John Larkin

Friday is moving along quite nicely just now. The windy weather has blown away and there is a quiet stillness prevailing outside. Peace, serenity. A quiet air. Our second interview for the evening is about to begin and tonight we have a special guest from Finland. Our guest is Timo Ilomäki, a language teacher and student counselor in Voionmaa upper secondary school. Timo was also recommended to me, like our previous guest, Fred Boss, by Liam Dunphy. Let’s begin Timo’s interview…

1.Please share a little about yourself with the readers.

I’m married and father of three boys. Live in city of Jyväskylä Finland. Nowdays I like running and low carbon food, love also football. I’m a Finnish language teacher and student counselor in Voionmaa upper secondary school, also project manager in entrepreneurship and social media school network now, but continue this year with different project: Mobile technology in everyday life of upper secondary school students. I a am also tweeting in Twitter under hashtag #finnedchat, also enjoy being a part of global Twitter community in name @ilotimo. I have a company with principal Aki Puustinen @apuustin and we educate teachers in Russia now. I have started my blog Education Technology  – theory and practice in May and it has been really great learning experience for me.

2.Describe the role played by social media in education.

In Finland there are one of the best education systems in the world. Teachers are well educated, good pedagogical leaders. One thing we need more in the future are teachers who know and wants to use education technology and social media on their classrooms. We are behind on that and is reason for my personal mission to get more Finnish teachers on Twitter, which is what I think, the key network for teachers to develop their #edtech skills. I want to bring social media tools for every day learning. We are already using blogs and Facebook actively in our school. I want to use social media to help teamwork, like planning in GoogleDocs, meetings in Hangout, virtual mind maps, Skype in classroom, iPads and other tablets in everyday teaching. There are so many possibilities that we just need more teachers to use education technology.

3. Tell me about your relationship with social media. How do you feel about social media?

I’m very enthusiastic about social media possibilities in education. Twitter has been dramatic change to me as on educator. I have met great educators all over world, started new projects with them, had lots of education technology resources for them. I also like very much reply a questions about Finnish education or concerning my blog. I have found many colleagues to my virtual teachers room. I also love videochats like Google Hangout – so easy to use and bring teachers all over the world close together.

4. What do you feel are you strengths?

I love my work and work a lot, many projects all the time, believe in networks, I have lots of courage to try new things, don’t really afraid mistakes, because we are allowed to do them, always believe and find positive thing from students, i get enthusiastic of of teaching, students work and thoughts, new innavations, good speeches and many many things.

5. What advice do you like to share with people?

In Finnish education system we relay on trust. Education goverment trust schools and not use inspectors, principals trusts teachers, and we trust our students and opposite. I believe in freedom and responsibility in education.

6. Are there any questions you would like to ask?

I would like to ask what is your best #edumoment?

• Timo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ilotimo
• Timo’s blog: Education Technology – theory and practice
• Timo on Slideshare: Timo Ilomäki Presentations