The participating teachers made a final evaluation of the project by writing reports. We decided not to use evaluation forms this time but openly express our thoughts and feelings about this e-twinning experience.
Let us evaluate our project!!!!
Project evaluation by Panagaki Paraskevi
Our project has undoubtedly helped both students and teachers in many ways.More specifically lessons have become more appealing and students were motivated as they found working with students from different countries really interesting! They also practised their communicative skills and gained useful knowledge on geometry as well.We as teachers improved ICT skills and enjoyed cooperating with teachers from other European countries .The E-twinning project has given us the chance to broaden our horizons as regards teaching methods.
Project evaluation by Lina Campos
Our project was for me and my students the first and a great experience in the eTwinning. My students have been very motivated and loved the experience of meeting and working with students from different countries which has allowed them to learn about others and their own culture: traditions, history, ... They have developed their skills in Maths, Geometry, History, Design and English. My ICT, cross-curricular, project-based teaching and language and communicative (English) skills have been improved, I´ve used new ideas, teaching methods and tools/recourses. The eTwinning Project has allowed us to learn from each other and work across borders.
Project evaluation by Maria Krithi
This project was a wonderful first acquaintance with the world of E-twinning. I feel that the majority of the goals we set at the beginning of the project have been realized. In terms of the modules, we managed to complete them and observe the timeline with some minor alterations. For example, the module on the mosaics took longer than estimated. One might consider this a deviation from the original plan but since the students developed such an interest in identifying and reproducing patterns, I believe we were obliged to respect their wish and share their enthusiasm. This of course meant that some other modules, for example the one about math facts had to be shortened, but the work done on the number π ,for example, was complete and worthwhile.
The participation and motivation of the students is another parameter worth considering. Although they all participated in the project, towards the end a number of them failed to keep up with the demands of the project due to time constraints of a personal nature (exams, after school activities). Perhaps this situation could have been prevented if we had decided to end the project sooner. But we decided that it was really worth to complete all the modules which after all were the product of negotiation with the students themselves.
As the results from the evaluation forms revealed, many students were dissatisfied with the frequency of communication via teleconferencing with their peers. Unfortunately, this was something affected by factors external to the project. For example, the internet connection at our school was really slow and unreliable so there were occasions where we were all ready to connect with our partners but were not able to do so because technology failed us. We, as teachers, tried to find alternative ways to maintain communication. For example, the last conference took place at a special room we booked on premises outside school.
When it comes to the skills we aimed to promote, I feel that my students did become more confident in the use of the English language (evaluation results, participation in the classroom,), developed their research skills (cross-referencing, critical thinking, media literacy skills) and also developed learning strategies such as ‘learning to learn’ through making their own decisions about what steps to follow so as to reach their goals.
Finally, I believe that both students and teachers learnt things from each other, gained valuable experiences from co-operating with people from other countries and realized that learning can take place outside the standardized forms that the classroom dictates; through interaction, intercultural communication and contact with the real world.
Project evaluation by Natasa Lyri
Although we were beginners in setting up E-twinning projects, I feel quite satisfied with the results of our efforts. Our students worked, collaborated, took initiatives, developed critical thinking and communicative competencies and discovered the fun of learning with others. The most valuable feature of the project was that it allowed students who were in a sense ‘invisible’ in the classroom to find their place in the learning process and realize that knowledge is not just to be memorized but also to be discovered everywhere around us. This made these students feel more confident and comfortable in the lesson.
Moreover, the quality of the students’ work as displayed in Twinspace is very high, it meets the standards we had set and can actually be considered valid teaching material which I will definitely use in my classes from now on.
Finally, the co-operation with the other partners was a wonderful experience, too. Of course, some of them unfortunately dropped out in the course of the project but this is always a possibility and it should not discourage anyone from taking part in the E-twinning community. Another drawback was that we were not able to communicate as much and as often as we wished with our partners since the infrastructure at our school was not able to fully support the platform of Twinspace. Also our inexperience made us miss out on some opportunities. For example, we only too late discovered the possibility to record the conferences we had with our partners.
On the whole, we formed relationships, shared expertise, adopted a genuine cross-curricular approach to our teaching and found out what is happening in other schools. As teachers, all these were invaluable experiences that can help us develop professionally.