Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 43

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter
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Thus, we can say that eTwinning is a wonderful
opportunity for international collaboration in
Armenia which helps fulfill not only educational
aims and goals but also spreads human values and
respect for other cultures, as a result leading to
globalization.
make sense of a random experience by the
imposition of story structure on them. Such
approach is set in human stories of experience. It
provides readers with a rich framework through
which they can investigate the ways humans
experience the world depicted through their stories.
Naira Harutyunyan is the head teacher of Vanadzor Basic
School no. 16, Armenia. She has been teaching Chemistry
for 18 years. In 2011 she was recognised as “The teacher
of the year” in Armenia. She has been involved in
eTwinning since 2013.
Liana Karapetyan is an English teacher at Vanadzor Basic
School no. 16, Armenia. She worked as a school ICT
coordinator for 10 years. She has been involved in
eTwinning since 2015, an eTwinning ambassador since
2017.
Understanding the eTwinning Journey: The
Case of Lebanon
by Samar Al-Kassar
My experience as a Lebanese eTwinner was more of
a gruelling journey since I have faced and still face
numerous challenges on the way that seem to
emanate from the ways the project is delivered,
supported and implemented. As a project
coordinator, I can think about any project as-
planned, as-taught, and as-learned. Hence, I got
the idea of importing this design and building my
article accordingly because I believe it serves my
perspectives. My “as-planned” eTwinning journey
phase discusses the expectations and aspirations
that I had before applying for the quality label. My
“as-taught” phase pinpoints the various challenges
that I have faced throughout my teachable
experience. As for my “as-learned” phase, it reveals
the view-gained lessons that I derived in order to
avoid further difficulties which I am to encounter in
the upcoming projects on one hand, and to spare
the eTwinning novices the burned-out state that I
have suffered from.
This article adopts the narrative inquiry approach
which is a story-based approach used in research
resting on the assumptions that human beings
At the very beginning of my eTwinning journey, I
had very high expectations of eTwinning due to its
great reputation being a teachable platform for
teachers and students. After choosing my school to
be in the eTwinning, teachers and school principals
were called for a general assembly to be acquainted
with the eTwinning platform. The moment the
National Support Service took the floor, she started
her speech by talking about the importance of
multidisciplinary projects in the world to shape
modern and global trends in the field of education.
However, in order to embark on this ''interesting
worldwide" journey, each of us had to submit a
proposal of a project in a two-month deadline that
must be accompanied with an international partner.
After hearing such a shocking announcement,
dissatisfaction started showing and group
discussions were triggered. After all, we were just
stepping in. So, all participating teachers were not
on our best days. The general assembly ended,
teachers rushed to look for partners in case they
were lucky to find one. Others left the room
mumbling. As for me, I decided to look elsewhere
since the clock started ticking from the very first
day.
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