Documents 3.c: Desktop

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Revision as of 13:35, 4 March 2010

Back to Unit 3

1 The eTwinning desktop
- 1.1 Accessing the eTwinning desktop.
- 1.2 Desktop sections.
2 Profile update
- 2.1 Modifying personal data or school data.
- 2.2 Image management.
3 Partner search

The eTwinning desktop

The eTwinning desktop is a virtual platform that allows us to manage our participation in eTwinning.

Its basic functions to be done from the eTwinning desktop are:

Partner search. The idea is to find one or more European teachers with the profile required to start an eTwinning project.
Manage existing projects. Once we are working on one or more projects, we can check the desktop to see what is new, access the scope of the work, etc.
Manage our profile. We may modify the data used for the registration in eTwinning, whether they refer to us or our school.

Accessing the eTwinning desktop.

Once we have confirmed our registration in eTwinning we will have a user name and a password to access the eTwinning desktop.

In order to access the desktop we will start from the eTwinning SCA website, at http://www.etwinning.net. Once there, on the top left-hand corner there will be a place to insert the user name and password we chose when we registered in eTwinning.

Once you have inserted your data, press 'Login' and you will see the folloiwng options:

Click on 'Go to desktop' and you will be in.

Desktop sections.

On the top of the eTwinning desktop you will see some tabs that will allow you to access each of the sections, which we will now describe.

See full screen: 'A trip around the eTwinning desktop'

Home page

The home page is the page you will see when you enter the Desktop. It provides a schematic presentation of the changes occurred since our last session, adding some direct links to the most important sections in the Desktop.

The areas we can see in the image are:

1. Selection tabs. They allow us to change fron one section to another. In this image you can see the 'Home page' section.

2. Personal image. It is an area reserved to add our photo and let it be seen by other eTwinning users.

3. Welcome message, workplace and Profile Modification option. From the 'My profile' link we can change our personal data, the school information or add new photos or photos of our school.

4. My projects / Project news. It provides direct link to another section in the Desktop, 'My Projects', where you can manage all the projects you are working on.

5. My contacts. It provides a direct link to another section in the Desktop, 'My Contacts', where there is a list of other eTwinning users we have some kind of relationship with (candidates to start a project or people we have already started a project with, teachers we are in touch with...).

6. My messages. Firstly, we can see a direct link to the inbox, which tells us if we have any new messages. You may find the following messages:

Contacts. We shall be informed if someone wishes to add us as their contacts (we can accept or reject the offer) or if that person has accepted being our contact (we will have previously sent them a request).
Projects. We will be informed of the projects we are carrying out (new users, dropouts, etc.)

7. Socios. It includes direct links to the direct search and the partner search forum, which belong to the Desktop section called 'Partner Search'. It also includes a link to see schools in general.

You can see an animation of how to use these sections here:

See full screen

My profile

This section of the eTwinning Desktop allows us to modify the data inserted when registering in eTwinning, both personal or referring to our school.

The areas in the image are:

1. Selection tabs. They allow us to change from one section to another in the Desktop. In this case we would be in the 'My profile' section.

2. Personal image. It is an area reserved to add our photo, which can be seen by other eTwinning users. Below the image we can see a link that allows us to add new images or change the one we have.

3. My quick profile. In this section we can find different information:

Firstly, our name and the 'Modify profile' link to modify our personal data, school information, our association preferences...
An indicator of our activity in eTwinning, which, the more often we connect, the higher it will be.
A box that indicates whether we are available for an eTwinning project or not (so that other users who see our profile know about this).
A box that shows whether we are available to start a Comenius project or not.

4. Inbox. This envelope provides a direct link to the inbox, where we exchange messages with other eTwinning users.

5. My school(s). It shows the schools we are working in, as well as a short description of our association preferences.

6. My project ideas. Here is a short description we have added about our association preferences. There is also a list of ither users who support our idea.

7. My projects. A direct link to each eTwinning project we are carrying out.

8. My life in etwinning. This section shows the eTwinning projects we are working on. For instance, someone who has included us in their contacts, project registrations, etc.

9. My contacts. A direct link to each contact we have in the section 'My contacts'.

10. My widgets. A direct link to the Widgets section.

11. My notice board. In this section we can include messages of interest or news to be read by other eTwinning users who visit our profile. We can also write notes on other users' notice boards, and other user can write on our board.

IMPORTANT!!!

If once you are already registered in eTwinning you change schools, you must not change the data for the previous school. If you do it, you will be modifying the registration of all the teachers associated to that school. What you have to do is add a new school. Once you have done it, you can mark in your profile what schools are active and which ones aren't.

Now we shall explain some of the actions that can be carried out from the 'Profile' section through some animations:

Watch full screen.

Partner search

The first step to be taken after registration in eTwinning is to look for a partner to agree on a work project. In order to find a partner adapted to our expectations, the eTwinning desktop offers its users the 'Partner search' section. In this section we have included two useful tools for searching: key word search and partner search forum.

The areas that can be seen in the image above are:

1. Selection tabs. They allow us to change from one section to the next in the Desktop. In this case we would be in the 'Partner search' section.

2. Key word search. It allows us to search for other eTwinning users starting from some key words (which can be used directly to find someone we already know). There is an advanced search option that allows us to filter words per field (name, school, languages, etc.)

3. Forum. It allows us to read messages from other users, where they explain their project ideas and invite us to take part. We can also leave a message mentioning our project ideas or the partner profile we are looking for. This may be the best resource to find a partner if we do not know anyone.

My projects

This section allows us to manage the projects we are already carrying out, as well as start new ones.

The areas that can be seen in the image above are:

1. Selection tabs. They allow us to change from one section to another in the Desktop. In this case we would be in the 'My Projects' section.

2. Project list. Here we can see a list of the eTwinning project we are carrying out. For each project, we will see the following information:

Personal image, if we have uploaded it.
Project name and registration date.
Project quality labels. The quality label is a special award for the best eTwinning projects carried out. You can request the quality label from this section.
Actions. Here are some links to register new partners, modify aspects of the project, entrar a TwinSpace, etc.

3. Create a new project. This links us to a form to register a new project.

My contacts

In this section we have a contact list, which is a small group of eTwinning users we are frequently in touch with (or we intend to). They are those teachers we think we can start an eTwinning project with.

The areas in the image above are:

1. Selection tabs. They allow us to change from one section to another in the Desktop. In this case we would be in the 'My Projects' section.

2. Contact list. For each contact we will see the following data:

An image, if you have uploaded a photo.
Your name and your school's name, as well as a brief summary of your expectations in eTwinning. If you click on your name you will see your profile.
Language, work fields and country.
Lastly, a link will appear to eliminate names from the contact list.

Profile update

An important step before starting the partner search to start a project in eTwinning is to make ourselves known. Once we have got in touch with another European teacher, the first thing they will do is check our profile, so we must make sure all the data are right and try to give as much information as possible about our expectations regarding eTwinning.

As we described in the previous section, those teachers who are interested in contacting us will read up on the sections in 'My profile'.

Modifying personal data or school data.

In the registration process you may have included some wrong information, or perhaps some of our circumstances may have changed.

In order to check our data and the data of our school, we must click on 'Modify Profile' in the 'My Profile' section.

You see a form with this information:

We can see our personal data in the middle of the screen (1.) and modify any wrong data. If we modify anything, we must click 'Save information' (2.) and the modifications will be saved.

In order to change the data of our school and our preferences for association, click on the 'My school' tab (3.). A similar form will appear, but instead of personal data this time we must include data for our school and our preferences for association. If we modify any data, we must click again on 'Save information'.

If we have changed schools and we want to add a new school, click 'Add a school' (4.) and fill in the new school data (like with the registration form, first searching in a list and if it is not there, registering it).

IMPORTANT: We must only modify our school data if they are wrong or they have changed. If we have changed schools, we must add a new one. Once done, we will tick the different schools as active or inactive (if you share schools, you can keep more than one active).

Lastly, we shall state some data that need to be updated, as possible partners will be checking them:

Brief profile. We must explain who we are, our personality or work system, interests, hobbies or any other information about us we want other eTwinning users to know. This field appears in the 'Me' and, although it is not compulsory, it is advisabel to fill it in.
Twinning preferenes with this school. The 'My school' tab is a section where we can show basic data about our ideas for eTwinning: if we wish to use a project kit, work areas, languages, student ages and, especially, a short description of our project expectations.

Image management.

Whenever a possible partner accesses our profile to find out about us, if they can find a picture of us and our school, it will help them to get a better impression.

From our profile we can add images onto two galleries:

- Teacher's Gallery, where we can include our own pictures.
- School Gallery, where we can include pictures of our school (it is advisable not to use photos of students).

When we access the profile of an eTwinning user, on the left we can see their photo (if they have uploaded more than one onto the Teacher's Gallery, we can change from one to another). If we click on the name of their school, we can see a description of its features, as well as some photos.

To add photos to our galleries, click on 'Manage images' in the 'Profile' section.

On the screen we can see several tabs. We are in the 'Image Gallery' and we can see two new tabs: 'Teacher's Galley' and 'School Gallery'. By clicking on the last two, we can see each one of them.

Now we shall explain how to add a photo onto the 'Teacher's Gallery'. The same process would be followed for the 'School Gallery'. The first step is to click on 'Load image'. Here we can see several data to be completed:

1. Click on 'Examine' and look for the photo you want to add.
2. We will have the chance to make this photo available only to eTwinning users, or any other person who may visit the SCA web. Choose the option you prefer.
3. In the 'Image Title' we can add a title (compulsory field).
4. In 'Short Description' we can add a short text about the photo (not compulsory).
5. Click on 'Save' to load the image.

Now we can see our photo appears in the gallery. We can keep adding as many photos as we like by following the same process.

When we select an image, we will be given several options:
1. In this box we can make this our default image, which means it will be the first image to appear in our profile whe other users visit it.
2. With this button we can modify the title, description and field where the image will be seen.
3. If we want to eliminate the image, click on 'Delete image'.

The usual way to do this is to add an image to the teacher's gallery and make it the default image. eTwinning users who check our profile can then see what we look like.

Partner search

In order to start a new eTwinning project we have to find one or more partners with a profile that suits our project expectations.

In some cases, a partner is a teacher from another country we already know for some reason. But in most cases, we have to look and get to know teachers from other countries who wish to work with us.

To help us, the eTwinning Desktop offers users some useful tools to search for partners, that is to say, to find other teachers who want to start an eTwinning project with us.

Search terms

One of the options that the eTwinning Desktop offers is based on using key words, such as the user name, their school or any other word that appears in the profile.

This method is especially useful when we already know someone and we wish to find that specific person.

To carry out this kind of search, follow these steps:

Within the eTwinning Desktop, go to the Partner search section.
In the middle you will see a box with the text 'search by name, school and/or topic key word', where you will write all the search words. Once written, click on 'Search'.
We will see a list of schools and eTwinning users where we can see some of the key words we have written.

We will see different data for each eTwinning user: a photo (if they have added it), links to their personal profile and their school profile), project languages, project topics, school nationality and a link to invite them to become a contact.

If we are searching for a partner using this systems, we must check their user profile to learn more about them and find out if they are what we are looking for; if so, we can then invite them to become a contact.

We also have the chance to carry out an advanced search, by filtering some of the search fields. In order to access the advanced search we must click on 'advanced search' (in the 'Partner Search' section).

When we click on this link, a window will open like the one below, where the filtering criteria are the name, position in the school, etc. Fill in all or some of them and click 'Search'.

The advanced search system allows us to obtain a list of users according to the restrictions we have used. Once again, the best way to do this is to check each profile and invite the ones we want to become a contact.

We can now see a practical demonstration of how to make a simple or advanced direct search in the following animation:

Watch full screen: 'Simple and advanced searches'.

Partner search forum

It is a forum where teachers who have registered for eTwinning make their project proposals, they express their language or topic preferences, etc., in order to find the suitable partner.

This forum is especially useful when we do not know anyone and we want to find someone to start a project with.

The best way to do this is to read the last messages written in the forum: if we see that one matches our ideas or we find it interesting, we can reply and get in touch with whoever wrote it; on the other hand, if none of them are suitable, we can leave a new message in the forum and wait for an answer.

If we wish to leave a message in the Forum, we must bear in mind:

We must not limit our expectations too much. It is better to limit the project as we go along, considering the proposals we get.
We must use a language that is understood by all potential users who may read the message. English is the most common languages, but if we are thinking of starting a project in another language, we can use it too.

To access the Partner Search Forum, follow these steps:

Within the eTwinning Desktop, access the Partner Search section.
At the bottom of the page in the Partner Search Forum, we can see the last messages written. The data in each message are, in this order: message title, author, date and number of replies.

To read any message, just click on it. We can see the text and the answers it has had, next to the data for each author. Next to each name there are two icons, which will allow us to send that person an email or invite them to become our contact. At the bottom there is a form that will allow us to take part in the conversation with a new message (just write the message and click 'Send').
To start a new thread of messages in the forum, click on the bottom button 'Add a New Message'. You will see a form where we will write the title and text of the message. Then click 'Send'.

The most convenient way to find a partner using this tool is to start reading the last messages in the forum. If any of them seem to match our expectations, there are two actions we can perform:

Write to the user who sent the message and ask them whether they ae interested in becoming one of 'My contacts'. That way we will have their data for future contact.
Replying to a message in the forum. In order to do this, fill in the form at the bottom of the page, where the actual message appears. Using the icon, you can even send them a message directly to their personal internal mail.

Should none of the messages we read in the Forum seem interesting, we can create one ourselves. In this case, you only have to wait for someone to reply: we can find answers in the forum, proposals to become a contact or internal messages.

The documents corresponding to this section, 'Partner Search Forum' are summarised in this animation:

Watch full screen

Etiquetado

Dentro del perfil de cada usuario de eTwinning se incluye una breve descripción de las ideas de proyecto que tiene, para mostrar de manera general sus expectativas en eTwinning. De hecho, en el proceso de registro, nosotros también rellenamos un campo obligatorio con esta información y cualquier usuario que visite nuestro Perfil podrá leerla.

La búsqueda de socio utilizando esta 'etiqueta' identificadora de cada usuario puede realizarse de dos maneras:

Por una parte, un usuario de eTwinning ha podido ver nuestro perfil, leer nuestras ideas de cara a un proyecto y sentirse identificadas con ellas. En este caso, puede contactar directamente con nosotros, o dejarnos un pequeño mensaje denominado 'Yo también' que nos indica que él también comparte nuestras ideas. Cada usuario que deje un 'Yo también' aparecerá en nuestro Perfil junto a la descripción de nuestras ideas de proyecto:

Una vez que veamos un 'Yo también' en nuestro Perfil, podemos ver el Perfil de quien nos lo haya dejado, y si responde a nuestras expectativas, podemos entrar en contacto directamente con él (invitándole a ser nuestro contacto y mediante el correo interno).
Por otra parte, nosotros podemos visitar el perfil de otro usuario y tal vez nos gusten sus expectativas de proyecto. Podemos contactar por correo con él o dejarle un mensaje 'Yo también' para que posteriormente él vea que compartimos sus ideas. Este mensaje se puede dejar haciendo clic en el enlace 'YO TAMBIÉN' que aparece junto con su idea de proyecto.

Buzón de correo

Una vez que tengamos en 'Mis contactos' algunas personas que respondan al perfil que buscamos, podemos entablar con ellos una conversación a través de correo electrónico para decidir aquellos aspectos concernientes al proyecto que vamos a realizar.

El Escritorio de eTwinning dispone de un correo interno que permite enviar mensajes a otros usuarios inscritos en eTwinning, que normalmente serán aquellos que tenemos como Contactos o que queramos incluir en esa lista.

Podemos acceder al 'Buzón de Correo' desde la sección 'Portada' o la sección 'Perfil', haciendo clic en el icono con la imagen de un sobre.

Las partes que componen el Buzón de Correo son las que se muestran en la siguiente imagen:

1. En esta zona nos aparecen los mensajes que hemos recibido, apareciendo en negrita aquellos que todavía no hemos leído. De cada mensaje aparece el nombre de la persona que nos lo envía, el asunto, la fecha de envío y un icono para eliminar el mensaje.

2. Para leer un mensaje basta hacer clic en cualquier parte de su asunto o su autor. En esta zona 2. es donde aparece el contenido del mensaje. Una vez que estamos leyendo un mensaje, aparecen tres nuevas opciones sobre él: 'Responder', para volver a escribir a quien nos lo envió; 'Responder a todos', para enviar un nuevo mensaje a todos los que recibieron el mensaje que estamos leyendo en el caso de que hubiese más de un destinatario; y 'Reenviar', para enviar el mensaje íntegro a otro usuario de eTwinning.

3. Nos muestra tres carpetas de mensajes que tenemos: 'Inbox', que es la que se visualiza inicialmente y que contiene los mensajes recibidos; 'Sent', que contiene los mensajes que hemos enviado; y 'Trash', que contiene los mensajes eliminados. Al hacer clic en cualquiera de ellas, se mostrarán sus mensajes en el área 1..

4. Haciendo clic en este botón podremos redactar un nuevo mensaje.

En este último caso, al redactar un nuevo mensaje, nos aparecerá una ventana como la siguiente:

En primer lugar hay que indicar el destinatario (o destinatarios) del mensaje. Para ello, hacemos clic en el icono que aparece junto al campo 'A'. Nos aparece una lista con los usuarios añadidos a 'Mis Contactos' y podemos seleccionar en ella a los destinatarios. Análogamente podemos rellenar si lo deseamos los campos 'CC' (copia de carbón) y 'CCO' (copia de carbón oculta).

Cuando hayamos rellenado los campos 'Asunto' y el contenido del mensaje, haremos clic en el botón 'Enviar un mensaje' y el mensaje quedará enviado.

Indicar finalmente que existe una manera rápida de enviar un mensaje a cualquier usuario de eTwinning aunque no sea nuestro contacto. Basta visitar su Perfil y hacer clic en el icono con la imagen de un sobre, con lo que aparece la ventana para redactar el mensaje con el destinatario ya relleno.

La documentación correspondiente a este apartado de 'Buzón de Correo' queda resumida en la siguiente animación:

Ver en pantalla completa.

Retrieved from "http://etwinning.cnice.mec.es/apls/cursos/curso_en/index.php/Documents_3.c:_Desktop"

@@ Line 298: / Line 298: @@
 *To read any message, just click on it. We can see the text and the answers it has had, next to the data for each author. Next to each name there are two icons, which will allow us to send that person an email or invite them to&nbsp;become our contact. At the bottom there is a form that will allow us to take part in the conversation with a new message (just write the message and click 'Send'). [[Image:Im46.jpg|frame|center]]
-*Para iniciar nosotros una nueva línea de mensajes dentro del foro, haremos clic con el ratón en el botón de la parte inferior 'Añadir un Mensaje Nuevo'. Aparece un formulario donde incluiremos un título y el texto del mensaje. Una vez escrito, haremos clic en el botón 'Enviar' de este formulario. [[Image:Im47.jpg|frame|center|650x240px]]
+*To start a new thread of messages in the forum, click on the bottom button 'Add a New Message'. You will see a form where we will write the title and text of the message. Then click 'Send'. [[Image:Im47.jpg|frame|center|650x240px]]
-La manera más conveniente de actuar para encontrar socio mediante esta herramienta es comenzar a leer los últimos mensajes que se han ido incluyendo en el Foro. Si uno de los mensajes responde a nuestras expectativas realizaremos dos acciones:
+The most convenient way to find a partner using this tool is to start reading the last messages in the forum. If any of them seem to match our expectations, there are two actions we can perform:
-*Escribir un correo al usuario que escribió el mensaje y preguntarle si está interesado en formar parte de "Mis contactos". Así tendremos sus datos para contactar con él en ocasiones posteriores.
+*Write to the user who sent the message and ask them whether they ae interested in becoming one of 'My contacts'. That way we will have their data for future contact.
-*Responder el mensaje del Foro. Para ello, rellenamos el formulario que aparece al final de la página donde aparece el texto de su mensaje. Incluso se puede, mediante el icono [[Image:Im49.jpg]], enviarle directamente un mensaje privado a su correo interno.
+*Replying to a message&nbsp;in the forum. In order to do this, fill in the form at the bottom of the page, where the actual message appears. Using the [[Image:Im49.jpg]]&nbsp;icon, you can even send them a message directly to their personal internal mail.
-En el caso de que ninguno de los mensajes que leamos en el Foro nos parezcan interesantes, podemos crear nosotros un nuevo mensaje. En este segundo caso, tan sólo hay que esperar a que alguien nos responda: pueden llegarnos respuestas en el propio foro, propuestas para incorporarnos a los contactos de otros usuarios o mensajes por el correo interno.
+Should none of the messages we read in the Forum seem interesting, we can create one ourselves. In this case, you only have to wait for someone to reply: we can find answers in the forum, proposals to become a contact or internal messages.
-La documentación correspondiente a este apartado de 'Foro de Búsqueda de Socio' queda resumida en al siguiente animación:
+The documents corresponding to this section, 'Partner Search Forum' are summarised in this animation:
 <swf width="600" height="400">http://www.etwinning.es/curso/animaciones/bforo/Foro.swf</swf>
-[http://www.etwinning.es/curso/animaciones/bforo/Foro.htm Ver en pantalla completa]
+<u>Watch full screen</u>
 === Etiquetado  ===

Documents 3.c: Desktop

From eTwinning

Revision as of 13:35, 4 March 2010

Contents

The eTwinning desktop

Accessing the eTwinning desktop.

Desktop sections.

Home page

My profile

Partner search

My projects

My contacts

Profile update

Modifying personal data or school data.

Image management.

Partner search

Search terms

Partner search forum

Etiquetado

Buzón de correo

Views

Personal tools

Search

Navigation

Enlaces Wiki

Contact