Transnational project meetings

1) Kick off meeting in Turku, Finland 2 - 4.11.2016

Most of the partners arrived in the afternoon and we went to Restaurant Tårget for a dinner and to talk about the project. The dinner was a nice opportunity for the new and old partners to get to know eachother.

The meeting begun with a short introduction of the partners and the partner organisations and instead of having the normal round the table presentation the participants were divided into smaller groups where they introduced each other and agreed on the aims and expectations of the project. The smaller groups then presented their ideas and thoughts about the aims of the project and we categorized them into “groups”. We then compared these aims/expectations with the aims/expectations written in the application and realized that the aims/expectation we had for the project fitted with the applications aim.

Philip Broomhead explained the steps that had led to the project and how all partners had been selected and were connected to this project. We also spoke more about the expectations for this project and the idea for an AppMentor umbrella that includes different tools was brought up.

Marjo Virnes from Aalto University introduced us to the AchSo app and how it had been built up, what can be done with the app and how it had been tested. We got to try the app and noticed that there were some problems/difficulties using it. Marjo arranged a learning café and we spoke about the benefits, barriers and how this app could be used for mentoring purposes. By the end of Marjo’s session we all agreed that we will not be able to create the app as it will be too time consuming and we cannot guarantee the quality of the app after the end of the project

During the kickoff meeting we begun the work of making the WorkMentor Manual (http://workmentor.vma.is/wiki/index.php/Resources_-_Products) into micro learning. The idea of an AppMentor umbrella was introduced. Suggestions were given to what kind of social media could be used when making the WorkMentor Online Training Course. The work will continue between the at the PM 2 held in Trondheim, Norway in April 2017.

We discussed and compared which social media has already been used within the mentoring process and what the feedback from the students and other teachers had been. These presentations were the starting point for the group work focusing on introducing social media into the mentoring process and which different forms of social media was used and what the partners experience and thought were about using social media. We also discussed expected benefits of using social media and sharing best practices and problems that the partners have faced when using social media.

The partners all agreed that it is important to use and introduce social media that we know works and that is easy to use. If there are problems with the use of social media the users (teacher, work mentors and students) will loose their interest and will not be willing to use the social medias. We also agreed that there are differences between the countries and we have to accept these differences. The work with collecting information about benefits and obstacles we might face when implementing social medias into work mentoring will continue and will be on the agenda of PM2

2) Partner meeting in Trondheim, Norway 19 - 21.4.2017

During PM2 work on the AppMentor Online Training Manual begun. We created the frames and the main headings for the course and started to work on the content so that each heading will be short, informative, easily accessible and fun to look at. We also analysed a few surveys done regarding the benefits and objections to use e.g. Trello and Facebook. We analyzed surveys done by Iceland, Spain and France about what the existing skills of using social media the work mentors, students and mentoring teachers have. We agreed to continue the testing of social media and wrote the frames for a checklist that was later put together by the partner from UK. We had invited a researcher focusing on how to use social media as a pedagogical tool to educate us about what to take into consideration when creating the AppMentor Online Mentoring Course and how to introduce the different forms of social media to our future users

3) Partner meeting in Bilbao, Spain 8 - 10.11.2017

The aim of the meeting in Bilbao was to continue working on the AppMentor Online Training Course, which we did. The Online course progressed well during the meeting and we anticipate that we will be able to finalize the course in April 2018 during PM4 held in Harderwijk, Netherlands.

Prior to the meeting all partners had tested and collected feedback on different social media that we believed could be useful when mentoring students during work based learning. During the meeting we discussed and begun analyzing which of the tested social media was best suited for this purpose. Many of the tested media had proven not work as well as participated so we agreed that we would not continue working/testing these medias. We selected the media that works the best and agreed on a format in which we will describe the usability of these medias. The project partners agreed which partner will write the descriptions and these descriptions will be ready by PM 4 (Harderwijk, Netherlands) were we will continue the work of creating the manual for which social medias we recommend to be used when mentoring students during work based learning.

In Bilbao we set the frames and the agenda for the Multiplier event and agreed on the dates for these. We agreed that we would focus on educating/informing employers and work mentors during the Multipliers events. Other interested parties such as VET providers, representatives from municipalities are also welcome to the multiplier events

4) Partner meeting in Harderwijk, Netherlands 11 - 13.4.2018

The aim of the meeting was to analyze the outcomes of the testing of the selected social media and select our top 7 apps that we believe are best suited for mentoring purposes. The work on writing the chapter about how to implement social medias to mentoring process during work based learning begun. This chapter will contain information about why we believe it is beneficial to also use Apps in the mentoring process, the benefits of using Apps, some obstacles we faced during the testing and the solutions we found to these obstacles and our top 10 tips for starting to use social media in mentoring. We also wrote descriptions of the 7 Apps we feel are best suited for mentoring are:

Facebook
Workplace
Messenger
WhatsApp
Instagram
Trello
Wunderlist

5) Partner meeting in Hereford, UK 19 - 21.9.2018

The external evaluator from Ålands Yrkesgymnasium participated in the final meeting. The partners had still some work left to do with finalizing the final chapter of the AppMentor Online Course (https://appmentor.weebly.com/). We all agreed that there was still lots that could have been added to the chapter but that we had to draw the line somewhere. We also agreed that the work with evaluating, testing, analyzing Apps would never end as new Apps that can be used in mentoring will continuosly be created. However we have now (with AppMentor) made many aware of the possibility/benefits of using Apps while mentoring and these persons are likely to be more willing to test new Apps in the future”

The final day of the project was spent on discussing and analyzing the user friendliness of the AppMentor Online Course. We went once more through the four chapters of the AppMentor Onlince Course (Chapter 1, 2 3 = IO1 and Chapter 4 = IO2 and IO3) and looked if we had missed something that had been promised in the project application when it came to the development of the different IOs. We all agreed that by combining the 3 IOs to 1 product (The AppMentor Online Course https://appmentor.weebly.com/) we had made the product more qualitative and user friendly. We discussed how AppMentor Online Course can and should be used and what benefits using AppMentor has on improving VET and work based learning. While doing this we went through the materials we had developed in the course and listened to feedback from the external evaluator. We also discussed the impact and the feedback that has been given to the partners by teachers, work mentors, students and others that have in some way helped us create the AppMentor Online Course. We went back to the beginning of the project and looked at the AppMentor umbrella that was drawn during the kickoff meeting in Turku. As that drawing was the beginning of the project and set the frames for the work on the intellectual outcomes we wanted to create an new umbrella, this time drawn on the computer. The new AppMentor umbrella contains the top 7 Apps that we recommend to be used in the mentoring process.

The final meeting ended in good spirit and everybody agreed that we had managed to create something that is needed if you want to improve mentoring during work based learning. As one of the partners said: “I think our project will become bigger than we ever anticipated”. We also felt a bit sad that the project ended as we had to say goodbye to some of the partners that had worked on Appmentor as they will not be a part of the new Erasmus+ KA2 project VET@work. During the 2 years of AppMentor we have worked jointly testing and using social media and our collaboration and connection with each other would not have become as strong as it did if we had not used and implemented the social media selected as our top 7 Apps to use for mentoring and collaboration. We are a living testament that the use of social media and Apps makes collaboration stronger, more efficient, more transparent and more qualitative!!!