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Induction meeting Rome 13 November 2009

Alexandra TosiUnità Nazionale eTwinning ItaliaAgenzia Scuola (ex Indire)

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Presentation contents:

1. Short presentation of the eTwinning Desktop

2. General suggestions for projects proposed by Comenius Assistants

3. Short presentation of the TwinSpace

4. Some suggestions on how to organize your TwinSpace

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1. Short presentation of the eTwinning Desktop

• How to register• How to edit your profile• How to search for partners• How to register a project

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2. General suggestions for projects proposed by Comenius Assistants

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Always talk about your project ideas with your tutor and agree with them the kind of school to contact in eTwinning

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Try to involve other teachers, according to the kind of project you will be working on (eTwinning is not only for foreign language teachers!)

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If you are linked to a school in your home country, you could put it in contact with the Italian school you are working in and give birth to an eTwinning project

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Even if you are not linked to a school in your home country, you can still try to find an eTwinning school from your regional area and create a project with it

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You can create an eTwinning project with other Comenius assistants working in Europe!

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When you leave your host school in Italy and become a teacher in your country, you might want to keep in contact through an eTwinning project!

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- you could either convince an Italian teacher to register the project, so that when you leave the country they won’t have to close the project. Once the project is approved, you can be added to it as a third member.

Since your stay in Italy is short termed, here are some suggestions for your project:

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– or work on short projects. Plan some activities that can be carried out during your stay in Italy. Get inspiration from kits and modules! It would still be advisable to invite in the project your tutor or another teacher

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3. Short presentation of the TS

Once you find a partner and agree on the project activities with your partner and your Italian colleagues, you can start an eTwinning project.

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Each eTwinning project has:

• A TwinBlog (Project Diary) where teachers only talk about the project step by step and communicate with their NSS

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A TwinSpace: the work area for your project, your new virtual class that encourages and facilitates collaboration, communication, sharing, and interaction amongst pupils.

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4. Some suggestions on how to organize your TwinSpace

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• Plan the structure of the TwinSpace thoroughly with your partner before the start of the project’s activities. You can use the staff room for this phase. The risk is to have a collection of uncoordinated pages that will not be linked in an overall design.

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• Imagine activities as project sections with a specific purpose and working method and a consequent structure.

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• Avoid creating too many activities and create them before inviting pupils

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• Give meaningful titles to activities in order to surf the TwinSpace easily: it can get confusing near the end of the project, when most activities are done!

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• Use only the tools you really need to reach your didactic objectives: too many tools only create confusion and noise

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• Publish those parts of the TS that can be made visible, being careful with pupils’ pictures and private details. First agree on that with your partner.

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• When possible try to add:

– an activity called project description where you explain what the project is about and how you decided to structure the TS. This will help visitors, but also participants, to understand better your activities and their pedagogical value and surf easily your TS

– an activity called project monitoring and evaluation where you upload all relevant documents

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• Keep trace of what you are doing in the Project Diary (TwinBlog) and give us your comments

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Some examples of possible criteria for TS structure:

• Temporal/functional criteria: i.e. phase 1 ice breaker activities (pupils presentation and/or games); phase 2 country/town/school presentation; phase 3 topic related activities; phase 4 final project output

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• Topic criteria: after a first ice breaker phase you could divide pupils into groups (possibly of mixed nationalities) and assign them a specific topic to work on. Each group might have one activity page to work. You might want to add also an activity, or more, where all pupils work together and one for the final project output.

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Please try to avoid:

• National activities where pupils of different countries works among themselves and not with their foreign peers

• Individual activities where each pupil has his/her own page

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More info onwww.etwinning.net(European portal)

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(Italian portal)

http://www.slideshare.net/OwainWright (tutorials)

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For any kind of question related to eTwinning please contact us at

etwinning@indire.it or 055 2380561

Thank you!

Alexandra Tosia.tosi@indire.it