Technology and dialogue
The Ibérica Campus resulted from a new initiative from our School Animation Team. In making plans for this term we wanted to introduce some originality. More to the point, we noticed that we had merely been holding regularly scheduled Sports Days for the students in the Province, days that bring together some five hundred youngsters from our schools.
It occurred to us to have an additional get together, this one devoted to teamwork and collaborative effort rather than physical competition. A hands-on day enabling the youngsters to work in groups, using only computers and tablets – no paperwork. A day devoted to Technology and dialogue. We thought that this would be an interesting initiative for students and faculty to work together. One school even set aside some days to prepare for this event.
One the one hand, we used the idea behind the most important internet event in the world, the Campus Party™, featuring areas of innovation, creativity, science and digital games. For one week thousands of students would be living together in a unique and wonderful atmosphere. On the other, we would add the idea of working on projects based on PBL (project-based learning).
To enhance the event we also used the facilities of Cardinal Cisneros University in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, first reserving an area to work collaboratively with web quest and then with a collaborative version of wiki or a blog. The result: a blog you can find at http://campusiberica.cardenalcisneros.es.
We joined forces with the Sub-director’s Office for Educational Innovation at that University in Alcalá to coordinate everything having to do with the dynamics of the event. An entire team of university professors designed the academic program for the day, with the following objectives:
1. Having students assemble from schools throughout the Province of Ibérica and others
2. Developing skills for conducting searches and selecting information, creatively building up and sharing knowledge through teamwork
3. Gaining experience in working cooperatively
4. Elaborating a multimedia resource useful for teaching and learning, organized in 2 stages:
1. Research: the competitive phase; task: each group worked on its theme independently; the result: a synthesis of the material researched
2. Accomplishment: the collaborative phase; task: the creation of a multimedia time-line in a blog; the result: a posting by each group + images for the blog
The underlying theme of this day was The Scientific Revolution of the Modern Age. To develop this, we identified a series of schools interested in working together collaboratively. The following ones signed up to participate:
1. Cardinal Cisneros in Alcalá de Henares, organizer of the event
2. Colegio Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Navalmoral de la Mata
3. Colegio San Joséin Logroño
4. Colegio Chamberí in Madrid
5. Colegio San José del Parque in Madrid, 2 teams
6. Colegio Santa María in Villalba
7. Colegio San José Maristak in Durango
8. Colegio El Pilar-Maristas inZaragoza
9. Colegio El Salvador inBilbao
10. Invited school: Colegio Marista Champagnat, Salamanca, Compostela Province
In the morning, after housekeeping, breakfast and assembling, the participants proceeded to the auditorium where the event was launched, taking place in the new CRAI (Resource Center for Learning and Innovation). The competition lasted from 9:45 until 2 in the afternoon.
At the end of the day prizes were distributed to members of the winning team in the competition phase, Colegio Chamberí, Madrid. Our sincere gratitude to the four sponsors who kindly donated the awards for this occasion, Edelvives, LCIbérica, Seringe and Movistar.
More information at
* www.maristasiberica.es
* On Twitter, hashtag #CampusIberica2013
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.489501904437534.1073741825.146323868755341&type=1
The School Animation Team of the Marist Province of Ibérica consists of Br. Moisés Alonso, Br. Abel Muñoz, Izaskun Lanborena and José María Sanz