EuroITV conference today at TAMK

The eight edition of the annual conference  on Interactive TV & Video EuroITV started today with the pre-conference workshop day in the premises of TAMK School of Art and Media in the Finlayson.area. The theme of the conference is “web.sharing.TV.content”, reflecting the increasing connections between TV and web services.

EuroITV is attended by academia and professionals from all over the world to discuss latest advances and research of media technology, HCI, media studies, and the content creation community. The conference is organized by the EMMi Lab., Department of Business Information Management & Logistics, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT) , Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), and the School of Science and Technology, Aalto University in cooperation with major players in the field of TV and video in Finland.

Professor Artur Lugmayr as general chair of the conference is expecting more than 170 attendees from over 30 countries worldwide:
– We have organized the largest EuroITV conference ever. We also have re-invented the conference by adding a global competition – the EuroITV Grand Challenge – with a price sum of 3000 Euro, new themes such as art & content, and a visionary club gathering leading researchers in a think tank to develop the future vision of video and television in the age of Web3.0. 

The conference will continue tomorrow and on Friday in Hotel Holiday Club Tampere.

EuroITV2010.org

Pictured: Pertti Näränen (TAMK) and Artur Lugmayr (TUT), two happy organisers and chairs of the conference

New vocational teachers and special needs teachers

Monika Naukkarinen and Antti Virtalaine performed at the graduation ceremony. Picture: Pekka Kalli

100 new vocational teachers and 22 vocational special needs teachers graduated from the Teacher Education Centre of TAMK this year. The graduation ceremonies took place on Friday the 6th of June.

The extent of vocational teacher education is 60 credits, and the students complete their studies alongside working in 1-2 years. The education grants the pedagogical qualifications to teach in vocational schools and universities of applied sciences, and also in general education institutions and non-formal adult education centres. The special needs education training consists of 60 credits of extension studies for teachers who already have completed their pedagogical qualifications, and grants the qualifications to teach as special needs teacher in various educational levels.

In addition to the teacher education groups in Tampere, there were groups in Kuopio, Pori, Lappeenranta, Kokkola and Seinäjoki. Some of the new teachers have completed their studies as on-line studies.

The education is organised by the Teacher Education Centre at TAMK (TAOKK), which is one of the five vocational teacher education centres in Finland. The next application period for vocational teacher education and special needs teacher education is in January 2011.

Four viewpoints into rural tourism in the intensive course Rural tourism – innovative products and marketing

In April-May, an international group of university students and teachers got together at TAMK to work in rural tourism product design and marketing. In addition to TAMK, the two-week intense training course had participants from Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende in Belgium, International School of Law and Business in Vilnus in Lithuania and University of Salford in England.

The tasks included charting the current situation and the future of rural tourism in Belgium, England, Lithuania and Finland, to participate in creating new products for rural tourism companies and to learn about the special characteristics of rural tourism in each country.

The two-week intensive course included getting to know the City of Tampere and the rural tourism companies in the region, visiting the Tampere Convention Bureau, lectures, MayDay music event at Virrat as well as a food exhibition planned and implemented by the students.

In the food exhibition, our foreign visitors presented their culinary cultures and their special characteristics. After the presentations, the visitors got a chance to sample foods from Belgium, Lithuania and England.

”The rural tourism in Lithuania seemed surprisingly similar to the one in Finland,” explained the second-year hospitality management student Ulla-Mari Jarkko, who was one of the hosts of the event. “The English seem to favour package holidays, and I especially remember the bicycle tours organised by the Belgian tourism entrepreneurs, where the inn where the bikers spend their nights also organises the transportation of the bikers’ luggage into the next inn”, continued Jarkko. The special characteristic of the Finnish rural tourism might be the summer cottages. Britta Heinlaid from England first noticed the punctuality and openness of her Finnish hosts. “The first time we went out, the city seemed almost deserted. Vappu with its crowds and carnival feeling caught us by surprise – it was a special experience”, explained Britta Heinlaid.

Goodbye Finland!

This semester is over and it’s time for the exchange students and trainees to travel back home. Niels Devissch is a biomedical science student from Bruges, Belgium. Niels has been doing his clinical training in Tampere for the past 3,5 months and is now excited to travel back home. “It feels good to leave Finland, but I’ll miss the friends I made here,” he says.

Practical training in Finland differs from Belgium. “Here the laboratories are bigger and the people are less stressed”, Niels thinks.
TAMK has been a positive experience for Niels and he has enjoyed his time here. Niels even took two Finnish courses and can now introduce himself in almost perfectly pronounced Finnish.

Text: Annika Haanpää, Trainee, International Services

Photo: Marika Kyllönen, International Coordinator, International Services

Chinese alumni remember their years in Finland in the Shanghai EXPO

Approximately 200 Chinese alumni members got together to remember the time they studied in Finland. The event was organised in the Finnish exhibition pavilion Kirnu in the Shanghai EXPO, and its aim was to maintain the important network contacts. The event was organised by the Centre of International Mobility CIMO together with Finnish universities.

During the event, the Finnish delegates gave information about the current challenges and development of Finnish university education (Heljä Misukka), and the importance of networking (Risto E.J. Penttilä). The Chinese guests shared their experiences in studying in Finland; for example the former Chinese ambassador to Finland, Mrs Ma Keqing and the vice-chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC Luo Fuhe shared their memories of studying at the University of Helsinki in the 1970s and 1980s. The competition “This is my Finland” was also launched. It offers the alumni the opportunity to tell about their views of Finland through photographs or videos. Lepistö & Lehti entertained the guests with Finnish music.¨

The alumni present felt their time studying in Finland had been very fruitful and most of the visitors still had working contacts to Finland. “The foreigners, who have studied in Finland, form a very significant network, whether the collaboration is in the field of education and research or business. We at CIMO feel the promotion of this type of networking is extremely important” stated CIMO Director Pasi Sahlberg.

CIMO and the universities continue to promote the educational collaboration between China and Finland in the Shanghai EXPO in the autumn, when they organise the seminar ”Sharing Inspiration in Higher Education.” The seminar, which takes place in October, focuses on the Finnish expo themes: skills, environment and well-being from the viewpoint of university collaboration. The visibility of Finnish university education is also promoted in October by taking part in the student fair events in both Beijing and Shanghai.

For more information, Director of Communications Merja Lankinen / CIMO, tel. 0207 868 572 or 0400-247 757

Photo: Ville Salminen