Nos encontramos en el camino - We'll meet on the road
Title: Nos encontramos en el camino - We'll meet on the road
Educational stage: compulsory secondary education and post-compulsory secondary education (16 to 18 years old)
Subject: Interdisciplinary
Three schools from Slovakia, France and Spain and a common objective, to cover the road to Santiago. But they didn't need rucksacks, nor boots, nor waterproofs, nor the pilgrim's credentials, but computers, an Internet connection, a good library, virtual maps and, above all, a lot of imagination, because their journey was virtual.
The working areas, a wiki and a blog, which present the results of the eight months the project lasted and which have become real logs of the journey and small encyclopaedias about the Road, can be consulted by any future pilgrim.
The Road to Santiago was the main thread and the pretext for these students to practise languages, carry out real research on the historical and cultural heritage and explore different ICT tools. In the wiki, a work space created just for them, these virtual pilgrims organized themselves in groups of different nationalities and shared out the stages of the European Road to Santiago. As is reflected in the pages of debate in the wiki, the teams had complete freedom to decide how they were going to discover the stage, what they wanted to research and the ICT tools which were most suitable for presenting their work in public, etc. They dealt with very varied topics: from the wealth of the historical and cultural heritage, to the traditional gastronomy, as well as practical topics for the journey like their accommodation, suitable clothing for the trip, the music they wanted to take with them on the road, means of transport, web sites that they could use to reserve accommodation, etc. At the same time they made comments in Spanish and French on the wiki, and in the blog on the publications by their companions in other teams.
The final destination of these pilgrims' virtual journey was the city of Santiago de Compostela, the meeting place for all the pilgrims on the Road, the cultural wealth of which they researched publishing the results in an excellent Prezi:
As it was a virtual Road to Santiago, new technologies were incorporated in the project from the beginning and became the faithful companions of the students on the Road. The blog and wiki, two highly collaborative tools, were created by the teachers, and the contents of both are mostly due to the contribution of the students, in charge of publishing and presenting the material. The students made them much more interesting with videos, photos, Glogster murals, Slideshare, conceptual maps with Bubbl, Google Maps, news items, comments, Prezi presentations, PhotoPeach, etc.
At the end of the project, the Xtranormal cartoon characters helped them to express their thoughts and impressions on the activities and the development of the project. Published in the blog, these cartoons made by groups or individuals, could be consulted by their companions.
To celebrate the end of their eTwinning adventure, an assessment video conference was organized, in which the students finally shared their impressions on the project in person. The teachers helped them to formulate their thoughts drawing up a conversation guide for each video conference, a guide which they could consult in the blog. PhotoPeach was the ICT tool used to record the meeting:
And from the virtual Road to the real one there was only a small step. At least this was the case for the Slovakian students. The project has also been awarded the National eTwinning Prize in that country, and after learning of the prize, the Slovakian teacher and her students organized a trip to Spain to finally meet their eTwinning friends at the IES Poio school. The meeting gave them the opportunity to practise Spanish in real situations and to carry out many activities together with their Galician friends both in the classroom and outside. And the most important thing is that they all covered the last stage of the Road to Santiago to Santiago de Compostela, finally living the pilgrim experience. Like authentic journalists, they saw in this visit to the city an excellent opportunity to get to know more about Spanish culture and they held several interviews with the inhabitants. They were even welcomed by the mayor of Santiago de Compostela, which was a very motivating experience for them.
We will leave you with the advertisement that the students in this project made to promote the Road to Santiago. It is a fabulous promotion not only of the Road, but also of the eTwinning project.
The most characteristic aspects of We met on the Road can be seen in the presentation shown at the 2012 National eTwinning Prize Giving:
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Links:
eTwinning Awards 2012
- Carpe Nuntium: voilà nuestra "FrItalianza" and learn Spanish
- Make full use of the Internet but "don't get caught in the net"
- Water is the star in Waterpedia - The elixir of life
- The hole puncher: VET learning and practice
- Family Lab, teaching and learning values
- Nos encontramos en el camino - We'll meet on the road
- Annual eTwinning Conference 2012: European award ceremony
- Entrega de Premios nacionales eTwinning 2012
- Live Broadcast National Awards eTwinning 2012 and European Annual Conference
- A Taste of Maths (ATOM), who says no to a sweet?
- The challenge of reading. Europe:Reading is also the future
- Study, practise and teach ICTs with ICT4U
- GOAL! Go outside and learn, real Maths
- Travelling creativity in 'Art on the Move'
- Ganadores de los Premios Nacionales eTwinning 2012
