eTwinning Learning Events

eTwinning's Very Own Online Courses

Since the very beginning, Professional Development was very much at the heart of the eTwinning Action. For that is one of the main scopes of eTwinning: to empower teachers (and students), to encourage peer to peer learning through sharing of experiences and skills. Learning takes place informally on the eTwinning Platform all the time; and that is something that we, as NSS, are most proud of.

eTwinning also boasts a considerable array of 'formal' professional development opportunities; most notably, what we call the eTwinning Learning Events.

Learning Events are short, online courses, usually of a duration of not more than 15 hours spread over 10-14 days. There are a good number of themes and topics to choose from - starting from basic eTwinning training, how to create a pedagogically sound project, to more specific topics such as language or STEM teaching, the use of online tools, tablets, etc. An updated list of all eTwinning Events can be accessed at any time on

Maltese teachers have always been encourage to participate in the above training opportunities, which, I might add, are free of charge and carry a certificate of completion endorsed by European Schoolnet. In 2011 however, an idea started to form in our minds that perhaps it would have been a good idea to also offer an in-house Learning Event specifically targeted to Maltese Teachers. And so the eTwinning Learning Event for Maltese Teachers was born.

The first two instillments (in 2012 and in 2013) were delivered by our then eTwinning Ambassador, Ms. Marianne Schembri. Following a change in carrier, I took it up to myself to continue with the legacy and have so far delivered two Events myself, both focusing on eTwinning and Online Collaborative tools.

Due to a change in the way Learning Events are hosted, the original platform is no longer available and thus I cannot disseminate the work already done. I managed however, to secure a couple of screenshots from the old platform and I am reproducing them here.

As a venture, locally organised eTwinning Learning events had a similar outcome to that of Webinars (see previous posts). They still required extensive promotion and advertising, through our social networking outlets as well as an endorsement via Departmental Letter Circulars issued a month or so before the commencement of the online course. An average of 15 or so participants attended for each installment, and as was the case with the Webinars, it was a most enjoyable experience for me to be able to facilitate and mentor the participants throughout this online learning experience.

For the near future, my plan is to hold more Learning Events, but with a few hours of face to face meetings thrown in as well - and create the first eTwinning Malta Blended Course/Learning Event.

Delivering eTwinning Webinars

An Online Experience

eTwinning is an online platform, a social networking 'hangout' for teachers who want to collaborate online with colleagues from all over Europe. Online eTwinning Seminars - called Webinars - had been happening for years, mostly run by experts in the field of Education of course. As time went by, and eTwinning became more than just a portal - it became a 'live' meeting place for educators, with the possibility for mere teachers to host online events through Adobe Connect (sponsored by all participating NSS). I had dabbed in organising webinars in the past; about one per term to be honest. Then, from January 2015 onwards, I tried to up the ante - and hold two to three sessions per term. The results were surprising, in more ways than one.

First, I thought that the fact that teachers would be able to attend webinars from the comfort of their home would be more enticing to them than having to drag themselves, after work, and sit for two hours listening to yours truly harp about the benefits of eTwinning or some online tools which I liked the sound of at the time of the seminar. WRONG. It was just as difficult to garner an audience for an online seminar as it had been for procuring an audience for face to face activities. The first time I thought I would be able to get away with advertising only on our online channels - website, Facebook page, Twitter- wrong on all counts. It took the publication of a predictable letter circular to get the ball (and bookings) rolling. Once the appropriate 'advertising' was in place, people started joining and registering. Since then I have always had a steady audience of 15 + participants; which bearing in mind the relative low cost of holding training online versus face to face training, was a good outcome.

Second, after running a couple of webinars, the obvious hit me: Why not hold joint webinars with other NSS or PSA ? The 2016 Activity Plan urged NSS to up our collaboration with eTwinning Plus Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and Tunisia).  Given the distances and obvious logistical problems to actually send and receive teachers from these countries (except of course Tunisia), holding joint online webinars felt like the perfect solution. Admittedly only two countries answered our call  - Ukraine and Georgia - but still, I was really happy to have at least those two countries on board.

So far I have managed to hold 4 joint webinars between our countries and have a last one lined up for June 2016. I was glad to have 40+ participants this time, and it was then that I really realised the potential of online webinars: one can have as big an audience as one wants, and everyone will get the same experience. No sitting at the back of the room trying to understand what was going on. By simply sharing my screen, I was able to navigate through the topics at hand....eTwinning Live, Project Showcase, TwinSpace, Online Tools, Coding....and made sure everyone was following by regularly asking for people's opinions and using the Chat facility as well as video conferencing tools to  regularly check for sound problems. I also kept the Facebook Page online messenger system open to be available to help if someone was bumped out of the session or had connectivity problems.

Overall....online webinars were a very positive experience and one that I would like to expand and increase in regularity. Apart from eTwinning Plus Countries, I plan to hold webinars with 'clusters' of NSS, such a Nordic Countries, Slavic Countries....slowly getting to know different teachers online and giving the possibility to our educators to broaden their horizons.

Coding Activities and eTwinning

Ready, Steady, Let's Code!

I was always fascinated by how software applications work, and what makes them 'tick'. Growing up in the late 70's and early 80's,  computers weren't as readily available, accessible and affordable as they are today. In the mid-eighties, I managed to get my hands (courtesy of my father, of course) on my very first PC, the ZX Spectrum +. I was immediately intrigued on how this little piece of plastic was able to conjure such incredible (read 8-bit, 16 colour) graphics and sounds (read mono and fuzzy squeaks coming out of the tiny built in speakers). And I wanted to know how.

Unfortunately Computer Studies per se wasn't being offered as a subject at my secondary school (Sandhurst Junior Lyceum, now St. Clare College Secondary). Rather annoyingly there were certain boys' schools were they had tentatively started broaching the topic, but in our case it was not an option. So I read every book I could lay my hands upon, starting writing some code and lo and behold, some of the stuff I wrote did actually work! I learned Basic and Machine Code as well as Sinclair Basic which was slightly different than 'regular' Basic. I managed to sit for the Oxford GCE and passed at the age of fifteen.

Since then I tried my hand at HTML and Flash, designing (now obsolete of course) websites for schools during the time (2006-2009) when I was engaged as an ICT Learning Teacher with the CMeLD.

Fast forward a couple of years, to 2012, when I got my first iPad. And I started to download my very first coding apps. That's when I realised that, in the couple of years I had been looking elsewhere, coding had suddenly got very cool. Very cool indeed.

Nowadays both on iOS and on Android online stores one can find a myriad of excellent coding applications, suitable for all ages and abilities. There are simple 'maze' type applications such as Kodable and the Bee Bots app, and more complex apps (complete with coding blocks and real coding terms) such as Scratch, Tynker and Hopscotch. Then there are the 'game' type apps but which still require a degree of coding skills - such as A.L.E.X and Lightbot. Most of them free, some of them cross-platform, all totally suitable to instil coding skills.

   

One of the great things about my work is that as soon as I learn something new I can disseminate the information and share my knowledge with other teachers. And so I did. Since 2012 we have organised a number of seminars including a 2 day workshop on coding and tablets; two online webinars presented by me and attended by teachers in both Malta and Europe; a Multilateral seminar in Tallinn where I was proud to present coding applications to fellow eTwinners as well as Ms. Anne Gilleran, Pedagogical Manager of the eTwinning Central Support Service...Each and every time I present Coding to teachers, I end up learning something more myself about the topic - which is so enriching in itself.

eTwinning has also supported a good number of projects which introduced Coding activities to the participating students, including in Hamrun Primary GP as well as St. Margaret College Boys' Secondary. We also participate regularly in Code Week.

Here I am sharing a presentation which I created and which I use as the base for introducing coding to teachers. I liken coding to collaborative storytelling: a group of children come up with the 'plot' and the 'story board', another group of children can 'code' and prepare the game/activity, and finally another group goes through the code to 'de-bug' and 'fix' any errors in the code.

Coding in the classroom.key from Amanda Debattista

I will now conclude with one of my favourite videos, that of a primary school teacher teaching students how to code by....making a sandwich! Very inspirational and I must credit this teacher for making me realise how coding can be such a fun activity in class.

More on Social Networking and eTwinning

eTwinning Groups

It is true to fact that, as eTwinning NSS, one of our priorities is to promote eTwinning as much as humanely and technologically possible. Hence in my previous post I discussed the importance of 'external' social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. However, eTwinning NSS didn't just idly sit and wait for the barrage of available services to take over. Far from it. We were just lurking in the background, trying to decide what we could do, what we could emulate, and most importantly, how to make the eTwinning Desktop more attractive than the rest.

First up, a whole re-vamp of the eTwinning Desktop - which is now called eTwinning Live! by the way - to make it look a bit more 'modern', 'flowing' and streamlined with other independent services.

The changes however weren't purely cosmetical. Some interesting features were added, including the ability for all eTwinners to hold their own video-conferencing session or online event (cut out the middle man - Skype, Flashmeeting, etc), the possibility to enrol and participate in Learning Events via the platform itself (no more multiple logins and forgotten passwords) as well as the newly added feature - eTwinning Groups. 

eTwinning Groups can be set up by anyone, anytime, and have the added bonus of being open not only to eTwinners but also to 'visitors' (by email invitation). There are many different Groups already online and quite active in their own right, such as the Creative Classroom and eSafety, as well as a Group for School Leaders. I also had an idea - which I put in the eTwinning Activity Plan for 2016 - to create a specific eTwinning Group for Maltese Educators. The Group started out in March 2016 and so far counts approximately 150 members. My idea was to bring Maltese eTwinners together, to have a specific online Group which targets their needs, and to have a repository of online video tutorials and presentations, for the benefit of eTwinners. I have also took to using the 'mail all members' features of the Group (which sends INTERNAL emails to Group members, instead of spamming everyone's mailbox) to disseminate information such as letter circulars and training dates.

So far, I feel that this Group is still a works-in-progress, I am still inviting teachers and in the near future, I would like to expand it by having external guest videos or talks (by other European NSS, for example) as well as regularly more tutorials to get the teachers to 'come back' for more.

Social Networking and eTwinning

The importance of a having an online presence

One of the most important factors that determine the success of a collaborative online network is to have a reliable and updated online presence. This is especially important in an age where teachers are 'spoilt for choice' for the number of activities and tools they can engage within their schools and beyond. At eTwinning, we pride ourselves that online safety and etiquette is of paramount importance. For a very long time, the NSS (National Support Services Staff) focused ONLY on promoting eTwinning, the Desktop and TwinSpace, and local websites. This was the norm at the beginning, when educators were still a bit wary of the possibilities outside of their VLEs and the TwinSpace.

As time went by, the NSS realised that for eTwinning to be more successful and accessible, one also had to 'branch' out to other, perhaps more familiar services, and rather than unofficially ban them - embrace the opportunities they provided.

Over the years, I have slowly built a social network for promotion of eTwinning activities, including: a dedicated YouTube channel, a Facebook Page, and a Twitter and Instagram account. I liked all these  services together so that I could easily 'hop' from one to the other, and cross-post from my mobile, anytime and anywhere,  with a click of a button.
I am humbly proud of the fact that I contributed to the creation of a eTwinning Malta's social networking presence. These are our official pages, which I take pride in updating regularly...feel free to visit them, like and share our posts!

http://instagram.com/etwinningmalta

http://twitter.com/etwinningmalta

http://facebook.com/etwinningmalta

http://https://www.youtube.com/user/etwinningtv

Welcome to my blog!

Greetings, and welcome to my blog!

For the past 10 years now I have worked in the field of eLearning and Digital Literacy, with special attention to online collaboration, eSafety, and school based projects (eTwinning). During the last 7 years, I was engaged in the running of the local Maltese National Support Service, acting as a Coordinator for the action in Malta. I must admit that there are a lot of aspects of carrying out this job which have made this a magnificently pleasurable experience, both on a personal and professional level. I have learned so much, not only from my European Colleagues, but also from the very teachers and students that engage in projects. Being here, working in eTwinning, has been a learning journey from start to finish, and I sincerely hope that I will be able to carry out working for the action for many years to come.