For the TraINeRS project, May was an important moment in its’existence. The last intensive program (IP) for students and student-educators took place, and ended with the projects’ final event.
For the IP, 35 students were present from all participating countries: Belgium, Italy, Spain, North Macedonia and host country Denmark. Serbia apologized for this event, but did attend the previous editions.
During the week, students could feel immersed in the development of intercultural competencies, and the student-educators could evaluate whether the past three-month online course enabled them to convey this material to students. They were able to teach, observe each other, test out methodologies, and discover new concepts. The TraINErs-team stood by them throughout this challenge and supported as needed.
At the end of this week, on May 4, the Final Dissemination Event took place. TraINErS is an Erasmus KA2 project and is funded by the Erasmus + program for the development of an online learning platform. This was shown to an audience of professors and stakeholders from the field in a packed auditorium at VIA University in Silkeborg.
There was a big interest from the field, and an intensive exchange preceded the various speakers and workshops. Keynote speaker was Dr. Millton Bennett. He was involved in the TraINErS project from the beginning and his expertise supported this project and the evaluation of the growth in cultural competence. His keynote was able to captivate the audience present, as well as the online audience, as this was a hybrid event. The members of the TraINErS team who were responsible for the development of the online platform and the curriculum presented their own component, and the audience got a first glimpse of the final Moodle platform that will eventually become an open online resource.
A particularly activating moment was the workshop just before lunch, where attendees were exposed to an example of an activating classroom (or group) activity and were able to experience firsthand how to open eyes to cultural aspects and behaviors within the classroom context.
The afternoon offered the opportunity for attendees and students to attend a workshop and delve into a number of topics such as conflict styles, the evaluation of cultural competence, teachers’exchange, the DMIS, etc.
The organizers, the participants and the students look back on this event with a positive and motivating feeling. It strengthens everyone’s conviction that caring for people should be done in an equal and culturally appropriate way, supported by reflection and open-mindedness.
Trainers feels confident that the online platform is an appropriate and quality medium to achieve this. By the start of the Academic year 2023, the platform will be accessible to the broad public.
Stay tuned.