I prepared an introduction about my self, but I was pretty nervous anyway, not only because we have to speak in English but also because I didn't know who I’d have in front of me.
At first I spoke with one of our facilitators, a girl from Netherland, Lisanne, she gave me some advices on how to use easily the microphone and the chatbox. During the first minutes of the session other people connected in the meeting room, so we’ve started to present to each other. Gibson was the first, then Staccotta(by the way they are both studying in the same college, Bluefield State College, but they have never met). Then two other girls, Ameera and Kiaira, connected(they too are from the same college, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and as for the boys, they have never met, yet). Our second facilitator, Nora, from Egypt, connected later, due to some technical issues. When was Amine’s turn; he had some serious problems with his microphone, and he couldn’t and hasn’t spoken for the entire session, but we managed a way(using the chatbox)to get to have some information about him, like the fact that he is from Morocco and he is a student at the American Language Center in Marrakesh. Unfortunately not all members of our group participated at this first session, and there were only six of us, plus Nora and Lisanne. Even if the required diagnostic test went well, during the session I had to refresh the browser a couple of times, but this was the only “technical” problem I had.
In order to get to know us better our facilitators proposed to make a fun introduction game, we had to think of three statements about yourself, of which one is a lie and two are true, then we had to guess which of the three was the lie. It was pretty fun and, most of all, useful way to have some more information about those with whom I’ll spend the next weeks.(Since we didn't take any kind of agreement about which personal information we could disclose to non- group members, I'd rather not say anything else about them).
We talked about the personal reasons we decided to participate into this program, and which are our expectations and fears related to the Soliya program itself and to the topics we’ll discuss. A shared answer was that we are afraid of offending someone of the group with our personal beliefs. In order to avoid such situation, we all agree that in this cases we are free not to talk/express our thoughts, if, somehow, the topic is a sensitive issue for us. My biggest concern is that I will have some difficulties in expressing my thoughts, since I'm not a native speaker, and that there could be some misunderstandings related to this.
We also talked about the difference between dialogue and debate, what it takes to have , in our particular case, an effective dialog, like the necessity to make "why" question and to make sure everyone is included. Lisanne asked us if we read the "an open way" paper and we talked about the indications for an open and non-confrontational dialog. Eventually we were reminded to read the first set of required readings for the next session.
I hope to get to know better my group and to meet those who didn't participate this time, to have an interesting and positive dialog, and to learn more about the Middle East- western relations and all the issues related to this. I’m well aware about my English skills and hope that others will have the patience to listen to me. Anyhow, even if I was nervous, for the whole time, it was an interesting first session and can't wait to meet them again and to continue this exciting experience.
Maria Dobzeu.
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Wednesday I had the first session of Soliya. I was excited because I’m sure that this experience will change me. I was very nervous before the meeting, and my uneasiness grew even more when I connected to the forum. Fortunately, when my peers started to talk I felt more comfortable.
I’m worried about my English and my bad pronunciation but I hope that this opportunity will help me to improve it. I’m happy because there was harmony within my group, which is formed by four people plus two facilitators: Evelien comes from Amsterdam, Rabin from Lebanon, Amani and Aseel from Jordan, and Asad from Pakistan. There should have been also two students of the University of Maryland, but I do not know why they did not participate in the debate.
At the beginning we had some technical and connection problems: I did not heard very well what Amani and Aseel said, while Evelien had some problems with the camera. Anyway, we resolved all these problems quite quickly and we could begin our debate.
We talked a lot about ourselves, our lives, our expectations for this project. They are all very nice, and I can already say that Rabin is very sociable, while Asad is very timid and prefers to write in the box rather than speak.
We spoke about our first names and the mean they have for us, and it was interesting to know that Rabih means ‘spring’, while Asad means ‘lion’.
After that we talked about the different meaning of ‘debate’ and ‘discussion’. It was difficult for me to explain myself about it in English, but with the help of the facilitator I could do it successfully.
Gena, the facilitator, asked us what would we like to be in the future. Asad said that he only wants to be a good son for the moment, while Amani hopes to work as a translator in the future. Evelien said that she wants to be happy, and she explained it with an Aristotle’s quote. Finally, Rabih said he would like to be immortal, and this caused a very interesting discussion: he explained that for him immortal means a person that will be never forget like Gamal Abdel Nasser (He was the President of Egypt from 1956 until 1970).
Another funny question was to search an object in our room that represents ourselves or our country. I was in the kitchen and I saw a box of pasta, so I took it and I explained that it represents a typical Italian dish. Evelien took a painting because she really likes drawing and painting. Asad showed his T-shirt with Ronaldo because he is his favorite football player and his idol, while Rabih showed his scarf, which is a typical Lebanese article of clothing called “Keffiyeh”, and he told us that Lebanese people wore it since the occupation in 1948.
Last Sunday Basant – one of the facilitators – sent us a part of the book “Open way”. It talks about how to solve our problems without using force, but by following ten points. Basant asked us to choose one of these points, and I chose “Remember that you don’t know the truth about anything”, because I think that nowadays most people are too presumptuous. But, we try to open our mind, and speak without prejudice.
All these activities allowed us to share different experiences and different values: for this reason, I’m very happy to participate in this project, and I am looking forward to next Wednesday to meet my group again.
Lucia
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThe 10th of March I attended my first meeting of soliya program. I immediately knew just connected the two facilitators Konner and Libby. Konner and Libby are both americans. Of course the first meeting was dedicated to introduce ourselves. All of my group came from Arabs countries except me and an American boy but he was absent. Three of us have studied international relation and now are attending a master, the other don't studied political science but they applied to the program cause they're interested in politics. We all talked about our experience, our passion and our relationship expectations and we played a game. It was Konner's idea to help us to get to know each other better. It's called “ two true and one lie”. I find it funny and I think it helped us to “ break the ice”. The next question came from Libby, she asked us to talk about our fears and expectations in relation to the program. Many of us have said they had no fears but they expect to be able to compare and learn more about other cultures and religions. Personally I told to expect not only to learn more about other cultures but also to improve my use of English. After this Libby asked to the group to describe ourselves in three words. All the other guys were defined Muslim and this open a discussion about the Muslim image in western media. One boy said that all western people believe that all Muslim are terrorist. I and an other girl said that he can't generalize and that we can't speak on behalf of our nation. Libby also introduced the topic about rules, she asked to tell the most important conversation rule for us, we all agreed that the most important thing is not fear the “others”. At the and of the conversation one of us purpose to start every lessons speak about the “most important event of the week in our country”, we were all agree to this purpose. Our meeting finished at 5.15 p.m with the recommendation to read the article for the following week. In the end I can say to be satisfied with the first meeting of soliya and I think it will be a truly unique experience.
Giada
Diary: Tuesday 10 March 2015
RispondiEliminaThis week it started the Soliya Website Spring 2015, a cultural-education program that enable university students in the Unit State, Europe, the Arab World and the Muslim World to communicate about the relationship between these regions.
My group is composed of four boys, three girls and two facilitators.
The first day there were some technical tests: microphone, browser.
I saw that some students were absent; maybe there were connection problems and I hope to know them next week.
The facilitators asked to tell about ourselves and something we like about our country.
Everybody told where we live or what will major in our school.
After these moments to know over us, we had to explain the words “dialog” and “debate”.
The discussion was interesting from which emerged these thoughts:
- the dialogue is a collaborative work,
- everybody works together to search the points of strengths,
- respect each other,
- we are all equal.
Then the facilitators have proposed a game: to think two truths and a lie of us that we can share with the group.
Those moments were really fun and I knew of more on guys in my group.
The next game was a brainstorming on three words:
1. Arab
2. American
3. European
Some results of the discussion were:
- to think a lot of culture and a deep spiritual tradition
- to think that American and Arab have the first letter in common
- to think how those words are largely used, usually in positive and derogatory.
So the facilitators have introduced us on the topics for the next week.
March 12th, 2015
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
Yesterday I started my first session with Soliya project and I was very happy to meet students from other countries because I like to learn about their views on different topics.
My group is composed of ten people but yesterday we were only five of us: Amani and Aydi from Tunisia, Alex from West Virginia, Mykia from Maryland and myself. I’m the only one from Europe. People which did not attend are from Morocco and USA and I hope to meet them next week. Our facilitators were Miss Hiba from Jordan and Miss Erin from Boston.
Initially all participants introduced themselves and next we were asked to display to everybody our room and environment. Then Erin, our facilitator, asked us to share why we decided to participate to the Soliya project. All of us replied that we were interested to know people from other countries and cultures. In addition, I and Aydi revealed that this has also the goal of improving our English level.
During the second part we discussed about what it means dialogue and the difference between a debate and a conversation. We spoke also about the importance to hear other people opinion and to display interest in what they have to say considering that everyone is different and has different views. We simply cannot expect others to have our personal views.
We concluded the session proposing topics we are interested in talking in the semester.
Greetings concluded the session.
Marina
Questo commento è stato eliminato dall'autore.
RispondiEliminaDear diary
RispondiEliminaI decided to participate in Soliya, because I think it is a good opportunity to interact with other people.
Besides being a stimulus to speak the English language, it is also an opportunity to discuss important issues, for example the different cultures.
Tuesday it was my first access in Soliya, initially I was very embarrassed because I met four- five people.
These people were trying to interact with me, but I could not turn on the microphone.
I just figured out how to work the microphone,so I started talking. I was afraid that my friends did not know what I was saying despite everything. Began to speak, first of all to introduce myself, saying where I live, and what I do in life.
Then also my new friends have begin to talk about themselves. I immediately noticed that I spoke English better than I. Initially I made it difficult to understand what they said, because they spoke very quickly.
The first issue discussed was the reason for our participation, each of us has given its reasons.
Each of us in turn, told something, I described my room. The others have described their desks connection, unfortunately, the video quality was not that great.
Meanwhile the facilitators encourage us to talk.
After we made the play of the lie, each of us in turn, told of things, we had to guess which were true.
I said that I was 35 years old, i had two dogs and a cat, and my father works in Germany. the guys began to list my lies, have found that I do not own pets, that my father works in Germany. regarding my age, no one was able to guess the lie.
The second question concerns the culture, and how we interact with it. I said my religious “affiliation” and this I did not create any problem, the only way to understand the cultures and their differences is to talk.
The time available to us was now finished, the facilitators (i facilitatori) make us remember to read the articol, so that the next time we could discuss.
The next meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday.
shqiprim