Amazing Business Train #1

Special needs in Education

Competency-based Curriculum #3

Individualized Learning Model

This is the Individualized Learning Model, proposed to me, Luis Augusto and Sheylla, in Mooc Individualized Learning course. Our model is composed of three phases: Student Support, Individual Study Plan and Learning. All of phase form a circle, a spiral, in witch the student is the center of the process. By teacher doing the Student Support, it is possible to know of students the learning expectations, specific needs, learning styles and prior knowledge. This is base to the individual study plan, made by the student, considering its own pace, needs and interests. The plan is base to learning of student, that is assessed to be supported by the teacher again, feed back the process. 

Competency-based Curriculum #2

Competency-based Curriculum #1

Learning Environments #2 - Haaga Helia

While visiting the university of Haaga-Helia, they told the university, in the process of renovation, redesigned all thinking focused on education. Education was the center and focus even of architectural project. It was then designed to support and to improve education. Everything in physical space have a reason, a motivation to help behavior. For example, there are a lot of glass to give the idea of ​​transparency. It help to give life to the environment, when someone pass in the hall, people saw the movements and activities taking place inside the rooms. The glasses were placed for all to see, if realize. They designed narrow corridors to encourage personal contact. The intention is that people even strike. Often we rushed into the hall and not even realize our fellow students, etc.

There teachers share a teacher's room together, have a shared kitchen, have snack space, etc. The idea is that, if teachers should collaborate, interact and work together, it also has to be in physical space. The teacher's room is design to accommodate the teacher, so it is comfortable, and mainly has contact with co-workers. It can work together, at one table, or else go to a more private place, if he/she must produce more. Below is a video I made with Haaga-Helia pictures

Learning Environments #1 - Hamk (Tapiola Bulding)

Hello,

In this video, I made a record showing the learning environment of Hamk, specifically Tapiola building. This is the place that we are taking the VET - Teachers for the Future Programing. The physical is very interesting. Will it be that exists a relation between this kind of space with quality of learning? hummmm... let me think! :)

Bye

Emphaty and Learning #1 - What's Empathy??

What's empathy?
In the bellow there's a great video that explain the meaning of empathy. It's an important concept in our whole life. Empathy is responsible to relation the people. It is a motivation to act.
What's the relation between Empathy and Learning?

Scenes of the next chapter.... :)

(To be continued....)

Dialogical Method #1 - Challenges in Communication

My project here has as subject an learning enviroment call Leds (Laboratory of Extension in Software Development). I'll speak later more about Leds. In Leds we try to stimulate the continuos interaction between whole involved, i.e.  students, teachers and community customer. We believe that the communication can be a excellent learning tool.

We use as methodologies in the projects the Scrum (agile project management), XP (Extreme Programming) and Canvas Models (Business Model Canvas and Project Model Canvas). In this methodologies, the team need to communicates more than in the tradicional methodologies. On the other hand, in the tradicional ones, there are a lot of formalisms and documents that sometimes prejudice the communication. The students in Leds work always together. The task of programming occurs always in pairs. Daily the students and the teachers made short meetings of the Scrum. In this meeting everyone says what is doing, the difficulties and the next tasks. Fortnightly, the students and the customer of project (of community) have a meet the delivery partial results. So, the communication in Leds is so intense. But it can be better.

The communication never is a easy task. There are a lot of the problems in our case that affects the well done interaction between everyone. Sometimes, the communication don't happen, or it isn't spontaneous. The students sometimes are afraid to talk what really think to the another students or mainly to the teachers. Listen the another is always a challenge too. Occasionally, we don't pay careful attention to listening to the others perspectives. We speak without thinking in what the another people told seconds ago. 

The communication between students and teachers need to improve a lot. We have sometimes different expectations and concerns about the tasks. Generally is very hard the another point of view. The communication with the clientes is not so easy too. We speak different dialects. Here and there, our dialect is more technical and the customer dialect is very domain specific. 

To sum up, communication is a big challenge!

How improve the communication on the Leds?

How stimulate a better communication?

How get over these difficulties?

How improve the learning through communication?

Can the Dialogic Method be useful in this case?

Answers in the next chapter...  :)

(To be continued....)

Just Listen...

One thing that I am learning here with the Finnish people is to listen more the another people. Listen more than speak. It's so hard to a Brazilian to do this... but to me, is not so difficult. In my natural way, I think that I have a tendency to listen more than speak. For me is more easy but a challenge yet.

Today we had activities about Dynamic Pedagogical Approach and one of the premisses is to listen more e better... Listen carefully the another... Don't interrupt... Give a feedback.

Then, participating in the activity, I remembered a music that I really like. It's a composition of an old Brazilian band called "Secos e Molhados". The name of the music is "Fala" (Speak). I always felt an identification with this music. It say:

"I don't know to say nothing just to say, then I just listen

If you say me everything that you want to say, then I'll just listen..."

The letter is something like this.

In the Sun...

In a dynamic today the goal was to give a "gift" to another people (just a fake gift).  Then, desiring the better of all, I gave the Sun to everyone. I've never tought that I miss the Sun one day. We have not only a physical relation with the Sun, I think that is a more deely relation.

"In the Sun we feel as one"

Information Gap Exercise

Today we did an interesting activity called Information Gap. the name is this because there is a information gap between the people. The that have more information need to explain to the another without show anything, just speaking. this is the chalenge. This technique Can help to improve the learning and the communication between the students in any Subject, like In programming, math,  etc.

In the Exercise today, on people have to describe the path on the map to the another without showing the figure.

It was very interesting and fun to do it.

Educational First Aid Kit

The competencies developed in students are related not only the theoretical knowledge, but also with de practical learning and the learning of conducts, learning of Beeing. In Finland the focus is on the learning for the life, using competence-based curriculum. In Brazil, on another hand, we expect that students develop academically in many ways, but we don't give much support. In Hamk, specifically, every students receive the material below, the "Transferable Academic Skills Kit".  I though this ver interesting, this simple thing catch my eye. In this kit, there is a book for each of the bellow subjects:

• Team working;
• Academic culture;
• Critical Thinking;
• Examination Technique;
• Key Foundation Skills;
• Problem-solving;
• Presentations;
• Research and Reference;
• Essay Writing;
• Introdution to IT Skills;
• Scientific Writing;

Unfortunately in Brazil we give almost no one support in these subjects. We focus mainly in the technical and theoretical knowledge and we forget the most important. These subjects are the base of all. In Hamk, the students need to improve this aspects in every subjects as part of their formation. The teachers, in all subjects, have the responsibility to help the students improve in this aspects, as part of the curriculum. The curriculum here envolves these competences besides the technical one. I think that this kit is very interesting give to the students this formation. These material are a very simple thing but that can help a lot the students. 

Transferable Academic Skills Kit

Some of books

Some of books

Cod in Cold

Cod in cold
Coding code
Cool the loop
Codswallop

Cod  is colt
Not is poop
Codger folk
Con the Coop

Shy Sunshine

Today I registered the Sun in different moments of the day.
In Finnish winter, I think that the Sun is very lazy. It wake up at about 8:00 AM. It's a little ease.
And it "go to the bed" before 5:00 PM.  It's a really very nice life.
Also, at 12:00 PM, you can look the Sun without looking up, just looking to your side. (In Brazil, in the middle of day, in any season, the Sun is exactly inside you, frying your head)
Besides the laziness, maybe the Sun is a little shy too, I don't know.
Or maybe too, it is more heavy here and can't rise a lot... Ok... These are only my crazy suppositions. :) But one thing I know, the Sun here works less.

Hello, Sun, you are so smart, and I'm a little jealousy :)

The Sun at 8:47 AM

The Sun at 12:00

The Sun at 16:30

The Space Patrol

In the afternoon, today, there was another interesting activity. It was a practical activity in group. It was a really nice experience and, personaly, it was very challenging. We did a makeshift and surreal activity. The groups were defined mixing brazilian teachers with another teachers from another countries and finnish students of a business graduation too. We met these new people in same time of working together.  I couldn't imagine what I would do. Everybody didn't know. People were little anxious until we knew the goal: build a space rocket and try to sell space travel in it. Very nice! I never thought in build a rocket with unknown and foreign persons in my life. My group was formed by Jam, an netherlander teacher of economy, Tanja and Elisa, two finnish students, Vico, another brazilian teacher, and me. The brazilians were the leaders of group, at least theoretically. In practice everyone collaborated. After each one had met another, we started our crazy project. We were free to do everthing we could imagine. The name given to our project was Rocket'n'Roll. Our Rocket was like an eletric guitar. Our focus were on the experience of the costumer, befores, during and after the space travel. The consumer could choose the music, places to see, kind of people to share the space travel. It was very fun to do. It was very difficult to me to comunicate in english in this activity. We had little time to know us, design the solution, make decisions, define roles, define tasks and build the rocket with paperboard and another things. My greatest dificulty was to present the idea in 3 minutes. But everything worked well and it was really fun and in the all, it was a great experience.

Dynamics slides

The subject today was "Entrepreneurial Teacher". The first activity in this morning was a work with pairs. Each one was interviewed by the another about basic concepts of entrepreneurship, like change, innovation, business and services. In the next step, everyone shared the ideas about the topics and the teacher wrote them in a empty slide. the slides were all empty! We wrote the main concepts there together. It was a collaborative construction of knowledge. Generally the slides are already, are fixed, frozen, are static. In this case, we constructed the slides together. Dynamics slides! Really nice! Slide made on demand. Interesting...After the teacher made the slides on the flying, he started his class discussing each topic pointed by us. It was an explanation based on own knowledge not only on his one. In this case, who was the source of knowledge? Everybody, I think... Knowledge walking in many directions... Not only one!

Knowledge's Miscellany

Hello!

This was our activity today. The students/teachers was divided in groups and each group wrote in a paper, fixed on the wall, questions about a topic of discussion. After a time, each group changed the topic with the another groups. Each group should continue the questions that was written by the another group. The result can be viewed in the bellow. It was very chaotic and interesting. Knowledge constructed on demand in a continuous and collaborative process. I love this mishmash! :)

Bye

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Miscelânea de Conhecimento

Olá!

Esta foi a nossa atividade hoje. Os alunos / professores foram divididos em grupos e cada grupo escreveu em um papel, fixado na parede, as perguntas sobre um tópico de discussão (E-learning, Process-based Learning e Currículo baseado em competências). Cada grupo ia para um tema, mas depois de um tempo, cada grupo mudava o tema com os outros grupos. Assim, cada teve que continuar as questões que foram escritas pelo outro grupo. O resultado pode ser visto na figura abaixo. Foi muito caótico e interessante. Conhecimento construído sob demanda em um processo contínuo e colaborativo. Eu amo essa confusão! :)

Tchau

First!

Hello Everybody,

This is my first post in this blog. I already wrote my first and long text to post here, but it is yet only in portuguese. Sorry... But I'm going to write in Portuguese too to post to the Brazilian teachers and students of my Institute. 

While I'm not doing an english version, I'll post some little things of my day.

I stayed very curious about this ice formation in the roof. I thought very interesting how the ice is support without any help of the roof. Is it a magic? :)

I think isn't. Maybe it is only the snow that melts, become as water, after it drain, then it rapidly freeze again. I think that happen something like this. 

It's a slow and interesting process. I'll monitor it! 

See you later.

Bye!