Once upon a Time in Euroope - eTwinning project 2010-2011
The project is also called "Intercultural Dialogue through Fairy Tale, Drama and Art." Most of the work was carried out by the World Club students and their teacher Satu Kemppinen. The contact person was Tiina Sarisalmi.
Look at the project videos and fairytales also in the Gallery.
The project got first the Finnish Quality Label and then the European Quality Label.
In eTwinning conference 2013 the project was granted Mevlana proze for enhancing intercultural dialogue and cooperations. Read about it in the Schools Going Global blog.
TWO NEW eTWINNING PARTNERSHIPS
We have started two new eTwinning partnerships in October 2006. Class 6b's
new French partners are from Collège Montalembert. The name of their
project is Frinceland - Our Space in the Web. Class 5b has partners in Germany
in a school called Gymnasium Am Turmhof. Their partnership is called Friendship
and Fun.
The projects started by letter of introduction which all students have now
written in the Introductions Forum in their own partnership course in Moodle
learning environment. They have also done some exercises and filled in a short
questionnaire called "Who We Are". The replies to that survey can
be seen here.
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LEARNING AND SHARING IS ONE OF EUROPE'S TOP PROJECTS
And the nominees for the eTwinning prizes are... The European panel has
evaluated the top list of projects recommended by the National Support Services
to win this year's eTwinning prizes. All entries submitted for the eTwinning
prizes have been evaluated, first by the National Support Services and then
by the European evaluation panel consisting of representatives from the European
Commission, the Pedagogical and Advisory Group for eTwinning, the Central Support
Service and external experts from national Ministries of Education.
"Learning and Sharing" was nominated as one of the two best projects in the
category of pedagogical innovation.
From each nominated partnership, two representatives are invited to the ceremony.
The winners will be announced at the eTwinning prize giving ceremony in Linz,
Austria, on 13 January 2006. From our school Tiina Sarisalmi will be attending
the ceremony.
The prize is a four-day camp on ICT, school twinning and fun on the island
of Lanzarote for 20 people from each winning partnership. The stay is planned
from 27 to 30 April 2006.
LEARNING AND SHARING
Partners
Oriveden Keskuskoulu, Finland
Iglemyr Skole, Norway
The basic idea of our partnership is to create real connection
and friendship between our students from Norway and Finland. They
write letters on different topics following loosely "The Image
of Another" project.
At the same time we wish to enhance and strengthen the students'
English communication and ICT skills, and “lure” them
to free-willingly spend time in completely English virtual environment.
Goals
Encourage our students to get to know each other and, hopefully,
become friends.
Develop our students’ abilities to communicate
in English and connect virtually.
Enhance our students’ ICT skills.
Enhance our students’ understanding and knowledge
of different European countries and cultures and thus overcome
their prejudices and increase tolerance.
Working methods and contents
We use open learning environment Moodle, which is called eTwinning
Platform. It’s safe, protected and can be entered only by people
with usernames and passwords. So, the students can talk and chat
and send messages without having to be scared.
Forums for introductions and discussions on different
matters concerning young people’s everyday life and their
home countries, for example hobbies, pets, music, sport, films,
books, family, school, climate, computers etc.
Chats for real
time connecting and conversation
Quizes for learning about different
countries and learning new vocabulary
Questionnaires and surveys
to learn about and compare the students’ everyday
life. They are also good language practice
Links for learning
about the countries and schools involved in the project.
MSN Messenger
and Platform Messages for one to one chatting
E-mail for private
letters, greetings, comments and instructions. (And for the teachers’ planning)
Digital
photos are used to describe the students and their school and
everyday life. Students find photos very interesting and
like to look at the pictures and talk about them (in English of course).
We spend about three lessons a month in the ICT lab for chats
and teacher’s guidance. Most of the work is done at home.
Students use their home computers for communicating and prepare
their letters at home.
We follow loosely "The Image of Another" project’s
contents. The learning and sharing process moves on step by step
from one topic to the next. The first topic is Introductions, the
second is Home and Family, the third is My School, the fourth My
Hobbies, the fifth My Hometown and Home Country etc.
Each topic contains a forum for letters and open communication,
quizzes for language learning, links and questionnaires. The idea
is that every two weeks something new will appear in the platform.
New tasks, pictures, topics or quizzes seduce the students to come
and check what interesting things have appeared.
The students also get an e-mail notice each time something new
has appeared in the forum.
Students
Right from the beginning, the students have been really excited
about eTwinning. They love to spend English lessons in the ICT lab.
In a way, they don’t consider it studying at all. It is all
fun in between English grammar and exercises.
Communicative exercises as typical classroom activities always
entail a certain amount of pretending and simulation. To be in
contact with real people makes a big difference. It is real life
communicating, interesting, exciting and inspiring.
Students are very motivated to find ways to express themselves.
More than half of the students spend time in the eTwinning platform
also in their free time reading each other’s texts and answering
them. Some spend up to 1-2 hours every day “studying English” and
sending messages without worrying too much about making mistakes.
After a couple of weeks they have overcome their shyness and really
look for new contacts. They love to have letters addressed to them.
A few have found friends with whom they chat in MSN Messenger
or send e-mails.
For some students, verbal self-expression is quite difficult due
to their shyness or reserved nature. They seem to have found a
new active role when communicating in writing.
The given assignments are always connected with the students’ everyday
life and, at the same time, with the communication and vocabulary
aims and contents included in the curriculum of English studies.
The students’ ICT skills develop too. They learn to use
Moodle environment and its different tools. This is especially
good, because Moodle is used quite widely in secondary and college
studies in Finland. And, of course, forums, chats, e-mail, quizzes
and links are basically the same whatever environment you use.
The students have also learned a lot about how to behave in the
net. Rudeness or mockery is not allowed not to mention obscenities.
Only English is used so that everybody understands and it’s
polite to answer if someone asks you questions etc. These things
were not quite clear to my students before we started.
Coordinator
For me, the experience has been very fulfilling. I have learned
a lot about project management and about using eLearning platform
and its tools in project coordination. It takes a lot of time, but
it is worth it. This is my second eTwinning project using the platform,
and I feel this one is much more developed and better structured
than the previous one. It still has the power to inspire, but at
the same time, the learning process is now clearer and more goal-oriented.
It is also very inspiring to see my students actively connecting
with students from Norway. It stimulates English studies in a very
special way.
Contact
Tiina Sarisalmi, Finland, tel. +35850-3273826
tiina.sarisalmi(at)kolumbus.fi
Encourage our students in different European schools to
get to know each other and, hopefully, become friends.
Develop our students’ abilities to communicate in
English and connect virtually.
Enhance our students’ ICT skills.
Enhance our students’ understanding and knowledge
of different European countries and cultures and thus overcome
their prejudices and increase tolerance.
Working methods and contents
We used open learning environment Moodle, which we called eTwinning
Platform.
Forums for introductions and discussions on different
matters concerning young people’s everyday life and their
home countries, for example hobbies, pets, music, sport, films,
books, family, school, climate, computers etc.
Chats for real time connecting and conversation
Quizes for learning about different countries
Surveys to learn about and compare the students’ usage of
computers and mobile phones
Links for learning about the countries and schools involved in
the project.
We spent 1-2 lessons a month in the ICT lab for chats and teacher’s
guidance. Most of the work was done at home. Students used their
home computers for communicating or at least prepared their texts
at home.
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