The eTwinning initiative connects over 70,000 educators across 32 European countries to enhance primary school education through international collaboration and use of technology. It offers a platform for project management and content sharing while promoting cooperation, creativity, and experiential learning among students. eTwinning projects vary widely in scope, focusing on themes like culture, health, and creativity, and leverage modern tools such as social media for enhanced interaction and learning.

1. eTwinning & English in primary schools IATEFL Harrogate 2010 Anna Varna MEd ELT and EdTech eTwinning Ambassador Primary school English teacher

2. What is that? 32 European countries 70,000 schools 90,000 educators Online School Partnerships

3. Online school partnerships “ eTwinning is a true community of practice, learning, excellence and innovation in education both at the European level and worldwide. The teachers participating in eTwinning have shown how powerful the learning experience can be for children when it is enriched through international collaboration, cultural and linguistic exchange using twenty-first century tools.” Odile Quintin, European Commission’s Director-General for Education and Culture

4. what does it offer? A network of thousands of European schools to cooperate with Easy to use web tools for project management To find a partner To communicate with partners To realize partnership To upload and share content

5. what does it offer? More value to educational procedure because of: - experiential learning - cooperation - use of technology - European dimension - motivation

6. So far….. If you had 6 words to describe eTwinning which words would you choose?

7. cooperation creativity learning sharing development participation

8. cooperation creativity learning sharing development ETWINNING participation

9. How does it work? (very summarized version) Teachers register in etwinning.net They complete profile They access the database/forum They find partner school with similar interests (some more statistics: there are about 15,000 ads waiting for you right now)

10. and ELT

11. What and How do we teach? In Greece there is the Revised Unified Curriculum (2001) which is based on The Common European Framework “ Only through a better knowledge of European modern languages will it be possible to facilitate communication and interaction among Europeans… in order to promote European mobility, mutual understanding and co-operation and overcome prejudice and discrimination …”

12. 7 tenets for teaching English according to J. Harmer, from “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, 2001 Exposure to language Comprehensible Input CLT : communicative activities and task-based learning The affective variable: anxiety needs to be lowered for learning to take place Discovery Grammar and Lexis Methodology and culture

13. eTwinning projects Some are short Some are looooong! Some are serious Some are funny! THEY ARE ALL FANTASTIC!

14. It is fashion time A project with two countries and two schools Itea Primary school and Kadrina Primary school in Esthonia Teachers decided on content and created a calendar

15. It is fashion time AIMS Writing in TL Use of ICT Community history Team Working Culture Similarities MEANS E-mails Blogging Voicethreads Photography Discussions with family

16. What’s in your bag? Work at school

17. What’s in your bag? ICT E-mails Blogging Voicethread

18. What’s in your bag? Discussions and Art Talking with parents and grandparents about fashion and clothing which was transformed into target language texts Artful representations of vocabulary Children’s photos of one another

19. Children’s paintings

21. & Social Networking Some statistics: Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year (source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/led-by-facebook-twitter-global-time-spent-on-social-media-sites-up-82-year-over-year / ) Blogs and social networking are consuming more online time than checking and writing personal email was eager to recognize this reality. The makeover of the portal as well as that of Twinspace, reflects the latest needs of educators.

22. & Social Networking The new portal is much more oriented to educators making connections with each other The new twinspace allows educators to share content in a more meaningful way. SO ……

23. We move from individual connections

24. To connections through ICT

25. To Web 2.0 connections

26. To make it more personal, these are the tools I use

27. And these are the tools all my friends combined use

28. Past & Present When eTwinning started the use of ICT was limited to e-mail exchange, digital photography, and documents uploaded to twinspace Right now the variety is interminable: videos, voicethreads, blogs, vlogs, wikis

29. The Future? a Second Life eTwinning project?

30. & English (once more) eTwinning projects are an OPPORTUNITY

32. can help towards this CHANGE

33. Thank you for your attention Anna Varna email: [email_address] Twitter: @annabooklover Slideshare: Anna Varna (you will find this presentation after today) My blogs: www.etwinningpg.wordpress.com www.iteaschool.wordpress.com www.annabooklover.wordpress.com

34. Resources www.etwinning.net www.etwinningpg.wordpress.com http://itisfashiontime.blogspot.com http://voicethread.com/#q+footwear.b106245.i542444 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecastro/4430427537/ http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/press_corner/statistics.cfm http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/led-by-facebook-twitter-global-time-spent-on-social-media-sites-up-82-year-over-year/

35. More eTwinning projects The Colours of Europe The project is based on arts and crafts. Teachers choose a colour every two months and students create works of art using that colour, as well as different materials and techniques. Chocolate and Chips A European eTwinning Project in Preschool/Early Years promoting Healthy Lifestyles ‘Chocolate & Chips’ is an eTwinning project designed to promote a healthy diet, lifestyle, and enjoyable exercise for Nursery and Infant children (4-6 years old). Gingerbread House The main theme of the project is fairytales and children’s task is to transform their school life into a fairytale life. The children express the fairytale world through drawings, which are then transformed into a digital audio-visual format as a common outcome from the two partners. Learning and Sharing The goal of our partnership is to create real connection and twinning between the students. They write letters on different topics following "The Image of Another" project. Communication takes place in forums and chats in their own learning environment. At the same time our goal is to enhance and strengthen the students' English communication and ICT skills. http://www.orivedenkoulut.net/moodle/