Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 135

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For this reason, we will provide members with support material for managing the new TwinSpace, collect recurring doubts/issues and (hopefully) answers, in order to create a list of FAQ. This is not enough: we plan to revise the pages and replace old information with new content, related to new tools and structures, adjust the forum, keep on offering constant forum assistance. Of course, our “core business” is to disseminate all eTwinning initiatives and assist the members in the completion of their activities. That is why we will organize other live Helpdesk sessions and live promotional sessions. What is more, we plan to organize some formal Live Events - with guests/experts if possible, targeted at the different stages of the eTwinners’ journey (introductory - project planning - project development...) as well to organize informal internal Events (as we already did this year, upon request or in set occasions) We think that the huge amount of messages in the forums (our group is the one that records the most interactions in this section) is an interactive and engaging activity and a tangible outcome in itself: as we stated before, Virgilio is a place where users either come, ask their questions, read the answers and come back at the next question, or look for what they need, take it, and come back the next time they are in need. Our last point is for a proposal: what we would really like is to accompany the Group activities with a set of mini-Learning Events for new eTwinners (or everybody struggling with the new features). A sort of “survival eTwinning kit”. We would like to organize these Learning Events on the different new features and the opportunity they offer/the challenges they pose in the development of a project, so that eTwinners can test them in advance and then properly take advantage of them in their projects. We would like to organize these Events hosting an expert (CCS member, developer…) that can give his/her point of view. We think this kind of events could raise huge interest and could be extremely useful. Moreover, since the quality of projects is among the eTwinning priorities, these LEs could give us the opportunity to have eTwinners reflect on how to structure a project as well as how to use the TwinSpace tools. Just a quick final note: 2018 was a great year for Virgilio, which reached the 10,000 members in December and keeps growing. However, we want to keep it growing (not only “surviving”) and effectively assist eTwinners: this, given the recent challenges, will require lots of work and renovation in a short time. That is why we will need assistance ourselves by all eTwinners, yes… you too!!! Our responsibility is to let them find their answer/meet their needs as soon and as easily as possible. Our aim is orientation of eTwinners. Since Virgilio is not a thematic Group, Virgilians have different interests, stories and needs, and all they have in common, as far as we know, is their interest in the eTwinning opportunities. That is why it is not easy to involve them in a common activity: in the past we tried with ebooks, and it was a successful step at the time, but we had to keep the subject very wide and vague (and for this reason not particularly interesting). We want to stress the fact that, differently from other Groups, our aim is to keep eTwinners into eTwinning, not into the Group. They may (and will) come and go! However, we will try to create simple products during the webinars, which are the moments when Virgilians actually gather and interact in a creative and effective way. We will then share the products within the Group first, and then in the eTwinning community. Paola Arduini, Laura Maffei and Elena Pezzi, AKA Virgilio Ladies, have always been passionate about European projects, sharing, collaboration and technology. eTwinning has therefore represented all this for them, and since they discovered it they have not left it! They believe in collaboration, sharing and in the European dimension of education. They are curious and passionate about new technologies as educational tools. They like experimenting, not getting bored and not being boring. They believe eTwinning is the ideal space to build shared knowledge, that is why they run the featured group “Virgilio - an introduction to eTwinning". My first year as an Italian eTwinning School by Antonietta Calò I was appointed Ambassador for the Italian region Campania in 2010 and since then I have tried to involve my colleagues in the different activities that are offered by the eTwinning community of practice. Step by step I could organize a skilled 135