PLANNING AN ETWINNING PROJECT WITH THE NEW TWINSPACE
1. PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES AND
THE NEW TWINSPACE
THEODORA GKENIOU etwinning ambassador-Greece
MARIA NICA etwinning ambassador-Italy
2. Presentation outline
1. Brief introduction
2. Old Twinspace – New
Twinspace
3. Prospects and challenges
of the new Twinspace
4. Practical considerations
6. QL criteria
1. Pedagogical Innovation: To develop a project which
can be judged as innovative, the first step is to
choose an original theme. It is also necessary to use
different pedagogical methods and make sure that
the pupils take the lead and work collaboratively
using different techniques.
2. Curricular Integration
3. Communication and exchange between partner
schools
4. Collaboration between partner schools:
5. Use of technology
6. Results, impact and documentation
7. What is innovation?
Pedagogy first
project-based pedagogies
authentic learning
game based learning
collaboration, Team work., communication,
Problem solving
WHAT KIND OF CITIZENS DO WE WANT TO
EDUCATE?
15. TEACHER BULLETIN
ONLY
VISIBLE TO
TEACHER
MEMBERS
A SPACE FOR
COMMUNICATION.
HOW ABOUT
COLLABORATION?
BULLETIN:
A BRIEF
UPDATE
WE CAN
POST&DELETE
MESSAGES and
EMBED HTML
CODE
MOVED TO
THE FRONT
PAGE-HOME
19. WE CAN
ADD A NEW FORUM
OR A NEW THREAD (A SUBCATEGORY OF
THE FORUM)
ARCHIVE A FORUM (HIDE IT)
REPLY-QUOTE-DELETE
EDIT (CHANGE THE NAME OR
DESCRIPTION)
ADD PHOTOS, TABLES, VIDEOS, FILES
EMBED WEB TOOLS
21. PROJECT ACTIVITIES & HOW TO
MANAGE THEM
WE ADDED THE
APPLICATIONS
BY DRAGGING THEM
ON THE ACTIVITY SPACE
22. PREVIOUS TS APPLICATIONS
• BLOG
• FORUM (basic form)
COMMUNICATION
• WIKI
• WEB CONTENT
• BLOG
COLLABORATION
• FILE ARCHIVE
• IMAGE GALLERY
• WEB CONTENT
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT
26. Some remarks
PREVIOUS TWINSPACE NEW TWINSPACE
•Structured form
•Visible tools inside the twinspace
Loose structure;
Invisible tools which are available
outside the eTwinning portal
•Collaboration & communication •Collaboration & COMMUNICATION
•Internal applications for
communication and collaboration
•More easily customizable
•Open to embedding new tools
• internal applications
(files/images/forums)
•Separate sections (materials) (forums)
•Not so appealing •User friendly interface
27. What are we doing now??
1. No wiki
2. No file archive
3. No image gallery
4. No web content
5. No forum
6. No blog
NO APPLICATIONS!!! Now what?
?
29. SO IN THE NEW TS:
1. Page = wiki
2. File archive and
image gallery =
materials
3. Web content =
html mode button
4. The new forum=old
blog
Advantages
Place the materials
and forums at the
exact place where
you want
Disadvantages
You have to present
them in an
organized manner.
31. NEW TS: A CANVAS TO CREATE..
A SCRIBBLE OR…
HARMONY &
SYMMETRY?
32. Common problems
Pages randomly created (if at all..)
Everything stored in the project journal or just
stocked on the materials section
Pages without clear structure
No descriptions of activities
No interaction among students-inactive
forums
No project planning
34. ● Personalize your twinspace to
make it friendlier
● Create your logo to build a sense
of community among the
participants
● Don’t forget: the twinspace is
both a space for collaborative
work and the place where you can
display your work to a wider
audience.
So...it has to be clearly organised and
customized according to your
preferences
Make it yours! It’s your workplace!!
36. Q; When do I use the teacher bulletin
and when the project journal?
A: The bulletin addresses teachers. Use
it to
● decide about the practicalities of
the project (who does what, when,
how etc)
● provide assistance and
encouragement to your partners
● socialise, get to know them a bit
better
● share ideas, knowledge, practices.
Educate each other!
● Remember the old TS “teacher
room”? It has been replaced by the
teacher bulletin.
● Obviously it is suitable mainly for
communication.
● For collaboration you had better
open a private page
38. The project journal is a
journal:
● we record the process
of the project
● we mark milestones,
that is important points
along the project
timeline
● we can add photos,
collages, videos etc
● Remember the old TS
“blog”? It serves the
same purposes
39. Communication is the most important
ingredient in the etwinning recipe!
The new Twinspace was designed to make it
easier.
Take advantage of all the above mentioned
features and communicate with your partners.
Don’t forget to update the project journal
which is public so that the world knows your
work
Encourage your students to update their
profiles, post messages to get to know each
other and use the forums to exchange ideas.
Organise chats to ensure participation.
Discuss-discuss-discuss with your partners,
through the teacher bulletin and the twinmail
before you actually do something
41. The twinspace is to be used to
plan and organise
your work in clear modules.
It is the space where all project
members will
● become a community with the
same goal to achieve
● be informed about the
processes to follow
● negotiate and work
● display their work
● evaluate and comment it
So each of the tools provided
should be used for these purposes!!
The twinspace is NOT a storage
space.
It is a living organism and it has a
Cycle of Life
44. ONE single page
Everything stored on the
project journal!!!
The project design in 6 simple steps ??
Much communication
on the Bulletin;
No collaboration on
TS
Partners
working in
PARALLEL
HOME
46. The home is the first impression
one gets when s/he enters the
twinspace, the “Cover” of the
project.
So what is important?
1. The pages should be well
arranged
2. Photos and videos should be of
good quality
3. The project journal should help
us keep track of the project
4. The teachers should be
involved and communicate
effectively (although the
teacher bulletin is not visible
to students)
47. Don’t
The pages cannot be created randomly,
without having decided earlier what
the stages and activities of the
project are going to be.
Do
PLAN-PLAN-PLAN
this is the only key to success
and a tip
You can archive pages if you don’t want
them to be visible and mess up the
appearance of the twinspace.
However..
It’s better to be safe than sorryPages
48. PAGES & HOW TO MANAGE
THEM
CREATE-EDIT-
ARCHIVE (NOT
DELETE)
ADD SUBPAGES
VISIBILITY
AUTHORSHIP
REVISIONS
A BLANK PAGE!!!
50. Q: How do we organise the
pages?
A: 1:1 rule
Each page corresponds to one
activity
(Not to one country)
Q: How can I group different
pages under one topic?
A: Use the sub-pages option,
listing each subpage under the
parent page. There is thus
thematic unity.
In this way the individual
activities across the project are
centered around some themes.
51. We are talking about the Twinspace but
in reality we are talking about
PEDAGOGY
Q: Do we want to duplicate the traditional
teaching paradigm in etwinning projects?
A: No, we want to students to learn
actively, to construct new ideas and
hypotheses, to use existing knowledge, to
go beyond it, to discover, select and
transform information.
We also want them to take advantage of
the potential that group work can offer
and the social interaction with peers and
teachers from other sociocultural
environments. Also we want to cater for
the individual needs of our classes.
Q: So how do we achieve these learning
objectives?
52. learn actively
and construct new
ideas and
hypotheses
creatively
the teacher creates the appropriate
environment on the pages, using extra
web tools if needed, to design activities
that promote active learning in a
meaningful context, eg learning
scenarios
The instructions, process and final
product should be clear.
use existing
knowledge & go
beyond it,
discovering,
selecting and
transforming
information
the materials can be the place where
the new productions are carefully
organised and displayed
socialcultural
interaction
we create and use forums, chat,
twinmail, wall messages
learning suited to
individual needs
a rich variety of activities can be
created on the pages to cater for the
needs and interests of the students
involved
53. Finally, let’s keep in mind that
● etwinning project = a project
● project members = a learning
community
● founder = a leader and
manager
● the twinspace = a learning
management system
● pages = tasks or activities which
make up the learning scenario
● materials = supporting or
original productions of the
project members
● web tools = tools
54. Q: Why use the HTML code?
A: To embed web 2.0 tools so as
to improve the quality of your
project
Q: Can I have an example?
A: Sure..why not create and
embed at the appropriate place in
the page a collage or slideshow
(eg photopeach, kizoa) with
photos you collected on a certain
topic (eg Your hometown
presentation) instead of just
creating a folder in the Materials
and stocking them there?
56. Can you come up with your
own examples about how a
web tool can improve
the appearance
the organisation
the collaboration
the communication
the evaluation
of your project?
57. Q: and what happens when I try to use
the embed code but my creation
doesn’t appear when I switch back?
A: In this case, there are 3
alternatives depending of the given
embed code.
1. When the given code type is
<iframe … it’s just a copy and
paste procedure
2. When the given code is something
different of <iframe... then must
be changed by someone who knows
what to do
3. When no embed code is offered
for the tool, it must be created
from scratch
(Tip by Petros Mihailidis)
58. SOME TUTORIALS
VOKIS
http://www.slideshare.net/socratisvasiopoul
os/use-voki-in-your-twinspace
INVITE PUPILS
http://www.slideshare.net/teacherinresidenc
e/invite-pupils-to-the-twinspace?related=2
WHAT PUPILS CAN DO
http://www.slideshare.net/pitm/the-new-
twinspace-41887342?related=3
60. Materials
can and should be displayed on
the pages, at the particular point
where they are needed.
● The folders are not supposed
to act as warehouses.
● The folders should be well
organised.
● The forders should
correspond to the pages and
be easily traced.
● Materials’ folders should not
be created randomly, without
having planned it first!!
ALL PROJECT
ACTIVITIES IN
ONE NATIONAL
FILE
61. Don’t forget
● display your materials following the
e-safety and netiquette rules
● ask for the parents’ permissions
and let them know the work which
is being done.
● If you use YouTube, you can make
the video UNLISTED so that it is
not publicly visible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=zaSM_xcmkOI&t=46
(tip by Maria Georgiadou)
62. And the crucial point is coming up:
“Who does what?”
● If you make your pupils administrators,
they can take initiative but they can
create confusion since they are allowed
to create pages, edit and delete.
● Why not assign them some roles and
decide who are ready to take
responsibility?
● Visitors can also edit the page..so even
teachers from non etwinning countries,
or policy makers, administrative staff
and parents could contribute.
● All teachers (administrators or not)
can edit too.
So here comes again:
DECIDE-PLAN-ORGANISE
before you ACT
63. Luckily, if something goes
wrong you can always fix it
by using the REVISIONS
button
64. Q: Why Forums?Do really need to
have them?
A: Forums are most important. They
are the GLUE of the project. The
MEETING POINT of the students.
How can you tell they actually got
involved without having expressed
themselves on the topics discussed and
the activities implemented?
TIP
Create a forum per activity and
encourage the students to contribute.
(it’s an excellent writing task too)
You can copy and paste the LINK of
the forum on the corresponding page
OR EMBED IT so that it is easily
accessible OR
You can use the same name as the one
of the corresponding activity/page
FORUMS
66. As a teacher, you are the leader
and the decision maker in the
project. The project members need
your guidance and support
So
● decide who to invite
● decide which roles to assign
● be flexible-change roles if
necessary
● be on the alert-contact the
members when needed
● always be ready to remind the
students of their passwords..they
tend to forget!
