eTwinning as a support instrument

ROMINA MARCHESANI

eTwinning as a support instrument for interactive teaching – pedagogical aspects and examples of good practice

Interactive teaching happens when students engage with each other, with teachers and with content. If you give students autonomy, a good sense of purpose and a chance for mastery, they will enjoy working and learning!

• Content based
• Learners are passive
• Based on memory
• Learners are easily bored, loose attention, don't retain much
• Slow and not frequent feedback from learners
• Theoretical and transmissive

TRADITIONAL LECTURING

• Student centered
• Active participation
• Based on experience
• High motivation, effective learning
• Costant and real time feedback and reinforcement
• Building knowledge by doing things with others in a real life context

INTERACTIVE LEARNING

Edagar Dale’s cone of experience

• To reach more students using different learning styles

• Make their learning meaningful and long-lasting

To enhance the development of key competences, in particular soft skills, like problem solving, learn to learn, collaborate in a team respecting others and taking responsibilities, organizational skills...

Why interactive teaching?

• To raise students’ attention, participation and motivation

PUPILS LIKE:

• To be actively involved, engaged
• To share knowledge and ideas
• To be challanged – in a positive way  find answers and solve problems by themselves, create and develop their own ideas/initiatives
• To be aknowledge for their contribution (by teachers, peers, parents...)
• To be impressed – the wow factor!

LEARNING CAN BE FUN!

• Stimulates individual inputs but also collaboration and peer learning • Gives immediate feedback from peers and teachers • Offers possibility to observe and interact with different perspectives . Offers possibility to perform innovation

Group work, the workhorse of interactive learning!

Gives an active role to pupils, teacher is a facilitator.

Allows to use different abilities and intelligences building self confidence and strenghtening autonomy

Enhances motivation: willingness to succed not linked to grades or fear but, to be aknowledged by peers, «to be cool», to communicate, invent, create...

Gives the opportunity to process what they are learning, use it learning from peers, presenting to others, creating an outcome re- elaborating information ...)

Group work...

ICT tools can help make teaching more interactive, especially in an eTwinning project where a lot of the work is done at distance in a virtual class. Pupils create and curate personal content to share it with peers (blog, website, pinterest, youtube, storify...)

•Foreing languages are used in a real and alive context as a means of communication

•Natural and effective development of ICT skills: ICT are tools to commnicate, carry out tasks/create outcomes

Interactive learning in eTwinning projects becomes even more significant, since it implies distance collaboration:

Always try to have students interact as much as possible

Collaboration among pupils is a key factor in the success of an eTwinning project! National and European Prizes  double weight!

COLLABORATION and INNOVATION

Collaborate when? Always!

COLLABORATION

At the end of the project: shared and collaborative project outcome, evaluation

During the project: Collaborative activities, crossed tasks, mixed groups, constant peer feedback ...

At the very beginning of the project: project planning and icebreaking

Plan a chat session or an online live meeting

Find creative ways for introducing students to each other, getting to know each other and establishing relationships (video, pictures, drawings, mindmap of interests, presentations, avatars like voki, bitstrips...use eTwinning modules!)

Icebreaking to get to know each other: Ask them to update their TS profile and leave comments on partners’ profiles

Involve pupils from the beginning in the project planning or at least in the choice of areas of interest.

At the beginning

1. Plan as many collaborative activities as possible, making sure that collaboration is meaningful
2. Create transnational groups of mixed nationalities. At the beginning it may be difficult!
3. If it is not possible or desirable to create mixed groups (ex. poor language skills, not enough time, no agreement with partner etc.), it is still possible to plan meaningful collaboration among pupils of different countries:

During the project: mixed groups!

Examples of collaborative activities:

Interactive icebreaking

Crossed tasks

Complementary tasks

A common shared outcome

Online meetings or chat sessions

Use your partner’s materials, watch it together in class, have pupils comment on it and send their feedback, use it as a base for your next task... Pupils can give and receive peer feedback with TS tools like blog, posts, comments, forum, online live meetings/chats, Twinmail, videomessages or using a padlet If possible, add regular live events, like chat sessions or online live events – well prepared

Minimum requirement:

Romina Marchesani

THANKS!