Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2012 Newsletter
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Video Conferencing
By Miriam Schembri
Miriam Schembri is an early childhood educator in a
kindergarten class at St Thomas More College,
Fgura, Malta. She is eTwinning ambassador to
Malta and has participated in various eTwinning
projects.
As a preschool teacher I always carry the dilemma
of how young pupils can collaborate with partners in
an eTwinning project. Although there are means
and tools by which young children can
communicate, having no writing skills and speaking
different languages are a barrier. For young
children their world is the immediate vicinity and I
always question myself if these young children
understand that they are part of a wider community
especially the eTwinning community where they are
meeting new children from a distant place.
Community Building
Video conferencing alters the way pupils interact
with one another in an eTwinning project and the
face-to-face element makes the partnership more
real. They start to feel they are part of the
community and become more active in the project.
It is the closest thing to being there with
technology. The synchronous meetings allow for
connectedness and give opportunity to develop
relationships. The immediate interaction and
feedback give real meaning to a virtual community.
Video Conferencing Tools
My favourite video conferencing tools are
Flashmeeting and the Blackboard Collaborate
Vroom. These tools are very easy to access but the
only drawback is that one needs a fast internet
connection for conferences to succeed as
transmission can be lost. The use of an interactive
whiteboard enhances the experience as board can
easily be seen by a whole class of pupils.
Collaborative Learning Experiences
Connecting pupils virtually offers great potential for
creating new and rich opportunities for teaching
and learning. Social networking has changed the
face of society. It is a part of our students’ culture
and I can see this even with my preschool pupils
who discuss social networking tools as they observe
parents and older siblings using these tools. In an
eTwinning project the social aspect of video
conferencing is combined with pedagogy to make
learning more meaningful to our pupils.
Teachers share their expertise and creatively plan
joint activities to be shared during a video
conference. Pupils then work jointly on the same
activities and share results. The following are some
examples of activities which have been carried out
in my preschool class.
Children introduce themselves and are
introduced to the different languages.
Usually we introduce the children to a
common language and teach children new
vocabulary to help them to communicate.
Singing nursery rhymes introduces children
to all languages.
An expert is invited into one of the classes
and shares his/her expertise with the
pupils. One such activity was when we
invited a grandparent to make a kite.
Children in both classes watched attentively
and afterwards made kites of their own.
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