Meanwhile: in Stockholm, day 2

A busy day, lots of impressions, lots of information to digest and make sense of, many short chats with people I never met before. Loads of inspiring examples and presenters, stimulating initiatives and innovations as well as intriguing presentations of research results. And then there are also a lot of poster presentations worth studying ! Also a few disappointments as workshops were fully seated when I arrived at the workshop room, which meant that within moments you need to take a quick decision where to go instead. All in all it was a lot to take in, but an exhilirating experience ! Then off to Stockholm's city hall for the reception and above all to admire the amazing interior of the first floor hall. That in a nutshell was the experience of a conference delegate on day 2 of the Global Social Work conference. This is just a random selection of photos of the day.

Meanwhile: in Stockholm, day 1

And there we were, a small delegation of five from Rotterdam, arriving to the conference venue with many, many others on Sunday July 8th. It was the 2nd joint Global Social Work Social Development conference: Action and Impact that was about to start in Stockholmsmässan/Stockholm International Fairs that had drawn us there in big numbers.

Queuing up for registration seemed to become an endless affair, so in we went to the opening ceremony without the official entrance name tags and materials to hear a warm and thought provoking welcome from a group of young people. The purpose of the conference was made crystal clear to us by David Jones: we are here to plan the future, not just talk ! Of course we meet colleagues from all over the world, and of course we'll build our networks and of course we will listen and talk, but all people involved in social work have a global agenda now which needs to be implemented, starting right here in Sweden. Here's a visual impression of day 1.

A Final Goodbye

Last week we said goodbye to the last group of international students who participated in this year's edition of the International Class in Bridging Cultures in Multicultural Rotterdam. These were the students who had decided to stay on for an additional two-month period to do independent studies, either an internship type of study programme or a survey based on literature study. Here are some photos of that final get-together where also the certificates were handed out.

Shortly before this final goodbye, news had reached the coordinators that next year there will be no International Class. Internally, our university needs some time to reconsider the concept of international education offered to students from our partner universities. Whether that will mean an end to the collaboration between the School of Education and the School of Social Work, nobody knows. So for now, all we can say is: last week was also goodbye to the international class for the coordinators.

Wikipedia is research, or not ?

Wikipedia, the free, collaboratively edited and multilingual internet encyclopedia, is not only among the top 10 most-visited sites, but it has also grown to be the number one source for students. In fact, for many students it is more or less a one stop shop for information and students are said to stop research and change topics if it’s not on Wikipedia. Studies have shown that Wikipedia is almost as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica, all due to the efforts of the millions of volunteers who write, edit, and check its entries. This infographic by OpenSite highlights how Wikipedia has revolutionized research and how it has become an increasingly reliable fountain of knowledge over the years.
Interested in knowing why so many volunteer to contribute to Wikipedia? Listen to the founder Jimmy Wales:

Meanwhile: in Copenhagen

Having the best of both worlds: that was the driving force behind the decision to have the 2nd INVEST partnership meeting in May organised in conjunction with the CEV conference. The theme of the Copenhagen conference was in fact very much in line with the path that had been trodden in the run-up to the Grundtvig project application of INVEST, namely: cross-sector collaboration. The backdrop: the beautiful location of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) at Christiansborg Palace, on the island of Slotsholmen in the centre of the Danish capital. After enjoying the CEV conference, its workshops,seminar sessions and opportunities for networking and disseminating, the INVEST partners met on Friday May 9th to hold two workshops in the company of their volunteers, volunteering coordinators and colleagues. The workshops were a first try out in a European setting, leading to stimulating dialogue and exchange of experiences. The overall mission and goal of the INVEST project is to strengthen volunteering interventions by training volunteers on a regular basis in order to increase motivation for volunteering, encourage the quality and continuity of volunteer involvement and empower volunteers themselves in their competence development. In the workshops given by the UK partner (Roehampton University)and the Italian partner (Ciessevi) the focus was in fact on those issues. Having been identified as a major component of any learning activity, reflection took centre stage in the discussions and debriefing moments after the workshops. Many times you could hear participants saying: "come to think of it , I now realise that .....". Another interesting reflection was expressed during the finishing round of remarks: "it was so good to talk to people involved in volunteering within the wider scope of Europe; there is so much common ground but we've never realised this up to now in this European setting by sharing these thoughts with European counterparts". Mission completed ? Not yet, but we are well underway ! The Grundtvig Learning partnership that started its activities in September 2011 is more or less midway by now, so it was time to take stock of the progress made during the first project year. This was done on the morning preceding the general opening of the CEV conference. Taking the opportunity to finetune further steps in the project, the partners outlined more detailed plans for the coming months and the 3rd partnership meeting in November, in Milan. Hopefully, by the end of June we'll have finished a number of chapters of the digital booklet we are to produce, so that from September onwards the focus can shift towards volunteer portfolios.


Posted later, a short videoclip of the INVEST meeting: