Etwinning

Planning an eTwinning project with Google Docs

Planning an eTwinning project is one of the basics in the early stages of working with the partner and largely determines the success in project coordination and results. Juan F. Peñas Viso, eTwinning Ambassador and Primary school teacher at San Babil primary school (Navarra) tells how to approach this project phase using Google Docs.

No great planning is necessary to register a project in eTwinning. You just need a title, a brief description, indicate the languages of communication, the number and age of the participating pupils, name the areas of knowledge, set some goals and the work process, list some of the technological resources and web 2.0 tools you plan to use, name some of the expected results and little else

 Although only one of the founding members starts registration, you must reach minimum agreements to facilitate this task. Whether it be through the internal messages of the eTwinning platform, emails or video conferences, the founders and other teachers that make up the project can contribute their ideas and suggestions.

 But if true collaboration and participation of all teachers is desired, I recommend using GOOGLE DRIVE, since through Google Docs you can share documents organized into folders where everyone can read and write and you can also hold videoconferences through a "Google Hangout” (even recording them with Youtube). The only downside is that all teachers should have a gmail account, or at least associated with it to edit documents and participate.

 This time I decided to create ( una plantilla con una hoja de cálculo) a template with a Google Docs spreadsheet, with all the sections that appear in the "Work Project" document and that the eTwinning National Support Service has given us over the years, in order to allow better collaborative planning with my founding partner.

Moreover, with the possibility of adding pages to the document, we are improving monitoring and performance of the project activities. Each phase of the project has its explanatory page, its link to the web 2.0 tool to use and, if necessary, a link to the video tutorial on the tool. Mixed groups are also organized in it for collaborative activities between the participating pupils.

We are therefore, achieving good coordination, collaboration, participation and communication between all teachers through Google Drive tools that undoubtedly facilitates the smooth running of the project.

Source of images: Google Docs eTwinning project