Arion in Turku, Finland: ICT and teaching: 15-19 Jan. 07

we are looking for a vocational school with a Graphics Design course to participate in a Socrates Comenius Project.
Working language: English

We are back home, ready to make our report. Any suggestions? Please reply!

To the Finish: thanks for your hospitality, hope to meet again.

We did two things today. First of all we visited the teacher training school and in the afternoon the company called Sanako.

At the school we’ve seen some really interesting things which we like to report about. The co-opertion between the school and univesity of Turku is one of the benefits of the school system. All of the students becoming a teacher do get a university degree. Since in the neighbourghood 40 percent of the inhabitants are immigrants and they have to go to the nearest school, this becomes a problem also to the student learning to become teacher. The school board recognises the problem and will discuss it with the local city government.  It’s a pitty we have not seen any student from teacher education because at the moment they have holiday.

IB-classes means international bachelor class. The pupils are getting all of the courses in English language. They pass afterwords internationale exams and do succeed very well. This gives the school also an international dimension.

All of the levels of education (from 6 years old up to higher education) are in the same place. This also means they are working together very much. The organisation is really good e.g. the different headmasters of the school are very close to each other (they are neighbours).

We’ve seen some good working examples of distance learning. 3 pupils stayed at their home school on an island far away. One teacher teaches by videoconference. This is not because we were at the school but this is done everyday.

Secondly we’ve vistited Sanako, a company who is providing devices and software solutions mostly for language education. They are active all over the world and working together with great other companies like Microsoft and Blackboard ELO. They had a business presentation in which we heard they are working together with the local school. In the same line we were asked to comment their way of working and teaching languages since we have the experience. This gave us some time to discuss educational matters concerning the use of electronic devices. This improved the already fantastic atmostphere between the members of this Arion visit.

Tonight we have some time off …

report by: Marco, Ela, Pascal

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I will be arriving to Turku at 16:55 on the 14th January Sunday
Arrival (14 Jan)
Porto ———————> Paris ————————> Helsinki —————–> Turku
06:05__AF2729__09:25 / 10:50__AF2298__14:50 / 16:15__AY3229__16:55

Departure (20 Jan)
Turku —————-> Helsinki ————————> Paris ——————–> Porto
06:20__AY240__06:55 / 16:05__AF2736__18:10 / 19:45__AY3229__21:00

I will be at Helsinki Airport at 13.25 on 14th of January via Amsterdam. The thought is to travel by coach from airport to Turku. From Internet (http://www.matka.fi/en/) I checked schedules and it is about 3-4 hours time.  I ‘ll try to find out if there is an available flight for Turku.

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I will be arriving to Helsinki at 14:20 on the 14th January Sunday. My guess is that it will take some time to go through the regular airport checks and once it is done, I will catch the first bus scheduled for Turku. If anyone is at the Helsinki Airport around this time, I would be very happy to get together to go on the bus journey.

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A hello from me (marjo.palmu@tkukoulu.fi) too!

I would just like to add something to what Arto said. I am sure everybody is eagerly waiting for us to send a program for the week in January but as there are still quite a few things to be confirmed we can’t send you any detailed program just now.

But, as most of you will be coming on Sunday, there will be an informal get-together then. Mon, Tue and Thu will include different program (more and less official) from morning till evening; on Wed you will be taken to a full-day cruise, and on Fri there will be program till roughly midday after which,if your flight is not that early, you can spend whatever way you want.

The evening programs are not obligatory to you, but of course we hope you could join the rest of the group.

I hope this will satisfy your curiosity for now, a more detailed version of the program will follow later…

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Ros asked about arrving and leavingtime

I will arrive in Turku on Saterday 13 Jan. at 18.10 and leave on Saterday 20 Jan. at 06.20. This was the cheapest flight for me. Only E 300 all in. Arriving on Sunday during the day would cost me about E 850

Finally I’ve booked my flight to Turku. The ticket-price Brussels-Helsinki and Brussels-Turku is the same so I do not have to take a train or taxi from Helsinki to Turku. Here you find my time table. Perhaps we can already meet each other in Helsinki?

arrival: Jan 14th 2007:
Brussels (11:40) – Helsinki (15:15 16:15) - Turku (16:55)

departure: Jan 20th 2007:
Turku (14:50) – Helsinki (15:25 16:40) – Brussels (18:15)