Interacting with working community, Task 3

How do you interact with your working community? What could you do differently to enhance the spirits of your working place? Is there someone in your working community who brings positive energy to you; why is that? Reflect on the quality of the interaction in the light of where and why is the interaction fruitful to you to lift up your working spirit.

My current working community consists 1 adult private English student, my interpreting clients in the university hospital, the police, and other offices, plus the nurses, doctors, lawyers, policemen, etc. who are the other party of interpretation, plus a few employees of the interpretation agency who book the gigs and handle the paperwork. In other words, I don't really have colleagues to chat or spend time with, except on rare occasions on my free time.

The interpreting assignments, "gigs" are booked by phone. Sometimes I get an urgent phone call at night, in the evening, 7 a.m. or when I'm just cooking a delicious Italian lunch, and they ask if I can come ASAP. Often I can. Work takes place face-to-face, also with my English student. With the student we communicate by e-mail or by phone if we need to make changes. Some interpretation jobs are booked in advance by e-mail.

To inhance the spirit of the work place, because the interpreting situations are either very personal,  intimate and stressful (hospital, police cell, court cases) I aim to be emphatic and positive and try to make a connection with the client, yet remaining neutral. I want to leave a positive impression also to improve my chances of being hired again. I'm really nice to secretaries, because they are the ones who call me, but they are rarely up to date with where to find my paperwork from their own files, so often I have to instruct them to use their own systems. 

Just few days ago there was an instance that another interpreter showed up for interpreting appointment. In the papers, my name was written down, so the other interpreter had to withdraw, but I discovered that this other one had interpreted the same client previously. A family member laughed that they were not sure if they were going to have an interpreter, so two was better than nothing. This wasn't the first time another non-Finnish interpreter emerges, so I've been wondering if there's some conspiracy to steal my job, since there has been very little work lately, but it could have been just some weird mix-up. I guess that's part of my "working community" too, but that's when and how I DON'T want to meet my colleagues. Actually, one non-Finnish, aspiring interpreter guy told me squarely that "we could cooperate and he could take my assignments". How rude! There are not enough jobs in my field, also confirmed by the Employment Agency statistics of job barometer 2012, so there seems to be a fierce competition of interpretation assignments.

Mostly my clients bring positive energy into my work: majority of them are very positive, grateful and personal. They often tell their life stories to me while we wait, and several times they have invited me to visit their city abroad. Professionally I don't give my contact information to clients, but sometimes we have exchanged phone numbers, for example when I interpreted through a delivery and was invited to a baby party some time later. The patient-clients are grateful and happy, because the level of treatment is very high and the staff has high expertise in the university hospital. In our Eastern neighbor country, for example, hospitals do not cater any meals for the patients.

Even though some interpretation situations are stressful and clients are there to have their problems sorted out, mostly the work is very rewarding and gives me energy. Interaction is fruitful, because the staff shares me new information, so I learn about the diseases and treatment methods, which is very interesting. The interaction with clients is  also great, because I develop my own expertise by learning new vocabulary, and often the patients comment on good language skills.

Sustainable Development

Task 2. Write a blog post about the following themes:

1. The main points of my workplace's sustainable development program

2. How does it affect employees' day-to-day life or does it?

3. What are the challenges in sustainable development in my field of work?

4. How could I teach the principles of sustainable development in my own subject?

Send a link to your post on this FB page by 30.4. Make sure you visit at least two other blog posts. Remember to leave a constructive comment.

1. I worked in the development collaboration agency Fida International some years ago. The theme of sustainable development comes up at least in three different ways:

Development work and mainstreaming themes

Second-hand store concept and procedures

Office staff measures

The sustainable development program is based on EU and governmental best practices, including the millennium goals and cutting-through themes. Environment is on of the mainstreaming themes in Fida practices. Taking environmental issues into consideration is based on a Christian concept of balanced and sustainable relationship between the man and the nature. Respecting the environment contributes to motivation towards environmental protection and sustainable care and nurturing of the environment. Therefore the partners of all the Fida development cooperation projects and programmes are trained to apply the principles of sustainable development, while taking the environmental specifics into consideration. Understanding the climatic conditions and factors helps finding sustainable solutions and prevent environmental problems. The aim is to strengthen the models that support environmental diversity and balance in the projects.  (source: http://www.fida.info/tyomme/kehitysyhteistyo/kehitysyhteistyon-valtavirtaistamisteemat/) For example, there are projects e.g. which focus on planting mangrove forest on flood catastrophe areas  in India and Bangladesh. Those projects are lead by foreign environmental specialists, who work side by side with the local people.

The chain of Fida second-hand stores has the concept of receiving donated clothes and household items, selling them, and supporting the development cooperation projects with the acquired funds, so the operating principle is based on sustainable development. Fida has collaborated also with some movie projects (e.g. Joulutarina, Christmas Story, to which it donated clothes for the cast). Fida partners with IKEA by receiving used IKEA shopping bags, to be used further for its projects.

2. The office staff is aware of sustainable development in everyday practices. Organic waste, printing paper and other materials are recycled, as the local infrastructure allows it. The stationery used in the office (envelopes), as well as brochures, magazines are printed on recycled paper. The coffee and tea used in the office is fair trade industry and the tea bags are also organic.

3. My challenges for applying the principles of sustainable development is my current work are many. I work from home mainly, so I don’t have any organizational guidelines, and I cannot really do much in that respect, other than what I would do normally at home, which I do.  I consider myself somewhat environmentally friendly, even though not a freak, so I practice some principles. We recycle all printed paper at home, meaning that we use the empty side to print any unofficial stuff, like reading material, cooking recipes etc. I collect and recycle thick envelopes and packages, as well as organic waste. I try to bake and cook food from the scratch and avoid processed food. I use organic flour and sometimes make juice with a juicer from fresh fruit and vegetables. I pick my own raspberries and strawberries. Most of the other organic foodstuffs are so expensive that I don’t buy them. We don’t have sauna. We use the dishwasher once a week. I walk or cycle to a lot of places. I sell clothes and household items in flea markets and second-hand stores and also donate to them. We have installed led lamps in 2 rooms to save electricity. My teammates and I carpool to floorball training sessions and games. I don’t consider myself an environmental hero, but at least I do something. The thing is that there are other considerations, such as cost, other benefits to body etc. For example, I recently purchased an organic Mádara deep balance toner for skin, but the primary consideration was  to soothe my sensitive skin, because there are no preservatives, alcohol etc. The same goes with food: I can pay a bit more for a better taste and less harmful agents, but if something costs a lot more, I choose a normal product.

4. As I pointed out, I don’t really have a forum to advocate the principles of sustainable development at work. But if I imagine myself as a language teacher for young adults, we could study sustainable development as a topic, learning the vocabulary and at the same time how it relates to the vocational subject of students (e.g. if they are nurses-to-be.). Of course the vocational students have this topic already covered in general studies, so we could think of some new applications. In a classroom setting the practices could be lowering the room temperature for a few degrees centrally.

I want to turn the topic around and ask what are we doing to ourselves? In hundreds of schools, institutes and universities in Finland, people struggle with indoor air problems, simply meaning mould. This makes the learning environment environmentally dangerous for the students. When the constructors make the ready-to-be-installed concrete elements, some wool is placed between the concrete layers and the elements are let to dry outside in the mercies of the weather. The rain makes the wool soak, but no-one cares. Once the elements are erected in place, the water inside the elements may stay for decades, unless someone lucky happens to drill a hole in the right place. This may let loose dozens of litres of water, in the worst cases ruining the interior. I know several people who have long-term effect of either living or working in mould-infested place, causing long-term flu and asthma. This has been the hot topic lately in the Finnish teacher’s magazine Opettaja. You who are reading this blog post, what would we do to contribute?

VOC1 Reflection Poem

This VOC
With the new faces
Who fits in and who is just a plain Finn
Wonder how much time will I spend
Learning, searching, reading, blogging, mastering
These new skills
Will they provide a future for me
A new path, career, place of my own
Am I a teacher?
This year will define it
Will this be something made for me?
Or will I make it for others?
Eager, young minds
with their partly yet unwritten hearts
Am I able to guide their paths
To knowledge, understanding,
Choosing what is right, good and fitting?
To help them discover who they are
Where they stand in this wide world
Will I be there mentor, counsellor, even friend
When they need a shoulder
Or a listening ear
Or just a pat on the back
To carry on, cheer up, and have fun
In this only life that we have
Designing our best that can be ours
Is this me?
A teacher to be?

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.