QUALITATIVE CRITERIA

  • Pedagogical Innovation
    The innovative aspect of this project seems to lie in the fact that it introduced and realized the idea to involve many European learners in the creation of a common Newspaper! Each issue is thematic, so that all participants can get an idea of what is going on in their partners\' side regarding the same topic (my school, my place, etc). With regard to procedure, each issue has been a product of collaborative work among the teachers and learners, who determine its topic based on their needs and interests, and among the learners, who have worked mainly in groups or pairs. Once the topic has been arranged, learners brainstorm on the articles to be presented, work in pairs or groups, draft and edit their texts and then type them. While typing using the Word Processor, learners try to correct spelling and grammar mistakes, while discussing structure issues with peers first and then with the teacher. Upon gathering the materials to be published (articles and drawings/pictures), the teacher is responsible for editing the actual printable version of his/her school’s part of the newspaper. As soon as all European partners submit their five-page issues, we create a collaborative issue that is uploaded on the school blogs and the project Twinspace and printed in order to be sold (money collected is meant to go to charity). Learners read the newspaper, discuss it in class, highlight the parts that made an impression and make suggestions for the following issue. Additionally, accessing Twinspace with their personal codes, they have the opportunity to discuss what they have read and written with their European peers. Thus, participant learners had the opportunity to improve their speaking/typing along with their writing skills! Practicing skills while ‘building’ each issue seems to have simulated real-life communication in a fun-filled project that helped everyone realize the emergence of English as an international language and expand their horizons. Learners also had the opportunity to feel like citizens of the world, members of a vast community, outside the barriers of their local surroundings. Using English as the vehicle, this project provided useful insight on their peers\' daily routine, interests, customs and mentality, allowing everyone thus to become more tolerant with diversity.

    Curricular Integration
    Upon integrating the project into the curriculum, there has been a serious attempt to exploit written assignments suggested by school course books and transform them into articles with an eye to simulating real-life writing (with a clear motive and authentic audience). Although writing skills improvement seems to be the primary objective of the project, there is a number of objectives that have been pursued and largely achieved throughout this project. The primary objectives include expansion of the learners' horizons, development of the learners' writing and reading skills in English, promotion of cooperative learning, realization of the emergence of English as an international language. The secondary objectives involve the promotion of cross-curricular learning, learners' familiarization with technology, promotion of writing and reading comprehension with a real-life purpose, familiarization of the learners with looking up in dictionaries, conducting research, note-taking, promotion of learner autonomy and self-confidence. Learners have worked enthusiastically on this project, being extremely active Twinspace users, very cooperative article writers and passionate readers who wanted to know more about their European peers. Article drafting and editing have been integrated in classroom procedures as part of the lesson throughout the school year. Based on the selected topic of each issue, learners have been introduced to and have practiced the related vocabulary and grammatical phenomena that conform to the curriculum.

    Communication and exchange between partner schools
    Communication among partners has been effective and enjoyable! Although not all partners have contributed in the project (including one of the coordinators), the ones that have actively participated have been engaged in a skype conference in the beginning of the project, numerous email exchanges, updating the Twispace Teacher Bulletin, the Twinspace Project Journal, the Twinspace Pages, contributing in the collaborative Titanpads (https://titanpad.com/s6Xrt7BIR7) (https://titanpad.com/edUXu8SKCe), uploading on issuu.com (Collaborative Issue 1 (All about me)Collaborative Issue 2 (My school), Collaborative Issue 3 (My area), Collaborative Issue 4 (Summer Holidays)), updating their school blogs on the development of the project and uploading files (completed issues) on the project Twinspace. Learners' communication has been pursued and achieved by means of the Twinspace chat which has mainly attracted their attention, by means of emails exchange (especially after each issue has been published - learners congratulate peers, ask questions, comment on articles, etc), by means of writing on their peers' profile walls (trying to get to know each other), by means of the Twinspace forums which have actually not been very appealing to the learners and a collaborative Answergarden.

    Collaboration among partner schools
    Collaboration among partners has been achieved at many levels. First of all, partners have jointly discussed and determined the topic of each issue in a polite, cooperative, respectful and enjoyable manner. All project details (aims and objectives) and procedures have been agreed upon in a skype meeting that took place in the beginning of the project. Each partner has been responsible for updating his/her page and uploading his/her learners' five-page issue, while partners familiar with educational computer tools have kindly offered to contribute with their knowledge (uploading on issuu.com, for instance). In addition, a lot of practical and technical advice has been exchanged via emails with regard to the methodology applied by each partner, curriculum integration, exploitation of the end-product, uploading on Twinspace, embedding in school blogs, etc. Learners, based on the published issues, have been involved in numerous email exchanges regarding the content of the newspaper, have tried to befriend their peers using their profile walls and the Twinspace chat and have joyfully planted the Answergarden with their European peers!

    Use of Technology
    Technology has been used in many ways, both by partner teachers and learners. Teachers, on the one hand, have used the Twinspace tools (teacher bulletin, project journal, files, pages, etc), the Word Processor, Acrobat Reader to transform their files, issuu.com, Titanpad, school blogs, emails and Skype. Learners, on the other hand, have used the Twinspace tools (mainly chat, emails, pages and the files section), Answergarden, the Word Processor, Drawing Software, scanner, printer, cameras, internet search engines (while gathering information, looking up words in online dictionaries, learning more on aspects that have attracted their attention in their peers' articles, etc). Both teachers and learners have managed to familiarize themselves with the aforementioned technology, become competent users and exploit it educationally, creatively and enjoyably.

    Results, Impact and Documentation
    This particular project has benefited the learners, the schools and the teachers in various ways. Firstly, the learners have been involved in the use of English language with a real-life purpose, promoting thus their receptive (reading, listening) and productive skills (writing, speaking). In addition, they have become familiar with cultural aspects of different European countries, they have been trained to respect diversity and they have realized the emergence of the English language as an international language, the knowledge of which enables them to open doors and broaden their horizons. As far as the schools are concerned, the constant update of the school blogs with news related to this project has served as a medium to share good practices with colleagues around the world. The schools has also been promoted locally, given that the local media have published articles on the project. Finally, the teachers have been involved in a cooperation that has allowed them to be creative, develop professionally and connect with other European teachers that do the same job in different surroundings and cultures. This collaboration has been fruitful, educational, inspiring and enjoyable.