Spanish springtime sun, happy reunions, committed lecturers and teaching students, who – for a long time – have been looking forward to meeting about new and interesting experiences from the DLAB-project since the first planning-meeting in Belgium in the fall. This is what week 18 could have looked like for the participants in the DLAB-2 project. But along came Corona, and the planned evaluation- and work-meeting was cancelled.
This week lecturers and teaching students from the five participating countries were to have met in Santiago de Compostella in Spain, to share experiences and evaluate the first year of the project. The teaching students were supposed to collaborate on the creation of TED-style talks with their reflections about their own learning from the project and the lecturers were to have shared experiences from the international days, and written contributions to the eTwinning Twinspace and the website of the project. Last, but not least, the first steps towards creating an online course on the didactics of the project were to have been taken. All of it as collaborative efforts.
Together – but apart
Already in the middle of March, when the Danish prime minister closed down the country, we were aware that the corona pandemic might influence the meeting in Spain, but as the lockdown continued the cancellation of the third international day also became sad reality.
Inevitably, this has had an impact on the project. As part of the last International Day, the pupils were supposed to present their projects and proposals for solutions to each other in their international groups. They – and we – have had to miss out on that part. An emergency solution to keep the pupils connected has not been possible, because conditions for distance teaching or home school has been vastly different in the participating countries. In addition, the degree to which the countries have been affected. This has been particularly evident during this past week, where lecturers, teachers and teaching students, despite the circumstances, are trying to ensure that the goals of the first project-year are met. Together, but apart.
Just like the pupils in the DLAB-2 project have been communicating with each other using digital tools and platforms, several groups of lecturers, teachers and teaching students are now meeting online in order to bring the learning and experiences of the project forwards to the benefit of others who might be interested in forging European collaboration and developing changemaker skills and technological literacy in their pupils.
In Denmark we have daily online-meetings between lecturers and teaching students. We are working towards documenting the project and disseminating the knowledge generated in the first year of DLAB2. So far, the students have produced short TED-style videos in their own homes using a range of different technologies. Reflections on the international days have been written and we have gathered data for the homepage and the Twinspace of the project. Our project-coordinator, Marianne Georgsen, is in continual contact with the coordinators from the partner countries, and where possible, the international groups coordinate in order to finish joint documents. The commitment and the will to reach the common goals of the project are evident.
Till we meet again in the fall
What the future holds is uncertain. This knowledge has been brought front and centre by Corona. However, there are still two years left of the DLAB2 project. We look forward to meeting again for the planning event in Northampton, England, in the fall of 2020, if the world is a calmer place by then. Once again, we will cooperate to create lesson plans with a view to developing changemaker skills and technological literacy and a focus on crossing boundaries – this time, personal boundaries.
Digital communication can, without a doubt, strengthen cooperation and bring us closer to each other in a global perspective. This is at the core of everyday cooperation of DLAB2. But simultaneously, in the time of Corona, we have become increasingly aware that intercultural understanding and international outlook flourish under different and more conducive circumstances in the physical and social proximity, which arises when people are brought together by a common goal.
Henriette Hjelm Hansen, Christine Worm and Camilla Damsgaard