Bilateral meeting of Cyprus, Poland and Germany in Rostock, June 2007

Rostok w naszych sercach

Pierwszy tydzień naszych wakacji spędziłyśmy w Rostoku. Byłyśmy gośćmi ANOVA Multimedia Studios GmbH. Współpraca (cooperation) w przemiłej atmosferze przyniosła spodziewane efekty. Nie było problemów z wymianą informacji (communication), bo chociaż oficjalnym językiem konferencji był angielski, nie zabrakło również języków ojczystych: niemieckiego, polskiego, rosyjskiego. Tatjana, przedstawiciel Cypru, jest Niemką. Mówi po rosyjsku, czyta po grecku –nie mówi tylko po turecku. (jeszcze) 

Celem naszej wizyty było opracowanie definicji i wzorca „best practice example of e – learning”. Udało nam się!!! A dodatkowo przygotowaliśmy kilka przykładów.

Nasze spotkanie to również poznawanie kraju, obyczajów i codziennego życia gospodarzy. Chociaż pogoda nie była najlepsza (Volker nie wykupił abonamentu na słońce), to wszystko inne było super: plaża w Warnenmünde, "room service" :), zwiedzanie Rostoku, wycieczka na Rugię i Berlin w drodze powrotnej! Bardzo, bardzo dziękujemy za serdeczne, ciepłe i rodzinne przyjęcie, niezapomniane wspomnienia.

All eagles from Poland love Volker very much :)), not only in second life!!!! Our thanks to you are coming from the bottom of our hearts!

Volker zaprosił nas ponownie. Ustalamy termin....

Cypriot Impressions of the 2nd Rostock Meeting

28 June, Thursday

In the late morning, I arrived in Rostock. Volker was waiting for me at the platform of the train station. Although we haven’t seen each other before we recognized each other quite easily; we must have had the right feeling of who is who. Since Gosia and Beata (the Polish partner) arrived a little earlier than me they had a coffee at the train station and were waiting for me. As soon as I arrived Volker brought us to the hotel first in order to leave our baggage there. Then we went to the ANOVA office where we were introduced to all employees and were shown the premises. A beautiful arranged lunch buffet was waiting for us and didn’t last long. We started our introductory session with short presentations of each partner organization to get to know each other better. After Volker had presented the program for the next few days we went off for the first cultural event: sight-seeing and dinner in Warnemünde – a part of Rostock situated at the Warnow estuary as well as the Baltic Sea coast. The drizzle rain didn’t stop us from walking around where we were lucky to marvel at the Aida cruise ship while at harbor but also when leaving the port with loud siren tones. After our fish dinner the rain stopped, the sun broke through the clouds and we had a relaxing walk at the beach. Whenever I’m at a beach nothing can stop me from walking barefoot through the water; in Warnemünde it was the same: I took of my shoes and enjoyed the cold water on my feet and legs. To me, it was an amazing ending of our first day.

29 June, Friday

After a rich breakfast Volker picked us up at the hotel to go to the office. There we started with our first working session about a definition of a best practice example and the differentiation to a didactical method. This discussion was accompanied by a presentation of the Polish partner regarding the practical use of moodle and dokeos as e-learning platforms.
We went to the close-by ‘Mensa’ – the university cafeteria – for lunch, which was of very good service and quality, therefore impressive to me as I know only German university cafeterias of rather average to bad service and quality. After lunch we continued with loads of new energy to discuss how to find best practice examples. During this discussion we jointly decided that we can’t tell which the ‘best’ practice example is as there are too many conditions that it depends on, i.e. in one situation a good practice example can be best but in another situation the same good practice example might not be best anymore, or even in the same situation it might not be the best practice example for another person. In the afternoon, we recorded the survival words and phrases in Polish and Greek to incorporate onto the website.
Volker had organized a tour guide to show and explain to us the old town of Rostock and its history. I was surprised to get to know that the name ‘Rostock’ has its origin in the Slavik word for ‘area near the water’. I also didn’t know that the town and the university are fairly old; the buildings tell their own stories.
We spent our evening with a huge pan of meat and some fish in a rustic restaurant that has its own brewery.

30 June, Saturday

Our next working session was about how to describe good practice examples. In alliance with the book “Kleines Handbuch didaktischer Modelle” and with the categories of Medida Prix and other competitions, we developed a draft of a structured format with several categories to describe practice examples in a structured and therefore comparable way in the database. Shortly, we also discussed how to give access to the database of good practice examples. The decision was not to have a printed version in addition to the website but to think about a CD-ROM.

After having had lunch in a close-by restaurant, we were presented the virtual classroom Centra that we will use for further exchanges and discussions about good practice examples. Finally, we agreed on the next steps that should be taken to conclude our good practice example meeting at Anova.

In the afternoon, we had some hours to discover the old town of Rostock on our own. In the evening, we were invited for a raclette dinner at Volker’s home, which was a very nice and relaxing last evening for me.

1 July, Sunday

On our last day we went to Rügen to see the amazing and wonderful chalk cliffs.

To me, it was not only a harmonious but also a productive meeting in Rostock. Therefore, I’d like to thank you Volker: Vielen lieben Dank für die Vorbereitung und Durchführung des Meetings in Rostock!