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
