Students from twinned schools in Cuba, Spain, and the Gambia make history come alive
“Making history alive: Sites of memory”, student twinning among IES Luis Seoane from Spain, IPVCE Che Guevara from Cuba and and Nusrat Secondary Senior School from the Gambia
The project “Learning from the past, understanding the present, building the future together” brought together 90 students (aged 15 to 18) and three schools from three continents. Research was initiated within each school, results shared and views compared with those of the partner schools. Various means of communication were used to make exchanges substantial, namely new technologies of information and communication (e-mail, Skype, telephone), but also traditional mail. Traditional mail was particularly important to allow Nusrat Secondary Senior school’s active participation, as access to ICTs in the Gambia remains costly. Exchanges took place at least every two weeks – this regularity was one of the key elements for project success.
Twinning was a strong peer learning experience and as such particularly valued interaction and the spirit of team-building. Also, by confronting different ideas, views and research results, students gained a fuller understanding of TST. Before launching the exchanges, careful preparation was made for getting to know partners’ social, geographical, cultural etc. realities. This increased the students’ understanding of their peers’ living conditions and their capacity to get the maximum out of the project.
Presenting the TST sites of memory was a popular topic for exchanges. Visits to memory sites create a concrete link from the past to present. In addition, visits are in most cases guided by people who are very familiar with the history of TST and/or the site in question. This further adds to the visits’ informative value. Within the framework of this twinning, visits were organised in Cuba and the Gambia. In Cuba, students made a trip to “Central Marcelo Salado Lastra” and in the Gambia to James Island (where a fort was used as a slave collecting point until 1820), the village of Juffureh, and the slave house of Janjanbureh. Visit material was later on shared with the Spanish twin school.
Two productions of this twinning in particular can be highlighted:
A digital book on TST which serves as a compendium of the research conducted by the three schools More (Spanish version)
Another tangible product and important means of communication was a blog created for the schools. More