Meeting Report

Partnership meeting report in Beypazarı Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi, Ankara, Turkey

28 – 29 May 2012

Partners:

• Beypazarı Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi, Ankara, TR
• Club Senior Nordstad, Ettelbruck, Luxemburg, LU
• Escola Secundaria, D.Sancho I, Vila Nova de Famalicão, PT
• Fundacja Pomocy Niewidomym, Lomianki, PL
• Scuola Secondaria di I Grado G.Pascoli, Fasano di Brindisi, IT
• Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, ES
• Zebra Formations asbl, Hannut, BE

1. Designating a secretary for the project meeting (who will takes notes, write and communicate the report). This person should belong to the organization of the folloowing project meeting.

The secretary for the Beypazari meeting is Maria Dibello from Scuola Secondaria di I Grado « Giovanni Pascoli », Italy, because the following meeting will be held in Fasano, Italy. The report for the present meeting will be sent to the coordinator to be checked before dispatching to all partners via emails.

2. Presentation by Spain of the first compilation of products in Compendium form. Presentation of the Compendium logo and design proposed by Luxembourg. Next partners responsible should use the existing model.

Nuria by Spain presented the Compendium both in pages and in digital. The parts of different partners are listed in alphabetical order, so we can find Belgium as the first and Turkey as the last. Different items for each partners have been separated : Definition and characteristics of the IG Groups; Objectives of the IG workshop; Methodology and description of the workshop activities; Results obtained from the various workshops and activities in terms of learning / teaching pedagogy and IG experiments; Assessment of the degree of adaptability of the activities to different institutional and organizational contexts.

In this way it is easy to find information. All participants agreed with this model.

Spain will get in contact with Italy who will be the responsible for the next compendium. Italy has to keep all as it is made, from the technical point of view.

As for the logo proposed by Luxembourg, Barbara presented their idea: at the top the European flag, at the bottom the names of our countries. After discussion, everybody agreed to keep just the European flag.

Nuria proposed a different logo for the web page, a logo that represents our project. Every partner should give their opinion about it.

3. Presentations by Partners of their local activities as best practices to be shared (in the form of a Power Point Presentation).

The presentations respected the agreed common structure.

Each partner presented the results and conclusions of their work during the second period about the “living places” lifestyles in various generational groups.

The presentations showed a big variety of creative approaches to the theme; a vast diversity of methods: analysis, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, video, etc; the workshops were very active with many generations involved, and showed all groups very motivated; the living conditions played an important role in their lives; there were different living places in the different countries: in all presentations the different characteristics of the place in which we live were underlined; the learning pedagogy offered several approaches; results and conclusions were very satisfying because they demonstrated that learners of different ages in IG contexts had been able to learn something from each other’s lifestyles.

A/ Portugal

Their presentation included different aspects of the local living places. They analyzed the preferences and the tastes of each generation; they described their living rooms and the typical houses. All was analyzed through a big variety of workshops: 1) Decoration preferences; 2) Identification / opinion; 3) Show and tell: favourite living spot; 4) Describing one’s living room; 5) Cultural visits; 6) Typical houses; 7) Survey on living places.

Diagrams showed the compositions of the different age groups and the results remark not so big differences between young and old persons as for their tastes and opinions. A lot of photos enriched the presentation.

B/ Poland

The first presentation, “Analysis of the housing preferences”, was a survey and, through diagrams and pie charts, showed where different age groups live and where they would like to live. The second presentation “How to furnish a flat” told the rules that should be obeyed to furnish a flat of a blind or visually impaired person: light, colors, furniture, devices, advices were characteristic of a great importance

C/ Italy

The Italian presentation began with the definition of the IG group and then showed the workshops carried out: 1) Historical evolution of our living places; 2) My ideal house; 3) Visit an old typical house; 4) Autonarration.

The pedagogical methods followed were varied: study circles, realization of posters, visits, descriptions. In the activities, young were well integrated with the seniors, and each generation learnt more about the living conditions of the other groups.

A video about “Masserie” in Fasano showed the evolution of such buildings from the ancient times when they were used as dwellings for farmers and peasants, until today, renovated and used as luxurious hotels or restaurants.

D/ Luxembourg

They continued  the activities with the same groups as in the first period of the project: 6 adults of the Club Senior Nordstad and 6 students from the Centre National de Formation Professionelle Continue (CNFPC) in Ettelbruck. This choice was positive because the different groups already knew each other. After describing objectives and methodology, the presentation showed the workshops carried out: 1) From far to near; 2) Interior living; 3) Visiting a rural living museum. The staff showed photos of houses of different partners to the group and then they expressed their preferences about the place where they would like to live. The interiors were analyzed from different aspects. The visit permitted to the whole group to observe the old tools and instruments they used in the past. Then the young tried to use them and to make things as in the past: carrying water, kneading, washing clothes, living without electricity, etc.

E/ Spain

A lot of workshops were carried out: 1) Intergenerational meeting; 2) Intergenerational debate; 3) Charming spots; 4) Visit to intergenerational dwellings; 5) Knowledge transmission; 6) Evolution in the places we live; 7) Evolution of Spanish architecture during last 35 years; 8) Material development. Methods used were very varied: interviews, debates, visits, surveys.

The second presentation showed photos of the old city of Alicante, bringing out some important detail of the architecture. The third one showed the modern architecture of buildings in Alicante. The fourth presentation, through photos and buildings plans, compares the old with the modern architecture. Each slide of the last presentation showed photos and memories of each learner. They motivated their choices: charming spots are often places linked to the childhood or to the family memories.

F/ Belgium

After defining the characteristics of the group, their presentation showed the different workshops carried out: 1) Ornamental and aesthetic tastes in the home; 2) Interiors: how do you feel at home?; 3) Daily activities in the home, now and then; 4) Perceptions of preferred living places; 5)  Generational household appliances; 6) Past and present lifestyle in the home.

Inside the presentation, a recorded video showed some interviews asking to young what they thought about the living lifestyles of their parents or grandparents.

Some activities were conducted as a game, other with survey questionnaires and role playing dramatizing fictional situations. Also daily activities at home were described.

G / Turkey

A great variety of workshops characterized their presentation. A lot of photos of interiors and exteriors of the living places of their group members showed the different tastes, colours, furniture, preferences, styles.

Historical houses were visited and the group analyzed the great changes in technology and facilities. A questionnaire put into relevance the different tastes of the age groups, the technological development, tasks at home. Photos of old objects were showed and commented by the group. Through photos of big houses the group discussed about the house of their dreams.

Antonio by Spain will collect all presentations in order to put them in the website.

4. Dissemination of products through the partnership website hosted by UPUA.

Antonio by Spain showed the work made on the web. It is hosted in the web server located in Alicante. The domain is http://www.proyectosupua.es/lifestyles/

It is also possible to search it on Google by the words “lifestyles revisited”.

There is a multilingual structure : the most important pages are in all languages of our partnership, other pages aren’t translated, they appear only in English. For each meeting, there are the same sections : agenda, materials, meeting report, images.

Actually all documents are in PDF, in the future they will be downloadable.

After that, Antonio proposed to the whole group the discussion of the following tasks related to website for each partner :

• Send translation of the 2 sentences in the home page : the title and the sencence under the photo will be sent to Spain by the end of June 2012 ;
• Debate about the translation of the pending pages of the principal menu : at the moment the Summary of the project is in all languages. The other sections, Motivation, Objectives and Strategies, Impact, European Added Values, are only in English. The question put to the group by Antonio is if it is necessary to translate all these sections in own languages. Some partners already made it, some others says it is not necessary, or not urgent to do. After the discussion, all agree to translate and send to Antonio all sections of the projets by the end of March 2013.
• Check the logo and translation of the partner page : all countries checked their logo in the website : the logos of Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal are not correct. They will send the right logo to Spain by the end of June 2012 ;
• Publish new press links related to the project : it is a good idea to publish if our local newspapers or press publish information about our project. When an article appears, all partners have to scan it and send it to Spain, articles appeared on line magazines included.

As for the dissemination aspects, it is a good idea to link videos on YouTube.

The photo in the home page belongs to an intergenerational project. Spain will substitute it with a new photo of us.

5/ Evaluation tools (continuous assessment of the progression of the project and partnership)

Portugal showed the results of the evaluation carried out in Luxembourg (for dissemination on the website), and evaluated both from Poland and Portugal.

The statistics showed a very detailed analysis of all the aspects of the project and partnership (communication, creativity, educational activities, learning skills, learning strategies, personal achievement), so we will continue as before.

The European Commission wants this evaluation be made. It is an important tool for us in order to evaluate the progress of our project and the effectiveness of our partnership.

As established in the previous meeting, the questionnaire will be used at each stage of the project and the results will be compiled by Poland and Portugal for analysis and discussion.

The second evaluation session took place with the distribution of the questionnaire sheets. Everybody filled them in.

6/ Evaluation of communication between partners via

      http://groups.live.com/lifestyles-revisited

      lifestyles-revisited@groups.live.com

The coordinator said that there was not so much material inserted in the group blog. As we said during the previous meeting, more use should be made of it. It’s an useful place where we could put all kind of materials we could not upload in the website. All partners have to insert pictures, photos of the meetings to share with others, all kinds of extra information in the right section. In fact someone noticed that some documents are not in the right folder. Daniel will rearrange the files in the web blog.

7/ Reminder and review of the specific distribution of tasks, according to the application form and particularly in view of the evaluation and production of the compendium.

Partners responsible for collecting and structuring the products for the Project Compendium following a common structure :

1. SPAIN (between January 2012 and June 2012) for products done and shared by partners between September 2011 and January 2012.       COMPLETED
2. ITALY (between June 2012 and September 2012- for products done and shared by partners between January 2012 and June 2012. WORK IN PROGRESS.
3. TURKEY (between September 2012 and January 2013) for products done and shared between partners between June 2012 and September 2012.
4. LUXEMBURG (between January 2013 and June 2013) for products done and shared by partners between September 2012 and January 2013.

Following this distribution of tasks, Italy will be responsible of collecting material for compendium concerning the “living places” lifestyle. The structure will be the same used by Spain. Spain will send to Maria the common structure of Compendium.

All partners have to send to Italy the 4 pages of Compendium by the end of July (at the latest)

Remind the formal description of the 4 pages:

• Written under Word document
• Font: arial 12
• Top and bottom spacing: 2,5 cm
• Left and right spacing: 2 cm
• Include 5 or 6 pictures to illustrate: dimensions 4cm x 6 cm
• Name each picture as follows: subject – country – number (example: living places – Italy – 1).
• Send the 4 pages (with pictures included) by email to Maria from Italy
• Send also the pictures separately by email to Maria mariadibello@email.it and Dino d.mileti@rfi.it

8/ Agreement on the choice of a new lifestyle variable to be more specifically studied in relation to its local context.

“Clothes and fashion” had been suggested by Luxembourg at the previous meeting as a possible lifestyle variable for study. Daniel asked if everybody agreed with this proposal. All partners agreed. As the next meeting in Italy will be held in September, considering that there are summer holidays, and that we have to work on the intermediate report, we have less time to work on variable. After a discussion, the coordinator proposed a new way for working:

• More concentrated approach
• More specific aspects of the lifestyle
• Reduce the quantity of  workshops

It followed a brainstorming session where each participant had to introduce himself stating where he came from, then what kind of clothes he preferred and why. By listening to the others we had an idea of how study variable. At the end of this brainstorming session emerged that sport and comfortable clothes were very appreciated and also fashionable ones. The theme was soon broadened  and several ideas and aspects of the lifestyle were put forward: someone talked about the type of clothes they used to wear: skirts or trousers or t-shirts, etc.; someone underlined the quality or the cost of clothes as reasons for buying them or not; we talked about accessories, shoes, hats, gloves, and about fashion by famous stylists.

We could include all this in the study of the variable. But one country could concentrate only on one or two aspects and study them. Each country could choose, we are free to choose the aspects we prefer.

How to adapt and materialise these ideas in concrete workshops?

Each organisation got together in order to discuss on the aspects and the modality of materializing these aspects.

After the discussion each organisation shared its ideas:

• Italy: evolution of clothes from an historical point of view; analysis of the “prêt-à-porter”, that is to say the ready-made clothes;
• Belgium: they don’t have traditional clothes nor a particular traditional fashion. They will concentrate on 1) Seniors: what clothes they used to wear when they were young, in the different periods of their life? What do they think about fashion of young today? 2) Young: what do they think about fashion of the period when old people were young? Which clothes do they think they wore?
• Spain: their country is famous for the production of shoes. They will study how this part of clothing is important for young and seniors. They also proposed to study the historical evolution, the economical aspects and the function it has in the region;
• Portugal: evolution of fashion in three generations especially for women;
• Poland: price and fashion and their relation: buy an item or not, what makes your decision? They suggested to conduct a survey asking opinion and comments on how other people wear, if they like it, how they judge them. Another aspect they talked about was celebrations: what people wear during particular occasions or in certain places. Finally they proposed to customize clothes: how would you change clothes? Make them like you want.
• Turkey: traditional and modern, from the past to the present;
• Luxembourg: how to dress for a new job, to analyze colours, the ones good for one’s figure. The second aspects they wanted to analyze were the conventional aspects of wearing: what are you expected to wear?

After sharing ideas, the group gathered a lot of suggestions. All countries are free to do what they want. Partners are not obliged to follow the idea proposed but they can choose.

The previous presentations in Power Point showed a lot of workshops, now it is important to concentrate aspects, it’s up to each organization arrange them in a presentation of 15 minutes.

9/ Intermediate report

Before the meeting in Turkey the coordinator had sent a draft of the intermediate report to all partners, in order to save time. All partners agree with this form. There is a common part for all partners, the point 2. It will be added the part concerning the meeting in Turkey, Daniel will do this and send it to all by the end of June. All countries have to read it carefully and check with each National Agency if English is accepted or the national language is the only one to be used.

Each partner has to send the Intermediate Report to their own National Agency before the 30^th June.

10/ Calendar of meetings, events and activities as decided at the previous meeting in Alicante.

- ITALY                      September 2012

                                   Thursday 27/09/

                                   Friday 28/09

- POLAND                January 2013

                                   Thursday 17/01

                                   Friday 18/01

- PORTUGAL

Maria from Italy showed Internet sites and prices of some hotels in Fasano. After a discussion on which of them would be the best, Maria suggested all partners to stay in the same hotel. She suggested Park Hotel Sant’Elia. If someone would like to stay in other hotels, they have to reach the meeting place autonomously.

As for the flight she said the best airport to arrive is Bari. It’s better if all partners arrive on the 26^th September and leave on Saturday 30^th. She also communicated the way to arrive in Fasano.

Maria will communicate by email detailed prices and arrangements as soon as possible.

As Maria will book hotel, all partners have to communicate to her the exact number of persons and  rooms (single or double).

The dates of the meeting in Poland are already fixed, as for the meeting in Portugal we’ll decide the best dates during the meeting in Poland.

11/ Any other matters.

The partners agreed the meeting had been extremely successful from all points of view and held in a collaborative manner and pleasant atmosphere.

Progress towards the achievement of project objectives is constant with a general satisfaction as revealed by the evaluating partners.

Partners expressed their thanks for the meeting organization that took into account an important number of participants. They had many conversation opportunities and plenty occasions of discovering the local culture. A traditional fashion parade and a festive evening added a unique touch to the gathering.

The meeting was punctuated by several outings revealing the cultural dimension of the project. They included visits to the Museum of City History, the Tabakhane Mosque, the historical town centre and the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara.

Report written by Maria Dibello