eTwinning and 21st Century Skills Partner Finding Workshop, Cardiff, Wales
Two weeks ago (22nd-24th March), the UK eTwinning team hosted a networking event in Cardiff, Wales welcoming teachers from the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The weekend was constructed under the theme of ‘21st Century Skills’ and was filled with exciting workshops and presentations, hosted by members of the National Support Service of all the countries involved.
After an excellent introduction by Bill Burson, Head of Education and Society for British Council Wales, the delegates took the time to listen to an inspirational array of successful projects founded and presented by eTwinning ambassador, Ruth Sanders. Later, a series of activities from Human Bingo, to speed-partner-finding enabled each of our candidates to find themselves a partner, or two (or three)!
From this point onwards the teachers worked hard all weekend to learn the ins and outs of eTwinning and came up with some intriguing and exciting ideas for potential projects. By Saturday afternoon almost everyone at the event had registered a project (in fact even a teacher that couldn’t make it had a project). So, with what was looking like a 105% success rate, our teachers headed to Cardiff Castle for a cultural experience that will not be forgotten.
Over the weekend the delegates showed a great deal of enthusiasm and desire to improve their students’ means of learning which was really encouraging and made the whole experience extremely valuable for everyone. eTwinning is all about connecting, collaborating and progressing through sharing ideas with others across Europe. The teachers really wanted to develop projects that would help their students take control of their learning and get them actively engaged and involved in their work. This sense of motivation is unlike any other and having a real audience to showcase their work to will give students a sense of value and pride in their work.
The projects that were created as a result of the weekend, covered a wide range of subjects, topics and interest areas including Mathematics, Sports, Geography, Sociology and many more proving that eTwinning projects can be incorporated in any setting.
Take a look at our Cardiff Story book for pictures of the weekend and keep an eye on our Events page for more details about upcoming events in your area.
Are you interested in finding a partner school fromEurope
to start an eTwinning project?
The British Council
eTwinning team is giving up to 4 teachers from the UK the chance to travel to
Sofia to meet and network with other European teachers at a joint eTwinning
event
Taking place from Thursday 25th to Sunday
28th April, this event is for primary school teachers and will
include sessions on how to use eTwinning, how to use ICT tools and how to fit
eTwinning into your school life.
This event is for you if:
you want to find an eTwinning partner
you want to start an eTwinning project
you want to learn about tools you can
use in your eTwinning projects
you want to actively involve your students in project
work, improve their language competences and skills in collaboration,
intercultural communication, ICT or team building
This event is open to teachers working with students aged 3-11
teaching any subject.
All workshop sessions will be delivered concurrently in German, French and English, so this event would in particular suit someone
who can speak either French or German. However, this is not a prerequisite.
The British Council will cover travel, accommodation and meal
expenses as well as your participation fee. Supply cover is not included.
On Tuesday 16th October 2012 eTwinning ambassador, Paddy Carroll and two members of the National Support Service for eTwinning, Liz Arriens and Karen Cleland attended a forum at the Royal College of Surgeons, London: ‘The New ICT Curriculum: Creating a 21st Century Skillset’. This forum saw stakeholders from the education and technology sectors and key policy makers discuss the skills necessary for students to succeed in the 21st century - without a government prescribed programme of study.
Speakers included:
• Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth, Former Minister of State for Schools
• Ian Livingstone OBE, Fantasy author, Co-Founder of Games Workshop. Co-Author, NextGen Report and Government Adviser on ICT Curriculum Reform.
• Prof. Diana Laurillard, London Knowledge Lab
• Lee Duffy, ICT Coordinator, Sir John Lillie Primary School
• David Brown, HMI and National Adviser for ICT, Ofsted
• Bill Mitchell, Director, BCS Academy of Computing
“The UK’s creative, digital and IT industries are worth an approximate £102 billion pounds, however between 2005 and 2010 the number of students taking up GCSE courses in ICT showed a 57 per cent decline”. (Inside Government, 2012)
Factors such as the above and concerns from industry experts (such as Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt) as to why our education system hasn’t been configured to support young people to work for the companies like Google, have led to the government’s announcement of the removal of the statutory programme of study for ICT at KS3 and KS4, until a new ICT curriculum is implemented in 2014 for KS1, 2, 3 & 4.
The existing pedagogy has taught kids to be passive users, not designers, leaving the UK ill equipped to compete in a digital labour market. Basically we’re not using the right side of our brains enough! So instead of squeezing the old pedagogy, teachers in England have (for the next two years) been empowered to implement their own best known methods of teaching, with a continued individual responsibility to teach ICT to an appropriate level.
Wiki Approach
The above speakers stressed the significance of introducing coding to all students in a relevant and engaging way - that is putting the arts into STEM to make some STEAM! In preparation for this era dominated by technology, innovation and computers, the prerequisite is to ensure that teachers are equipped to teach coding. The methodology employed to do this is a collaborative one and the 'wiki' approach to the curriculum will enable teachers, industry experts and the private sector to collaborate in tailoring lessons for schools - effectively co-creating the new curriculum.
OFSTED
According to David Brown from Ofsted, evidence of ICT supporting progress across the curriculum and throughout the whole school, will be one of the key indicators of an effective ICT policy. Students should be inspired by the subject through opportunities to experience real world ICT, which in turn will spark imagination and creativity. A common thread throughout the forum was for teachers to make close links with local universities to establish digital leaders, whether they be teachers, teacher trainees or older students teaching the younger. Lee Duffy, ICT Coordinator at Sir John Lillie Primary School
demonstrated how his school is already employing this methodology through an initiative with Roehampton University, which will bring 30 trainee teachers to the school to teach Scratch.
2014 and beyond
The new ICT curriculum in 2014 aims to see all children capable of creating 2D animations using
Scratch by the age of 11 and by the age of 16 of writing code to create an App. Ambitious as it may be, the general accord is that kids are at a greater level than we think. However, this cultural change within the education system will take time, training, senior management involvement and as Professor Diana Laurillard highlighted, links to personal reward if it is to succeed.
• Watch creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenging the way we have been educating our children.
Finally, as part of eTwinning’s commitment to Continued Professional Development for teachers, we will be developing a ‘coding’ project kit, which will act as a step-by-step guide for teachers to employ the use of Scratch on the eTwinning platform, so that kids can be introduced to the basic concepts whilst collaborating with European partners - for added pedagogical value!
Professor Diana Laurillard stresses the need for teacher collaboration. Royal College of Surgeons, London: ‘The New ICT Curriculum: Creating a 21st Century Skillset’.
If you are at or near the end of your eTwinning project, you may want to apply for one of our eTwinning Quality Labels.
Achieving a Quality Label gives concrete recognition for your European collaborative work and helps boost pupils’ motivation, as well as enhancing your school’s profile. The achievement can be used to gain further accreditation through the International School Award. And if you submit a successful Quality Label application before 9 MAY 2012 you will be automatically entered for an eTwinning Annual National Prize, which will be awarded at the eTwinning national conference in June 2012.
Our webinars are online sessions where the British Council eTwinning team provide interactive training. They are a convenient way for you to access eTwinning training from your home or your school computer. Each session lasts approximately one hour, during which time you are able to ask questions directly to our eTwinning experts.
Each session has a particular focus allowing you to choose which is most suited to your needs. You can work your way through all four training session to gain skills in all of these areas.
Do you teach 12-16 year old students? Are you interested in working with a team of colleagues from your school and other schools in Europe? Do you think that media education should be integrated into subjects, not isolated? Are you convinced that students benefit from cross-curricular learning? If so, the UK eTwinning team is currently looking for teachers to come and meet other teachers from the eTwinning community to set up a collaborative eTwinning project in either:
GERMANY: Our preference is to send a head teacher plus one other teacher (French or German speaking) from the same school. We are limited to 8 participants for this event - 2 teachers per school.
OR
MALTA: Our preference is to send one teacher from the same school, consisting of 5 different schools. We are limited to 5 participants for this event.
We are able to cover all travel, accommodation and meal expenses for this event, as well as the participation fee, however we cannot provide supply cover.
To apply for either or both of these events, please click here. Applications must be received before 1pm on Tuesday 24th January 2012. To register on eTwinning click here
If you are at BETT this week Wednesday 11th January - Saturday 14th January come and see us and say hi at one of two stalls.
This year for the first time eTwinning Europe-wide has a stand of its own with a packed programme of activities including case studies from current eTwinners and a live partner finding event Download ETwinning BETT 2012 Programme. Find us at stand G110.
We will also be at the British Council stand, so if you want to talk to us about eTwinning or find out more about any of the other work British Council does stop by and see us at stand Q38.
