ibm kidsmart travelling toys project report final30 · pdf filetravelling toys project report...

I think this is Finland

“ Europe’s great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. The EU year will encourage all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from different cultural traditions.”

EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue, DG Education and Culture

Travelling Toys: Promoting Cultural Awareness And Understanding

Project Report

Travelling Toys project report

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IBM KidSmart Travelling Toys project : 29 September – 24 October 2008

Introduction

IBM was inspired to run this project for pre-school age children, known as ‘Travelling Toys’, by the European Year of Inter-Cultural Dialogue :

“ Europe’s great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. It will encourage all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from different cultural traditions.”

550 children aged 3-6 with 50 teachers from 15 kindergartens in 13 countries participated in the project, enthusiastically supported by parents and their local communities. Through the ‘Travelling Toy’, selected to represent each kindergarten, and the power of internet communication, the children were able to experience many aspects of the lives of their peers in four other countries over the period of a month during October 2008.

The project enabled teachers to introduce a new level of creativity into their work, as well as innovations such as the use of collaboration to stimulate children’s learning. They also gained an increased understanding of the skills needed to integrate ICT effectively into early education.

Both children and adults learnt a great deal about each other’s cultures and about themselves, including many features of daily life, language, music, dance, food, imaginative thinking and not forgetting the art of travel itself…

Paddington Bear enjoying the company during his week in Helsinki Photo courtesy of Kari Kuusela, Haagalainen, Finland


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What is Travelling Toys about ? This four week IBM project for pre-school children participating in the KidSmart programme from across the EMEA region was designed to enhance new ways of learning using digital tools and the internet for children aged 3 to 6, while at the same time offering exciting activities and new experiences through topic based communication with children and teachers from other countries. In addition, the project was conceived to make an innovative contribution to the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. To begin their dialogue, children from the 15 participating schools sent a ‘Travelling Toy’ to each of the 4 institutions they were partnered with. Using their IBM KidSmart Early Learning Centre and a digital camera to communicate, the children then exchanged messages, photographs (or ‘postcards’) and videos as though between the toys for a period of one week with each partner school. The main aim was to learn something about other cultures by gaining a better understanding of the lives of their peers in other countries through the medium of the ‘Travelling Toy’. In the event, however, the project had an impact on a wide range of learning, including important elements of social and emotional education, creativity, use of ICT tools and an understanding of what is involved in foreign travel. Benefits for children’s learning In Finland, their chosen toy was a squirrel called Olli, selected because the children had recently studied the activities of a real squirrel living in a tree outside their classroom. They suggested early on that they should send Olli a picture of ‘his tree’ so that he wouldn’t be too homesick and this very personal identification with the toy’s experiences became a significant element of the children’s learning in all the participating countries. Collaboration between classes in the home school :

Teachers helped children to draw and choose the clothes that their toy would need for his or her travel to each of the four different countries, help pack the toy’s box and work out what kind of money they would need. Other classes in the schools often became very interested in the project. In Finland, for example, a ‘sister’ squirrel appeared and came every day with a different child to enquire about her brother’s adventures and report back. In Ireland, older children also became very

engaged and a class of 11 year olds helped to undertake research on the internet to find out about the countries which Sinéad, the Irish toy, was visiting and present their information in an appropriate form to the younger children taking part in the project. This account of the project from a kindergarten teacher in Finland reflects the experience of many of the participating schools : “ The toys were involved and integrated into all activities in the

kindergarten throughout the day and the unique characteristics of each toy were used as sources of inspiration for learning activities. Each toy was a full member of the group, living and learning together with the children during its stay at the kindergarten. The toys were brought alive through storytelling.


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We turned the whole project into a story and the children lived that story on a daily basis throughout the project. Olli’s letters from different parts of his trip raised questions and comments like ‘How come he is travelling all alone around the world ? How can he do that?’ This allowed us to encourage the children to engage with his experiences, exploring what that would feel like. They often asked things like ‘Will Olli be scared ?’ and ‘What if he gets lost along the way?’ Olli and his trip became a big fairy tale in which anything could happen and the children really became immersed in it.

The children loved seeing their toy in the pictures they received from other countries. They spent ages studying every detail in each picture and were touched at seeing something familiar, ‘a friend’, knowing that he or she is far, far away. ”

In Poland, teachers reported that the children treated the toys as special guests from abroad, taking care of them and making beds and meals for them. The toys took part in games, classes and group trips. The children were very involved in showing the toys around and telling them stories about their homes and kindergarten life.

“Seeing their toy in the pictures received from other countries helped them to learn something new about their class topic. They were keen to see the photos straightaway as they arrived. They asked lots of questions about how their toy was doing abroad. The toy’s adventures created a lot of joy and positive emotions.”

“They greeted the toy every morning and tried to keep it with them while playing or learning. For Hannibal ,a horse from Italy, children brought from home many small horses, friends for Hannibal, so that he did not feel alone. “ Russia

In Italy, the teachers worked with the children on the themes of travel and the encounter with other cultures through the creative use of a range of multimedia tools. For example the scanner was used to scan the toys, photos were altered by children using software. They recorded sounds and voices and played funny games with words in the foreign languages : “ We brought the children, in a playful way, to the world of technology, demonstrating its practical use and helping them to discover the possibilities that technology offers for particular purposes, including the Internet and e-mail. In addition, the project helped both children and teachers to observe their surroundings more closely and with a different eye, in the process learning more about their own school and neighbourhood. We also ran workshops to show the children from other schools the way we learn, for example through glassware, cooking and painting. ”

Travel

In many of the schools, the children discussed how their toy would get to the other countries, whether it would fly, walk, go by boat, drive… In Spain, they worked with the map of Europe and traced virtual itineraries from Spain to Austria, Italy, Finland and Ireland. They then reproduced that itinerary on the map using the ‘Paint’ program on the computer. To finish it, they recreated the itinerary all together on the interactive whiteboard.


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In Berlin, children went to ‘meet’ the Berlin bear when he arrived back at Schoenfeld airport. They arranged to visit the security area and watched bags passing through the scanner. Some children wanted to know who invented the plane, so they used the internet with their teachers back at the kindergarten to find out. Creativity and imagination This picture shows the excitement of children in Portugal, guessing what will be in the package when the first toy arrives from Russia : “Each Monday, the children were waiting for the new toy. They never got bored of listening to stories about where the toys came from, how they got to their country, their town and their kindergarten.” Geography and Science

The map of Europe and the cities of the partner kindergartens were studied extensively, and as time passed, children became increasingly interested in learning more about different cities, countries, flags, and languages. The children asked a lot of questions and they were very interested in the cultural differences.

“In Italy we used the project to help develop a critical sense in children, as well as the ability to ask, investigate, rework, formulate hypotheses to be checked, for example, discover that the world is much bigger than they think, that our country is called Italy but it is not the only one in the world and that there are other nations near and far.”

Portugal looks very small on the map compared with Russia :

In their classroom in Moscow, the teachers and children created a mini-museum which presented interesting aspects of life in Germany, e.g. famous buildings, songs, a calendar of holidays, children’s stories and poems. Food In Spain, they cooked and ate some typical foods from their partner countries. Paddington Bear arrived from London complete with a request for his favourite marmalade sandwiches, along with


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a helpful recipe for the children. In Berlin, they thoughtfully prepared the special plum pancakes called Kaiserschmarren, that would make Elsa the cow from Vienna feel more at home ! Music and dance In Spain and the other partner countries which hosted Sinéad, the Irish dancing doll, teachers took the opportunity to introduce the children to Irish dancing and teach them some of the dances. Meanwhile, the Berlin bear (and the German children) enjoyed listening to Mozart’s music, during the exchange to Vienna. Foreign languages The Spanish children and their teachers made short video clips in which each child introduced themselves. These were hosted on a web server and the link sent to the partner schools, so the children could both see and hear their new friends from Madrid. In Spain, they opened the e-mails with the children, read them in English and then translated them. They learnt and sang songs in Italian and English, as well as learning some words in Finnish. “They heard the languages spoken by children in the partner kindergartens, where movie footage was used. They reacted in a very lively way when they heard their peers speaking in different languages. They appreciated attending English lessons, so they can communicate with children from different countries. They were asking what language it was. They were coming to a conclusion themselves that they must learn foreign languages; they want to travel and find out about other countries. ” Poland “They heard children speaking Portuguese and liked that very much. It made them aware that there were many languages they have not heard of before. It was a surprise to the children that Belgian children do speak the same language as they do. The English language appealed to them because they hear English songs and language on the TV all the time. ” Neths “ We received videos from Russia, which helped us to see the differences in language but also in customs”, Portugal In Germany, the English and Russian messages were read to the children in the original language by parents and colleagues and then translated into German. Parents and the community

In many countries, parents and members of the local community were actively involved in the project. For example, the toys visited homes of the children and stayed overnight with the families. In some schools the janitor also played a key role, helping to ‘pick the toys up from the airport’ etc. In Berlin, the parents accompanied the class on project excursions and took an active role in the organisation of two highlight events. The parents communicated more with each other and told


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each other about the events and experiences. They brought with them toys and materials from their home country, e.g. from Russia. The support of the Berlin Senate department for education, science and research also contributed greatly to the project’s success. In the UK, a weekly update from Paddington’s travels was published in the newsletter. The project was also extended by asking parents to take Paddington bear to their holidays and illustrating this with photo evidence “The parents were very interested in the project and asked lots of questions about the toys as the project went on. We also told other parents about the project in our UN Day celebration and exhibition and we had one wall that was covered with Olli’s letters and pictures from his journey.” Finland “In Madrid, parents were involved in the Project from the very beginning, helping in the translation and contributing with documents, photographs and songs from the countries that our travelling toy was visiting. Everyday, in our on-line magazine we posted the children’s project activities so that the families could follow the project in real time

http://www.educa.madrid.org/portal/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=23329.6&c=ad It has been very interesting for our parents. They had to work together with their children looking for information about the partner countries and contributed to teaching, e.g. songs in other languages, books and photographs from their travels. Together we learnt about costumes from the other countries. ” In Poland, parents were informed about the project and its goals through the kindergarten bulletin. They followed the project by watching a display of photos and messages in the hallway.

In a second Polish school, the project was supported by the Local Council, the Town Library, the Community Centre in Jozefow and Roztoczanski National Park in Zwierzyniec. Parents were very interested about the news from the kindergarten and they were proud that their kids were participating in an international project. At the end the parents, as well as the local community, gave very positive feedback to the school. In Italy, parents were invited to a meeting before the start of the project and they joined in daily through the stories told by the children at home and through the ‘wall’, which displayed all the e-mails and photos. Children told the stories of the toys and sang songs from the partner countries at home. In the last week the children asked the teachers if they could take the Russian Matrioshka home to see how they lived with their families. The parents took photographs and wrote comments about how they felt to see their children so involved. In Nizhny Novgorod in Russia, a substantial grant was received from the local authority to buy a video camera so that the kindergarten could contribute to this international project through moving images. “ The local radio stations and newspapers also really wanted to know about Travelling Toys. It was a project with high visibility in the region. It was important for the local community to see


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this kindergarten developing an interesting international project. It was also important for other schools. Not only kindergartens but also primary and secondary schools could see that it’s possible to work and learn with schools from different countries, even with small children. The school community was very curious about it and also a little bit jealous. ” Portugal “There was a very high involvement of the parents. Many parents wanted to be part of the email distribution list. Every morning many parents looked in the file to read the latest emails and to see the pictures. They also watched the videos made during the project. Finally, they were involved because the toys stayed in several children’s homes, and the parents made photos of the stay. ” Netherlands “ As a result of this project, parents have become more deeply involved in the KG activities….We would definitely like to take part in something like this again, especially because the project underlined for parents the importance of computer literacy and English-speaking skills. ” Russia Teachers’ comments on the value of the project

“What was new was the idea of dealing with new cultures and new countries. As teachers, we got more and more interested in the project as time passed. Telling a story with the voice of a toy is something that children like very much and it was easy to keep them interested and engaged. It was surprising how much information and detail could be conveyed in short letters and pictures. I learned a lot myself about cultural differences and different ways of doing things. The Travelling Toys project was an interesting and eye-opening journey and an important part of my career as a teacher. It was hard work to put our daily life on paper in words and pictures, but it was also

very interesting and rewarding. I hope that our partners and my colleagues abroad also found new inspiration for their work – I know I did! ” Finland “Our social goals have been ‘overachieved’. This project has been very motivating for the whole education community. It has been a reason to plan new and creative activities for the children using ICT as an important part of the learning. Collaboration with other schools in different countries has also given us the opportunity to observe the level of ICT integration and the methodology across a range of content. Having the toys in the group also increased the interaction between children. Reading letters and messages from other countries and talking about the toys and cultural issues was very interesting. It helped the children to concentrate and focus.” Spain “It was a more vivid way of introducing other cultures to the children. The children were more motivated because they received toys and pictures. I´m very interested in longer lasting but less intensive partnerships with other kindergartens.” Austria “The project perfectly complemented the theme of the year in our kindergarten: ‘I'm European’. This topic will be continued until the end of the school year. Children will learn about other countries in Europe. The Travelling Toys project taught us a lot about kindergartens in Europe and how they work. It was very inspiring for children, parents and teachers.


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Teachers had a chance to use their creativity. It was also an opportunity to refresh computer skills. They used the Internet as a source of information. The project enhanced team working and gave them a lot of personal satisfaction. The great involvement of the pupils was an extra motivation for them. It was very interesting for them to learn about kindergartens in Europe and how they function. They had a chance to exchange methods and ideas. It improved their self-esteem. They want to continue the collaboration with some of the kindergartens.” Poland In the 2nd Polish school : “ The teachers gained deeper knowledge of other cultures, experience in planning and project management, new insight into the pupils and direct experience of other languages. “ “Travelling Toys would be helpful for all teachers who fear comparison with the new technology and its use in the classroom. In my opinion they often think in negative terms about the computer, just because they see no other use for it except for games. They could discover the new creative dimension of the technology in relation to the learning activities of the child, just as we do with the other tools we use in the classroom. ” Italy Difficulties and lessons learned Many of the difficulties experienced were technical, e.g. sound and video files could not be opened due to security settings or the files were too large or in the wrong format and so could not be opened on kindergarten computers. It is proposed therefore that in future standard formats should be used for all communication, e.g. ‘Word’ documents with photos incorporated and that a limit should be set to the file sizes of individual documents sent. “ It would be a good idea to train the teachers in how to produce and purpose the material, for example, the size in bytes of photos or video, the format of the documents etc. I would also like to see more importance given to the exchange between teachers and encourage debate about education systems in the different European countries. ” Italy “ Writing letters and messages took a lot longer than I initially expected and it was not possible to finish letters and other material within normal working hours. However, I didn’t mind finishing the letters at home after day at work – it was like telling a good friend about the day we’d had. The technical difficulties were a bigger problem, as the computers we have at the kindergarten could not be used for all the things we would have liked to do with them. That was another reason why I had to complete most of the messages at home on my own computer. If I started the project knowing what I know now, I would contact the IT administration services of the city of Helsinki and ask for a laptop for me and our kindergarten group for the duration of the project. I also wish we had had more than one camera. That way the children could have been even more involved in taking pictures and collecting the material.” Finland “Although the project has been a tremendous success, the nursery children would benefit more from it if it was carried out later in the year, preferably in the summer term. The children are very young on entry and need time to settle in, so some aspects of the project where a bit advanced for


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them at this stage. Also we were paired up with classes in countries like Finland, where the entry age is 6 years. So the communication happened on different levels.” UK “It’s necessary to adjust the timing and the communication exchange has to be in real time from school to school, from children to children. Mails have to facilitate real communication: speak about the weather, our opinion about the messages and photos they have sent each day, how some words are said in their language etc. ” Spain “ Communicate every other day, rather than every day, to allow time for translations and give children and teachers time to respond to what they are receiving. I also see real value in involving older children to do some of the writing and photography, making it a more inclusive project.” Ireland Recommendations from Germany : a. Plan the activities with the partner school in advance and discuss who does what, with

whom, when and who is responsible

b. Include a preparation phase for preliminaries, viewing materials, framework story

c. Main phase: sending and receiving messages, activities, questions, round table talks

d. Final phase: documentation, presentation of results and activities, planning of further projects

e. A break should be allowed within each project week mainly in case of technical problems such as `server is overloaded´ or `emails got lost ´

f. Sustainability of the project idea – continuation / networking at both an international and national level (KidSmart Community)

“ The only negative point was time. We think that one week for each school was not enough. Small children need more time to assimilate all the new information. A month for each country and one or two activities per week would be perfect. Then we would have time to explore and learn more about each country. ” Portugal Additional suggestions and the future of the project “As a teacher, I would have liked to hear more about how early education and childcare are organised in different countries. It would have been interesting, for example, to hear more about the administration and organisation of childcare or the teaching ideology in early education. For adults involved in the project, this would have opened a whole new dimension. It would also have been nice to share opinions and experiences about pedagogic aspects of our job and teacher training, for example. .. We have decided that Olli will visit each of the children and their families during the school year, and we will collect all of the letters and pictures into one place, so that every time Olli visits a child, the family can take all of the material he has gathered so far, and read stories of Olli’s journeys together. This was not possible during the project itself due to lack of time and resources. I could imagine that communicating with other kindergarten(s) in Finland might also be something worth trying in the future, with a lot of the same ideas and goals as we had in this


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project. Perhaps daily contact is a little too much (workload- and time-wise), but once/twice a week might be manageable. “It would be interesting to keep in touch with our partner KGS. However, my own language skills may restrict the extent of communication and interaction. If it was possible to continue to write letters in Finnish and get them translated somehow, then definitely, it would be very interesting to continue communication. ” Finland “The knowledge that we gained will be used during the rest of the school year to complement the year theme. Teachers from other groups can use the materials from the project (photos, articles) during their classes. ” Poland In Slovakia, they intend to continue communicating with their partner schools from time to time on specific themes, the first being Christmas and how it is celebrated elsewhere. This could also be extended to other religious festivals. “ We are planning to stay in contact with Vienna. Messages about our projects are to be sent and media-pedagogic contents will be exchanged. A book with the children’s drawings of the cow Elsa is already on the way to Vienna. We also hope to develop a strong partnership with the school in Moscow. ” Germany “It will be interesting to keep in touch with our partner KGS. For this reason we do not like to consider closed the contacts with the other schools despite the end of the project. We have already received an email from the Spanish KG and we prepared a message to send them.” Italy As the project ends, the toys return home “This week, on Monday, we celebrated Olli’s return to Helsinki and enjoyed all of the souvenirs he brought with him; red Polish apples, juicy and sweet Spanish tomatoes, cup of English tea from Harrods, and a huge Russian scarf with flowers, straight from the market in Nizhy Novgorod.”

“Although it was tiring and demanding we can enthusiastically affirm that it was an extremely interesting project and an excellent one to develop”, Italy “We were concerned that the children’s interest might wane after the first week, but their excitement simply grew as the programme continued and their enthusiasm was absolutely amazing”. Ireland “It was a big experience for us in Poland, but cool, worth recommending and continuing. All of us had great fun ! ”


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PR coverage : National TV :

Portugal : RTP1 (5 minutes of prime time on national TV) Russia : TV “Kremlin” Domashny NNTV National radio :

Portugal : Rádio Clube Português National press :

Austria : Kronenzeitung Kurier

Portugal : Correio da Manhă 24 Horas/Horinhas SOL Local radio :

Ireland : Galway Bay FM Portugal : 94FM/Bloco Noticioso Russia Local press :

Finland: Haagalainen Ireland : Connacht Tribune Poland : Tygodnik Zamojski

Nowa Gazeta Bilgorajska Portugal : Diário de Leiria

Portomosense Russia : Argumenty i Facty, Nizhny

Novgorod Path of Nizhny Novgorod

UK : Islington Gazette

W3 articles :

Austria Germany Ireland Italy Poland Slovakia Spain UK IBM customer magazine :

Austria IBM newsletter :

Poland On-line media :

Italy : Sourcews Informazione.it

Press Kit Feedage

Poland : Józefów local authority website Portugal : RH on-line (HR website) VER – website about social

responsibility Specialist press : UK : Nursery World

After a few days, the children from Bratislava told us that Elsa the cow was doing fine


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List of participating schools Baxter Betriebskindergarten Lange Allee 21, 1220 Wien, AUSTRIA Sint Martinusschool Palokestraat 79 B-1080 Brussel BELGIUM Päiväkoti Haaga Isonnevantie 27 PL 32815 00320 Helsinki FINLAND Käpt’n Browser Kita Allende Straße Salvador-Allende-Straße 47-49 12559 Berlin GERMANY Scoil Bhríde National School New Inn, Ballinasloe, Co Galway IRELAND Scuola infanzia H.C.Andersen Via Fiume 20059 Vimercate Milano ITALY Da Costa Hoograven 3525 AR Utrecht NETHERLANDS Samorzadowe Przedszkole Nr 175 ul. Siewna 23c, Kraków, 31-231, POLAND Przedszole Samorzadowe im Krasnala Halabaly w Józefowie ul. Broniewskiego 10 23-460 Józefów POLAND

Jardim de Infância de Porto Mós Rua da Saudades, 2480-331 Porto Mós PORTUGAL Kindergarten # 2399, 27 Sheremetievskaya , bld 1, Moscow, 127521, RUSSIA Kindergarten # 456 34a Heroes of Space street, Nizhny Novgorod, 603139, RUSSIA Materska skola Koliba Jeseniova 61, 831 01 Bratislava – Koliba, SLOVAKIA EEI Zaleo C/ de la Fuente de Piedra, 10 28018 Madrid SPAIN Hargrave Park Extended School Nursery and Children’s Centre, 51 Bredgar Road, London N19 5BN, UK

Sinéad, the Irish dancer from County Galway

Further information about the Travelling Toys project or about the IBM KidSmart Early Learning programme can be obtained from Carol Berry: [email protected]

Child’s view of Brummel the bear flying home to Berlin from Moscow

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