Etwinning

A sea of cultures: a multilingual eTwinning project in Infant Education.

We present the eTwinning project “A sea of cultures” developed by a working group at the CEIP Les Arenes school (Valencia). María José García Ruano, one of the participating teachers tells us about the importance of this type of project in the school “to introduce the students to other cultures” and to complement the work done in the classroom, especially bearing in mind the introduction of English at an early age. 

This eTwinning project was approached using a collaborative, generalized methodology based on development by projects, in which different aspects of the curriculum were worked on starting with a series of problems or tasks to be solved in groups. María José tells us that “eTwinning projects give the teacher an ideal methodology for working and achieving basic competences. eTwinning essentially means working in collaboration. This collaboration materializes in the execution of different activities and products in common with the aim of developing different competences in the pupils (…) In an ideal eTwinning project different areas or subjects are worked on in a complementary manner and the search for information plays an essential role involving all the competences: as well as linguistic and digital competences, interaction with the environment, social and civic as well as cultural and artistic interaction, etc., at the same time learning strategies are reinforced which make up the competence of learning to learn, which should be with us throughout our lives”

From February to June 2013 the working group has been able to meet in work sessions of two hours a week, which has made it possible to correctly coordinate with the activities carried out by the partners on the eTwinning platform.

The participating teachers have used the eTwinning platform as a support for communications and for exchanging and exhibiting the material. The development of the project has also promoted experimentation with several ICT tools for editing and presenting audiovisual material, like Spreaker. The interactive digital blackboard and mobile devices like tablets have been some of the supports for the work and presentation of the material in the classroom.

The group of participants has positively valued this experience as it has facilitated the creation of material which could not have been developed without teamwork. They also underline the positive impact on the pupils who have enjoyed each of the proposed activities and have been able to improve their knowledge and competences.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

The story of 'Boni, the orange fish'
The creation of a story about a fish called Boni in which the 5 year old pupils have done the drawings and background to the story using different material chosen by the participating teachers. The resulting text was translated into Valencian, English, Portuguese and Polish.

A Boni Mural

A mural created by three year old children for the school corridor, made of foam which stuck when in contact with water, paints and tulle to fill out the sea bed. This was a very gratifying directed activity for the children, as it allowed them to work with textures in the classroom and learn the vocabulary related to the world of the sea as in a game.

eTwinning corner

A corner where eTwinning work and activities are exhibited. The four year old pupils participated in the decoration using wire, paint, plastics, etc.

Videos made to develop the project.

Different videos were made about the different phases in the creation of the project and were later uploaded to Youtube and Vimeo and linked to the TwinSpace of the project.

BONI from Mª Jose Garcia on Vimeo.

Project web space

This is an attractive collaborative space, still in the construction phase, created with the Wix tool in which it is aimed to upload all the project material.

 Spreaker broadcast

A direct radio broadcast was made for the partners where the pupils recorded the story using a mobile device and the Spreaker Spreaker tool.

Ipad workshop:

During the whole year the children had the opportunity to work in a workshop with 3 Ipads brought by one of the participating teachers, and could therefore interact with this mobile device and discover a new way of working in the classroom. 

 

We quote below the words of María José García Ruano who clearly explains the benefits of this project for the whole school community:

'“All this effort is recompensed when you see that the children enjoy themselves and learn. To write a story like the one about Boni and see how they are capable of telling the story with their drawings or in their own words has been very gratifying and has allowed them to develop their competences using a project which arose from the association of three European schools.

It should be underlined that they have loved to see themselves on the digital blackboard in the different videos and powerpoints, and so have their families, as we have been informing the parents about the project which we were developing in Infant Education and they have participated with us in viewing it in the different meetings which we have held during the school year.

 Without a doubt, this is a project which emphasized the values of tolerance, equality and respect for other cultures which are different from ours. This is something which is very important in our school where we have a high degree of cultural diversity”.

From the eTwinning National Support Service we value this creative eTwinning project very positively as from a play perspective it has provoked in such small children an interest in ICT and other realities of the European context.

Source of the images: The “A Sea of Cultures” project.