Planning your eTwinning project Summing it all up - Some practical hints Reims 25 May 2012 Ann-Marie Degerström NSS Sweden

The four phases of a project are: Planning: Goals, content and method Process: Work and communication Presentation: Show results Evaluation: Did we reach the goals? How? What worked(not)?

THE PLANNING!

WHY will you be doing this? What is going to be better by doing this specific part of the subject/s in this way? Set up goals that can be evaluated Write them down! Together – maybe in a wiki (set up one for free at )

How to collaborate for real?

Group work, classical way : Teacher distribuces tasks Students divide tasks between each other and works parallell. 1-2 students put the results together Result : 1 very tiny isolated bit of learning per person = parallell work

”We do something nice and show it to you! Let’s blog! Let’s write about ourselves! We read yours and you read ours! And comment if we want to…” WARNING!!! PARALLELL WORK

Real collaboration is all about real communication Aim: To avoid parallell work To motivate all participants to participate equally

Solution: Task must involve a real common problem/task to approach together = All hands/brains/competences are important and needed for the result

Common problem is at best to be decided by all participants* together: Creates sense of participation, which creates motivation * Not just teachers – if students are involved in the project, they must be included!

Which tools/software are to be used? TwinSpace? With Blogs, Wikis, Common spaces for documentation… Photostory? Moviemaker? Video conference? StorybirdStorybird? VokisVokis? Podcasting? Remember all the freeware online! And all the technical devices sitting in the pockets of the kids!

Tips on freeware on the Swedish eTwinning blog: Irregularly updated Available in all languages

Certain tools are suited for collaboration and others for presentation Decisions, decisions… And they all need to be made before you start….

What to work with then? Anything that fits into the curriculum! Add not content, but method! Ideas can be found under the tab INSPIRATION on INSPIRATION Remember involvement! And why not start with a MODULE to get to know one another?MODULE

Who should be involved in the project? Possible persons to involve/invite: Students Collegues (crosscurricular opportunity!) ICT resources Head teacher Parents NSS! All can be invited to TwinSpace with different rights of access

How to involve students in the best way? DON’T let the students work one to one! DO work in groups of two, three or four on each ”side” DON’T use a language which is first language to one of the groups! DO collaborate in English with an British school, but let them in that case use their second language. The same goes for Spanish, French and other languages! DON’T let the project be all about themselves – ”Get to know eachother-projects” DO use the ”Get to know” modules before the ”real content” begins – the ”common problem” to be solved

WHEN is the project going to run? Time frame? One year? One month? One week? To what extent? All lessons? 5 lessons a week? 3 lessons a month? When to ”meet”? Online and maybe IRL? Set dates! Be realistic! Be aware of each others school year! Eurydice.orgEurydice.org keeps facts on 38 countries.

Results How will they be shown? To whom? When? Where?

Results How will they be evaluated? Evaluation of process Evaluation of content learned Assessment – self assessment – test YOU decide - before the project starts

Risks (and how to meet them) Illness (spreading of tasks between students) Moving (be more than one teacher) Disappearing partner (get s) Digital breakdown (back up) What more? (Heaven knows! Contact your NSS!)

Project planning – in short: Why?What content and which goals? How ?How to work? Which tools? Who?Who to involve? When?Time frame – beginning and end? Extent? Results?How to evaluate? Did we reach our goals? Risks?What obstacles can occur – plan how to handle them

All of the above need to be communicated and written down before you start - this increases the odds for a successful project! Use the ”Staff room” in TwinSpace” Or a wiki online (Wikispaces.com)

To increase your learning in different topics and maybe meet to study each other’s every day life Comenius in service training

Don’t forget: You can always call HELPDESK!HELPDESK Or your NSS…

Good luck with your eTwinning project! Thank you for your attention!