Sofia Sevón and Taija Votkin are Swedish teachers at Aalto University Language Centre. In this blog post, they reflect on their pilot experiences with Aalto Online Learning.
We have been privileged to be a part of the Aalto Online Learning community from the very beginning. It has been a great journey and it is now time to look back and reflect on what we have gained.
When we applied for funding for the first time, our aim was to create an online platform for learning Swedish called Smart svenska. Already while we were sketching our ideas, we realized that this will be a much more far-reaching experience than just creating a platform.
Most importantly, we had become part of a learning community.
Within Aalto Online Learning, we have participated in various workshops, trainings, lectures, a trip to Jyväskylä, and last but not least galas and similar events including post-parties with great food, music and drinks.
To be honest, preparing for the Learning@Aalto Galas has sometimes been a bit overwhelming to say the least, but it has been worth it. We have given minute of madness presentations, taught small talk in Swedish with hand puppets, promoted our projects, but most of all, we have got to know so many amazing and talented people within the Aalto Online Learning community and beyond.
It has led to new levels of collaboration with people from different departments within Aalto University. This has been great fun and also crucial for the success of our projects.
As an example, we worked together with the Chemistry department in our ThingLink project Learning Swedish in 360 Environments, which led to lively Swedish classes in the laboratory, practicing both lab procedures and Swedish vocabulary, as you can see in this video.
Altogether, the Aalto Online Learning project has been one of the most rewarding experiences here at Aalto. We have loved the way we have been given both freedom and responsibility to develop our pilots. As language teachers, we now feel more integrated to the bigger Aalto community. All the things we have learned and all the people we have met have truly widened our horizons.
Ha det så bra!
Sofia and Taija
Have a look at Smart svenska pilot website!