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All the teachers comment the project

  • Innovación pedagógica y creatividad
    Our project (NoMI) involved a heterogeneous group of teachers and pupils of various school orders. All the members worked actively to foster knowledge and collaboration among young Europeans from European schools all over the world with an action-oriented approach and project based learning (PBL). All the partners are active eTwinners for a long time (3 of them are also eTwinning Schools) and by common agreement we wanted to create a space where we could collaborate beyond the simple repository of materials, where to meet and work together on the mutual knowledge of our schools, countries and cultural heritage. NoMI’s leitmotif is the discovery of our cultural heritage, what makes us unique and special but, at the same time, makes us recognize what each of us owes to the "other" in the construction of a piece of its own identity. We also wanted to disseminate the good practices already implemented in our institutions to make the school a place where values of respect, inclusion, pluriculturalism and active citizenship are promoted. All the activities lead to a collaborative "Heritage Catalogue", aa webradio programme and a "Cross cultural newscast" which show the characteristics of the "other" through our pupils’ eyes. Another fundamental aspect is the opening to the whole school, allowing pupils from different classes to work together on the project, already experiencing at school the collaboration that we established at European level. NoMI promotes an interactive and collaborative pedagogy: pupils, always protagonists of their learning, worked constantly in pairs, in small groups, in the whole group to research, produce, share ideas and products in a creative way. The project was crucial to change our attitude towards the teaching-learning process. Pupils learned language and cultural content in a more lively and effective way and in a pedagogically focused context. Emotional aspects were also very important, creating deep bonds between students and teachers.
    Integración en el plan de estudios
    The integration in the curriculum is evident in all phases of the project, based on the methodology of PBL and task based approach, whose objectives are that the pupils develop competences and acquire at the same time curricular contents. The project has been easily integrated in the curriculum because each partner has brought its own topics and competences, adapting them to the specifics of its subject, of its own reality, to the age of its students and to the transversal dimension of learning. NoMI has also been perfectly integrated in the curriculum of all the schools which are involved as a whole in the related E+ KA2 project. The topics on which the students have reflected and worked collaboratively all refer to the different phases of learning both of a foreign language and culture and of the contents developed in the mother tongue, also according to the CLIL perspective (art, literature, music, etc.), and of the great educational values that form the basis of school social interaction. We dealt with several topics related to human coexistence, pluriculturalism, inclusion, universal values. All partners have committed themselves in a collaborative spirit that has involved everyone, improved our knowledge and attitudes starting from the enthusiasm that the project has aroused. An important phase of the project is that the students disseminate the experience among their own peers not directly involved in the project, thus allowing a deeper reflection on what they have learned. We’d like to remind that the project involves students from different classes who work together with their classmates during the different subjects, thus making curricular integration a crucial element in the development of the project. It is therefore clear that the project has fully achieved the main objective we set: to reflect on our identity, to know the reality that surrounds us and to make concrete proposals for a more active and constructive human and social coexistence.
    Colaboración entre centros escolares asociados
    Collaborative activities went far beyond simple communication: participants are members of groups, co-authors and collaborators; each member and each group needed the contribution of others to complete the activities. International mixed groups have been a very effective way of working together. Moreover, we wanted to integrate emotional and affective aspects, creating long-lasting bonds between all partners. It is not therefore a project in which each school has worked independently, but every step, decision and activity have been integrated into the broader context of the planning that we have constantly kept in mind (teachers and students) from the very beginning. Pupils have been actively involved since the beginning, demonstrating that they can adapt to the needs of each phase. The possibility for some of them to meet in person certainly helped, but it should be remembered that not all the students participated in the mobility, yet they also cooperated actively with each other. The materials (presentations, e-magazines, videos, etc.) have been created on the basis of common reflections and the success of this way of working is demonstrated both by social sharing and the final evaluations. It should also be noted that the commitment to the ideas proposed by the project was so evident that on some occasions it was the students themselves who "surpassed" the teachers by proposing activities or creating content not initially planned, such as the Kahoot on cultural heritage, some episodes of webradio, Instagram and Twitter profiles for better dissemination. At a teaching level, collaborations have also been established outside the school context, thanks to the participation in courses and events (e.g., training on web radio or on some innovative teaching methods). We can therefore say that the project represented a great opportunity to concretely experiment what it means to be active members of a community of good practices, both at teacher and student level.
    Uso de la tecnología
    Students have experimented with various technological tools according to the needs of each phase of the work. In fact, this project offered the opportunity for all participants to use the most suitable and effective tools. At the beginning we preferred to use simple tools, such as the Twinspace forum or other known tools, such as the file archive or the image galleries. Then we started to use those tools that could help us to achieve our goals: offline and online presentations (PowerPoint, Genial.ly, Google Slide), audio and video recordings (the use of Spreaker for our webradio is fundamental), online digital newspapers (MadMagz, JooMag), web content management, collaborative tools (Google Doc, Google Form, Drive), image management programs, collaborative quiz softwares (Kahoot, Mentimeter), etc.. The use of ICT has been functional to the whole project and to the different products and not as an autonomous tool in itself; therefore this has allowed students to approach the world of information and communication in a more critical and conscious way and develop more independent digital skills. Experimentation with teachers, who are not holders of "technological secrets" but "companions of adventure", has also made it clear that everyone's commitment contributes to the collective construction of the result.
    Resultados, impacto y documentación
    The impact of this project has been very wide and has affected all the schools at different levels - as we have already said. First of all, we found a very high impact on the project participants in terms of motivation: the groups that have collaborated in this project have already had positive experiences in eTwinning and this has been a further opportunity for them to collaborate with new friends and with even more enthusiasm. In addition, the motivation for studying the different subjects and for the learning environment in general has certainly increased; communication and intercultural skills have been significantly strengthened in a much faster time. The most evident result was the acquisition of intercultural competences and knowledge about the partner countries, which allowed a wider reflection on our being full European citizens (with its unavoidable lights and shadows). As mentioned, moreover, students have sometimes assumed the role of "mentors" and disseminators for other peers and for the educational community in general. I found this aspect very interesting, because it has set in motion dynamics that the students have practiced within the school, on the occasion of experiences of "peer to peer" also in other institutional educational processes (recovery, deepening, etc.). They also helped in the dissemination through social networks (Instagram, Twitter). Another aspect is the impact on the whole educational community: schools benefit greatly from these activities and thanks to dissemination they are better known by families and the local community, promoting innovative teaching methods and promoting a true European dimension of learning and citizenship. We can say, after many years of eTwinning projects, that the impact on the school (and 3 of them are already eTwinning School!) is now well established and that year after year there are more and more colleagues and students who ask to participate in the projects or decide to engage with their own.

  • comentarios

    Colaboración entre centros escolares

    Hello everybody! The way in which the different schools collaborate in order to get a successful project is, in my opinion, a marvellous opportunity to learn both students as professors. Also is an experience than our pupils will remember all their live and I think that this is the best mode to discover Europe. NoMi represents an effort in our community but its reward means new knowledge for us, teachers, when we can talk about European education and share moments, activities or teaching experiences. For they, students, it is an open door to the future. All that reasons make No Man Is An Island a really good project.