Studies of teacher students in the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) introduce eTwinning as a tool for transnational classroom for learning languages and transversal competencies needed in our contemporary world. One aspect of the university studies is to learn to design projects which the teacher students implement during their teaching practice in university affiliated teacher training school. Testing out the designs is safe under the supervision of university school mentoring teachers. Our eTwinning Ambassador co-ordinated tremendously in finding experienced project partners which enabled a successful completion for the collaboration of UEF teacher students, young learners, and teachers. The success of the project will encourage the future teachers to use eTwinning in their work and spread the word in their future teacher communities where ever they will be working.
How to explore the spring with young learners?
In our school UEF Tulliportti Teacher Training School in Joensuu, Finland, we had 26 teacher students, 121 young learners (from 7 to 9 yrs) and 2 English language teachers and 6 homeroom teachers working on the theme of spring by the integrating method STEAM (Science, Technology, English, Art, Mathematics) with the project partners from Croatia, Italy, France, and Portugal. In our project ’Springtime is Coming!’, we enthusiastically explored the signs of the season in different locations and reported the observations using educational technology. In English lessons, for the art part, we printed colourful Easter eggs on snow for learning colours in the respective languages of the project countries. ThingLink was used to record learners’ pronunciation of words and phrases related to the topic. We also created a joint comic in which Mr Bear met a hedgehog, who had a joint adventure in the woods. In addition to these creative activities, pupils from all three schools designed project logos, from which they voted for the most describing one for the project. It was a huge learning community, and it was wonderful to realize how even the youngest ones are able to actively participate in transnational collaboration. It only requires the teacher to be brave enough and to have the courage to create situations suitable for the age group.
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Where from does the food come to my plate?
Two groups of 5th graders, with their partners from Greece and Italy, completed a project ”Food on my plate”. The theme consisted of four related topics: My food diary, Traditional Easter food, School lunch, and Exchanging recipes. The project was cross-curricular, as it was linked to several school subjects, such as biology, environmental studies, languages, geography, history, ethics, economics, and health education.
The kick-off was an online meeting with the pupils introducing themselves to their new friends in the respective countries. We used Google Maps to find out more about the partner countries and to see where the schools were. TwinSpace Forum was used for asking questions. It seemed that the chatting was quite active. This introduction functioned for the teacher students to find out about eTwinning and the use of TwinSpace in practice.
The intention was to divide the pupils into small international groups and to work in Zoom to offer a chance to communicate and present their project work to each other. Unfortunately, this was not realized because of the Covid-19 lockdowns and the related restrictions in Greece and Spain. However, all the pupils enjoyed getting to know each other and finding out about the culture and weather conditions in the respective countries. Besides, the teacher students were quite enthusiastic to find out about eTwinning as a tool for internationalisation.
What is our daily life like?
Our six Russian language teacher students had a project ”One Day of my Life” with partner schools from Estonia, Armenia and Russia, during which young learners (from 11 to 13 yrs) were acquainted with the youth culture of the participant countries. The young learners exchanged photographs describing days in their lives, kept personal diaries (24/7) and made comparisons. To carry out a survey, they created online questionnaires to find out about other young learners’ lifestyles and typical days (e.g., hobbies, school activities). The results were put out as reports, infographics and photo albums. Based on the previous documentation, the pupils made comparisons and presented them in a mini conference.
How did we – the teachers and teacher students – experience eTwinning?
We believe that eTwinning is a useful option for implementing global skills needed in the learners’ and teacher students’ future and it affords an easy way to find partners for transnational projects. However, some advice and support are needed for new-comers in using the eTwinning platform. Fortunately, webinars and national eTwinning ambassadors help and give support to a new-comer. For us, the most valuable support we got was from our local eTwinning ambassador.
Based on two of the teacher students’ experiences and feedback, it seems obvious that the planning of the project needs to be very specific and done in detail and early enough to meet the goals set for the project collaboration and for the timely tied teaching practice and its specific goals as well. The feedback also shows that collaboration is the most important aspect in the project, which means that we need to be flexible and deliberative to find a mutual view on how to take the curriculum of each country into account. It was also reported that their experiences broadened their view on eTwinning being a great tool for enhancing pupils’ intercultural competences. According to them, the most rewarding experience was when the participants met online. They highlight that the eTwinning platform affords virtual classrooms with easy-access opportunities for any teacher anywhere. Drawing from their feelings of having been successful project designers, they emphasize that they are going to continue using eTwinning in their future work.
Written by Hanna-Mari Koistinen, Hilkka Koivistoinen, Merja Kukkonen, and Julia Laittila University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Tulliportti Teacher Training School, Joensuu, Finland
Read also Successfully Piloting eTwinning into Finnish Teacher Training.
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