Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 2017 No. 7 | Page 5

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2017 Newsletter
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Introduction
by Anne Gilleran Embracing the 4Cs with eTwinning
by Helena Serdoura
The Visibility of eTwinning Projects Newsletters
have been versatile tools used for the benefit of
eTwinning for 7 years now. For us eTwinners they
mean that schools collaborating on issues of
recognized pedagogical value get appreciation and
reasons for celebration. This article aims to show how eTwinning can
embrace the 4Cs for the 21st Century skills in the
classroom and beyond and was presented this year
at the 31 st Annual APPI Conference, in Lisbon,
under the title “eTwinning – Europe@aClick – part
2”. The text reflects some of professional
development undergone this year, namely “Make
eTwinning Live 2016” as well as much of my
experience as an eTwinner.
This 2017 newsletter is a great summer read again
– enjoy!
Anne Gilleran has always worked in the field of
education, firstly as a lecturer on a training course
for guidance counsellors, then as guidance
counsellor in a school. Then she became a School
Principal in a post primary school in Dublin, before
she moved to work in European Schoolnet. She has
worked in eTwinning since the beginning in 2005
and she is the Pedagogical Manager, responsible for
coordinating the pedagogical and professional
development aspects of the community.
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The focus is on the learner we have in our classes
and how eTwinning can provide relevant,
meaningful and real world 21st century contexts for
students to articulate thoughts and ideas
effectively, use communication for a range of
purposes and utilize multiple media and
technologies. How students can work effectively
and make compromises to accomplish a common
goal; how they can become problem solvers by
analyzing how parts of a whole interact with each
other, learn to identify and ask significant
questions, make connections and draw conclusions.
And we will also look at new approaches to get
things done like use a wide range of idea creation
techniques and develop, implement and
communicate new ideas…
1 st C – Communication
By involving Students in eTwinning projects, one
can create a classroom without walls: students are
able to communicate with peers all over Europe in
an engaged and meaningful way, they learn
together, they have a real audience to share their
work with, they can compare and build their own
identity and it takes place in a safe environment.
What communication tools do teachers have
at their disposal in eTwinning?
Asynchronous communication seems to be
dominant as far as eTwinning projects are
concerned. This type of communication occurs in
delayed time and conveys several time-based
advantages, including increased time-on-task, extra
time for and sufficient opportunities for everyone to
contribute to the discussion. It provides deeper
cognitive processes and critical thinking as much as
creativity and innovation. Each student can engage
at its own space…
So, don’t forget to ask your students to:
#1 Update their TwinSpace profiles.
#2 Choose a photo or create an avatar, and tell
who they are.
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