How does a Finnish Vocational teacher perceive

Korean education?

My name is Helena Rajalinna and I work at Omnia, the joint Authority of Education in Espoo region. I am a learning

solutions specialist in our Digital learning team. My masters are education and cultural studies, but I also

have a vocational qualification in waitressing. I started in Omnia year 2006, and at that time my main job

was further education for early childhood educators. Soon I started to get interested in Mobile learning and

Digital learning contents.

감사하는 thankful I'm very thankful for the

opportunity to take part in the OPET- program which made my visit to Keimyung College

University possible.

I'm also very thankful to all the wonderful Korean people I

had chance to meet during my visit, because they were so

helpful and friendly and let me take photos and videos and publish them in my blog. The blog was my report about the things I experienced during

my visit.

Before the visit I had a meeting with professor Sang-Seong Lee. We made plans which Departments I wanted

to visit. I also had a chance to meet Miss Aeyun Kwon, took her around Omnia premises-

which was very good, because she helped me

during my visits in Keimyung College Departments. Without her enormous help I couldn't

have asked so many questions or made my videos

while visiting the different departments.

When I arrived, I had 12 visits in my schedule, which

consisted of actually 7,5

working days. The Koreans were so effective working

with me that finally I was able to

make 21 visits during my stay and meet the President Kim

Nam-Seuk three times.

친절한 friendly

Not only was the staff of Keimyung

College very friendly, but also

it was easy to see that the relationships between the

professors and the students were

very friendly, appreciative and

warm.

During my visits I made videos, because It

helped me in remembering my experiences and sharing them with

others. My challenge was to

edit each visits material into approximately 2 minutes videos. So I

need to emphasise that they strongly present

my point of view.

My first visit was the early childhood education centre.

The reasons for that visit were many. Firstly it was

one of my majors, but even more importantly in my opinion it gives a strong

perspective of how Korean education values learning in the most important phase of

human life. In early childhood education we

often explore new phenomenons for the first

time and form opinions and values about them.

What I saw was a lot of phenomenon- based

learning with nice touches of many pedagogical

practices, like Montessori and Reggio Emilia.

http://youtu.be/WG0Q64zlZmI http://youtu.be/WG0Q64zlZmI

I had a chance to visit the Beauty- and Hairdressing

Departments and the Mechanical Engineering

Department. I'm convinced there are many possibilities

for the student-change program. (Video)

http://youtu.be/u0BIrFf5wk8 http://youtu.be/u0BIrFf5wk8

I was very impressed during my visit to the Department of Food, Nutrition and Cookery.

Professor Oh Wang-Kyu used mobile technology very effectively in his department. The students used their own

devices for taking notes, sharing materials and doing assignments. Professor Oh Wang-Kyu, used the Apple-tv to

show the other students what was going on in the classroom - and also for streaming material to other classes

simultaneously. He used Naver and Band for coordinating the classes, assignments and evaluation. How impressive and

effective!

http://youtu.be/kuqXc14y2wY http://youtu.be/kuqXc14y2wY

http://youtu.be/KsJNLakNKXk http://youtu.be/KsJNLakNKXk

Practical Nursing Department

전문직에 종사하는 Professional qualifications

Many of the programs last for two years, 80 credits, in Korea.

It's amazing how effective and target oriented the system is.

Due to the shorter studying time, I felt that the Koreans work harder and

seem to be more motivated. I understand that in order to exchange student more effectively, Korea needs

to develop the requirements of competence-based qualifications and

the recognition of skill-based validation.

훈련 discipline, culture

What is the secret behind the Korean success in education?

I believe that the discipline, the cultural matters have a lot to do with it.

Target minded students and professors working together effectively.

What pleases me most is the learning atmosphere I could feel everywhere I went: calm, appreciative

and encouraging.

What about the challenges? Success in global education "markets" will benefit from

eager will to cooperate and develop education, but also from multilingual competence.

훈련 discipline, culture 협력 Cooperation

고맙습니다 thank you!

I can't find enough words to express my gratitude to the friendly and helpful people I was lucky to meet during my 2

week visit in Keimyung College University !

I didn't expect to experience so much and get to interview so many different Departments. Neither did I expect to see so

much Korean culture and visit such beautiful places!

Special thanks to Aeyun, professors Lee and Kim! You made my trip unbelievable!