Latlabsouleymane's Blog

We worked all day long this wednesday to finish all the tasks of our presentation. It was very important for us to finish on time and take a break to have enough sleep to be fresh on the following day. All the group members were happy after the rehearsal of our presentation; because the timing for each presenter fitted the time we had planned for each step of the presentation.

As the responsible for the final seminar , I was very much relieved despite my sore throat; as I knew no matter what happens the other members would manage to have a good performance. However, I secretly prayed and hoped that I would be fine on the D-day. And to make sure that it happens, I went to the Drugstore in Lilletstrom and the Pharmacist sold me some medicine to relieve my pain. He even advised me to drink a lot of water and avoid speaking the whole evening; which I did. I am  going to bed and I hope tomorrow will be great!

Today I don’t really feel well. I have a bad flu and a real sore throat. I am very worried about my performance during the seminar because the more I speak, the more I feel pain in my throat . But we have to do the job, we cant’ postpone anything and I will do my best to participate in the seminar.

We are meeting  at 10 o’clock this morning to finish all the tasks . We want to be able to rehearse again before the D-day. Everyone has really worked hard on his task and I am very happy about that. The group is getting more and more efficient.

Today was one of the busiest day ever. We worked very hard to finish editing the videos for the final seminar. It was quite a learning atmosphere that prevailed in the editing room as we tried new things such as putting transitions, making movies and compressing files. I liked it very much.

We also had an important interview with Professor Helge about Latina LAB . It lasted almost a little more than an hour  and we were very much interested in the birth of this learning center, its vision , the missions it aims to accomplish, the way it is organized and what it holds for the future.

As a teacher, this learning center  gives me some ideas to be tried at home to help teachers improve their everyday practice in schools using the digital tools. I realized that ignorance of what technology offers to boost learning partly explains the resistance of some teachers. When you don’t know about the tools you tend to reject them. I really hope to build on the experience I went through at Latina.

I spent the  whole day thinking about the seminar. Hopefully , I feel better but I am still a bit weak.  I worked with Lidia for  a while on her presentation on Active blogging. She really worked hard to improve it since the last session with Professor Tord.

Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend is tough for me as I don’t really feel  well. I think I have  fever and the weather has surely something to do with that. It’s been snowing in Lillestrom for almost a week now and the temperature keeps going down. I hope to be fit by Monday as the seminar is very soon; there is work to do. The whole group must meet to give the final touches to the different presentations. And the sooner ,the better!

Today we spent the whole day in the editing room at HIO. We did a great work by transfering all the interviews into the editing machine. We have finished cutting off all the parts we don’t need .  All the answers have been sorted out and we will be making the final videos for the seminar on Monday.

We really operated as a team as everyone during this session tried to learn something by doing. Participation was really active and we hope to give the best during the seminar.

This thursday was devoted to a session with professor Tord during which we did the following:  a joint work on two presentations by Eric and Lidia. Both had to tell us about Learning From Translation(LFT) and Blogging, a kind of rehearsal of what they are going to do at the seminar on December 10th.

Read the rest of this entry »

This wednesday December 2, 2009 will be remembered. We had a very nice international buffet at HIAK . All the foreign students in this college cooked their favorite dishes from home and presented them to the personnel  to taste. Everything started at 8.30 and ended around 1 pm in a very good ambiance.

I was very happy to participate in this event. My recipe was a”yam stew with carp pepper soup”. Since I couldn’t find some carps here I adapted the dish using norwegian sardines. People appreciated the yam which is very much like sweet patatoes. 

I think this sort of event is another aspect in the internationalization of education. The more people develop these exchange programmes between countries the more we will get to know about each other’s cultures . And  such events like the international buffet, bring people closer as we are able to share and talk friendly .This is important and breaks some barriers which often breeds misunderstandings  and prejudice. The world of today needs peace and variety which is the spice of life.

We also took advantage of this buffet to interview Lillian who has been working for many years with international students at Hiak. It was relly a wonderful day!

Today we interviewed  Mette Hoie and Kristin Bugge at hiak. This session was very  interesting . we started on time and  were able to expand on issues related to our research  work. Less time was wasted and the videos were very short and focused so that t editing will be much more easier.

From today’s team work some lessons can be drawn. The more the time gets by the more comfortable we become with the technical equipment we use for our interviews. We became more efficient, selective and our questions were straight to the point. Practice really makes perfect.

Another good thing  is that the group has overcome all the difficulties that often arise  when you work in group. We crack jokes, laugh happily and move around together like sisters and brothers members of a family on a tour.
I think that working and learning collaboratively is important. You develop new skills like being able of  leaning on others to bridge  your own weaknesses and turn them into strength. You learn to control yourself , to adapt to other people’s ways and attitudes and thus you grow up in many ways. People must be encouraged to work together and be taught to rely on one another to do things. Everyone has something to share with others . And if we learn to cope with each other , this will increase self -esteem and  geer all energies towards common goals for the  welfare of mankind.

We met again today at Latina to work hard on the final touches before the final seminar on December 10.

First, we had a round table talk with professor Tord on what we ‘re planning to do this week. It came out that most of the week will be devoted to  the last interviews at Hiak and to editing all of them for the final seminar. we will also take some time to finish the different reports for the different projects we’ve been dealing with since the beginning of the internship. And we also plan to rehearse what we want  to do during the seminar to make sure that everything is fine. For  next Friday and Monday the editing room has been booked for us to work full time.

There is an international buffet organized at hiak on wednesday December 2. As international students we have to take part in and  cook, each, a dish from our home country that will be shared by all the participants. You are all welcome at this buffet.

To finish, Professor Tor gave some more information on the GLOSSA project. And each intern expressed what he would like to be and do in the coming ten Years.  A very hard prediction as the world moves so fast. But I think I would still work in the field of education; becoming a teacher- educator is something I want to try and also  develop a project of my own at home to help people learn and teach with the new tools of tecnology.  I really look forward to that. There is a lot to do to improve things at home and I want to be part of it.