Will, Wonderful Ideas for Learning Languages
Will, Wonderful Ideas for Learning Languages is a dynamic eTwinning Project. Two Spanish educational centres particpated in the project. The Spanish were: CP Ponent in Inca-Mallorca, CEIP Ntra. Sra. del Buen Camino in Castilla la Mancha. In addition, educational centres from five other countries participated from Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Greece y Finland.
The main aim of the project is that the pupils feel more motivated to prefect their English language (linguistic) skills by participating in many different communicative situations. A large variety of activities were developed using information technology. Many aspects of competition and games were introduced which allowed the pupils to learn vocabulary and grammar in a more relaxed and playful way.
The main driving force behind the project is Will. Will is an expert in English who guides the pupils and reminds them of what they have to do in order to successfully complete each task.
He communicates with them through a fictitious profile created with the tool “fakebook” and visits each one of the participating countries leaving secret messages and organising English language competitions.
The travels of Will are rewarded in the form of a story published using the communication tool BoomWriter.
In addition to Will, there's another character called Lado. A character which the pupils invented. Lado is the opposite of Will, he hates learning languages and embodies all the negative ideas which are in direct opposition to Will's. The extended arguments between these two very distinct voices generate an entertaining and dynamic tension / narration.
In general, the pupils have been the central players / protagonists in all the activities of the project. They have participated and collaborated on the platform and they have used blogs and forums to make comments about the contributions of each participant. The pupils have played games; held elections through videoconferences; and contributed to the writing of each chapter of the digital story.
We would like to highlight the enormous variety of communication technology web 2.0 tools which have been used in a coherent way during the activities related to this project. The pupils have used: Padlet to make suggestions; codes of QR to leave secrets and clues; and the BoomWriter tool for the creation of a digital story. Many other applications, such as: Fakebook, Smilebox, Animoto, Voki, Scribd, Learningapps, Vidtionary, etc have given a visual richness, excitement and diversity to the project.
We would like to congratulate the teachers and pupils who have participated in the development of this project. They have shown they can be innovative and collaborative in their use of the English language whilst opting for a relaxed and playful approach. They have been highly motivated and autonomous in their teamwork.
Source of images: TwinSpace.
