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Reflection on the Research Process:

Our main task that was assigned to my classmate, Amelia, and I was to search for activities and information related to certain topics. Our supervisor gave us a month time to come up with the results and make a PowerPoint presentation to present our findings. The process of the research was a very interesting and informing to me. It taught me a lot about myself and the way I work. It was not a very smooth process; I can say that it had ups and downs and thus I will be reflecting on the process and how it went. Our placement supervisors were very flexible with us and gave us complete freedom to follow any research methods. This flexibility was very advantageous for me and Amelia since it allowed us to work on this task with great flexibility especially with our hectic and busy academic schedule that we have in Tallinn. I remember that I used to work on the task when I was on buses or trains. I even once took advantage of the 3-hour-trip I made in a cruise from Tallinn to Helsinki to search for materials and activities. Also, this rigorous research on topics related to the LGBT+ community benefited me on the personal level since I leant a lot especially on the level of genetic and biological differences and similarities between non-straight and straight people. Having the chance to read different academic and medical papers related to the biological and genetic claim that gays are born that way, corrected many miscoceptions I had about gays and non-straight people. In addition, working with the Estonian LGBT Association gave me the chance to befriend non-straight people and bound with them on the personal level.

On the other hand, this researching process faced some obstacles that I had to deal with. My biggest obstacle was time management and to keep rearranging my timetable to fit my constantly changing academic schedule (university classes). Having classes on different days and times every week was a challenge for me since I perform the best when I have a fixed routine. Another obstacle I had to deal with was the language barrier. Since I was searching about information related to the Estonian context, I came across many websites that discussed the problems of the LGBT+ community were in Estonian which I do not understand at all. Although I tried to translate the texts on “Google Translate”, the translation was not very helpful and the translated texts did not make a lot of sense.

To conclude, this research process was very enlightening for me. It taught me more about myself and how I perform the best. It pushed me to learn more about the Estonian society and make local Estonian friends. I can definitely say that I learnt a lot about the topics I researched and from the obstacles I faced as well.

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Amelia and I met up a few days before the end of the time period we were given by the Estonian LGBT Association. We spent a few hours together sharing and discussing in details our findings and the best way to present those findings when we meet our placement supervisors. We ended up forming a shared Google document that both of us could get access to and each of us formed slides that we filled with information and activities we found. We made sure that we finalize everything before our appointment. When we met the supervisors, we presented the findings on “Google Slides”. Although I had a minor problem with getting connected from my laptop to take part in the presentation, the entire presentation went very smoothly. Amelia did a great work in presenting her part and I believe I did the same. We could see smiles on the supervisors faces and I remember them nodding along the presentation. At the end, the supervisors were very pleased with the findings and thanked us for all the activities that we showed them, and promised us to find us a workshop in which Amelia and I can carry out the activities that we found. I can say that I walked out happily of the association office on that day knowing that we met their expectations and that we spent the month researching for valuable resources and activities! I still remember that Amelia and I were very pleased and went back home smiling! :)

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In our second meeting with the NGO’s workers at the Estonian LGBT Association, things got clearer about what type of resources they have and what type of resources they are looking for. I have to say that this association keeps surprising me when it comes to performing higher than expected especially when one takes in consideration the sources and number of staff they have. It was clear that they knew what they are doing and how to do it. They walked us through the materials, books, booklets and pamphlets they have in the association and they were pretty diverse and targeting different audiences using reason, logic, science and emotions. However, when they started telling us about the role they would like us to play, it was clear that they wished to get even more resources and activities that can win people to the LGBT+ community side. They mainly aimed to do that through activities that make others put themselves in the shoes of an LGBT+ person and try to experience how it feels to be discriminated against for something you are born with. Many of the activities I saw there were about perception and how people make false impressions based only on looks. For example, one of the activities that I really liked was a set of photos of different people. Each photo was on a separate card and the participant has to “label” the people on the cards under different words like (gay, lesbian, vegetarian, bisexual, etc). I was both interested and anxious to try that game. Knowing that I was about to judge people based on their appearances made me feel very bad and unsettled because I was thinking of how I would feel if people judged me based on my looks rather than on my true self and personality. The feeling I got form the activity gave me a clear understanding of the type of activities the association is looking for.

When I started researching for activities to be used by the association, the process was a tricky one for several reasons. First, since I was brought up in the Middle East, I had to first unlearn most of what I learnt about LGBT+ people and educate myself again with the right knowledge in order to work for their case and rights. Unfortunately, there is a lot of wrong information about the LGBT+ community in the Middle East since they do not have the chance to speak out or come out due to real threats of imprisonment or physical harmness. However, when I got the chance to travel abroad and learn more about this community and deal with many of them on the personal level, I started to realize the wrong conceptions that my conservative community taught me. Second, I was not very familiar with the Estonian context and the type of difficulties that LGBT+ people face here, so, I had to get in contact with the locals and learn more about the daily hardships LGBT+ people go through in Estonia. This step was very important since one needs to understand the context and how the locals think in order to know how to address them and convince them.

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Today was our second meeting with the Estonian LGBT Association. Amelia, my classmate, and I went there according to an appointment we had with the association in order to learn more about the association, review the materials they have, and to assign us Amelia certain tasks to accomplish throughout this semester. After we reviewed the materials they have, and learnt more about the goals of the association, and their target group, our placement supervisor suggested a set of topics that require more research and sources of information. We have been given a month-time to do the research and then show our results. This might look easy to accomplish but I have a feeling that we will face some challenges that we are not aware of for now. However, Amelia and I decided to work systematically and to divide the work among the two of us and to update each other on the progress of the research. Personally speaking, I will try to come up with several deadlines to keep myself on track and not waste time or procrastinate.

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My placement for this semester is different from the other ones I had in the last two semesters. Most of my practical experience in life revolves teaching English and working with refugees coming from different countries and different background. As for my current placement, I will be working with the Estonian LGBT+ Association. For me, this is a very new and exciting journey that I am grateful for. I do personally believe in the importance of NGOs working with LGBT+ communities since I myself come from a country where, sadly, it is a CRIME to be anything but straight! For a long period of my life, I lived without having a contact with even one LGBT person, not because they do not exist in Syria, but because they are very afraid of speaking out and ask for rights as they will probably end up in jail up to three years! However, the LGBT+ community's problem in Syria is not only a legislative one, but it is also a social one as most of the people there are not tolerant towards LGBT+ people. Thus, coming from such a background where LGBT+ people are severely oppressed motivates me highly to work in this filed and try to make a change no matter how small or big it is!

In my first meeting with the organization, the meeting was clear and productive. They were very welcoming and gave me and my classmate, Amelia, a brief but yet detailed summary of the organization's tasks, workshops, materials used and what and how we can help to add to the existing activities. What I learnt about the NGO and the amount of work that is being done was really impressive bearing in mind that they have only six part-time employees working at the organization. Basically, my classmate and I will be working on planning workshop or activities that could be of a use the NGO workers in order to spread awareness among different layers of people in the society. I can only describe my first impression as very enthusiastic and excited about working with this organization, and I am looking forward to the coming to start working with them and learn from them!

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Reflection Assignment for "Social Competencies of Adult Education"

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Reflection Assignment for "Social Competencies of Adult Education"

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1- Adobe Spark:
Adobe Spark is basically a software to create content with many features like  combining texts, images, and videos and lets users to provide contents through  storytelling which a very useful tool for online teaching.

2- Cavna:
Cavna is a useful tool when it comes to create and edit images for sharing on social media and illustrating blog posts for educational and non-educational purposes . It’s an essential content editing tool that is user friendly and easy to use. Cavna gives a wide range of templates which makes it a great way to engage students with creative tasks.

3- Kahoot:
Kahoot is a good website for creating fun learning games that suits adults and children. You can make a series of multiple choice questions. One can add videos, images and diagrams to the questions to engage the participants.

4- Prezi:
Prezi is a unique tool that allows students and teachers to prepare presentation with special visual effects since a big percentage of the information people take in comes through the eyes. in short, Prezi allows the user to make engaging, persuasive, and memorable presentations.

5- Google Drive:

Google drive is a great place to create and upload resources within to share among students or certain groups. Google drive also includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, etc.

6- Zoom:
Zoom is great when one is teaching group sessions as it includes voice and video call, and one can share their screen, and you can record calls automatically within Zoom.

7- Moodle:

Moodle is great for online education as it is educational open-source software tools. It allows to create electronic platform for communication between students and educators. It facilitates also the engagement between them since it allows for files sharing and to build a solid network of people for online education possibilities.

8- Wisemapping:
Wisemapping is a free online mind mapping software to create and share mind maps. It helps to create high-quality mind maps for students and educators. The mind maps created can be linked to pages and blogs. They can be shared among friends and colleagues.

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Video of Self-reflection