At the start of the new year, we brought teachers together from all over the world for the launch of our brand-new community program: the i3ALLSTARS!! The teachers, were immersed in engaging workshops and interactive sessions but they also had the opportunity to enjoy some of the rich, Belgian culture and beautiful outdoors.
From the very beginning it was clear that this group of educators had a distinct vibe! The contagious atmosphere worked its magic right from our arrival at Wange, Belgium. Teachers from 8 different countries (including Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Lithuania, Peru and the United States) were present for 4 inspiring days.
For the first few days our participants were immersed exploring the many possibilities of educational solutions from i3. It was fantastic to see different pockets of inspiration come to life, ideas bursting and being shared from all sides. That was also the power of this event, sharing and encouraging each other’s inspirational ideas!
Martin and Klara from Lifeliqe joined us to demonstrate the power of their 3D content in i3LEARNHUB and we collected a tremendous amount of feedback! We would love to incorporate many of these valuable tips and ideas that we compiled into our future products. How else would we develop a tailor-made tool for the teacher? Our slogan remains:
“Developed by and for the teacher!”
This distinguished group of teachers eagerly shared their experiences and ideas for different areas of teaching. We had interesting tips for classroom organisation, new interactive teaching methods and useful tools to use with students. The group even exchanged tips on the culinary arts! Every day the group cooked together and prepared their local dishes to create a wonderful experience!! The group became so close that they even started singing together!
On the last day, we paid a visit to Oli and Jordy at the original, reference school for the i3ALLSTARS. Oli and Jordy both work at the Omnimundo School in Antwerp where they teach children from different nationalities. The school has also started a new initiative to create paperless education. This was the perfect opportunity to show our group of curious teachers how technology and education work together hand in hand! We are happy to report that it was an absolute success! It was unbelievable to see how the students started to work independently with the various tools (tablets, iMO-LEARN, i3LEARNHUB, Lego Education, ...).
It was a wonderful ending to this beautiful and powerful 4-day event!
So, what did our i3ALLSTARS learn? There were several takeaways for each individual and so too many to mention in this brief post. However, the most powerful experience for everyone was undoubtedly the sharing of inspiring stories and ideas with other educators who are full of enthusiasm and who want to do everything they possibly can to give our children a better education with tools that prepare them for the future. To make those students real stars like our i3ALLSTARS!
The event is now over but this is just the beginning of a wonderful adventure. We will keep in close contact with the participating i3ALLSTARS. Their ongoing inspiration and feedback remains of critically important! And we reach out to the many other stars that are working in education day in and day out.
i3ALLSTARS, trust the magic of new beginnings!
Written by: Davy De Rijbel on Monday, June 21, 2021