1 Soverato

My Erasmus+ -course took place in Soverato, which is a small coastal town in Calabria, south of Italy. Soverato is the wealthiest town per capita in Calabria.  The town has population approximately 9000 inhabitants. Small and cosy town!

2 Associazione JUMP - Gioventù in riSalto

My host organization in Italy was Associazione JUMP.  “JUMP was born in Soverato, in the province of Catanzaro from the will of young Calabrians who studied, worked or lived outside of their homeland for many years. They are back for many reasons and have decided to give birth to a new reality in the territory of Catanzaro, characterized by a high rate of unemployment, especially among youths, educational poverty, and depopulation. JUMP is born to bring Europe to Calabria, activate internationalization processes in small steps, starting from education and social innovation.“, describes the hosting association about its starting point. Jump has multiple international projects going on, especially in culture and education.

3 The course

Full name of the course I attended was “Media Education + Videomaking at school. Classrooms in action and digital story-telling”. Target group of the course is many kind of teachers working in a public or private school or educational institutions. Name of the course is quite self-explanatory.

Day 1 – Arriving

On Sunday I had a pretty long flight from Helsinki to Lamezia Terme via Milan Bergamo, where I had a 4-hour wait in which I had time to order my first lunch in Italian! In Lamezia Terme airport, there was waiting Ilario, our designated driver arranged by our host organization. This was a very pleasant service. On the way to Soverato I had opportunity to get acquainted with few of my co-student from Romania and our Media-teacher Kasia from Poland.

 

Day 2

On Monday the actual course started. We had our first meeting around a table with all the participants and trainers. It was quite a multicultural gathering in European sense. Participants were all around the Europe: Romania, Portugal, Poland, Belgium, Germany and in addition me being fom Finland there was 5 classroom teachers from Oulu. Together we had the Briefing of the program, planning the visits and time management of the week. Not all were participating in the same course. There was a few different courses starting at the same time. The others being of culture and cooking, English in business, Ground level English communication, Stress management.

In the afternoon we prepared to go outdoors for “Outdoor Mission Impossible Team Building Game”. It involved a city game to get to know the local culture, traditions and history of the places. The goal was to get information from the locals just using the English language. That way we all participated in our little bit, getting the local people more ready for communicating with the tourists. After we stayed outdoors, enjoyed the seaside and had lunch in the city center.

In the evening we had our Get-to-know dinner together at nearby restaurant

 

Day 3

On Tuesday we had a first session with the trainer Ms Katarzyna Oklesinska. Session included discussing Media EDU and Media Literacy Theories and today’s solutions to train more media literate students and acknowledging risks of the internet. We Talked about Fake news and tools to fight against bad communication. As homework we were assigned to think about the topic for our educational video.

 

In the afternoon we had our first excursion, that was a walking tour to Soverato Superiore and botanical garden. We visited also the old church, where was Pietá – statue of Mary and Jesus made by Antonello Gagini. We viewed at the sightseeing site at the original village up on the hill.

Day 4

On Wednesday we had the second Session with the trainer Ms Katarzyna Oklesinska. We started the workshop on video making. We were learning how to start and create educational videos. We covered the subjects of the Storyboard, the subject, the sound, camera angles, different shots. We also went through suitable apps and editing programs. Especially we practiced on editing with InShot-program, that was suitable for all as it is quite a functional mobile app.

 

In the afternoon we had outdoor “shooting” session. I was recruited to the Romanian team as a cameraman and an editor. Mastermind of our short movie had to take part on some online seminar, so we had to think about new contents for our movie on the fly!

 

Day 5

On Thursday we had another session with the trainer Ms Katarzyna Oklesinska

It was fast editing and finalization of the videos. I was chosen to be a voice-over artist and later nicknamed as “ The Voice”

 

The participants from the other courses were invited to watch the final videos and we had discussion on the final results. The result was three fine and mutually different educational videos!

 

Day 6

Friday was the cultural day! In the morning driver drove us to the local market. We discovered the local environment and enjoyed the weekly market. That included, of course, informal socialization among participants..

 

In the afternoonwe went back to the lodging place. and prepared ourselves for the 2nd excursion. We left for Badolato old village..Badolato is a medieval old town situated in the mountains about 20 kilometers from Soverato. First, we had lunch in a local trattoria. We were attacked by rain, so we could enjoy a heartwarming musical performance at the trattoria.

 

After Badolato, we visited a beautiful former Monastery nearby. Nowadays it was working as a healing place and sanctuary for people with addictions.

 

Day 7

On Saturday some participants were leaving and remaining participants did some evaluation of the program, summarizing learning outcomes. This was the last possibility for searchin for connections for future projects anddo some  partnership building.

 

I found out that due to the national strike of airport workers, my flight was cancelled and I had to check new transportation possibilities. It took me few hours, but got it sorted out.

 

Day 8 – Returning home

Instead of flying Lamezia – Milan – Helsinki in 6 hours. I had to take a different route: Lamezia – Düsseldorf – Stockholm – Helsinki. Transportation took me 17 hours, but it was an interesting experience on its own.

4 What I learned during the course

I have learned how to manage with international team of different backgrounds and different level of knowledge of making movies. I also found out more of the editing program we used. and found out a new webpage, where one can find free and legal music for educational videos. The movie project strengthened my view of importance of a good, clear audio. And I definitely improved my social skills and gained many new friends and possible future international collaborators. Furthermore I improved my problem solving abilities and stress management as my returning flight was cancelled and I had to find a new way home.

 

Here is a video composed by Associazione JUMP about our time in the course: https://youtu.be/hUiV0gYEjaA

Petri Aitta-aho