From 14th to 18th November 2022, Knowledge Harvest attended the Comm(on)-line project in Belgium, together with the partnering organizations from Tenerife-Spain, Iceland and Scotland. Our host and project partner – KISP, were kind to welcome us into their educational system where from day one we got to learn more about their system, especially the digital learning cvo KISP and LMS Canvas used as an online platform for learning inside the organization.
The goal for our visit was to follow the educational system inside of KISP, as well as to give a peer evaluation of the entire organization. KISP is spread in over 120 locations with over 600 staff members, and due to that, we were able to visit multiple KISP locations, such as ones in Gent, Lier and Antwerp, where we got to meet the highly motivated staff and just as motivated student eager to further enhance their knowledge as the organization motivates them for a long-life learning.
Over the course of out stay in Belgium, we had the opportunity to attend some of the classes within KISP and we got the chance to speak to both the teachers and the students involved in KISP. Throughout our stay we got involved in multiple interesting discussions, evaluations and reflections. We were able to fully witness how KISP manages to bring to light both face-in-face and digital learning by offering an excellent online community for studying.
After visiting some of the KISP schools, we were able to come to a conclusion that this organization is fully dedicated into creating the best possible learning experience for their students. The teachers we got the chance to talk to were all extremely motivated in presenting all the needed materials to their students, both in their digital platform as well as in their face-to-face classes.
All in all, this was one incredible experience where we got to share the different methods and tools for learning that can only be an inspiration for new ideas in the future. We are thrilled with the dedication the teachers have shown, as well as the staff members in the organization, to improve their way into reaching the goal they have set in order to motivate everyone inside their organization to reach even greater successes. Another thing we’d really like to compliment is their LMS Canvas system, on which the entire organization is dedicated towards and work every day to further improve it and make it into an outstanding digital learning platform within KISP.
Lessons Learned:
-The ways the educational systems work in every country can be completely different from one another, but the one thing that is common is the human factor. It is crucial to find and keep teachers who are motivated to bring the best out of them and ones that will continue to improve and bring new ideas in their work.
-Up until the pandemic, we weren’t aware how much we actually needed online learning which besides all of its weaknesses, we have to have it as a backup plan, but more as a way of gaining knowledge and skills through it. The online learning platform offer different ways of learning, but in general they are made by the teachers that need to be capable of using that system and maintain it. -In our educational system, there is so little dedication to the interpersonal relations, especially between the teachers and the staff members. We noticed this after we saw KISP and the way they work. Although they are problems everywhere, at KISP they are working everyday on improving and resolving the problems and issues they have. Throughout these 5 days, we have seen them put in everything they have in order to find a solution that will only make their education system more efficient.
