Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 121

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter
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of the great educational values that form the basis
of school social interaction. International groups are a very effective way of
working together.
We deal with several topics related to human
coexistence, multiculturalism, interculturalism,
universal values. All partners commit themselves in
a collaborative spirit that involves everyone,
improve our knowledge and attitudes starting from
the enthusiasm that the project arouse. In addition, we want to integrate emotional and
affective aspects into the project, creating long-
lasting bonds between all partners. It is not
therefore a project in which each school work
independently, but every step, every decision taken
and every activity carried out are integrated into
the broader context of the planning that we
constantly keep in mind (teachers and students).
Pupils have been actively involved since the
beginning, demonstrating that they can adapt to
the needs of each phase. The possibility for some of
them to meet in person certainly helps, but it
should be remembered that not all the students
participate in the mobility, yet they also cooperate
actively with each other.
An important phase of the project is that the
students disseminate the experience among their
own peers not directly involved in the project, thus
allowing a deeper reflection on what they learn.
It is therefore clear that the project completely
reaches the main objective we had set ourselves: to
reflect on our identity, to know the reality that
surrounds us and to make concrete proposals for a
more active and constructive human and social
coexistence.
The eTwinning experience of most of us has also a
positive impact on communication too, which is
organized in a constant way among teachers both
in the planning phase and throughout the work
process, with clearly defined objectives: comparison
and deepening of content, research and broadening
of the personal horizons of participants. These
objectives are pursued through teaching-learning
processes negotiated and applied by teachers and
students thanks to a continuous communication
between all, inside and outside the TwinSpace.
We share the work, treat common aspects,
students debate several types of issues; materials
are organized in transversal areas to get to the final
shared products; the works of the groups are
uploaded on the TwinSpace, on the blog and on the
shared Drive to be easily available and accessible
by all.
We always encourage the exchange of ideas and
experiences and the sharing of information to
achieve a truly effective collaboration between
students.
We would not have been able to produce videos, e-
magazines, presentations, join awareness
campaigns etc. if there had not been a continuous,
constant and sincere communication between all
participants.
Collaborative activities go far beyond simple
communication: participants are members of
groups, co-authors and collaborators; each
individual participant and each group needs the
contribution of others to complete the activities.
The materials (presentations, e-magazines, videos,
blogs, etc.) have been created on the basis of
common reflections and it should also be noted that
the commitment to the ideas proposed by the
project is so evident that on some occasions it was
the students themselves who "surpassed" the
teachers by proposing activities or creating content
not initially planned, such as the Kahoot on cultural
heritage, some episodes of web radio, Instagram
and Twitter profiles for better dissemination.
We can therefore say that the project represents a
great opportunity to concretely experiment what it
means to be active members of a collaborative
community of good practices, both at teacher and
student level.
Students also experiment with various technological
tools according to the needs of each phase of the
work. In fact, this project offers the opportunity for
all participants to use the most suitable and
effective tools.
At the beginning we have used simple tools, such
as the Twinspace forum or other known tools. Then
we have started to use those tools that could help
us to achieve our goals: offline and online
presentations, audio and video recordings (the use
of the online tool Spreaker for our webradio is
fundamental), online digital newspapers, web
content management, collaborative tools, image
management programs, etc.
The use of ICT is functional to the whole project
and to the different products and not as an
autonomous tool in itself; therefore this allows
students to approach the world of information and
communication in a more critical and conscious way
and develop more independent digital skills.
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