Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 133

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter
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For those who do not know us yet, here is a brief
excursus on the characteristics, objectives and
mission of our group. The objective of the group is
Support & Orientation for new eTwinners: that is to
say, a sort of Helpdesk, but at the same time
something more - a guide to the fabulous
eTwinning Galaxy of people, ideas, opportunities.
The mission of our Group develops in two
intertwined areas: Communication and Assistance.
We collaborated with the “Noi Orizonturi” NGO to
find resources for workshops and non-formal
education activities. We have initiated a partnership
with FEDROM Madrid, Spain for an international
visibility of this project in the Romanian community
in Spain. During the process of writing the
magazine “Old times, new people”, our students
and teachers have searched information about the
past of the locality, traditions, tourist objectives,
opening collaboration with the Regional Library
"George Coșbuc" and the Bistrița Complex Museum.
The eTwinning projects we are conducting have
enriched our educational experiences and helped us
to get the status of eTwinning School 2019-2020, a
status that binds us to excellence in the learning
process.
Vasilica Gazdac works at Tiberiu Morariu School in Salva,
Romania. She is a pre-school teacher and also the
coordinator of European projects at the institution level.
She is an eTwinning ambassador and one of the Methodist
teachers at the Bistrița-Năsăud School Inspectorate.
Virgilio - an introduction to eTwinning…
and much more!
by Paola Arduini, Laura Maffei and Elena Pezzi
Who among you is not yet a member of the
featured group “Virgilio”?
If we look only at the numbers, we would say that
we can only rejoice in the constant growth of our
group: at the end of July 2019 the members of
Virgil are close to 12000 units.
A great success in so few years of life of the group,
but also a great responsibility for us moderators!
Just to give you some examples, during these years
we have promoted eTwinning and Virgilio Group in
& out of eTwinning (on Twitter, Facebook,
Telegram, Instagram, etc). We think that spreading
the “eTwinning word” is crucial, especially among
those newbies who are still a little scared by the
“dark forest” of the platform.
At the same time we have enriched our Virgilio
YouTube channel with new “3 tips 4 newbies”
videos and tutorials, tools that we think could be
useful for those who are approaching eTwinning for
the first time; they are small tips to facilitate the
approach to the platform, to the projects, to the
European collaboration.
Within the eTwinning community we have promoted
the Group via the European Ambassadors net, via
the Italian NSS (for the third year, Virgilio Group
was presented in the introductory course for
newbies) and via different eTwinning initiatives,
events and training courses, both sponsored by the
Ministry of Education and local authorities.
But that's not all: we have also promoted the Group
in our journals and during Events and contests, and
assisted members and members-to-be in their
activities, offering step by step assistance in the
HELPDESK forum, both in the general forum and
the dedicated areas.
Always with a view to helping new eTwinners and
making life a little easier for them we have created
new tutorials, regularly presented new tools and
how to take advantage of them in eTwinning
projects.
But since very often a word said is worth more than
a thousand written, we have also organized
webinars and different Live Events to interact with
participants and give them feedback and
personalized support.
To go even deeper we have organized informal Live
Events to strengthen the sense of community and
collaboration among members.
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