Dissemination, Maths and Science... and lots of languages!

Here's the latest issue of the "eTwinning e la realtà" emagazine.

Once again, it's a multilingual emagazine: this time in English, French, Italian, German and Hungarian.

We decided to keep the multilingual structure, instead of sticking to the traditional "English only" feature, to underline the European dimension of our team, and our work. We didn't want to lose the feeling of our different identities and different competences.

Our differences are what makes our team so special, and so useful. To me, it has been sometimes a safe net in case of need.

So thank you everybody, thank you eTwinning, thank you enthusiastic European teachers.
Enjoy our emagazine!

eTwinning e la realtà - Europe Calling

Summer - as we said in another post, for a teacher it's time for friends, relax, holidays, and edu tech !

True, we couldn't stop exploring the web & meeting online, and given more time, lots of us eTwinners spent the hot afternoons trying out new tools, planning future projects and devising new ways to spread our ideas and experiences throughout Europe.

And, as for us...

The 'eTwinning e la realtà' teachers' room went on being our meeting point, and that's where Antonella first got the crazy idea of a multilingual issue of our e-magazine. "We can translate our articles... we can ask our partners for help... we will help each other... we will make it!"
We were a bit anxious at first, but she was right - we could definitely rely on the eTwinners' skills in collaboration.

So, a group of enthusiastic/crazy teachers spent some of their summer translating the articles, laughing when they got mixed up or when they needed some funny periphrasis because "I can't find the word", asking each other for help, and chatting a lot. We were thrilled: we could get in contact with teachers from different countries, going beyond the national dimension.

Here's the outcome of our summer collaboration: a special multilingual issue of the "eTwinning e la realtà" emagazine, with articles in English, Hungarian, French & Italian.
That's our eTwinning gift to celebrate the new school year.

We hope other eTwinners, throughout Europe, will read our stories and find them useful and inspiring.
And we hope we'll go on collaborating, and widening our circle.

I thank all of the teachers who created the ebook.

Welcome back to school everybody... enjoy our new emagazine!

EU citizens - Your rights, your future: consultation on the 2013 EU Citizenship Report

It is difficult to talk about the EU today without feeling sad, or at least concerned. To be honest, the EU we live in today is quite different from the one we dreamt of 20 years ago. I remember the excitement and the hopes after the Maastricht Treaty. Now, I know many EU citizens will say the Treaty (which led to the introduction of the Euro) was the beginning of the end.

It looks like we've lots of things to discuss, and much less to celebrate in the EU nowadays, but in 2013 we'll celebrate the 20th birtday of the EU as we know it today (- entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty - November 1993). And despite the problems, the crisis, the inequalities, I think we should celebrate: being together is to me a step forward in the growth of Europe. I still hope we'll manage to overcome these issues and develop a sense of belonging, not only to our countries, but to Europe as a whole. A sense of belonging that will guarantee peace, freedom, a shared attitude towards ethical issues (a widely recognized set of laws!) and why not, economical growth.

That's why I believe it's our duty, as European citizens, to take part in the public consultations promoted by the EU: when our opinion is asked, we have to answer. We have to give our opinion, which is our little contribution to the building of the EU we dream of. Because we still dream of a better Europe, don't we?

The European Commission launched in May 2012 the Consultation on the 2013 EU Citizenship Report "EU citizens - Your rights, your future". The deadline is 9 september 2012, so you must hurry up !!! :)

In their words "We want to know about any obstacles you might be facing in your daily life as a European Citizen living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling within the EU. We would also like to hear your ideas about how to remove these obstacles and further develop EU citizenship."

I'm sorry this consultation was not as widely known as it could have: unfortunately, many of the European Commission initiatives are publicized only on official or specific websites. That's why we should regularly visit the official website of the European Union http://europa.eu/ .
And by the way, if you have a blog, or take part in forums, socials etc., please let the others know about the consultation: the more the citizens who give their opinion, the closer to our dreams the new EU will be.

We can change things. We still can have a better EU, not only for our students, but for ourselves as well. Let's try, together.

I like it social

I often say I'm a very social person. Which means I truly enjoy the company of other people - and I'm not thinking of such a rare thing as friendship now - I just like talking, listening, having fun, laughing together. You don't need to be friends to have a good and fruitful time with someone.

My mother says she can remember me as a child chatting up people from my pushchair. And no surprise, I grew up as a friendly extrovert, always looking for like-minded people (and also for opposites - after all they're supposed to attract each other, aren't they?).

But as for technology, that's another story. As a young girl, I found it "unpoetic" and just kept away. At university I wrote my dissertation with a pc, but only because I had to. I was trapped in something between a posh pose and a religion: ice-cold technology didn't look artistic enough for a student of  literature and poetry, and what's more, all of the teachers made sure to tell us technology would be the end of human creativity.

But I was curious, and once out of school & University (i.e., thinking with my own head only) I cautiously began my make-friend-process with the web. Eventually, I couldn't resist the social aspect of Web 2.0.

I started by chance, with the easyest place to exchange ideas: a forum. One day I googled the name of my favourite singer and there it was, a fantastic fan-forum with plenty of info, pics, lyrics, people and discussions. I was vowed and joined in. I quickly learned about profile pic, nickname, avatar, customize your page and stuff like that. I liked it. I liked reading and posting. Unfortunately, I also quickly learned that lots of people = frequent flames. Now, there's enough of squabbles we can't avoid in everyday life, but we surely can avoid those online. So when the place got too noisy for me, I did what I would in any noisy room: I left.

Anyway, that was a great start. I made true friends there (those who go from online to offline!), had a very good time, and learned a lot about interacting online. I was then - and still am - convinced there's no need of any special "netiquette": common sense and good manners are enough. You're dealing with real people, despite their nicknames and funny avatars, so just act as you would in real life. I know, it's not that simple. Some people are addicted to the "no name / no face" status, and they feel free to do their worst. Still, I wonder how it's possible to fight when talking of a common passion.

Since then, I've been here and there in different forums about my different passions. I definitely think a forum is the perfect place to exchange ideas. I like it better than the chat - too fast and too ephemeral for me :)
What I like in forums is that they are like rooms with a door constantly open - which means that you can come and go as you like, that you'll hopefully find "old friends" and also new faces (= new ideas), that you'll be free to leave for good if you feel so (but please, do it without drama!).

Now, can you see what a great resource a forum can be in education?
It took a while for me to realize it, but once I did, I got involved in all kind of communities about school / education / edu tech / professional development... you name it. Most educational websites provide a forum for professionals of the sector, and it can be very useful when you're dealing with specific needs.
Of course, if you're planning to create your own forum, there are lots of free forum hosts that can be useful. Just google it, and you'll find plenty. Anyway, remember it can be hard work, both for the setting up and the moderating. What's more, lots of free forum hosts keep your data from you, so if you grow and want to move, you'll have to start anew.
So, for working with students, I suggest either creating a simple blog (blogger and wordpress are excellent) or exploiting the eTwinning platform, setting a project and using the pupils' corner (nice forum & chat tools there).
True, blog and forum are two completely different philosophies: but you'll have to try for yourself and find out!

Going on with my story, from the forum experience I quickly went on to myspace and then to Facebook and Twitter. I found Twitter to be a great tool to keep you up to date about the subjects you're interested in (just be careful with whom you're following!), so I keep it for professional use only.

As for Facebook, I know it can be controversial, but I like it a lot. I'm struggling to keep it for friends only (I've been living and studing here and there in Europe a lot, and fb is a great place to keep in contact with distant friends) but of course it's difficult. What are you supposed to do with your colleagues asking you for friendship in fb? say "no thanks"? So it's a mix of the two, personal and professional. And it works.

Note: for students, I follow my personal rule "no fb friendship while you're in one of my classes". It saves me lots of trouble. Anyway, I know of colleagues who created a specific fb profile as a teacher, set fb pages for their classes and find them quite motivating for students. I would still prefer dedicated spaces, safe for children as well (i.e., eTwinning again!) but it's up to you.

Don't underestimate the power of Facebook as a professional development space, though: some of the specific pages can be very interesting.

Anyway, when particularly dealing with my profession, I use LinkedIn and I find it the perfect place to look for and exchange information. If you've never tried the LinkedIn groups, I think you should: lots of committed people, lots of ideas, lots of opportunities in the fields you like.

I'm at the moment exploring Google+ (I love Google!) but that's work in progress for me!

And if you're really brave (or a bit crazy, just like me), you may want to have a look at the new growing socials, like LetsLunch, the social dining, where you set up a profile explaining what you do, what fields and people you're interested in and when you are free to get together... and you eventually arrange a meal I suppose! Or you can try Pinterest , a virtual pinboard where you can organize and share images, videos and other web materials, or travel with CouchSurfing or... well, you should just explore the web on your own, you'll have much fun. What's for sure, is that lots of websites are widening today their "social" aspect. Getting together online is something we appearently like a lot.

Bottom line: believe it or not, I still have time for going out with friends & family and enjoying quality face2face time with those I love !!!

Tech adventurous teachers on holiday

Summer is here, and most people dream of escaping the hot cities, taking a trip far from their everyday routine, or just lying on the beach, having a swim and getting a proper tan.

But you know, teachers are not "most people". Especially the ICT-addict teachers.

So, what do teachers on holiday do?

Well, some things are quite common, but you could be surprised by some of teachers-on-holiday's favourite pastimes...

1) They (try to) spend quality time with their family/friends/pets and loved ones. It may sound obvious, but it isn't: don't forget 99% of teachers, especially those with kids, feel constantly guilty for neglecting their family and social life. We've just gone through nine months of 'friendly' remarks like "you know, you seem to be spending far more time taking care of someone else's children than yours" or "are you really going to spend the whole Sunday glued to that pc? again?" (that's for eTwinners) or "I'm sure there should be something better to do than correcting essays at 10 pm" or again "how could you spend the whole afternoon at that teachers' meeting? I always wonder at how much teachers love chatting..." (if you're a teacher, you know what I'm talking about). Well, that can be pretty damaging for your self esteem as a mother/father/husband/wife/best friend/partner etc. So we try to make up now.

2) They sleep! (but dream of school) Of course: we've to make up with all of the sleepless nights correcting essays, chatting online with project partners in different countries, obsessing about one of our students' behaviour or results, or what a colleague told us/told the others about us, etc. Strange as it may seem, we all know how easy it is to lose a night's sleep on what can seem to the others a quite silly issue. The fact is, we've to do with real young people, their minds and their feelings, and that's a responsibility that can definitely keep you wide awake at night.

3) They hang out with fellow teachers and make up new projects. Believe me, we're more creative in summer time. And you feel there's nothing you can't do when you're sitting in the open air with a colleague who's also a friend, speaking your mind and devising challenging projects for your classes. Hint: add some chocolate to the process and you'll improve it dramatically. Planning over a chocolate icecream will add a special touch to your creativity.

4) They read all of the books they bought/borrowed but couldn't read during the school year (lack of time of course). Plus, they clean their bookcase, their school bag, their pc desktop, their room and their whole house. A new start requires order and space (obviously, we never throw anything away, as even the silliest document could be useful sooner or later, so we just change the papers/books/files position. Which means we will never ever find them again). 

5) They try out all of the ICT tools they couldn't try during the school year. Which takes them back to the "glued at that pc again" remark. But who cares. It's fun. And you can't even imagine how much this tool I've just found will improve my everyday lesson... and what I could do with my students... if only I could convince my Headmistress to buy another pc... or I should ask the families... and... well, you know, sweet dreams for the coming year.

6) They have fun! on- and off-line.

So, let us relax and have fun.

And if you're looking for inspiration, here are my tips:

- for our Team Teaching reflection, I suggest you have a look at this brilliant article  “25 Ways Teachers Can Connect More With Their Colleagues”  (thank you Tim!)

- and by the way, at http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/ you'll find lots of tips and hints for the ICT curious teacher. I loved the Top 100 Tools for the Twittering Teacher but believe me, this blog can be a real gold mine for your afternoons, when it's too hot to go out (just add airconditioning, a cup of coffee and a tech adventurous teacher!)

- summer time is the best moment to explore and enjoy the world of Edutopia. In the years, I developed a passion for this website! You can get lost among articles, free downloads, guides, videos... but it's like getting lost in Wonderland! For now, have a look at the latest blog post on assessment , it definitely makes you think...

- if you've not done it already, what about joining in Classroom 2.0 and Teacher 2.0? There are lots of ideas - and lots of teachers from all around the world - waiting for you (they'll make a great addition to your "glued at that pc" nights!)

- and even if you're an experienced eTwinner, what about having a look at the eTwinning portal? You could find inspiration having a look at the kits, or at the projects of other teachers, or at the featured articles. Or you will just keep in touch with your eTwinning friends, planning new projects or thinking back to the old ones and all the fun you had together. Don't forget, inspiration comes from meeting and sharing. And eTwinning is the right place for both.

I wish everybody the best summer holidays ever.

 Enjoy the sun, explore the net... and be proud of your being a teacher, on holiday as well!

eTwinning Team Power

Hi everybody, just few lines this time to wish you all the happiest summer holidays ever.

And if you need something to read on the beach, what about having a look at our new issue of the "eTwinning e la realtà" emagazine? You can read it online or download the pdf version - download is free as long as you have a Calameo account (if you don't, creating one is a matter of minutes).

This post is a big "thank you" to all those ones who contributed, supported, liked our teachers' room, or only had a look from time to time.

And this post is our answer to all those ones who question the social aspect of eTwinning. We created three ebooks, we wrote lots of posts, we got plenty of new ideas, we just helped each other. We didn't need any certificate, any diploma, or any extra money to be convinced to do it. We enjoyed being together and we found it useful. This was enough. And that's the closest to a Community of Practice I've ever been.

Laura

A tool for a purpose

I'm sharing here the Web 2.0 tools I'll be introducing during the eTwinning workshop "Web 2.0-Strumenti e percorsi didattici”, Empoli, 31 Maggio 2012.

Of course, these are just some suggestions: there are hundreds of nice tools that can be used in a project, to enhance students' and teachers' creativity, involvement... and fun!
What's important for me is to always be aware that the use of these tools is not a goal in itself: their use should have an added value in terms of learning, both for students and teachers. That's just my opinion, but I believe that if an activity can be performed exactly the same with any ICT tool or pen & paper, well, pen & paper should be.
When you use - and ask your students to use - a certain tool, that tool should give you something more than simply perform an action: it could be more creativity, opportunity to work in a team, opportunity to overcome shyness, more fun, more choice. So, it's not only which tool you use: it's mostly how.

So, these are the tools I'm going to try out during the workshop. I grouped them according to the different steps of a project (eTwinning and not only). Obviously it's just a hint, in order to give the new eTwinners an idea of the how. Always remembering that, ultimately, this how will be up to the teacher and his class.

1 – Introductions

Voki http://www.voki.com/

Bombay TV http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/

Audioboo http://audioboo.fm/

Fotobabble http://www.fotobabble.com/

Present.me http://present.me/

2 – Collaboration

Vorbeo http://www.vorbeo.com/

Google Docs https://docs.google.com/


Google Forms (moduli) http://www.google.com/google-d-s/forms/


Blogger http://www.blogger.com/


Wordpress http://it.wordpress.com/


TwinSpace http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/

3 – Products

Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/

Animoto http://animoto.com/

Youtube www.youtube.com

Calameo www.calameo.com

Issuu http://issuu.com/

Myebook http://www.myebook.com/

4 –  from doc to pdf?

CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/

Convert on line Free http://convertonlinefree.com/

PdfOnline http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf/

Doc to Pdf http://www.doc2pdf.net/it/

5 – let's meet here…

eTwinning http://www.etwinning.net/

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/

Google+ https://plus.google.com/

Teacher 2.0 http://teacher20.com/

Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com/
 

6 – heavy files?

 

Rapidshare https://www.rapidshare.com/

 

Yousendit http://www.yousendit.com/

Mediafire http://www.mediafire.com/

Minus http://minus.com/

FileJungle http://www.filejungle.com/

Videoweed http://www.videoweed.es/

PutLocker http://www.putlocker.com/

"eTwinning e la realtà" - emagazine n.2

Here's the latest issue of our "eTwinning e la realtà" emagazine.

This time, we concentrate on practical ideas for eTwinning teams and for students' mobilities in eTwinning / Comenius / self-financed projects.

I talked about our teachers' room "eTwinning e la realtà", and the pleasure of working together,  in another post. So, this time, I'll just say once more how happy and lucky I feel for the people I met and the ideas I got there. I definitely felt creativity is a collective process.

The ebook, as well as the teachers' room, are in Italian: in fact, at the beginning they were ment as a series of experiences, tools, suggestion, ideas and strategies for new Italian eTwinners.

Anyway, this second issue, and the third one, that will follow soon (ideally, first half of June) are so rich in useful information, tips & hints, that we are planning to translate some of the articles in different languages. It will be a huge thing, I know... but together, huge things just become a succession of small steps.

Thank you everybody for making the best of teams!

---

E visto che l'emagazine è in italiano, una piccola introduzione in lingua madre mi sembrava d'obbligo!

Vi siete mai chiesti che documenti ci vogliono per portare i ragazzi all'estero nelle varie fasce d'età (primaria - secondaria di primo e secondo grado)?

...o che succede se un ragazzo perde la carta d'identità all'estero?

...oppure quante riunioni fare / come parlare con i genitori prima di organizzare uno scambio?

...e che fare se il vostro team comincia a traballare pericolosamente nel bel mezzo di un progetto?

...o come chiedere un riconoscimento per le ore extra effettuate in un progetto, o una diaria per le mobilità?

Bé, in questo ebook troverete, se non proprio tutte le risposte, almeno delle indicazioni e delle esperienze di "vita vissuta".

Per la parte sulle mobilità, che è un vero patrimonio, troverete davvero risposte esaurienti, e molto di più! Nel twinspace pubblico di TNG (sotto "useful materials" - cartella 8: mobilità degli studenti) ho caricato una raccolta di schede e documenti utili per organizzare lo scambio (scheda sanitaria, cosa metto in valigia, scheda per gli abbinamenti, ecc) che le colleghe hanno messo a disposizione di tutti.

Per la parte sui team, considerato che ognuno è diverso e unico, abbiamo condiviso esperienze e strategie di "how to" sviluppate nella nostra storia di eTwinners.

Buona lettura a tutti !!!

CLIL lesson plan: solve the problem

This is another lesson plan I've created for the Transatlantic Educators Dialogue. I've prepared it for History and Economics, but as usual it's flexible and easy to customize in order to suit different subjects. I’ve worked on two basic structures, the first suggested by Dr. Diana Hicks during one of her CLIL courses for teachers, and the second by the leaders of the eTwinning Learning Event “eTwinning and the Creative Classroom”. I added my personal touch and... here it is!

Of course, every single time you use this lesson plan it has to be modified a bit according to the students you're working with, their level of FL and the topic you're willing to address.

And that’s the best part of being teachers: you never have the same lesson twice!

Where: computer room

How: students working in group of 4 ( 1 pc / group)

Materials: 1 pc/ group + 1 interactive board (or simply 1 projector, to show the groups’ works at the end of the lesson)

Time: 1 hour for the preparation + 1 hour to share the different solutions (but it depends on the number of groups)

Languages: since History and Economics are quite tough subjects (also as far as the vocabulary is concerned), I let them free to discuss in any language, as long as they produced a shared solution in English. I suggested they produced a list of simple sentences, beginning with "We could...".You may change this point, depending on the subject you choose and its level of difficulty.

Goal: generate as many creative solutions as possible - understand cause/effect relationships.

The problem:

You live in a wealthy industrial city. However, in the last few years pollution has become major issue for the population (health problems, environmental destruction, etc.).
Your teams are the special committees of experts chosen by the Mayor to solve the problem.

You have to keep in mind the city key features:
- two big wood factories, very polluting but employing the majority of the citizens
- heavy car traffic
- poor quality of the air
- expanding population (high need of new houses)
- neighbouring woods

The Mayor has a good city budget to invest on your ideas (money at the moment is not the main problem) but remember all decisions you take will have consequences (i.e. if you close the two factories you’ll stop pollution but you’ll ruin the city economy! So, look for sustainable solutions).

The steps:

1: study carefully the problem, concentrating on the interaction among the different features

2: each team member produces at least one idea

3: the teams discuss the different ideas

4: each team produces a shared solution

5: the teams present their plan of action to the Mayor (the teacher!) – discussion among teams

The Tools:

I usually encourage the use of mapping tools, such as

bubbl.us https://bubbl.us/

free mind http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

iMindMap http://www.thinkbuzan.com/intl

3D Topicscape http://www.topicscape.com/

Prezi http://prezi.com/

But a simple ptt could do as well. If the students are working on these activity in more than one session, I invite them to create Google docs in order to share ideas.

---

Now you just have to try this one as well and let me know! And if you'd like to know more about TED, or join in a future session, you may want to have look at this interesting article. It's definitely an journey worth taking!

Economics – Education – Ethics

When I decided to show this presentation to my husband, who's an economist, he looked at the title and told me "Why did you put Ethics? They won't understand. Any economist will tell you Ethics have nothing to do with Economy".
That's the moment I knew he's so not a true economist. Which is great, because he understood.
And my whole presentation dealt with this gap, the gap between the economist and the educator.

     But let's start from the beginning. This is another unexpected reflection coming from my TED experience. As I wrote in another post, the Transatlantic Educators Dialogue gave us the opportunity not only to discuss and share ideas, but also to actually work with colleagues of different countries in the EU and US.
As well as meeting on the moodle platform, we had weekly online sessions, in order to discuss specific topics connected with the educational world. Each of the sessions was led by a teacher or group of teachers who presented their experience on the topic, introducing different perspectives, giving info and opinions, and asking questions in order to start a debate.
     I led Week 7 - Immigration, with Gaelle Farout, from France. And it was a great collaboration, a great session... and a great "first time", for both of us, as speakers on the Elluminate!
     Then, some more weeks into the course, TED Coordinator, Mrs. Lucinda Morgan, asked if anyone was interested in volunteering to lead Week 9 - Economics. I obviously was! As usual, I like everything that's challenging (and to be honest, I had loved the thrill of the first talk!).
But here's the main reason why I decided to give it a go: we are living this huge crisis in Italy - and in most Southern Europe - and its impact on our everyday lives as teachers and persons is so heavy. In fact, we think (we obsess) about it most of the time. For the first time now, we understand that Economics are not just a set of theories, but something real and important - maybe way too much - something that can upset your life. Someone else's decision, following theories whose existence you don't even know, can change your life.

So here's my reflection on Economics. Sad sometimes, but still hopeful.
I thank all of my friends and colleagues, throughout Europe (and the world) who try to be educators even in a time of crisis - and who are helping the next generation to learn, dream and hope, despite the hard times.

Economics, Education, Ethics. How do the three Es relate to each other?

Economics – education – ethics laura maffei ted

View more PowerPoint from Laura Maffei

“But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

US and EU: teachers meeting "the Other"

During the past decade, more and more teachers in the EU have been involved in international projects.

The Lisbon Process, in its effort to create a new knowledge-driven economy, set the basis for a lasting change in education and training. The knowledge triangle of research, education and innovation is the core of the whole process: and lots of educators, of all school levels, found these three elements in international cooperation.

Students from all over Europe had the opportunity to meet, study/work/play together, and even live together, thank to Erasmus, Grundtvig, Comenius, eTwinning. National barriers have been overcome - and prejudices with them, at least that's what we hope.

Now, after more than ten years, we got addicted to meeting "the Other". And we want more.

Personally, as a teacher, I just got curious. I wanted to know what was going on in the US, and I tried to contact teachers, or better, teachers' nets, living and working there. And once again, I couldn't help thinking how fantastic the web is. I found what I was looking for in a matter of minutes.

I started with a couple of great communities, Teacher 2.0 and Classroom 2.0. I met and chatted with lots of teachers from all around the world (literally!), I took Steven Hargadon's teacher 2.0 online workshop ...and yes, I'm a teacher 2.0 !!!

If you've never heard of this online workshop before, do give it a try: it's simple, clear and very useful.
At first, if you're already familiar with the web, you could feel it's easy for you - but in fact it's extremely interesting for both its content and its structure. And it could be a precious resource for eTwinning Ambassadors, teachers' trainers, and all of the educators involved with training others about the web and its opportunities.

I'm still an active member of these communities, and, as it always happen online, one place led to the other, one person led to hundreds of others. My Professional (or Personal? not so easy to draw a line) Learning Network is expanding day after day. And I love this!

Then, at the end of 2011, I found on the eTwinning Desktop some info about the Transatlantic Educators Dialogue (TED), sponsored by the European Union Center and the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This programme is supposed to "build bridges" between teachers in the EU and in the US, by having them reflect on their perception of "the Other" - and of themselves of course. The aim of these teachers' meetings is to better realize how we see others, and how others see us in the classrooms and schools of different countries.

"TED is an online platform for educators in the United States and the European Union to collaborate in an online format to explore and examine how other countries, and in particular, their own country, are represented in their classroom and other schools in the U.S. and the E.U."

When I was accepted in the course I was thrilled. And I am thrilled now, three monts into the course.
It's the first time I actually have the opportunity to talk about such delicate topics - personal and National identity, prejudices, approaches to teaching, students' and teachers' assessment, youth culture, immigration, and so on - with colleagues coming from so many countries.
I'm realizing how things work (or don't) in different realities, and I've lots of new ideas, suggestions, doubts, and hopes.

As I always say, the best way to learn it's out of your own experience... but learning from someone else's experience definitely ranks second. I've never had so many people, experiences, stories and identities available - and willing to share.

One of the best part of this course is that we work with colleagues on a chosen subject and we present our ideas and our perspective on that subject during the weekly online meetings. That's great, since we have the opportunity to work together with new colleagues, present our ideas and listen to the others' different points of view, experiences, doubts, beliefs.
I've had the opportunity to work with Gaelle Farout, and to discuss identity and otherness with Annamaria Donnarumma and Lorena Mihalec. It's a discussion and a reflection still in progress, and I hope it will last.

I'll write more about this great experience, so stay tuned for more :)

And thanks to all the great people who keep helping, supporting, and inspiring me in my job!

Laura

Empowering children - Professor Sugata Mitra and the future of Learning

"...groups of children can teach themselves almost anything"

I came across this sentence, and this video, a couple of weeks ago. And once again I was impressed by what children can do together, self-instructing themselves with no need of a teacher.
I can't wait to read Sugata Mitra's new book Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning.
Meantime, I'm as usual questioning my role as a teacher.



This man puzzles me.
I'm amazed at what he's doing. I think he's one of those people who really made the difference. And I'd like to make the difference as well in my everyday life (at almost 40, I don't want to change the world anymore, but I still want to do my part to improve it). But how can I, if my pupils would be better off without me?

"My work with self organised learning by children shows that groups of children can learn to use computers and the Internet to answer almost any question. This happens everywhere and is independent of what language they speak, where they live and how rich or poor they are. All they need is free access and the liberty to work in unsupervised groups."

It is the "unsupervised" part that scares me. Now, appearently it's official: they would be happier and more productive without me. Ok, I'm not taking it personally - let's say without us. Not much better anyway, since it means without us teachers.

But let's have a look at Sugata Mitra's inspiring TED talk of 2010:



I love this talk, almost every sentence he says should be quoted. And thinking about it, I can see there's hope for teachers: we're not bound to become an old-fashioned, useless item after all.
First of all, I was impressed by the fact there are no teachers where they are needed most - which leads in time to a worsening of the situation, a greater need of teachers, and a greater opposition of teachers to go there. There's appearently no way out. True, computers can help - of course, better no teacher than a teacher who doesn't want to be where he is. But maybe we can start by learning to love our job again?
Which is no mission, but profession: and since we are professionals, it's our duty to perform well in our job. This doesn't mean we have to leave everything behind and go to some far away place where we think we are needed (that's a religious mission, so not our field), but to understand what's needed of us where we are.
We have to say farewell to the comfortable safe routine of traditional classroom teaching and be more daring: exploit the web, computer, collaboration opportunities. Once again, we have to learn how to be new teachers.
And just like children, we'll have to self-instruct ourselves. Sugata Mitra shows us the other side of the coin, but I believe teachers can self-instruct themselves. Why not? We can self-teach. We are Lifelong Learning Teachers, aren't we?

Among the many things I'm learning out of Professor Mitra's experiments, there's the importance of empowering children. I'm not supposed to fill them up, like empty bottles: learning is their process, and they'll learn only if they want to.

Because in the end, "children will learn to do what they want to learn to do."

Model Thinking... and teaching!

"We live in a complex world. We’ve political uprisings, we’ve stock market crashes, we’ve new technology bombarding us with information. How do we make sense of it?"

Does this question sound familiar to you? Maybe, just like me, you too feel overwhelmed by the changes and issues of the world we're living in. Changes and issues that particularly affect us as educators in an ever-evolving reality. So, our questions as teachers could be: how can we make sense of it, so that we can help our students do the same? how can we help them deal with the unexpected?

Mr Scott E Page (the Leonid Hurwicz Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Michigan) has an answer to the opening question.

"The answer I'm gonna give, is that we make sense of it with using models. Models are gonna make us better at organizing information, better at forecasting, better at making decision, better at strategising..."

Now, I'm no economist, nor (no no!) matematician unfortunately. But if we talk of making sense of this crazy times we are living, any kind of help is more than welcome. Mr Scott E Page is organizing a free online course, starting this month, February 2012, on Model Thinking.

Even if the course is not aimed at teachers, I think it could be interesting for us as well, since it will be organized at different levels. A variety of models will be introduced -and for each model, there will be an introductory lecture of about 10 minutes, accessible to a general audience, and then advanced lectures, explaining the model's details and use, possible extensions, etc. Lessons will be recorded, so you can watch them at your leisure.

For the brave ones, there will be questions and quizzes, and even a final exam! If you pass, you'll be given a certificate of completion (and you'll earn my everlasting admiration!). Otherwise, you may want to just follow along for the introductory lectures and why not, try to understand some more of our reality.

Now, the course is free, challenging and interesting: I'll definitely give it a try, let me know if you decide to join in: we'll have fun sharing impressions and experiences!

Collegiality - the CLIL challenge

Collegiality between subject and English language teachers is the key element of any successful CLIL pathway. I'm sure we all agree on this point.

In a popular post of last summer, we dealt with the "subject teacher/language teacher" question. Now, while collecting papers for a presentation about team teaching, I ran across Dr Diana Hicks' guidelines for collaboration in the CLIL classroom. She suggests we should take into consideration some key elements for a successful cooperation with our colleagues:

• Relationship: we are individuals, and let's face it, we don't get along with all of our colleagues. Before planning any collaboration, we should consider whether we are compatible or not. In my ten years' experience in the same school, I've met colleagues who've quickly become friends - and when you make friends, you immediately want to do something together: lessons, projects, experiences, school trips... Guess what? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's just like a love-story not meant to be: sorry, no sparkles. And then, of course, there are those people you don't want to work with because you don't trust them. So, think before you plan.
• Rules of behaviour: ok, you believe in this relationship and you want to give it a try. Now you have to think about how to work together without ending up hating each other (with the obvious consequences on your students' learning process). You can work formally or informally together. Obviously, I would suggest working formally. And obviously, especially in eTwinning CLIL projects, we end up working informally 90% of the time. We all do this, and we all know it's wrong. Please, do yourself a favour, and at the beginning of the school year sit down with your colleagues, write down your working plan, and have it signed by your Principle/Headteacher/whoever it is that can recognize your efforts. Remember: informal won't last. Plus, you and your colleagues will feel more committed when working formally together.
• Responsibilities: Dr Hicks was very clear on this: teachers have to mark their specialist territory (personal note: invading that of the others is the best way to spoil your CLIL project and make them hate you). As for individual responsibilities of the Language and Subject teacher, have a look at the chart and let me know what you think.
• Organization: that's the when/what/how moment. We should discuss timetable (how many lessons? when? with the teachers being together in the classroom or not? how will they be paid? etc), resources and preparation time, and, above all, assessment. To be honest, in Dr Hicks' brilliant course, the assessment part was the weakest. It was more like a question than a solution: what would you do? I wish I knew. Anyway, in my experience I've often found it better to give two different marks to the students' products (Language/Content). But it's my personal - maybe wrong - opinion. No evidence, no expert's support here.

What do you think? What's your experience in CLIL courses?

Looking forward to getting to know more!

Laura

PS and as usual, don't forget you can find all of our materials and worksheets dealing with CLIL in The Next Generation TwinSpace, "useful materials" section.

bye bye Comenius - introducing Erasmus for All

Erasmus for All is the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport proposed by the European Commission on 23 November 2011.

Let's say bye bye to Comenius, Grundtvig, Leonardo da Vinci and all of these actions: the European Commission decided to stop using the different existing names of mobility programmes and gather all of them under the widely recognised  "brand" of Erasmus - a name strongly associated with learning abroad and European cooperation. It's obviously considered to be a name that markets itself and could work as a sort of advertisement for the whole programme.

You can read more about this new action, including FAQs, key figures, and a short video presentation, at the European Commission - Education and Training website.


But - naming apart - what changes will be introduced by this new programme?
Difficult to say. Let's listen to the European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, who presented Erasmus for All and Creative Europe programmes, during a press conference in Brussels at the end of November.



Of course, we're just at the beginning of this new European journey and we can't judge something that is not even born. And please remember, this is just my very personal opinion. Anyway, I'm not sure that "financial austerity which all member states face" can be considered enough to describe what we are living now in Italy, Greece, and lots of European countries. And it's not enough to explain the crisis of the EU as a whole, the progressive lack of confidence and trust of common people, students and teachers and workers, European citizens - lack of trust in their national governments first, and then in the EU as an ideal, as a common cause.
I'm happy to know the EU is still willing to invest on the future - on learning, on youth - and I'm happy to know despite the crisis there will be a larger amount of money to support mobilities. People traveling, studying, working and having experiences abroad will help raise awareness about the importance of a strong, consistent, European Union.
But unfortunately, in my opinion, this is not enough. The educational world cannot fight on its own to keep Europe together, when European politicians fight each other every day to keep their countries apart.
Who knows, maybe next programme should be called "Less Selfishness for All"...

Introducing YouTube for Schools

...educational heaven for the digital natives?

Beginning a new year with good news. Lots of us are already taking advantage of YouTube and its almost unlimited video-treasures in our lessons. But we are often scared when it comes to letting the students free in this environment - let's say, not all you can find in YouTube could exactly be considered from an educational point of view. And guess what kind of videos will catch our pupils' eye? Those videos of course (the latest pop icon's or cute puppy's video, if you're lucky... something more inappropriate if you're not). I've actually had partners in different Comenius projects whose schools restricted access to YouTube to avoid this problem. At the same time, however, they were preventing their teachers and students to take advantage of huge learning opportunities (not to mention the appeal of videos on young learners).

Now, YouTube is launching a brand new tool to suit the needs of the educational world:
“YouTube for Schools” is a portal offering free education materials and videos, while limiting access to other YouTube content that could be inappropriate, offensive or simply distracting.

I still know very little about this new opportunity, but it looks like it could be another interesting network setting as well. In fact, schools will be able to access only educational materials on YouTube EDU: which will both keep a safe environment for the learners and connect teachers and students through posts, comments, etc.

Now a funny question of my own: how did they label videos as "educational" or not?
I read YouTube worked with teachers, experts and organizations to select the available content. Because of course, if a video isn’t on YouTube EDU, it won’t show up in YouTube for Schools.
But who can say: 'this is educational, this is not'? I think a video can be an educational tool or just a simple entertainment depending on the aims and creativity of the teacher. Some of my most successful lessons (in terms of students' participation, involvement... and later assessment) took advantage of silly video commercials. And I'm quite sure they won't be on YouTube Edu.

I believe it's up to teachers to choose materials and tools for their lesson. And they'll manage someway to keep a safe environment for their students. That said, I think YouTube for Schools is a great opportunity. What's more, YouTube is trying to make the site an open conversation, welcoming teachers' suggestions of new playlists, comments and requests.

As usual, I've more ideas than I can deal with :) and I can picture in my mind lots of eTwinning/Comenius/EU related pathways and activities we could enrich or carry out with this new opportunity.

What do you think? Will this be another tool for a more motivating, efficient and rewarding everyday lesson?

eTwinning Conference "Leading 21st century education" - conclusion

It's kind of funny when you think how many ideas, projects, doubts and (especially) questions can come out of a single event. The eTwinning Conference held in Genova was a gold mine for my personal reflections, not only dealing with the future of eTwinning, but with the future of the EU and the future of European education.

Which means, a huge part of my own future (and yours, if you're a teacher). Something we cannot fully decide for ourselves: and it's quite scary when you feel someone else is deciding for you.

 So, while in Genova, I just sat there all the time, staring at the policy makers, burning with questions, and hoping for some answers. Unfortunately, there actually was very little time for questions. And I must admit what was said was not exactly answering my doubts.

If you want the official covering of the event, you can have a look at the article on the eTwinning portal When eTwinning meets policy makers! You can find videos there , documents and much of what was said and done.

And if you want my very personal, very unofficial and very uncensored opinion as well, just go on reading!

I was convinced by:

- Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou's speech. True, eTwinning is an EU success story, and Heaven knows if Europe needs success stories these times. And true, as a success story it deserves more attention and recognition by the political world. Now, the question could be: is the political world interested in common EU success stories? or individual (national) selfishness is bound to prevail?

- The four workshops. Of course I loved mine (Pedagogical Practices), I found I had so much in common with the experts in my panel, even if we came from very different experiences (with me being the only simple teacher...). But I liked all of the workshops I could attend, and it was pleasant to see there were teachers in all of the panels: after all, there was someone who knew what we were talking about in practice, not just delivering a lecture. What's more, the workshops were the ideal size in terms of participants, so we could exchange ideas and try to find common solutions for our (common) issues. There was a debate, not just a speech from a stage. And here, there are two questions as well: 1) did the policy makers understand the real value of this cooperation between teachers all over Europe? or 2) did they look at it as a non-expensive toy to keep their teachers entertained and professionally growing (without them having to do anything)?

- Anne Gilleran's sentence: eTwinning is a place where you're allowed to fail. Great! Even if as teachers we're usually obsessed with being perfect, in fact we can't be. And it's a relief to feel free to make mistakes once in a while - and learn from them. That's what LifeLongLearning is supposed to mean. Now, to the question: will policy makers understand this? will we still be free to fail in an "institutionalized" eTwinning?

I was NOT convinced by:

- the projection of a bright technological future for the European schools, where teachers and students communicate via twitter, regularly meet on social networks and happily exploit ICT as creative educational tools. I've visited schools in Tuscany (and we're supposed to be one of the rich parts of Italy) where the ICT equipment is zero. A high percentage of teachers can't even hold a mouse. Lots of pupils think exploiting ICT means playing Wii or Play Station games. And there are even more serious issues: more and more families, in this time of crisis, can't afford buying a pc or paying for the internet access. Lots of Municipalities have less and less money to provide their schools with ICT equipment. Not to mention the crisis of European Education we've been discussing in another post (how can we forget all of those un-met benchmarks?). My feeling was that the impact of the present crisis was underestimated. It's my personal opinion, but the efficient and creative hypertechnological school of the future is Utopia school... or (worse) it is going to be an elite school for those who can afford it.

- the policy-makers speeches: sorry, apart from very few happy situations, the distance between the politicians and the EU-minded experts (Eugenio Riviere, Santi Scimeca, Anne Gilleran, Donatella Nucci etc) was patent. The politicians just kept seeing their small slice of the educational world, while the others talked in a wider perspective. And sadly, I'm not sure they had the same goals in mind. My question: did they understand each other?

...

Ok, that's all for my experiences and thoughts about Genova. I know maybe I've been boring with all of these posts, but we are living such a difficult period for the EU and the debate in Genova got for me a wider meaning, going beyond eTwinning.

After all, in my opinion the question is not if eTwinning will or won't be recognized by the institutions of the different countries. The question is: will the different countries recognize the existence - and value - of the European dimension in education?

WHY? - facing the crisis of European education

You may be just like me. You may be the biggest fan of quality education, public school, innovation and ICT, cohoperative learning and European actions (read: LLP).
And you may think you're doing your best and you're a brave, curious and engaged teacher. Maybe not the best ever, we're not so self-confident, yet working hard. You see lots of fellow teachers in different countries striving through tons of red tape, stressing day-to-day routine, economical crisis, dysfunctional schools, lack of ICT equipment: yet we set our projects, we run them, we motivate our pupils and we try to promote culture and a sense of belonging to something bigger than just "my" country.

Then you happen to read the 2010 Joint Report of the European Commission about the 5 benchmarks we were supposed to reach for 2010.

"There has been a general improvement in education and training performance in the EU. However, the majority of the benchmarks set for 2010 will not be reached in time, while in the case of the vital benchmark on literacy performance is in fact deteriorating. Attaining these benchmarks will require more effective national initiatives."

So, the situation is actually getting worse. You can find the complete document here and in the TNG twinspace as well. Rest assured, not a funny reading.

Just look at the picture, it says more than tons of words.

Now, where is the mistake?

Obviously we (them?) did something wrong. It's interesting that the document goes on explaining how we need more effective national measures. Is the EU giving up?

What do you think?

Were the European measures not good enough?

How much - in terms of energy, money, people - did the EU spend on education? Was it too little an effort? Was it in a wrong direction?

Were the benchmarks simply too difficult to reach?

In a time of crisis, is Europe - just as all of the individual countries - trying to save on education? (not a smart move, as we all can guess).

I've no answers for all of these questions. Yet I can't help wondering WHY those goals were not met. And HOW we are supposed to meet the new ones, if we don't know the reason why we failed. I would have loved to stop all of the very important people, all of the researchers and all of the policy makers I met in Genova and ask them these questions. So, if any of them is reading me, please give me your point of view.

Otherwise, I think we can go on exchanging ideas among us "normal" teachers. I know this is not an amusing post. But as my favourite blogger says "Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sometimes a girl has gotta vent"!

eTwinning Learning Events

I think you've already heard of eTwinning Learning Events (LE). If you haven't yet, well, you definitely should.

That's a great opportunity eTwinning offers for free to us teachers: an expert introducing you to different subjects, while interacting with other eTwinners. So you get the whole lot of benefits: expert's guidance + fellow eTwinners' experience and opinions.

During the last couple of year, I've had the opportunity to attend different LE on various subjects, sometimes dealing with my everyday teaching, sometimes just out of curiousity  (my bravest attempt being that at nanotechnology). All of them enriched my teaching and my feeling of being part of a larger community.

Of course, since LEs usually cover a short period of time, it's difficult to experience there a real feeling of the eTwinning community: yet, you feel part of a group who share your same eagerness - get to know more, improve your teaching, move to the next level your competences in team working... or just get to know more about a specific subject (ICT, languages, proget-planning, etc).

In October, I attended the "Children’s Rights" LE, presented by Miriam Schembri. That's how Miriam introduced it to us:

"During this event we will be looking at children’s rights from an educator’s perspective and see how we can use these rights as guidelines in our daily school life to give dignity to children. We will explore how they will affect classroom practice and how to make children conscious of their rights and responsibilities."

At the moment, I'm dealing with a difficult situation in my school, having to face lots of behaviuor issues (sometimes even rage issues) in my pupils. I believe this is connected with a larger-scale social unrest in our communities, yet teachers have to deal with it. That's why this LE provided me with the right kind of reflection, at the right moment. And the opportunity to rely on the opinions of fellow teachers from all over Europe, often sharing my same problems and concerns, was more than welcome.

The LE was structured in 5 steps, with a reflection at the end of each one:

1 - The relationship between needs and rights.

2 - Rights and Responsibilities

3 - Teaching in a rights respecting class

4 - Participation rights for children

5 - Giving children a voice

It ended up being a journey in my beliefs, doubts and fears. But also a first step towards a possible solution (at the very least, an attempt to one).

As well as her experience and know-how, Miriam shared with us some useful documents. I believe they can be of interest for a larger number of teachers, so I'm sharing them with you, as usual, in the public section of THE NEXT GENERATION Twinspace (under "useful materials"). I hope you'll find them as useful as I did. (so thank you Miriam!)

By the way, there are lots of new documents in the TNG TwinSpace, so do have a look and see if there's anything for you.

Looking forward to reading your impressions... and to seeing you at the next LE !

Laura