Bilateral meeting of Germany, Poland and Belgium in Geel, May/June 2007

The main topic of our discussions in Geel during this meeting was video conferencing, how one can organize such a session, what technology and preparations are needed. Tom Segers, an experienced scientist and technician working in the Katholieke Hoogeschool Kempen (KHK) at Geel, joined us during our sessions and started with an introduction of technical issues and practical demonstrations of the video conference system at the school. The system of the school is very powerful and user friendly what enables high quality video conferencing. Unfortunately it is rather expensive too. Another tested solution, the vPointHD, based on transmission protocols of the internet was powerful as well. It may become the candidate for our video conference in the 3rd project year. A very easy and free of charge solution was prepared and demonstrated by Jan Cuypers and Lowie Nijs from the CVOHIKempen – GPB. The advantages and disadvantages were discussed and all the systems compared to each other. A highlight was to put hands on the different systems, try these and learn about these on a very practical way. During the morning the local television visited the school, made an interview and prepared a television broadcast transmission about our project. It was transmitted in the evening. In the afternoon we had a presentation by Marieke van Beylen from the KHK. She presented us the results of an European project Real Virtual Erasmus (REVE). Part of the project was the International Student Business Challenge based on video conferencing methods. It was very useful for us to learn about the manifold experiencies and to get tips for our project.
Our Belgian partner organized an academic session of the CVOHIKempen – GPB with more than 100 guests for this evening. There was a possebility to widespread the ideas of steLLLa, to get in contact with interested people, introduce our institutions and exchange experiencies. A very amazing performance was given by a young accordionist.

This morning Machteld Dirkx, a student at the CVOHIKempen – GPB joined us. We discussed the other tasks of the project, the questionaire and project evaluation. Since the last Cyprus meeting we follow the idea to produce a flyer and poster for the project steLLLa as well. Manuella Borghs had prepared some good ideas how to start with these activities. It also was rather helpful to see some examples of film presentations of other projects of the CVOHIKempen – GPB to be inspired for our planned film.
The CVOHIKempen – GPB opened the doors for more than 1000 current and future students on this day to have a barbecue together. This well-organized event is important for the school to inform and motivate adults of the region to take part in the offered evening courses.
In the afternoon we visited the Jenevermuseum in Hasselt. Gerard Gielen, a language teacher at the CVOHIKempen – GPB, showed us his home town. The final meeting of the partners took place in a restaurant where we enjoyed the culinary specialities of Flanders.