Tips and advice for TwinSpace

TwinSpace is an excellent place for partners to communicate and to develop activities within an eTwinning project. In the National Support Service site you will find many tutorials and guides that will help you to make the most of all your possibilities. In addition, there are some tips and pieces of advice that will allow us to make a better use of the platform. Here are some of them:

Assessment of an eTwinning project

In our school context, we could define assessment as the process whereby we can collect different kinds of information in order to make the right educational decisions. There is a pedagogical function, because it can be used to improve the teaching-learning process, and a valuation function, as it can be used to confirm or certify the achievement of certain kinds of learning by the end of a period.

Safety on the Internet

The Internet is currently a powerful means of information and - therefore - an essential resource in schools to implement the teaching-learning process. It is the teacher's challenge to help students learn about the benefits and risks associated to this.The Educational Community is now facing a new and exciting challenge: helping and advising students as to how to surf the net safely and wisely.
Here are some basic recommendations to make a right use of the Internet with the students:

• Design an updated permanent training policy for the school.
• Create a plan for education in computer safety.
• Surf with the students: They will affect the teacher's attitude; their reactions and the way they act before the different aspects that appear on screen (publicity, distractions, searches, etc.) will be an example to be followed.
• Teach them to surf safely: Provide them with some clear rules as to how to carry out the work on the net and use security filters (Proxy) that control access to the pages and thus do not allow to visit certain filtered pages.
• Show them safe sites including contents that are true and appropriate for their age: It is advisable to give them trustworthy sites that are suitable for their age, where they can get information. In addition, they must receive guidelines to contrast the information obtained.
• Help them to recognise SPAM and avoid it. The number of vast amounts of spam emails and messages is increasing and usually comes in publicity format. This can be avoided, for instance, by never clicking on unrequested commercial emails.
• Talk frequently to students about the use and contents of the net. Tell them about the possible risks and discuss their effect. Internet is not a taboo topic, but rather a means to complete or supplement our work.
• Provide them with the tools to help them in the teaching-learning process: Working with the Internet requires training in the use of certain tools like search engines, email providers, forums, social networks, etc. They must learn to use these tools responsibly so they can profit as much as possible.
• Never give personal information or an email address. Appearances can be deceiving. Exchanging names, photos, addresses and phone numbers is necessary sometimes but it is also risky and one must be very careful.
• Help them with possible problems and take the necessary precautions as soon as possible; even report to the authorities, if appropriate. The way these difficulties are faced will give them the guidelines and procedures to be followed in order to do their own work.
• Set up basic rules to use ICTs in the school: The use of computers in the school must be controlled by certain basic rules to ensure care and respect. Students must also promise to use the means available in a correct and responsible way. A member of the teaching staff should be in the IT room to advise students at all times and limit the use.

Links:
Safe surfing
Protect them
Friendly screens
Guide on social networks for families. CeDeC.

 Fuente Imagen Banco de recursos del ITE cuyo autor es Félix Vallés Calvo

Partner or collaborator in an eTwinning project?

To create an eTwinning project it is necessary for two teachers with different nationalities to register it from their desktops. These two teachers are the founders of the project and also the first partners and will have all the privileges in the project they have initiated: to modify information on the project, add and manage the profiles of the new partners, use and manage the TwinSpace and the Project Diary, etc.