Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2013 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Before and After eTwinning
by Umit Cicek
The digital age has led to many changes in our
lives. Perhaps one of the most important changes is
the way we communicate with each other. It is not
difficult to communicate with people all over the
world, anymore. In this digital age, in my opinion,
eTwinning has filled an important gap in education:
creation of global classrooms through international
projects. eTwinning made it possible for teachers
who have never met, who have different systems of
education and who are from different countries,
cultures and traditions to become closed to one
another and involve their students in projects with
their European colleagues through sharing their
experiences, expertise and ideas.
I was standing near my computer and looking for
partners for a Comenius project. That is how my
eTwinning experience started. Some time later I
noticed eTwinning was more than a partner finding
database. My acquintance with eTwinning has really
had an impact on my teaching and my professional
development. I feel myself lucky to be part of this
educational community, and it is impressive how
my career has changed after meeting eTwinning.
Online eTwinning projects with schools from
European countries, eTwinning Groups such as the
Visibility Group and Learning Events have never
occurred to me before 2009 when I joined this
educational network. I became a highly motivated
teacher because I have seen the best of the best
teachers from European countries and I strived to
be like them. Not only did my teaching experince
become more alive, exciting and well organised
with application of the methods and techniques I
learnt from my European colleagues but I also
became quite self confident in using computer and
internet through the web 2.0 tools I discovered
thanks to eTwinning. If I had to define very shortly
how eTwinning contributed to my career, I would
say that eTwinning divided my professional career
in two parts: before and after meeting eTwinning.
Once I became involved in eTwinning I realized that
my students have been much more motivated to
learn English and they have been more active than
ever in classroom. eTwinning projects need intense
use of English, and I saw my students improved
their communication skills and self-confidence in
using English while working on projects in a
collaborative and interactive way as this is the most
important platform for my students where they can
practice and develop their English. The students
also developed their ICT skills by using new and
exciting web 2.0 tools.
Last but not least, I have to be grateful to
eTwinning for the invaluable time spent while
participating in projects and Learning Events, thus
giving me a chance to meet highly capable
colleagues from all over Europe, and the ICT skills I
developed, without which I would be quite a
different and - highly possibly - an ordinary
teacher.
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