eTwinning is the community for schools in Europe, offering pupils from different countries the chance to work together in online projects about any subject. But what can it offer teachers and schools? Deputy Principal and new eTwinning Ambassador Donal O'Reilly gives the view from his school, Killorglin Community College in Co. Kerry.
Toe-dipping in eTwinning!
“We first ‘dipped our toes’ into the exciting world of eTwinning in 2016 and joined a vibrant community of progressive and enthusiastic educators with a shared goal of improving teaching and learning throughout the European member schools. Once signed up to at www.etwinning.net, teachers have access to a platform that facilitates communication, collaboration and continuous professional learning within this European learning community. Whatever your needs, objectives, level of skills or depth of knowledge there is something for you within this community.
eTwinning promotes school collaboration through small- or large-scale projects through the use of ICT. We’ve found that it provides almost unlimited support and resources for those involved. The introduction this year of the ability to include other schools within Ireland in European eTwinning projects has opened up even more possibilities and collaboration opportunities. This will really help create a local network to share expertise between Irish schools. This year has also saw the introduction of the ‘eTwinning School’ classification for those who have already signed up, participated in an eTwinning project and received a National Quality Label for their project. Hopefully this will remain and be available in the coming years to us ‘newcomers’ to this community!
Professional Learning Opportunities in Europe
Professional Development is a high priority of eTwinning and there are many well-structured webinars, workshops and online courses available throughout the year. European webinars usually last one hour duration and start at 5 pm GMT which may suit many staff. Some of our staff has already participated in webinars about Special Educational Needs (SEN), Learning Environments, eTwinning for Leaders and Introductions to eTwinning. These webinars had attendances ranging from 25 to 220, and some have been hosted by our Irish colleagues Conor Galvin (UCD), Anne Gilleran (European SchoolNet), Tom Roche and Brendan Colleran (eTwinning Ambassadors). The webinars are offered through Adobe Connect, which facilitates slide sharing, audio/visual presentation, live commenting and participant interaction though Q&A sessions. We have also participated in an 80-hour online course.
I recently attended a Professional Development Workshop on ‘Creative & Cultural Education – Inclusive Approaches’ in Munich and I’m involved in the design/delivery of an SEN Learning Event with European SchoolNet in June. Another staff member attended a workshop in Brussels last June, hosted by European SchoolNet in the Future Classroom Lab and entitled 'Make Learning accessible: Special Educational Needs in my classroom'. eTwinning workshops are an opportunity to meet with teachers from other European schools, share best practices, develop policies, ‘show & tell’ the positive work that is happening in our school and develop working relationships that lead to successful eTwinning projects.
Anne Gilleran
eTwinning Support in Ireland
I got involved in eTwinning through the support of eTwinning Ambassador Brendan Colleran from Castletroy College in Limerick, who invited me to a workshop and guided me through how it works. As an eTwinning Ambassador now myself, I have been actively promoting eTwinning across Kerry, with primary school teachers and through my professional networks. I am very happy to deliver workshops to those who wish to investigate eTwinning further. Please get in touch at dp@killorglincc.ie!
Of course, Léargas is the National Support Service for eTwinning Ireland. Coordinator John Taite and Ciara Gibbons are on hand to help with queries. Léargas also offer occasional Wednesday Webinars led by Irish eTwinning Ambassadors, running for half an hour at both 4 and 7 pm. The webinars will start up again in the autumn. Keep an eye on the Léargas news section and Facebook or Twitter for details.
eTwinning Workshop in Kerry
eTwinning in Your School
eTwinning has many possibilities under the new Junior Cycle and does not necessarily equate to an increased workload for already overburdened teachers. It can work in parallel to the great work that is already being carried out in schools, but complement it in a way that brings learning to life for the students. One benefit for teachers of modern European languages is linking in with students and teachers from other countries to share their aural and oral language skills. Cross curricular links can be created with history and/or geography in this example and a school eTwinning project could be developed.
For those with reservations that eTwinning means extra work, more paperwork and long hours: please be reassured that this is not the case! From our experience so far it can be as much or as little as you want it or need it to be. We completed our first eTwinning project over a period of three months with two partner schools from Spain and France. It is not of award-winning quality, but it was our first step and the students involved thoroughly enjoyed participating in it. This was completed as an extra-curricular activity and was student-led, allowing the students to take control of their own learning. Take a look at one of our outputs here - 'Our students show how to make Irish stew' - but please do not judge us!
Taking Steps to Erasmus+
We have recently submitted a successful application for an Erasmus+ staff professional development project, and are looking forward to beginning that journey during the next academic year. This will allow us to build on our school improvement plan (SIP) and help meet the targets it sets out. Erasmus+ gives us the chance to explore best practice and new methodologies in the European setting and enter into professional, educational dialogue with similar schools in other countries. Ireland has much to be proud of in terms of its education system and, while we still have much to learn, we also have very much to share with our European colleagues. We are looking forward to further developing our links with European Schoolnet and the eTwinning community over the coming years and are happy to share our learning with other schools who wish to learn more!
All images courtesy of Donal O'Reilly. You can contact Donal for more information on eTwinning, or look for an eTwinning Ambassador near you. Follow Donal on Twitter here. We welcome contributions to 'Insights' at comms@leargas.ie.
