Bilateral meeting of Belgium and Spain in Pamplona, February 2007

Thursday 22nd February 2007

Belgish and Spanish partners
Belgish and Spanish partners

After a long trip by train, plane and bus we finally arrived in Pamplona, Spain. The weather was nice, the hotel fine and the environment beautiful. We quickly installed in the hotel before attending our very first meeting. In fact, it was not a meeting but we observed Nick’s class. He teaches English to Spanish civil servants who need English for their work. The level was high and we were therefore challenged to participate in a quiz. This week’s topic was money. The division of the time in class is different to what we are used to in Belgium. Much more time is devoted to interaction between pupils (presentations) and between pupils and tutor (compositions, diary entries). A school year is divided in three modules. Each module is on its turn divided into three units. Two weeks will be spent to each unit. The students have to make two compositions and two diary entries in each module, so after one school year, the student has made six compositions and six diary entries.

1 schoolyear > 3 modules > 2 units/module
                                          > 2 compositions and 2 diary entries/module

After a good meal and a bad night of sleep we were ready to kick off the next day!

Friday 23rd of February 2007

On Friday we visited the “headquarters” of CNAI for the very first time. We met the staff, which consisted mostly out of Europeans from all over Europe. We were taken around CNAI: the school, the resource centre, the library, the classrooms. Afterwards, Gabriel taught us something about the evolution of CNAI. Then, Aisling gave us an introduction of how they organized the courses. This went with a lot of trial and error in the beginning but now all things run smoothly! A big difference with our system is that at CNAI, they do not have exams. They claim that this motivates students.
After Aisling’s presentation, it was our turn. We used a powerpoint to make the staff familiar with our school system. We gave an introduction that was based on national, regional and local level.
After a quick coffee break, Lara, an English teacher, and her class guided us around in the city of Pamplona. Her students were second year students and their level of English was not very high. However, they were wonderful! With the few words they have learnt, they really tried to explain Pamplona’s history and monuments to us.
After this exhausting morning, we ate tapas at a local restaurant. Then, we returned to CNAI where the staff introduced us with their e-learning platform. As a preparation, we had to make a composition and a diary entry before going to Spain. They explained their platform by using our compositions, which made it very interesting for us.
Also the resource centre was introduced to us, by means of a questionnaire genre “who directed the film Chocolate?”. We then had to look for the right answer by using all the tools we found in the resource centre (DVDs, CDs, videos, books, magazines …).
After this exhausting day, Jane and Ana joined us at a restaurant where we were given a pleasant meal.

Saturday 24th February 2007

Gabriel and Willy at work
Gabriel and Willy at work

In the morning, we had to explain how we use Toledo. This was done from three points of view: the headmaster (Willy), the teacher (Gerard) and the student (Machteld). Our Irish “students” posed some very critical questions about our e-learning platform and were very interested in the possibilities of Toledo. Willy used Elov, an offspring of Toledo, to explain his experiences. Gerard used the Toledo of his Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg and Machteld illustrated how her English teachers corrected essays and translations.  
After a welcome coffee break, we illustrated some advantages of Toledo (announcements: teacher ill, ….; schedule of classes, self-testing…) and some disadvantages (no online exams …).
In the afternoon, everybody had to write a short message on Toledo (Café) so that everybody is familiar with the use of it. Joachim, a German ICT-specialist, showed how we can use video-conferencing. What are the new programmes, the advantages/disadvantages of each program, how many persons can join a meeting with each program …. A disadvantage of video-conferencing is that it is difficult to have all students involved. Perhaps the technological barrier is too high for some adults. Also, ADSL-lines are necessary but not everybody has them. Although these disadvantages, we all think that this can be part of the future of teaching.
Again, we had dinner at a local restaurant, this time with Lara and Joachim.

Sunday 25th February 2007

After a short session on adult education in Navarra (we forgot to prepare something about Flanders), we visited the Sanctuary of San Miguel de Aralar, together with Lara, Gabriel, Nick and Aisling.
After we faced the cold, we had a meaty lunch at a restaurant in the Pyrenees where all the boys ate at least half a cow…
We quickly made a to-do-list (perhaps some Irish teachers can come to Belgium – at the Sint Clara College- to explain their platform and to teach Belgium students English) we said goodbye to each other and had a good night’s sleep because the next day was departure day!

On Monday February 26th, 2007 we departed for Belgium again...