Interview with Turkish NSS
What do you think of eTwinning?
eTwinning is an activity aiming to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). eTwinning project is getting attention of the teachers in Turkey day by day. The teachers educate the future leaders of the world and molding young minds,so it is really important to cooperate with the new partners to shape the new way of learning and teaching. In Turkey, some of the projects are particularly creative in using information and communication technologies, for being well integrated in the curriculum and for serving as model or inspiration for others. eTwinning is also a great place for professional development. And it's a place where teachers meet, share ideas, develop projects and thus grow as better teachers. That's what a social network based on educational shared interest is supposed to do for them. When looking the numbers, today there are about 16.000 registered schools and 26.000 registered teachers in the eTwinning portal in Turkey. And now there are about 1400 active projects. There are 301 projects done by the U.K. and Turkey, 25 of which the founders are from these two countries.
What kind of project do Turkish teachers do?
Mostly they develop projects on culture and language. As life in Turkey is a rich variety of cultures and traditions, some dating back centuries and others more modern, an intriguing mix of east and west, past and present, exotic and avant-garde; a vibrant cultural mosaic waiting to be explored our teachers are eager to explore the new cultures of EU.
What are the general and basic aims of Turkish teachers:
Teachers are is eager to communicate their academic subject knowledge in classrooms and students wants to cooperate with their peers. In addition, they want to organize social and in-class activities in order that the students keep in touch with each other and real life. Most of the schools have a project club which organizes the attendance to the national project competitions. Their fundemantal goal of joining European Union projects is to broaden their mission and vision by bringing a different perspective for the school. It is because that a key point in the framework of education is diversity so it would be necessary to search for new educational activities and practices that vary from one country to another. Furthermore, They would like to be able to develop the students’ foreign language and change positively their viewpoints towards the language. Besides, they aim to create the awareness of the existence of different cultures and know their characteristics. All in all, the main reason why they are willing to be within EU Projects is to exchange ideas, experiences, cultures, values, tastes, stories and way of understanding within an harmony. They would be very glad to host you in both their school and regions as this visiting online would be a chance to know it and have a historical sightseeing through the online projects. As the number of teachers approach to 720.000 in Turkey. There are a lot of interest from teachers to find partners in eTwinning.
Take a peek at the dedicated Turkish NSS team below :)
