eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 | Page 20

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------eTwinning has many faces: eTwinning portal, Desktop, Teachers’ Rooms, Groups, Learning Events, Professional Development Workshops etc. Apart from the Learning Events, which are for me the first source of professional improvement, the Groups tend to be the second one. With the creation of the eTwinning Ambassadors’ Group, the idea of the professional development becomes stronger. What is the method used? Solidarity and knowledge sharing are for me the two important elements. The ambassadors share their knowledge through webinars organized during all the year. They try new practices and share their results. They suggest new things and try to transmit them to the other teachers, through the Groups. It is all about solidarity and sharing, helping each other, trying to get better, for better education and a better society. This is the social role of eTwinning! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eTwinning for All of Us by Gonul Canbay It does not matter what our professions are, eTwinning offers us many opportunities to develop ourselves in many fields. Just join in the eTwinning chain, be open-minded, believe in yourself and go. As an experienced eTwinner, I would like to share my observations and experiences with newly beginner eTwinners, to guide and lead them through the eTwinning project process briefly. Newly beginners usually hesitate to participate in a project since they think that they do not know what to do and/or how to do it, but the key points are self-confidence and the motto “I can do it!” One should stimulate their curiosity of learning, as well. In today’s world, you can get whatever you need to know via the Internet. So, you can learn many things about eTwinning, the TwinSpace and web 2.0 tools by a little search on the Internet using some key words. There are lots of tutorials about most wonderful issues. In addition, there are lots of groups on some social media such as Facebook on which people connected to eTwinning share their experiences and try to help the ones in need. You can also learn via the Learning Lab on eTwinning like me. The Learning Events in the Learning Lab paved the way and made discovering new stuff easy for me. Now, I am writing some key words about what I want to do on the search box and searching starts; as I learned how to use some web tools by the means of a learning event, now it is very easy to learn how to use a new tool. There is also a helpdesk tab present on your eTwinning desktop – you can open a thread related to your problem and wait for the help of experienced eTwinners. If you are determined, you can find lots of ways to reach your goal. As for the projects, if you have a project idea, try to create a work plan that shows every detail in managing the project process including themes, duration and media that will be applied together with your partner. And if you want to be incorporated in a ready project whose subject interests you, do not hesitate to ask and learn all the details after you join a project. Do not give in and leave the project when you are confronted with a difficulty – share your problem/issue with experienced eTwinners and learn how to overcome it. The more you learn, the more you will enjoy eTwinning, and it will become a passion for you. 20