Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------part of the project – for example, Christmas carols,
or World War 2 songs, or songs about farming –
whatever fits in with the project. The songs can be
shared even if the pupils do not understand all the
words, and this experience of singing a song
together is very moving for both pupils and
teachers and helps to bring all the participants of
the call, and project, together.
teachers for staff development and also for
international project planning.
Pupils benefit from hearing authentic foreign
language speech, and also from international
collaboration and co-operation. This breaks down
barriers and prejudices, and makes international
projects come alive for the students.
Finally - some hints and tips:
Partner finding for international work
Partner-finding is easy using eTwinning, which is
free for teachers to join and use at
www.etwinning.net. Within the eTwinning site,
there are several online Teachers' Rooms for the
sharing of good practice, for example: Utilisation de
la visioconférence dans les projets –
videoconference in projects; and Video-calling in
primary education.
The international online staff-room
It is also very effective to use video-calls for
planning meetings with colleagues during
international projects. It is an easy way to bring
teachers together for the sharing of ideas, with
suggestions easily discussed in real time. It also
creates real friendships and the offering of mutual
support.
Will Richardson, in his “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and
other powerful web tools for classrooms” [4],
suggests that teachers should use these tools
themselves so that they can understand how they
can be used effectively in the classroom.
find a date and time which is convenient for
both classes – check the time zones and
include the time in each country in the
planning documentation;
practice in advance, to check the equipment
works and the call is not blocked by the
school's firewall;
have a clear plan for the call, so that
teachers and pupils know what will happen;
exchange vocabulary in advance;
practise with the pupils in advance of the
call;
give the pupils, in advance, something they
can do if the call drops, or they are not
involved all the time;
after the call, ask the pupils to reflect on
their learning – how effective do they feel
that using the video-call has been, and
what could be improved?
References:
1 Beetham, H. (ed), Sharpe, R. (ed), (2013)
Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for
21st Century Learning, p. 5;
2 Ofsted (Feb 2010): The safe use of new
technologies, p. 5
www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/safe-use-of-newtechnologies;
3 Ofsted (July 2011): Modern languages:
Achievement and challenge 2007-2010, p. 6
www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/modern-languagesachievement-and-challenge-2007-2010;
4 Richardson, W. (2010): Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts,
and other powerful web tools for classrooms, p. 6.
eTwinning uses webinars for very efficient online
professional development and training, from the
comfort of the teacher's own home. These do not
usually use the video camera, but are a great way
to share good practice.
Conclusion
Video-calling is an excellent collaborative tool, for
pupils to learn from their peers, and also for the
teachers to share in team-teaching in an extended
international classroom. It can also be used by
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