Friday 16 June 2017

DIG_IT in France, the final meeting

                         DIG_It in France

From 13th to 21st May the Finnish students that were part of the DIG_IT program (Erasmus+) took a trip to France. The students also had one day to visit Amsterdam which is the capital of the Netherlands. Amsterdam was beautiful and European even though most of the Finnish students will probably remember it for the constant smell of pot and very confusing traffic regulations.

After the one-day experience in Amsterdam the students headed for a little medieval town called Pons in France. Pons was a mix of medieval European culture and the culture of today. People lived in the countryside farming and making wine but every morning we headed for the center of this little town with modern cars. The school building itself represented the 1960’s architecture, being a big cube of concrete with no further decorations. There was also a bigger city nearby with popular fast food chains like Burger King and McDonalds as well as a supermarket called EcoFrais.

The students found the trip a huge success. The French students and teachers had planned everything out very carefully. Some of the most uplifting experiences for us two were probably tree climbing and the musical at school. At first I thought that I’d never do tree climbing but after the instructions, I felt like giving it a shot and it turned out to be some of the most memorable and exciting experiences in my life. I even went to climb to 40m after the 20m trail. The musical was a really touching experience. I would say it combined drama and humor, the audience as a part of the whole act. It was so emotional and carefully planned that it made some students near me wipe away tears.

I also have to praise the pinball machine and pool table at the school. We would need them in our school too. We also slept very well and fell asleep quite fast every night, which means that we had a lot to do every day. Thank you all!

- Jaakko Niemelä and Ilari Koski (Finland)



The Finnish week

For a week in January the DIG_IT team visited Oulu, Finland. Haukiputaan lukio (Haukipudas Upper Secondary School) welcomed 29 students and nine teachers from the partnering countries. All visiting groups arrived on Sunday Jan 15. 2017.

We started the work with a short welcome event at school on Monday. Right after, the students started working with their art projects in smaller groups. The rest of the day was spent in the workshops.
One group gathered with the Swedish gaming students to see the game they had been working with and to test it as well. After lunch we had some games to get to know each other. The Finnish students had planned all the games and did a wonderful job leading them as well. We had a lot of fun! Here is a video clip of one activity. 

On Tuesday we went to the University of Oulu. We saw many interesting activities and labs related to advancing IT and e.g. 3D printing (Fablab).















Our next stop was Gamelab in the centre of Oulu. It is a program for game development in the Oulu Polytechnic. 







Then our students took the lead again and took their guests for a walking tour in the city of Oulu. 

The next day the guests got to make a choice for their morning program. They either visited a local vocational school or Stora Enso paper factory. After school lunch there were workshops (language learning applications or history). In the afternoon we kicked off the centennial celebration of Finland at the school. The whole school participated. The students in the project created the number 100 with ice blocks and placed torches in between. It looked very beautiful and festive. A flag was raised as well!
















Of course, there were also fried sausages with hot juice, skating, skiing and preparing for snow sculptures.

The day was finished with an international floorball tournament in the gym hall. The final match was between Finland and Sweden - hardly a surprise - but there was a lot of laughter and sweat among all the teams!


The next morning started at the auditorium where we saw a video of the trip last year's Internationality course had made to Iceland and the students answered a funny quiz. After that a group of students went outside to prepare for snow sculptures or attended a workshop (e.g. letters from one avatar to another / a letter to your future self from the age of digital revolution). Teachers had their own program at that time. They were introduced Abitti (the electronic environment for the Finnish matriculation exam) and they got to experience first hand what it was like to take a mock test using it. After lunch we headed for the centre of Oulu again. There we had a walk with a city guide, learned about the industrial development of Oulu and visited a museum as well. Later the students were free to explore the town further or to do something with the host families. The teachers visited the Kastelli community centre/school and got an introduction to the Finnish school system.

On the final day we watched a video of last year’s Old Dances show and got an introduction to it. Later that day we took part in the actual class rehearsing for this year's festivities and learned a dance, too!


During the day the students had a workshop (Faces of Europe) and everybody visited the wooden church of Haukipudas. The teachers also had a project meeting. In the afternoon the workshops continued and some went outside to create snow sculptures. In the evening there was a farewell party with light dinner and music played by the Finnish students' bands. The results of all art workshops were revealed during the party, too.

We were tired, sad, ecstatic, overwhelmed - all at the same time. It is always so difficult to say good bye to old and new friends. We were still looking forward to continuing the program in France in May and seeing our friends again!


Besides, there was also a sense of accomplishment after a lot of good work. The students were active and willing to learn. The Finnish students showed everybody how capable they were in taking the responsibility for many of the activities over the week. The teachers have become friends as well and cooperation is fun and productive. We all have learned a lot in this wonderful project!

- Anja, a teacher from Finland

Friday 9 December 2016

A journey to Belgium

One week in October, 2016


We started our trip early in the morning on the 9th of October by travelling to the Oulu airport. We met each other feeling anxious and excited about our trip. Our journey didn't start without issues, as there were no personnel in the flight control tower to give us clearance for a take-off. Finally someone made it up there and gave us the green light to start our flight. In Helsinki we had some time to have breakfast, as most of us were already hungry. Our flight to Brussels was long, and some of us got some much needed sleep.

When we arrived in Brussels, we went straight to the train station and got on a train that took us to Mechelen. We were ahead of our schedule and got a couple of hours to look around the magnificent city of Mechelen. After our first look at the city, a Belgian teacher Jeroen walked with us to the school. We made acquaintances with our fellow students from Belgium, France and Sweden. After chatting for a bit, we left off for our host families' homes. Our first day went nicely with our host families.

On the second day we made our way to the city hall. We had an official welcome from the city of Mechelen. We split into two groups, one climbed the tower of a church and the other got a tour of the city. The view from St. Rumbold's Tower was amazing and we learned many facts about the history and the significance of the tower.

On our third day we visited Telenet, which is the largest company in Belgium that provides analog and digital cable television and mobile telephone services. The rest of the day we were free to do whatever we wanted, and many of us went to visit the city of Brussels.

On the fourth day we visited a train museum called Train World. It is located just outside of Brussels. There were a lot of different types of trains from old to new. We also got a lot of information about the history and development of railways and trains. In the afternoon we were supposed to have a few workshops, but the plans got cancelled. For that reason we got plenty of spare time for the rest of the evening.

On the last day of the trip, the students got to choose whether they would continue the game development, update their avatars, or create videos of the journey in Belgium. After that we got a little free time before the upcoming evening’s farewell party. All of the students and their host families were invited. We got to enjoy great food and also brilliant live music. Everyone had a really fun time.

The next day we had to wake up rather early, because we had to make it to the airport on time. The Finnish team arrived in Oulu approximately at 5pm. The trip was unforgettable in every way. All of us got new international friends and our English language skills got better. However, it was also quite nice to be back home.


* Arttu Rissanen and Joni Moilanen, Haukipudas Upper Secondary School, Oulu, Finland

Sunday 21 August 2016

The Finnish DIG_IT team went to take some pictures this week. Our art teacher Kaisa Annala managed to borrow a pile of old clothing from a theatre company. She took the students to the local museum site to create authentic atmosphere. The group had a lot of fun shooting the pictures and processing them to look old.

Here are a few pictures: THE MAKING OF...

It was important to make sure that the people in the pictures did not wear any modern wrist watches, have mobile phones sticking out of their pockets or modern jewellery aroung their necks.




This is making history real!



Wednesday 4 May 2016

A transnational meeting in Karlskrona, Sweden, in April 2016

We had a wonderful week in Karlskrona in spring. This is what two of our students wrote about it:

The DIG_IT project (Erasmus+): a transnational meeting in Sweden

The journey
Our journey to Karlskrona began at the Oulu airport on a windy and cloudy Sunday morning. We first flew from Oulu to Helsinki and from there to Copenhagen. In Helsinki we were still a little tired, because of the early wake up call.  There we went to a restaurant, or a sports bar if you like to call it that. And of course, we went shopping for a while, chocolate and sweets mostly. In Copenhagen we didn’t have much time to spend there, not that we would’ve had much to do. Suddenly we were in a hurry, Anja just shouted that we had 3 minutes to get on the train instead of the 20 minutes we were previously told we had. On the train we were like typical Finns, shouting and making noise all the time. But, by the end of the ride everyone was tired and silent.

Karlskrona
When we arrived in Karlskrona we saw our hosts for the first time, it was a little awkward at first. When we got to the hosts’ cars everyone started talking and socializing. The first night went by fast because everyone was very tired after our long trip.

The first day was really nice, because we got to know some of the people from Belgium, France and Sweden. We also went to an ice cream parlour called Glassiären, which basically translates to glacier if we are right. The ice creams there were huge, you could get three balls of ice cream and some soft ice cream on the top. Later that day we also went to a viewpoint and a small park, they also had some animals there.

On the other days we had many tours around the city, and many activities. On Tuesday we had a programming workshop, it was amazing. We learned a lot about coding and making games. The people who didn’t participate went to an island called Aspö (Not sure how it’s spelled), they had a tour around the island. If you ask me, the programming workshop was a lot better. In the coding workshop we also started working on some board games, six groups started to work on their own board games.

On Wednesday we went to the Naval Museum. They had two real submarines there, and a lot of other historical artifacts. There they also had a souvenir shop where you could by many things and small objects related to ships and sailing.

On Thursday we had a group game where we had to get points by taking pictures all around the city and gathering some objects. In the evening we went to Elliot’s where we had a BBQ-party. We played the piano and sang some songs. It was an amazing evening and I think everyone enjoyed it very much.

On Friday we continued the programming workshop. We tried out a 3D printer and an Oculus Rift. In the evening we had a farewell party, where we looked at some pictures that were taken during the week and ate food. When we were eating, Pascal, one of the teachers held a speech. He told us that he had sworn not to cry, but in the end he did. After that we had a really short party, one of the DIG_IT students, Jonatan, was the DJ. Then, sadly, we had to leave.

The Journey back
The time of our departure had come really close. It was Saturday morning and everyone was feeling down. When the train left the station, some of us cried, the time we had in Karlskrona was just so amazing. The farewell was really sad and no one wanted to leave. Our journey back was quiet and we hardly said anything. 

In a nutshell, we will never forget our trip to Karlskrona, the people or the fun times we had together. We all hope we’ll see each other soon again.


- Miikka Kuosmanen and Marjut Juhonen from Haukipudas Upper Secondary School, 
Oulu, Finland

Tuesday 12 April 2016

A wonderful week in Sweden in April 2016

Here we are! We are very busy with all the wonderful activities and getting to know each other. There will be text and pictures later on! In the meanwhile you can take a look at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/erasmusdigit/photos/a.903014796433287.1073741826.903008656433901/985809471487152/?type=3 and see what we are up to.

Introducing their avatars


Before the trip to Karlskrona, Sweden, the Finnish students introduced all their avatars to each other. There are many interesting characters going through fascinating phases of life.