EduPreneur task #1 Core elements of educating entrepreneurial mindset

There are numerous measures taken to cut down unemployment. One of them is promoting entrepreneurship through education on many levels in schools, institutes, polytechnics, universities, adn adult training institutes. EU has this integrated entrepreneurship with the European Ministries of Education into the Educational Curriculum (Finnish Ministry of Education: Guidelines for Entrepreneur Education, 2009) to be applied in schools and vocational institutes, but also other organizations have set up projects and programs to advocate entrepreneurship. Teachers play a key role in advocating entrepreneurship and teaching its basic elements.

This blog post is a summary of the core elements of educating an entrepreneurial mindset, as presented in the European Training Foundation (ETF) conference on Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning, held in Brussels in November 2012. During the conference, 12 different projects were presented from countries all around the world.

Certain projects, such as Hatchupsut Women's business development centre and incubator for capacity building in Egypt, Incubation for women entrepreneurs in France and in entrepreneurship by storytelling in Sweden are aimed at women's employment through entrepreneurship. The goal of vocational education is to train young people for employment, so these ideas could be taken to school.  The women are in a very different positions in these countries. In Egypt most women stay at home, taking care of the household and family and are rarely seen outside, and hardly ever as workers. The project aims to provide earning opportunities especially for lower- and middle class women, so the female teachers are in key position of changing the thinking that only men should work. However, this is a long process. The core success factors in this project in Egypt is the holistic nature, taking into consideration a broad spectrum of conditions, and international partnership. Egypt is a poor country and cannot facilitate costly projects without outside assistance, especially after the past years' events. In Sweden, the core elements of the entrepreneurship rely on volunteer base for operation, allowing low costs, wide international application, as well as pioneering pedagogic approach. Vocational institutes could provide information about the third sector, and the volunteer and paid positions needed. A lot of experts and skilled workers are needed, for example in development projects, such as drilling wells, in environmental field and in village development (nurses etc.) In all these three countries, partnership was crucial, so that may parties are included from private and public sector, several local organizations in the community and making the project widely known. InnoOmnia is a great example of how this factor has been used successfully.

In several projects, such as Increasing self-employment and empowerment in Tajikistan and Practical Market Reseach in Serbia, one of the key factors was training. In has to be provided on-site, so that it will be accessible for attendees. Training may be provided virtually or with other ICT tools. This can be directly implemented into teaching and education, if IT tools can be provided.

In InnoOmnia Espoo, which is very familiar for all of us, one of the key success factors towards entrepreneurship was the inclusion and bringing together an entrepreneurial community, also mentioned in the France project for women, meaning that the students, teachers, and entrepreneurs all collaborate, exchange ideas and thoughts and work together. When help is near and you can just pull an entrepreneur from the sleeve, it is much easier to approach the expert compared to when, for example, you need to make a phone call or set up an appointment to find out answers.

Several projects have multiplied and spread to several countries, (e.g. Swedish storytelling project has spread to 20 other EU countries) which is another core factor so that others may learn and adopt ideas and practices that have proven to work. The result is networking, which is another important factor in entrepreneurship, and which can be implemented in a vocational school like InnoOmnia as done with Lunch Beats and through the learning community.

Recognition is another core factor. This means that several stakeholders and key parties acknowledge the value of the project and efforts. This is linked with partnership: when you find suitable partners and establish a good cooperation, they will spread the word, and further, this helps with multiplication, so these factors are interconnected. This is more difficult to teach in schools, but the key here is teaching the students to network and maintain relationships where ever they go, introducing themselves as future specialists in their own field of expertise. Teachers can be a great example with this. Personally I have learned to do this in adult education. We had practice "cocktail parties" with other students, where we introduced ourselves with a pre-written, 2-minute "cocktail speech" about who we are, what is our expertise and specialty, where I am especially good at, and what I love to do.

EduPreneur homework #2 School Interview

I interviewed Ms. Sanna Perkiömäki about the entrepreneurship programs they are currently running at Savonia polytechnic, university of applied sciences, and Sakky adult education institute in Kuopio and the North Savo region. Sanna works in the unit of natural resources and environment in Muuruvesi and I was referred to her by two Savonia/Sakky teachers as an expert in entrepreneurship issues.

There are several different ongoing programs for the youth and adults alike as aspiring entrepreneurs. The first nation-wide program and a learning environment run by the school is called Young Entrepreneurship (Nuori Yrittjäjyys ry.). The web site, which can be accessed from the link above, has a comprehensive amount of data of the program. The idea of the program is to create a practice company for one year in order to learn working life skills, entrepreneurial practices and mindset. It is available for young and adults alike. The students will build a team and write up a business plan. Then they write a Cooperation Contract, launch the company, and open the bank account. There are several competitions where the 1-year student entrepreneurs can participate, such as The Best Business Idea and Inno High School Idea Contest. The the entrepreneur write up a Interim and Annual Reports and finish the project by closing the company down. Finally, he considers whether he would like to continue in business. The scope of this program is 10 credit units.

There are also other optional and obligatory units of entrepreneurship, each 10 credits. Students can write their business plans and consider financing and profitability. The students can take either professional skills demonstration exams or attend an examination event.

Another option is a business incubation course worth 10-20 credits. There is support, guidance, and supervision provided by entrepreneurs as "godparents", or sponsors without financial obligations.

For those seeking for a light version of familiarizing with entrepreneurship, a course of 2 ects is provided. On this course the attendees get to know with what entrepreneurship is all about, and they consider the idea and the essence of internal entrepreneurship. One can also complete up to 40 credits of entrepreneurship studies.

There is yet a 24h entrepreneurship camp worth 1 credit unit. The students spend 1 whole day and night in a team, creating business ideas. Young entrepreneur are selected as tutors. There are a lot of  ideas born in the dark hours of the night, which are finally presented to a jury at the end of the camp. Sanna Perkiömäki has acted as a member of the jury for several times, and she says she loves to see the fancy and wild ideas burst and bubble from eager students.

For more information can be found in the time coming at www.sakky.fi as soon as the web site has been re-constructed. Sakky Adult vocational traning institute now has the second trial version of the site being tested. There will also be a link about entrepreneurship. Currently, the site already features a link to Hyvä Diili (Good Deal) apprenticeship service.

EduSci lesson plan

Lesson title: 

Overcoming obstacles of intercultural communication between Finns and Asians

Subject: International business studies and intercultural communication

Class / age group: 18-20

Number of students: 6-15

Theorist and Concept Chosen as Lesson Foundation: David Kolb

Learning objectives: Gaining basic understanding on cultural differences between the Finns and Asians

Prior knowledge of students necessary: None required, but any knowledge is beneficial

Forms of assessment: Group work (scale 1-3), written work (scale 1-3)

Lesson structure (table below)

Activity	Key outcome (e.g. students should...	Class structure (e.g. students in groups, seated individually)	Time (min.)
Introduction	Video with Finns and Asians encountering	Normal classroom setting	5 min
Main section	Teaching about cultural differences between Finns and Asians	Large circle to allow discussion	25 min
Conclusion	2 presentations, each 5 min, and discussion 5 min	All sit in a large circle, performances in the middle	15 min
Additional later work (if applicable)	Written assignment, 2 pages on teaching, own research and application, return by next week	At home	2 hours

Content:

The lesson is aimed for the international business students. In the future they are likely to work in international business, and therefore it is very imporant for them to be able to interact and communicate in a way that is culturally acceptable, in order to succeed in their projects and closing the deals. This series of lessons will focus on aspects of intercultural communication among different cultures and countries, such as Russia (a major and nearby business partner), Asia (general knowledge can later be specified), the United States, Africa, France, and Italy.

The theoretic framework applied for this lesson is Kolb's learning cycle (Wankat & Oreovicz: Teaching Engineering, ch. 15). According to David Kolb, learning requires application of several mediums, which are: active experimentation in contrast with reflective observation (transforming experience into knowledge), and abstract conceptualization and concrete exeperience (p. 292). These last two refer to how a student receives and understands information. This cycle represents steps of learning for complete understading. When all the stages are employed, a total of 90% learning efficiency is achieved (ibid.). Learning is improved when more active participation and involvement is integrated (p. 293).

The lesson displays several activities so that students with different learning styles and tendencies will gain as much as possible. There are four learner types according to Kolb: diverger, assimilator, converger, and accomodator. The first prefers motivation, stories, and journals, which will be provided by the skit, video, and blogging. Assimilator learns best when employing facts, lecturing, reading, and problem-solving, and these also also provided for. The converger enjoys simulations, experiments, (the skit will do for those), and homework with problem-solving and reporting. The last one likes self-selected projects (provided), simulations and think tank, which is covered in feedback discussion about how the performed situations could have been avoided or solved in a different way.

The lesson about cultural differences applying these principles in in many formats so that people who learn differently will be able to take home a good learning experience. First, the lesson will open with a 5-minute video on cultural miscommunication between a Finn or Scandinavian and an Asian person in a funny or dramatic way in a business setting. This simulates concrete experience, since the student can easily relate to this. Those students who typically learn from abstract ideas, will gain a lot from the main teaching and further using that as a reference, when the final task will be writing a reflection in a blog and 2-page application. The principles in the lesson content must be referred to in the written work. The teacher will bring up real-life experiences and examples of how a business venture succeeded, when appropriate cultural approach was followed, and also how some efforts failed due to lack of understanding or grave mistakes.

Then the student will independently seach information in pair and perform a short, 5-minute skit of cultural conflicts with a Finn and a selected target culture, and how to solve that conflict. This is the concrete experience part, and a deep object lesson. All these different approaches combine the learning outcomes, which are increased awareness of the cultural differences, and how to solve them in practical life, and how they affect international business.

The class in divided into small groups, which in turn will create a five-minute performance about Finns meeting a foreign business partner. The idea is to demonstrate typical differences and mistakes that may occur. After the presentation other students will comment and analyze the performance and a short discussion will follow. The students will also write a blog entry about the lesson. The teacher will summarize the main point of today's lesson, give the home work and readings for the next session (interacting with Russians).

In addition, at the end of the unit, each student will pick a country or culture that has not been taugh about in a class, they will find out about its culture from Internet, travel guides etc., and they will create a five-minute presentation (with one hour for preparation at home) to display the cultural differences and clashes. They will also think what kind of business partnerships would thrive between Finland and the selected country.

VS 2 on progressive inquiry

Progressive Inquiry and Project Learning

The aim of progressive inquiry is to understand different phenomena and solve complex problems with a scientific approach (Hakkarainen, Lonka & Lipponen: Tutkiva Oppiminen: Järki, Tunteet ja Kulttuuri Oppimisen Sytyttäjinä, Sanoma Pro 2008). According to the authors, there are 3 perspectives to intelligent activity: acquiring information, participating, and creating information. New information is built in a social group setting, as well as individually, and then it will be critically evaluated and analyzed in group sessions. The best results are achieved, when the objects of learning or research are genuine and relevant for the students. I borrowed and read parts of Hakkarainen's book on progressive inquiry, as mentioned above. The ideas seemed feasible and useful at least for an analytic person like me. Even though this theory has been written down just recently, the method has been employed even unconsciously. I would argue that a person uses various and multiple overlapping methods in learning or finding out new information, if not in a formal school setting.

Project learning

Team Saturn shared that characteristics of virtual learning are separate physical environment between teacher and a student, it happens either in real time or in a preferred time frame, and the learning environment includes elements, such as instructions, chats, blogs, video conference system, forums, and links. One of the main characteristics is that learning occurs without immediate presence of the teacher (Hyppönen, Linden 2012). I can attest this to be very true. As I am writing this text, I have reviewed the source materials and presentations, and if something has been already forgotten or not understood, I am learning right now. Hyppönen and Linden also point out that the extent of learning corresponds to the time the student has spent studying. Again, true. This is one of the weaknesses of e-learning that there is a rather limited time frame to study and review the material, at least during this iVET program. Things are easier with individual e-courses, such as basics of e-commerce, which I took a year ago. For each iVET session we are supposed to learn our own material, comprising of several articles, links, videos, etc, and also learn the content from the other presentations. I have found this very challenging when we have dealt with heavy stuff like learning theories and educational science.

How can progressive inquiry and project learning be taught then? We were asked and shown a delicious and practical example of how us as bakery/confectionery students can be taught making chocolate. This involved several different stages where we first thought about the qualities of chocolate. Vocation students are a prime audience for this teaching method, as it requires gradually deepening knowledge, learning and analyzing learning outcomes in a group.

How can e-learning be enriched by those? Technical tools have a wide array of information to probe into  progressive inquiry and project learning. Internet as a medium is just that for searching for a topic.

I am now able to consciously apply these principles into teaching. A good method would be, if I am teaching for example communication between different cultures, as this is my expertise, to make the students first think of typical situation that cause misunderstanding or their own experiences to tune their minds into the topic and make it concrete. Then I would explain the subject matter with some good illustrations and examples. Then I would ask the students to pick one country or culture and make a short (5 minutes) presentation for the next session about specific cultural aspects of communication and how to tackle them. I would then give more teaching and have the students play out some miscommunication scenarios with a few pre-selected features. In this fashion the progressive inquiry goes deeper. I would also employ discussion in pairs and a as group and assign further reading.

I survived EduPreneur boot camp and how I feel now

The two-day trip to Espoo is now complete. I took 5.42 morning train from Kuopio, because I finished work the previous evening at 10 pm, so the obvious result was tiredness. But I did contrubute and learn during the camp.

I think I expected more teaching from the experts, but it was us on the first day to present the pitches, and then the SWOT's. The best parts were the Work application game virtual version contest, as well as sharing the networks and our entrepreneurship experiences with the 1st-year business students. I have myself received 4-month training course on work application skills, marketing and productizing my experience, and I have applied for work and worked as a freelancer for the past 3 years, so I have accumulated experiences to share. About the game contest, it was awesome that our contributions were wanted and appreciated.

Few thoughts of critique towards the content, though. The 2-day session was about ideas how to teach vocational students entrepreneurship, and how it is taught elsewhere. Now, this is great, and the vocational students are an ideal target group. However, let's be realistic. Here are some hard facts.

1. Vocational students in arts (music, artisans etc). have difficulty of finding employment, whether in companies, orchestras, as musicians or as self-employed entrepreneurs. We will see what is the impact when 1,000 vocation teachers will lose their jobs, in this sector outside the capital area, and the jobs/study places will be transferred to nursing in the capital area. Are the students give a realistic idea and the hard facts of what entrepreneurship is?

2. A high percentage of new firms will not make a two-year mark, in other words most companies will never be successful. And just look at Kermansavi and other long-term Finnish companies now. Gone. In addition, during these crucial first years, most entrepreneurs will need to work long days from morning till evening, day in and day out.

3. A female entrepreneur's average income is under 2,000 euros per month. This was published recently in a women's magazine. One needs to realize that an entrepreneur must earn three times more than what will be left as the net income after taxes, social insurance expenses, rents, equipment, tools, materials, salaries to others, accountant, ad agency, running the web site, and other costs.

4. If you cannot find work in your own field or in any other field, which is the reality in Finland, the options after that are

a) to draw unemployment benefit, apply for work and wait
b) study and get more qualifications or a new profession
c) start writing a dissertation (which requires university degree and also funding, so not very likely for vocational students or graduates)
d) become an entrepreneur

Some people try entrepreneurship because there are no other options left. In one way or another I'm doing all the above now after having been a jobseeker since summer 2009. I think that a vocation education in a practical field is one of the best investments one can make, to secure employment. The companies have beautiful rhetoric in speeches and job announcement about valuing education, networking, linguistic skills, work experience, and other skills. This is all true in this sense: without the specific degree or education (such as a social worker, painter, can mechanic) you cannot get work, not matter how experienced or qualified you are. The vocational school still have a reasonable amount of funds for their teachers (the ones who are not being cut off), so there is a lot of hope in vocation education. About the entrepreneurship, I don't know.

VS4

The final presentation is now over, or that what I thought, since we discovered instantly that will be begin working on Educational Science already in 2 weeks. Anyway, this last virtual day on vocation science was the most interesting. I escaped the banging and dust clouds of our home-turned-into-a-construction-site to a friend's apartment for the virtual session.

First we learned about vocational education for special-needs students. According to the Review of Education in 2007  report Finland holds the world record in the quantity of special education given students in basic education (Kivirauma & Ruoho: Excellence Through Special Education? Lessons from the Finnish School Reform, p. 288). In addition, Finnish special educators have a leading status among the OECD countries (p. 289). It is a well-known fact that there is a high number of students who are not feeling well physically, emotionally, and mentally. Part of them require special attention and special education measures. For example in my lower secondary school days, there was a special group of students with poor academic performance and ill behavior, who were on so called observation class (tarkkailuluokka). I believe they had learning difficulties and some social issues, and a small group of about 6 gave them a change to get through the school system. While as a trend, children, youth, and adult not feeling well, the ultimate solution is not to have more special education. It treats the symptoms, and it is of course necessary, but the society should address the problems behind the low survival skills. Many children have to spend their afternoons alone without adult/ parental care and attention, and there is hardly anyone to share with things. In Finland independence is one of the key virtues since a baby starts learning and practicing skills, such as holding a spoon and dressing himself, so needing someone's help or attention is seen as weakness. This leads towards loneliness and even social exclusion. This is alarming especially among boys and men, who are raised to believe that showing emotions and talking about them is humiliating and should be avoided (not to mention dancing or singing). Showing emotions is allowed only in an ice-hockey match or when one is drunk. This is very sad. The society should take more measures in the well-being of its citizens, and maybe then special education would be less needed.

Satu made a great work and gave practical examples on how to approach and address this issue, when we are dealing with special-needs students. This does not only refer to disabled students, but also to ones with learning disabilities, or some other trauma or difficult conditions, which makes studying challenging.

We had a fruitful discussion on how to we can deal with special problems, such as when a student has recurring absences, tardies, or is (too) tired to study and the academic performance suffers. This brings to mind an American coed of mine when we studied abroad. The college had a mold problem but it had not been addressed efficiently. Mold was present in the library, gym, showers, and dorms. My coed had respiratory problems had missed classes because of this. The school had policy that you could only miss a few classes in order to make the credits and graduate. Because of too many absences, she had been threatened that she will not be allowed to graduate. Unfortunately the school tended to address any exception to rules by threatening this or that in order to control the students. This is one example where the issue was not addressed properly. Thankfully we are more flexible in Finland and also sensitive to all kinds of special needs, including dietary restrictions. In the same school there was another girl who had high cholesterol, but the school did not provide special diet meals for her, even though we had to pay for tuition and board, including the meals. The girl's mother had to cook her meals and she would bring them to school after each weekend.

I summary, many special situation can be handled with good communication between the teacher/tutor and the student concerned. We also discussed whether is the teacher's or student counselor's role to talk to the students and try to find solutions, and the conclusion was that both have their part to play.

Then followed a Mars presentation on combining vocation education and entrepreneurship. The Ministry of Education has outlined guidelines of entrepreneur education, and it is mandatory within the EU (Entrepreneurship Education in School in Europe: National Strategies, Curricula and Learning Outcomes, March 2012). According to this, entrepreneurship education is one of the main focuses during the current five-year period (2011-2016) (p. 46), and perhaps this is why also we as teachers-to-be also learn about this. I put together a video of our ongoing renovation project. We have two vocation students working under an apprenticeship contract, painting and putting wallpaper. There are benefits for all: the students see real-life work situations in a genuine setting and get good references from the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur gets affordable (free) labour, so they can offer construction projects in a competitive price. The client has reduced costs since the students do part of the work.

The third presentation was about entrepreneurship. We had a fun quiz, learned about key competencies, and how entrepreneurship education can be integrated into vocation teaching. This is a good background to go into EduPreneur boot camp.

What I took home from VS3?

The Virtual Session 3 is now over. Our team's presentation on Assessment went quite smoothly. This was nice, as we tried Prezi as the presentation tool for the first time, and there was a lot of material: several theories and sources. Our Prezi presentation can be accessed also from this link:

http://prezi.com/_c1qzj2vj5jl/edit/?auth_key=dqe3qw5&follow=teemuy

The listeners seemed to get the idea, though. In addition, we split the talk among two people. The Spiderman video, courtesy of Sandra, worked, even though ACP does not allow voice. After the presentation I rushed to work and then I had another evening course, so I could say it was a full day.

Our presentation was about How, why and when to assess learning, different forms of assessment, and quality of assessment brought into 21st century. We shared how assessment can be varied and broken into pieces, told of SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) and 5 stages of understanding (which are, namely, prestructural, unstructural, multistructural, relational, and extended abstract), formative and summative evaluation, what is the point of assessment, and why do we need assessment. The reasons are: discovering learner's strength and weaknesses, to maintain standards, and to provide evidence of learner's progress. According to Peter Jarvis, quality of learning and teaching is measured by evaluation, but it is difficult to assess competence and to divide it into different categories (Adult Education & Lifelong Learning, RoutledgeFalmer, 2004, ch. 8). As today's educational institutes are becoming more commercial, there is the economic aspect to consider, not just the quality.

In summary, I think we had too much material, and even I didn't understand in depth all that we were sharing. Some of the theories were outdated and complex (Wankat, John Biggs on setting up the criteria for assessment and assessing learning quality), but the listeners seemed to cope with what we wanted to convey.

In the other presentation by Earth we learned about competence-based qualifications and vocational skills demonstrations. We discussed in a light debate format about the pros and cons of the above-mentioned ways of evaluation. One of the group members was actually involved in this as a demonstration examiner (näyttötutkintomestari). Team Saturn talked about the role of personal evaluation. I learned that the this is regulated by the Finnish National Board of Education (32/011/2005). There are different evaluation tools, such as blogging, tests, journaling, writing reviews etc. The team had created a nice online questionnaire about the learning outcomes of VS3 that we each filled up.

I am now able to consider and apply different assessment methods in different situations, depending on the context, group of students, and the subject matter. I have learned how each assessment method measures and demonstrates learning. I also understood, how learning is internalized in different stages of learning and how the progress is evaluated.

There is now only 2 weeks to get ready for the next session, but we have already started to work on the material that deals with how to develop cooperation between vocational education and working life.

Preparing for VS3

On VS3 we will learn and teach about assessment. The preparation process has been fragmented, as the materials we need to be working on has been posted rather late, and a long article I had already read, was not valid any more. There are 5 in my team, and the process has been good as we have different strengths. However, he result is somewhat a hodgepodge: tons of slides in not-to-logical order, way too much information. We will use Prezi as our presentation tool, and that adds a nice touch. Hopefully there are no major technical hiccups so that it works. We tested everything yesterday.

It feels difficult to present material that someone else has prepared, especially with a notion that the source material has been outdated or even... boring.

Looking forward to today's virtual session, let's see how it turns out!

Chair group's and chairperson's report of VS2

Team Mars chaired the VS2 on Oct 9. I chaired one breakout with Deepak. We shared the task so that each chaired one full presentation with discussion and we split the tasks in the third presentation. Overall, this went very smoothly. We received good feedback from our role and we were able to keep the timing.

The teams were able to construct the 40 minutes freely in terms of length and order of the presentation, activities, and discussion, and it worked well with the topics. Teams have adopted new learning tools, e.g. Popplet, from EduTech course, and it was fun testing them, even if it may work better in a different context. Technically things went very smoothly compared to the first time, and communication was good (e.g. if everyone are around etc). Generally there was little time for discussion, but we heard interesting comments and ideas. Some teams sent part of their materials, questions, and video links very late, after the deadline, and some other requests were also made very late. This makes it difficult for the chair group to adjust them at last minute.

Deepak pointed out that the presentations were more interactive than the previous session. The bonus was that the various methods used required active participation. Time management was appropriate and the rules for video was really a good idea to use. It prevented using long videos. In order to use various tools during the presentation, discussions in between were also effective. The different AC sessions proved to be more effective than breakouts. There were hardly any technical problems throughout the session.

The idea of using Popplet was a courageous one. It is indeed a helpful tool but there was uncertainty in our breakout as to know exactly we were supposed to do. Instructions were not very clear. Everyone was wondering for the first few minutes, and after a while we discovered we were supposed to put any thoughts we would like to discuss. Everybody started putting their random thoughts and one Popplet was hidden under the other. It was hard to follow any discussion trail, but the comments were interesting. Overall, the session was productive and seems that we all are learning to apply various methods and teaching styles.

On Teemu's opinion, the sessions used much more creative methods – joint working, collaboration and open discussion. This was very fruitful, much more than in session #1. I think it is great to see people experimenting with different methods. The presenters had taken time to connect their topics into real life examples. This was very useful and helped comprehension substantially. There were some technical issues: e.g. some slides had very small font. It would be beneficial to have everything in sufficiently large font. Also, it was sometimes a little confusing as the presenters did not always explain what the next stage of collaboration was to be. The tutor and one participant did not have access to the Popplet. We solved this by sharing the screen so they could at least see what was going on.

Beside some individual computer problems it was satisfying to observe how the groups had made the presentations. They were all interactive and involved us in the same level, contrary to the last time. For the next sessions we should cooperate more with other groups in order to not present the same issue, since Jupiter and Earth had the same picture and almost the same issue which they discussed. Sandra suggested that we should also avoid writing the answers for the discussion on chat box since it takes time to write and may be confusing. The chairperson has to follow the ongoing chat while while the group i s presenting. Video can be watched beforehand, but the other preliminary material, such as videos, pdf's, links for blogs, should be delivered to the people at least one week before the presentation. One day or night before is way too late. Beside this, the teams put together inspiring and interesting presentations. As Teemu mentioned, using a common examples helped a lot.

Buzzing arond

My dear blog and it's faithful followers,

Life on earth is hectic. Our team Mars is planning for the presentation for VS3 on Assessment, and I am writing a feedback/ summary report on the previous Virtual session, which we chaired. The report is coming up soon. Re are doing major renovation in our apartment, then I'm starting a new job next week and I've had some urgent assignments at my other job, plus I am busy writing an application for funding for a dissertation project due few weeks' time. My schedule is crazy.

I am still trying to squeeze in a little vacation or at least a few days off, since I worked the whole summer. Plus last weekend, 10,5 hours extra, starting 03:25 Saturday morning. I console myself with the fact that in many countries people work as a rule 6 (or even 7) days a week, 10 or 16 hours a day. (And they don't discuss fatique or burn out.) Maybe they just drop down dead. I hope I will manage just a little longer... and hope it will get a bit easier.

Reflections and feedback from EduTech boot camp

I enjoyed the EduTech boot camp immensely. It was intense, but interactive, and thus not tiring. I rather felt energized after each day. The course was a PROGRESS, we learned as a group, and it was hands-on, not just theory. The debate with pros and cons was awesome, because there aren't many platforms for that in Finland. I was cool to hear other people's ideas and comments and to consider also the cons of technical tool and applications.

During the 2-day boot camp we got to know and try AnswerGarden, Popplet, QR code, Prezi, Blogger (which I, of course use as you read), iPad, iMovie, and more. We also learned about Flipped Classroom, went on scavenger hunt, interviewed vocational students and comprised a video about their experiences from virtual learning tools.

I can already think and use many ideas and tools I learned. I made my husband an e-card for birthday with StripDesign cartoon tool. I tried to download the programme into my laptop, but realized that it is iPad and iPhone compatible, so I downloaded it on my iPhone and created the card with pictures from camera and Facebook, which is accessible though the app. Unfortunately I didn't find the speech bubbles with iPhone, but anyhow my husband was very impressed. He told me that receiving that card (which, by the way, I showed from my phone screen and forwarded as an e-mail) was the favourite thing during his birthday. That was a meaningful statement, because he liked the card better than his special-request gift, which was freshly painted window sill edges and his favourite dish of flamed salmon. Never underestimate the power of virtual applications!

Our hobby is to run marriage seminars and lectures with my spouse, and I think I will use some of the presentation tools that we learned to make them more fun, engaging, interactive and memorable for example by using Prezi presentation tool. And maybe to impress my hi-tech, ad agency friend.

Reflecting more in terms of learning, the aspect of creativity is very important, and this was achieved. One of the groups made a Facebook page about the furniture artisans and their projects. What a great idea to promote those entrepreneur's business ad raise awareness! This is a very good example of synergy that this kind of learning environment and subject matter can bring about. I love learning anyway, but if learning can be this fun and interactive, I want to know more!

I can see why InnoOmnia is cutting edge. It is necessary to try to do things in a new way in the 21st century. We are past classroom and blackboard period, and this is what we are seeing, very much in line with RSAnimate speech about changing education paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson (source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U).

P.S. The food was also superb!! Very tasty and nicely served. The whole 2 days was such a treat! I cannot was to land on the EduPreneur course!!

Prior learning experiences of vocational education

The following is an assignment to be completed for the VOC1 unit.

Description of experiences of vocational education

I studied Russian and English interpretation, translation, and intercultural communication in former Joensuu university (nowadays University of Eastern Finland), in the Institute of Intercultural Communication in Savonlinna for 6 years. The years were interesting and somewhat leisurely. We carried out studies at individual pace, 5-6 years. Sometimes I would have classes only 3 days a week, since the school was small and the course range was limited. There was very little reading -I read about 10 books relating to studying, apart from Master's thesis. On the other hand, there was a lot of homework, preparation for simultaneous interpretation classes: learning vocabulary etc.

Learning methods

Practice and simulation

Studying was very practical. Interpretation lessons consisted of interpretation situations that we had prepared beforehand and that the teacher and fellow students evaluated and commented. In translation lessons we evaluated texts that we had translated at home. We also had lecture courses, but I can hardly remember anything from those. I guess the usual thing happened: the notes of the lecturer are transmitted/copied to the notes of the student without enter into either parties head (or understanding).

It was after the first year of studies that a friend of my grandmother told me: 'A teacher'. I did not know her, and she did not know anything about me, but she felt I would become a teacher one day. I did not pay much attention to this, and I definitely did not feel it was my cup of tea. One year before this I had returned from Thailand where I had taught Finnish primary school subjects during one year to two Finnish boys, who attended an American school. This was my first teaching experience. One of the boys was easy to work with and completed the tasks, while the younger one was much more interested in soccer and hanging out with his Thai friends than figuring out what strange Finnish words like 'löntystellä' (clumping or shuffling around) meant.

Up until recent years I had thought I am not teacher material. I prefer working independently and I don't consider myself very entertaining or engaging personality, whom the students would like (I thought this would be a prerequisite, and still I think it is one of the key factors for a teacher to enjoy his work). Ironically enough, adjacent to our university department and connected by corridors, was a teacher training faculty. Compared to our student body, they seemed outgoing and social, inspiring and energetic. They were talkative and loud and had a lot of parties and other social events. They had to read tons of books: in average 3 books per exam, while we had to read only the lecture notes. They graduated in a tight 4-year schedule, while we could take our time, and for most it took at least 5 years. The talked about portfolios : -), creative projects, and lesson plans. I had some good friends among the teachers-to-be, but I was glad I didn't have to do what they were required.

Teaching faculty

Part of our teaching staff was native English, German, and Russian teachers. I found the British lecturers quite easy-going and easiest to relate to. Our American professor was a member of city council and eco-green figure with a long beard and saggy clothes, but I loved this classes on Creative writing and American society. The Russian teachers, loyal to their own upbringing, were strict. They had lived in Finland over 10 years, but they did not speak any Finnish – a relic from the Soviet past, maybe. In other words, this was part of our cultural exposure.

The most boring courses were lead by a man who had published his own dictionary, Mr. Heikki Särkkä (sorry to say this; anyway, I still admire his expertise). The courses were, respectively, translating documents and lexicography (working with vocabulary and compiling dictionaries). I did learn on those courses, but he had not teaching skills or abilities to relate to students.

The worst experiences are credited to a Finnish teacher of English subjects. Her lecture course on the development of English language was enjoyable, but after the exam she turned into a wicked witch. None of the 16-20 students passed the test. She did not ask test questions on the lecture material, but extra reading she had hinted. I didn't pass the second test either. The third try was a personal oral examination. She was quite unhappy with my pronunciation and would have deserved an Oscar from her reactions to my answers: ”Ohh! Uhh! As if a knife have pierced my heart (when I heard your lousy answer)”. I passed the test finally, but the balance of horror continued on the technical translation course. None of the students dared to answer her questions on class, because the wrong answers triggered exaggerated expressions of unbelief and disgust. Everyone just stared at the desk, and she proclaimed: ”Oh, you are so innocent” (meaning: you are so stupid!) The questions did not concert translation, but basics of molecular chemistry and energy layers or details of paper making machinery, which, of course, every respectable student should have mastered. - I did not even have chemistry in high school, so I was deemed to take her courses twice. Her teaching method: humiliating students. Interestingly enough, my favourite subject was simultaneous interpretation, even though she happened to teach that course in English. I felt somewhat apprehensive towards the teacher, but I discovered one of my brightest talents right there.

Tutors and mentors - Power of positive feedback and trust

I had a teacher who played a big part in finding my strengths. It was one of my Russian teachers, who took notice of me. I didn't think there was anything special about me, but she certainly did. She had an unlimited belief in my abilities and skills, and on my opinion, her idea was way too optimistic. What made the difference, though, was that she believed in me and that I had a great potential. She urged me to apply to a special training programme, sponsored by the EU. I did, and was accepted. At that point I wanted to finish my studies, so I declined. When I submitted my thesis, written in Russian language, she invited me to her place. She paid the taxi and we toasted with champage.

It's all about relationships (Marilyn, principles of teaching)

After finishing my Master's degree, I began studying theology in an English programme. Our main teachers were an American couple, who had been teaching in Europe for about 10 years. Their teaching was based on the idea that 'it's all about relationships'. They had crafted the lessons with care, but they put a lot of effort into team building, grouping and team spirit. They invested their own time and financial means to create extra events, such as movie nights, birthday and other theme parties, a Thanksgiving dinner, Finnish evening and get-togethers complete with pop corn, soft drinks and homemade bakery products. They shared their own life with its joys and strugges with us and made personal friends with us. The lady became my mentor and she helped me in my inner journey in ways I could not have imagined. They poured love to us and make students changed for better as a result. I am indebted for that special year.

This beloved teacher lead a course called Principles of Teaching. It shaped my idea of teaching, and for the first time I could image teaching as something I COULD do.

Fellow students

One common denominator to most students was interest in languages and other cultures. Our department was quite small, consisting only of about 300 students and few dozens staff members. The English major students were most normal, and the Russian majors most unique, or personal. I was both. 70-80% of students were girls. I did not interact with other students very much, my friends were elsewhere. My best friend at university was a girl who was married to an Egyptian man. On our free time we played duets with flute and she cooked me exotic Egyptian dishes during Ramadan. My friend turned to Islam at some point, so she started wearing a veil and skirt, but this did not disturb me or cause any visible reactions by others.

I attended many events where I could socialize with international students. One semester I was a tutor to a French girl, but she was very independent and did not need much help. I got to know especially a few Japanese exchange students. One Japanese guys baked me Finnish pulla and Spanish potato omelets, I cooked him Korean seaweed soup and pulgogi, a marinated pork dish. A Japanese girl taught me to cook chicken in a Japanese way, and an Italian girl showed how to make pasta a la carbonara. Now in aftermath I could say that spending time abroad and with international people helped me deepen my understanding and offered real-life experiences of intercultural communication.

Positive and negative experiences

During my studies, I worked in Russia in the summertime in a cultural exchange project in a support team for foreign teams that lived in children's summer camps. I fell in love with Russia and Russians since the first 3-month term and returned back every summer. I worked together with Russians, Finns, Amercans, and Australians. On weekends, we would take an 'elektichka', a local train to St. Petersburg. Those were colourful and fun summers, even though we rarely took a day off.

I also spent 10 weeks in England, studying linguistics. I got a scholarship and joined an international student body. I made some Korean friends and learned some Korean, including the alphabet, on my free time.

During the school year I took up a part-time job at a hamburger restaurant. I also had some hobbies: modern dance, drama etc. It had not occurred to me that I could tire myself down, so gradually I became very exhausted and I was in the brink of burn out. I managed to get through my last years and accomplish everything, but I realized I had to slow down and start taking some time off. I tend to tire off easily and I have to take care of my well-being, but I recognize it is not always easy for several reasons. First of all, I am very active and love to learn and try out new things. Secondly, I am not very good at saying no. And third, I tend to pack my schedule too full of things, and as a very meticulous and try to do everything as well as can.

Learning on iVET program

My learning experience during the iVET program has been very different from the earlier ones. The learning methods are self-study and small group preparation of the materials, giving and attending presentations actively with discussing and other tasks in an e-learning environment. So far we have had 6 contact days, plus 2 during the optional Managing People course. We have covered a wide range of information in a very small time span. The downside is that I have not learned some of the material deeply as we only quickly scratch the surface. There simply is not much time to spend with an individual topic. A pro side is that the networking has been efficient and friendships are being developed, because we hold regular planning sessions in the internet. Certain friendships are probably deeper than during my university days. This is very valuable and I am sure that I will maintain these friendships after the program. I have used e-learning environment already before, but Optima is very confusing and frustrating. It takes too much time to navigate there and try to locate the correct materials or discussion threads. I have previous experience of Moodle, and it is much more flexible. There has been only minor technical difficulties during the virtual sessions, so it has not hindered learning. On the other hand, we are undergoing a massive renovation in my apartment, and we have not had Internet access for 4 weeks, which makes it difficult to attend planning sessions with my team, commenting e-mails, and even holding presentations. Already one I have had to attend the virtual session in a public space, and just as it was my turn to speak, refreshments were being served for a conference session downstairs, so there was background noise and distraction. I will face a similar situation next week, and I will see how that one goes. My best learning experiences so far has been EduTech and EduPreneur boot camps. The learning methods: innovation, debate, scavenger hunt, contest, etc. have been very creative and I have learned a lot. I want to apply these ideas to my teaching when ever they are applicable.

What did I learn from the presentation on curriculum (VS1)?

The topic of curriculum was very interesting as I have never received teaching about this subject before. The most interesting part of the presentation by Saturn was the four approaches to curriculum, which are:

1. curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted

2. product

3. process

4. praxis 

(Marsh, C. J. & Willis, G. (2003). Curriculum: Alternative approaches, ongoing issues. (3^rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall)

The first one, representing the curriculum as a body of knowledge is the traditional view. This is how it was carried out during my years of study. Mostly our studies were practical and we did not have to read a lot of books, like our fellow teachers-to-be – they had to read about 1,000 pages per exam whereas we had to read less than 10 books during 6 years of university. Anyway, on our few lecture courses we were busy copying the notes of the professor from the overhead projector to our notes. And during the exams we did the opposite: quoted the lecture notes as answers to essay questions. I don't think I can recall much of the information I learned. If the same principle applies to curriculum, I doubt this teacher- or information-based learning is beneficial for anyone, rather a waste of time.

I learned that curriculum can also be seen as a product. Now the first association to be is productizing, service design, utility design... and exporting education, as the Finnish universities of applied science are designing education training packages to Chinese nurses and so forth. Let's see what this means. The definition goes: “Education is seen as technical exercise and the results are measured.” There could be a danger here that the students are only seen as recipients of information or the theatre performed by the teachers, not as individual with their specific talents, interests, and learning needs. In other words, this is teacher- or maybe content-based learning focuses on the subject matter and assessment methods, not on students as learners.

Third, curriculum can be treated as process (and this already sounds much better to me). This model is more flexible, as it allow the teachers to evaluate the process and to make the necessary adjustments. It offers principles of choosing the content, to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual students. I think this model is best applicable in small groups, where the teachers knows all students quite well. On mass lectures there is no benefit from it.

Fourth, the curriculum can ben see as praxis, i.e. something applied into practice. The praxis model combines theoretical information into real-life practice, and I can see how there are limitation to this, too. For example, this may not work very well in linguistics, but in nursing this model could be beneficial.

I can see that the obvious benefit of a fixed curriculum is that there is a clear frame of reference. Thus everyone will yield the same learning goals, so the level of teaching is maintained stable. If we move towards a student-focused teaching in the information society, the teacher needs to take their students special qualities into consideration, if not in curriculum, in the subject matter, carrying out the exercises or the evaluation. As a summary I comment that this presentation opened my eyes to see the different aspects of curriculum and what factors there are behind it. I feel somewhat competent of creating curriculums for my future students, regarding the subject and the outline of what I will be teaching.

A new term: Somejusting - Someutua

This excerpt is taken from the latest issue of women's Olivia magazine 10/12:

"A new word: Somedjusting (Someutua)

(noun) An assumption that the discussion carried out in the Facebook is significant from the perspective of the society, even though it is only chatting among few dozens of friends, who generally agree."

Discussing the 21st century skills and information society

I have been reading and viewing the material for the Edutech Boot camp. I have gotten a pretty good view of why mastering modern technology is important for a teacher. I especially liked the report on Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills (http://www.waldenu.edu/Documents/Degree-Programs/Full_Report_-_Dispelling_Five_Myths.pdf)

which are as follows:

* Critical thinking and problem solving 

* Communication 

* Collaboration 

* Creativity and innovation 

* Information, media and technology skills

* Life and career skills, such as flexibility and adaptability 

* Initiative and self-direction 

* Social and cross-cultural skills 

* Productivity and accountability 

* Leadership and responsibility 

Sounds very much like the 21st century work places, for which purpose we are training future employees. The society is definitely moving in this direction, and this trend can be seen for example in the job recruitment announcements. It is not enough to master the required skills, one must be cooperative, creative, efficient, initiative, besides having good social and linguistic skills and a good education. I mean in theory. Who masters all these skills? Maybe so AD's in the creative field? Well, that is a 21st century profession. Sometime the recruitment ads offer only the ideal and even utopistic image of what they are looking for. In the end, if you have the exact degree, you may get hired. Other valuable skills have no significance. Not even the work experience counts, without the degree. 

However, it is undeniable that people employ 21-st century skills more and more in the information technology society, just as we live in the postmodern times, and this has to be taken into account on every field. Ability to collaborate, I am currently reading a book called A Primer on Postmodernism by Standley J. Grenz (William B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), and I was almost shocked to discover the resemblance: networking is important. Hierarchical structures have been replaced by a more decentralized, participatory form of decision making. We live in the global village. We are able to gain information from anywhere in the world almost instantly. (And for many purposes, we often do need to find this information).

While there is global consciousness, there is a simultaneous erosion of national consciousness. There is a broad awareness of cultural dicersity, as well as centerlessness of the postmodern ethos: in other words, there are no more common standards to morals, ideas, opinions, or lifestyle choices. While some become techonologically literate, other switch to escape the hectic life and its demands and opt for a slow life and move to countryside to grow their own vegetables in a wooden home that they warm by firewood and carry the water from the well. The universe has become a “multiverse”. How can a today's and tomorrow's teacher respond to this challenge? Is it enough to master the technology?

Managing people

I attended a course called Managing People in the end of June in Oulu. It was lead by Dana Linkeschova and the course material was a book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Here is a summary of what I learned and some of my thoughts.

Reading through Stephen R. Covey's book, I started formulating my own Constitution, or 10 (actually even more) commandments on his suggestion. I have come up with the following ones so far, which are my core values and guidelines:

• Try almost everything at least once in your life.
• If you miss an opportunity, never mind. For most things there will be a second chance, sooner or later.
• Never give up. Your effort could make the difference.
• Be proactive.
• Treat everyone with respect and kindness. You never know, if the person you are interacting with will be your future neighbor, boss, or someone else significant.

• Practice forgiveness as much as you can. Be the first one to ask for forgiveness, even if you think it was not your fault.
• Have as much fun in life as you ever can.

• Travel as much abroad as you can. Travel light.
• Do not let go of friends easily. Do not let an offense ruin a friendship.
• Be merciful to yourself. Do not let a minor thing ruin your day.
• Do not accumulate debt, other than for a real estate.
• Do not let the sun set on your anger.
• Keep your life simple. Do not gather riches in this world.
• Be grateful and content with what you have, and remember to count your blessings.

Considering the principle on being proactive

One of the basic tenets of Mr. Covey is being proactive (Stephen R. Covey: Tie Menestykseen -  Seitsemän Toimintatapaa Henkilökohtaiseen Kasvuun ja Muutokseen, Gummerus Kirjapaino, 376 s., 1. painos 1997 (Finnish translation of the book). It means contributing to relationships around us and where ever we are involved, rather than being passive, negative, or waiting for others favors towards us.  I have started to pay more attention and effort on being proactive in job seeking and interpersonal relationships. Since the economic situation is tough and finding work is difficult, it would be easy to give up, thinking that I will not be invited to a job interview anyway and not compose another job application. In friendships it would be easy to respond to something hurtful by turning one's back rather than encountering the person and tackling the issue. In both cases it takes courage and perseverance, and the end result is not known in advance, but that is the only way to achieve something.

I agree with what Mr. R. Covey's thought that we are not hurt by what happens to us, but by our reaction to it (p. 79). Furthermore, we are not hurt most by others' actions towards us, and not even our own mistakes, but our reactions to both (p. 98). The author quotes Rolfe Kerr of not being afraid of making mistakes, which is not an easy lesson for the Finns, but rather that you do not know how to react to them in a creative and positive way, and to learn from them (p. 113). It is widely believed in America that an entrepreneur who has not gone bankrupt at least once or twice is not reliable. In other words, there must be evidence of having learned from mistakes. Does our current Finnish school system allow this? When I went to school, every performance on PE classes were always measured and this constituted our grade. Short-track running according to the achieved time, and in the swimming hall we got a grade as to from how high from the jumping tower we would jump. I ventured to jump from 3 meters, feet first, and got a 7. 10 points were awarded to anyone who would jump from 5 meters head first. I don't think anyone did that, though. In this case, it didn't really measure what we had learned in sports, as we were not really taught anything, but this case measure how brave, or foolhardy we were. I have always liked sports, and I have gotten medals and trophies in high jumping and later in floorball up to a Belgian and Turkish championships, but these sports classes on 8th and 9th grade did not foster love for sports. I hope that as a teacher I will measure progress, what the student has actually learned, and how well.

I think there is a lot of truth in not allowing other' actions hurt us and neither our thoughts about the deed. If we keep repeatedly thinking about something negative, it feeds the resentment, anger, bitterness, and other negative emotions. This, in turn, consumes a lot of physical and emotional strength, and captures our attention. Someone anonymous has said: “Pain is inevitable, misery is optional.” As a Finn, there is a strong natural tendency towards gloominess and melancholy, when something not so pleasant happens, but I try to battle this.

I recently read a book by Joyce Meyer about the battlefield of the mind (Battlefield of the Mind: Wnning the Battle in the Mind, Warner Books Inc., New York, 1995) which has similar thoughts with Mr. Covey. Meyer's book was an eye-opener, and talked about how our attitudes and thoughts really shape our mind, emotions, and relationships. For example, we may cause a lot of damage by thinking negative thoughts about our loved ones (or colleagues, bosses, whoever). Then we gradually begin believing our perceptions, that are sometimes misinterpretations, since we cannot know what the other person is really thinking. It is a relief to gradually be delivered from that cycle of ill thoughts and replace them with positive, proactive ones.

Time management square

The first time I heard of this four-square field of time management was in a marriage seminar last year, and the idea immediately struck a cord with me. According to Covey, the principle is that the importance of things is related to the results, and that urgency is often based on other people's expectations and priorities, rather than ours (p. 159). I admit urgency versus importance is sometimes difficult to determine or prioritize. I have a natural tendency to do the most time-consuming and demanding task first, and then do the nitty-gritty. On the other hand, if the biggest task is also the most vague, such as learning a new computer software, I will do the smaller and easier yet important things first, so that I have achieved at least something during the day, since learning new software may take all day, and then it is hard to measure achievement. This corresponds with the Pareton principle, according to which 20% of the activity creates 80% of the results (p. 164). As a task and goal oriented person, I like counting my achievements and crossing them over from my priority list.

Management and leadership

Mr. Covey states that management is doing things right, and leadership is doing the right things (p. 107). I used to study in Belgium in a private college that was administered by American rules and run by European staff. This meant that we had a lot of rules, some of which did not seem very sensible, such as, 'Wearing jeans is not allowed in class' and 'Do not bring away bread from cafeteria', since it may attract mice in the dorms, was the logic.

The Belgian-Italian staff stuck to the rules tightly, and either challenging them or neglecting them always lead to negative consequences, such as “last warning notes” or being considered a rebel. In Finland, we call that someone who initiates. For example, it was my chore to wash the lunch dishes with an industrial dishwasher. I came up with a practical solution of providing plastic baskets, where the eaters could put the dishes directly, rather than everyone stacking the dirty plates on top of each other with sticky pasta cheese that got stuck everywhere. My suggestion was greeted with anger, because I had dared to challenge the existing system, and the conclusion that “in case the health authorities visit the school, we may be in trouble.” In some another instances the responses were: “Because I say so”, and “Because we had always done it this way.”

Reading about the difference between management and leadership, I realized that the school was run by management principles, whereas in Finland leadership principles are practiced. In leadership, people within a system are allowed and even encouraged to come up with new, practical solutions, whereas in management system, new suggestions may be considered challenging the authority

of those who are in charge. I think management blossoms in places where strong hierarchy and elaborate power systems govern. In other hand, in Finland where solidarity is the norm, coming up with new ideas is welcomed and accepted more readily. On the other hand, the Finnish people

are very obedient to rules, whereas in countries where hierarchy is stricter, people tend to break the rules more often. And so it goes: Where people are trusted and are allowed to use their imagination and strengths, they do not feel the need to rebel or go against the system, but they come up with ideas and suggestions that are beneficial for the whole community.

Emotional bank account

The emotional bank, which some call emotional tank, or love bank in relationships, never closes.

According to Stephen R. Covey the emotional deposit must be as important for the receiver as for the one making the deposit (p. 202). This is a big reason why an emotional account gets more withdrawals than deposits. One also needs to know the love language of another person in order to make deposits, to communicate the feedback in an understandable way.

Several years ago I had a boss who was a gentle person and very good with negotiating difficult matters, and I admired him for that. I worked as his assistant, but I felt that my work was not appreciated very much. I got positive feedback from some individual tasks, but as a person to whom spoken words mean a great deal, I felt I would have needed more direct positive feedback. On some occasions I expressed that, but it did seem to make any difference. As a result, my loyalty and appreciation for my own work suffered. I knew that I did good work, but I concluded that I was capable for so much more, so eventually I sought after other employment. If I will ever be in a leadership position, I try to remember how much genuine, positive feedback means, and how much it improves the willingness and motivation for work. The concept of the love bank or tank is related to Maslow's hierarchy of the basic needs. This can be applied into classroom setting by giving the students positive reinforcement, and this making positive deposits. It does not only improve learning and increase motivation, but it also helps student's self-esteem, and leaves a positive mental note that there is someone (a teacher) who cares. I hope that I can be a teacher like this to my students.

Virtual session 1 - Learning theories and modes of learning

I will shortly introduce the content of our team's presentation on Virtual Session One.

Piaget's constructivist learning theory

While the traditional view of learning means that information is poured into student's heads, the constructivist tenet implies that new information is built on previous one, and in some cases, the new material replaces the old. New content on college or university level may prove the previous information incorrect or incomplete, and it takes effort and energy to accept it (Wankat & Oreovicz: Teaching Engineering, Ch. 14: Models of Cognitive Development: Piaget and Perry, p. 265-266). For example, when I started studying linguistics, I had the idea that the English language was a “pure” or “genuine” language, like Finnish or Yoruba. On the course of the Development of the English Language I was shocked to discover that English actually is a hybrid, a mixture of Old Norse, Latin, French, Celtic, and other influences and loan words. Of course loan words exist in other languages, too, but especially English is a good example of a language, where the historical events, wars, occupation etc. has influenced the language in a very significant way.

According to the constructivism view, a professor is a facilitator and transmitter to enable learning (Wankat & Oreovicz: Teaching Engineering, Chapter 15: Learning Theories, p. 285). Useful tools are, e.g. key relations charts, memory boards and concept map of networks.

Kolb's Learning Cycle

Kolb's learning cycle for complete learning involves ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION, REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION, ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALIZATION and CONCRETE EXPERIENCE. A good learner involves all these four steps, even though there are invividual preferences. A person can learn other styles that are not innate to him. (p. 292)

I love all kinds of personality tests and like, so there are some quite similar traits for these. For example, an American author and speaker Tim LaHaye has widely applied the Four Temperament Theory, which has four main types: sanguinic, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic. These correspond to four personality colours yellow (outgoing, people's person), red (strong achiever), green (easy-going negotiator), and blue (perfectionist, artistic). There is resemblance to Kolb's four types (p. 294), linked to above-mentioned learning stages: DIVERGER is clearly the peaceful mitigator, while ACCOMODATOR is the yellow type: very social and non-systematic. However, the other two, ASSIMILATOR and CONVERGER and a bit more difficult to recognize, but still it seems to make sense: the former, assimilator, as logical researcher, planner and developer could be the melancholic, perfectionist type, whereas the converger as the logical, practical problem-solver the red type, choleric achiever.

Maslow's Theory of Motivation

Pretty much everyone knows the Maslow'shierarchy of needs. The basic principles of Maslow's theory are as follows: A person is motivated to fulfill an unmet meed. An unfulfilled need becomes a priority, until it is fulfilled. When the basic, low-level need (such as sleep, food or security) is fulfilled, a higher-level need (esteem, self-actualization) gains more importance (p. 298).

Grades relate to esteem needs. A positive feedback gives confidence and increases motivation. The highest level of needs is self-actualization, i.e. the need to reach one's potential and to create. Because it takes time to learn to satisfy one's needs, only mature people are able to pursue self-actualization, even though, I must add, even a child is satisfied, when he can draw something or learns to stand up and walk.

We had a lively discussion of this topic after the presentation. These may not apply to the Western world any more, since the basic needs of students (food, shelter, security, finances) are fulfilled. However, there are parts of the world where these things have not materialized, and I find it hard to focus on studying, when I am hungry.

Learning modes

Each person has a favourite mode of learning, and they affect in our ability to learn in different situations. Some of these modes, or styles, are auditive, kinestheticand visual (see the video link) (p. 290-291).

Auditive style is favoured in the Western educational systems in the form of lectures and printed material. Kinesthetic refers to different senses: taste, touch smell, and feelings. Vocational training employs this approach for teaching chefs, artists, craftsmen, therapists, and the sportsmen learn this way, too. Visual mode means processing the information through pictures, and it is preferred by most. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This approach is used especially in Asia.

Myself, I am a visual person and learner. No wonder I also enjoy reading, photography, performing arts and travelling (well, there are many aspects, but one of them is seeing different and amazing sceneries). I relax best by reading. I guess my spouse is auditive. He is a musician, and always loves to listen all new albums etc. I get tired of music and sounds. When I want to relax, I prefer silence. For me, words are important; for hi, the tone of voice.

To sum up the content: The best teacher accommodates different learner's needs to facilitate learning and creates exciting lessons with humour, energy, and motivation through positive reinforcement. Learning is more thorough and retained better, if multiple modes are used to input and process the information.

After the first virtual session

We had the first virtual session today and I am starting to get an idea what these studies are all about. And I like this! Let me recap a little and tell you of what has happened since the last post.

First, I have been working all summer. I submitted a four-month project last Friday, so I am finally looking forward to have some days off this week. I took a course in Managing People in Oulu in the beginning of June. We bought an apartment with my husband, moved in and have been renovating it the past 1,5 months.We have been preparing our presentation with my team. I have been practicing sports and tried to keep up with other responsibilities in life. I have undergone some medical treatments. I have contacted one primary school and asked, if I could do my teaching practice there. They were very positive about it. I also met with a friend who lives in Asia and she said I could also do part of my teaching practice there.

The first feelings about the first virtual day is relief. A lot of work in way too short time, considering everything else happening in my life. But we made it!! And I'm proud of my group. We had polls, videos and a short exercise, topped off with some creative questions. We have many talents in my team, and everyone participated nicely.

More insight and reflection on the content will follow.