In Tampere region educational institutions are re-organizing teaching activities. This is the case with Tampere University as well. Following university instructions Somejam2020 will be organized online. It will be organized for university students, who have already enrolled to the course.

Somejam2020 starts on the 30th March 9 am and ends on the 3rd April at 4 pm in TAU Moodle. Team working is organized with the help of social media tools as well.

Sorry for missing high school students’ participation this Spring term. Wish to meet them next year!

Sirkku Kotilainen together with organizing Team

By Zahra Aemaebasir

Somejam2020 is a three-day event which is being organized by Tampere University, Y-Campus, and Tampere High School of Technology.

We, Master and PhD students of Digital literacy Education, are the main organizers of this event under the supervision of teacher @ Sirkku Kotilainen. We are planning such event for the first time and we are nervous, but we have strong and experienced supporters behind us such as our great teacher, Sirkku.

The marketing team consists of three master students trying to figure out the Finnish culture, how to do the marking in this culture and use their digital skills as best as they can. We have interviewed mentors and students and updated all the social media platforms about our project.

As the marketing team, we are trying to popularize this event to a bigger audience and especially to our target groups which are students in the high school and the university.

As the first step, we participated in the promotion event of the high school to recruit the students. We were all excited to be between high school students and try to convince them to experience a workshop with us, international university students.

The teachers really helped us, and the students amazed us since we got 12 enrollments in one hour after the promotion. We are still promoting in the university scale and we hope we provide a good experience for all the participants.

It is an important event for us as well, because we are learning during the whole project either. At some point, we fill disappointed and think we have made mistakes. However, this path is bringing us all together and the bond between us is becoming closer and stronger.

By Sirkku Kotilainen

Somejam2020 Tampere takes place within a month! It is a three days hackathon from Monday 30^th March till Wednesday the 1st April at Tampere High School of Technology. In Somejam2020, Tampere university students and junior high school students are working together in multi-talent teams for creating digital solutions to the problems they initiate based on the main theme given. This year the main theme is titled as: Sustainable Digital Life of Young people. As professor if media education, I am eager to find out youth problematization of the theme and learning to know about solutions they develop. For example, there is not a single way to define “sustainable”. And what is “digital life”?

In the previous Somejam events (2016 – 2019), these multi-talent teams have created new concepts in the form of apps, games and web services with the help of team mentors whom they meet in several mentor rounds during the event. This year mentors are experts in digital design and film, e-sports, technology education and library services. Finally, the board of experts as judges select the winning team. The first prize is provided by Tampere University Y-Campus, which is a unit providing entrepreneurship and innovation services. It offers the first prize as the possibility to continue in developing of the idea towards a product. 

My understanding of the given main theme is limited to the fact that Somejam2020 is a course of digital literacy for three different kinds of students. First, it is a pedagogical project course to my own master students of Digital Literacy Education with aim of understanding of the hackathon as pedagogic method in promoting digital literacy. Second, it is a voluntary-based workshop course for university students with the objectives of a) learning about critical insights of algorithm-based social media and, b) innovation in digital culture. These both aspects of digital literacy are targeted to junior high school students as well as the aims for learning in Somejam2020.

Still, it is not necessarily digital literacy that all students learn in the first place. The evaluation of learning diaries in previous years show that, for example, intercultural and cross-generational understandings have played big roles in learning.     

See you in Somejam2020!

Get to know Somejam2020 better, please see:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somejam/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somejamfi/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeJamFi You tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/somejamfi

Somejam2020 Tampere is a three days hackathon from Monday 30.03. till Wednesday 01.04.2020. It is about working in teams with youngsters aged 16-18. The event takes place at Tampere High School of Technology, Hepolamminkatu 10, 33720 Tampere (in Hervanta).

The objectives are：1) critical insights in algorithm-based social media, 2) innovation in digital culture and, 3) understanding of the hackathon as pedagogic method.

Somejam uses the means of digital technology to build up concrete ways enhancing the well-being of youth. Working happens in multi-talent teams including 16-18 years old high school students together with university students.

During the event multi-talent teams will create new concepts in the form of apps, games or web services for youths with the help of team mentors who are specialists in new technology. Finally, the board of experts select the winning team.

The first prize is provided by Tampere University Y-Campus, entrepreneurship and innovation services: https://www.y-kampus.fi/en/

Get to know this Hackathon better, please see:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somejam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somejamfi/
Website: https://somejam.home.blog/

Somejam2019 is here soon! We start on Thursday and Friday, April 11th-12th at the Sampo Central Upper Secondary School and April 13th at Linna building, Väinö Linna auditorium, Tampere University. You are warmly welcome to join!

Thursday 11.4.

15.00 Registration opens

15.15 Opening words by professor Sirkku Kotilainen

15.30 Brainstorming begins

17.00 Start Jamming!

17.30 Mentor round

18.30 Jamming continues

19.30 Mentor round

21.00 End of the first day

Friday 12.4.

9.00 Sirkku Kotilainen opens the day two

9.30 Start jamming!

10.00 Mentor round

11.30 Lunch brake

12.30 Jamming contines

14.00 Mentor round

15.00 Jamming continues

16.00 Mentor round

18.00 End of the second day

Saturday 13.4.

9.00 Sirkku Kotilainen opens the final day

10.00 Group presentations starts

12.00 Lunch brake

13.30 Jurys selection

13.45 Final words

14.00 Closing the Somejam2019

For creating digital solutions for the Wellbeing of Youth!

SOMEJAM Tampere 2019 is a hackathon where young people meet for innovating and creating new digital solutions for the wellbeing of youth. It is about working together in teams and come up with a final solution with help of mentors as experts of the field. Finally, the jury will announce the winning team, which can continue the developing of the idea at Y Campus https://www.y-kampus.fi/ 

You come as you are with an open mind, with your own interests and skills. That is enough. This shows to be the case based on over one hundred learning diaries, which I have received after the previous Somejam events in 2016 and 2018. The experience of working in the intercultural, multitalent teams has been so powerful to participants that some of them want to join again. 

All participants will receive a certificate, a university course of 5 ECTS and high school course based on their learning diaries and/ or vlogs to us teachers.

This year 2019 SOMEJAM will take place from Thursday11th April to Saturday 13th April. On Thursday and Friday the hackathon takes place at Sammon keskuslukio (Uimalankatu 5) and on Saturday at the University, LINNA building (Kalevankatu 5).

We are expecting app 50 participants this year. 

Our team working to create the event is formed of four university students Iida Selonen, Elina Juntura, Jenna Pihlaja and Soohyuin Choi and Inka Kiuru as the leader of Somejam2019.

The collaborative partners are from the City of Tampere and Tampere University: 

Sampo High School, Tampere Technological High School, Tampere University High School and Tampere City Youth Department together with Y-Campus and, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication (ITC). Nationally, our collaboration extends to the Verke National Centre of Expertise for Digital Youth Work in Finland.

We are looking forward to meet you in Somejam2019! 

Sirkku Kotilainen, professor

Inka Kiuru, teacher and leader of Somejam2019

PS. You can enroll to the event by sending email to inka.kiuru@tuni.fi