TES ICT Blog: eTwinning - using technology to bring schools closer together

28 February 2007 at 10.30

eTwinning - using technology to bring schools closer together

MFL teacher Joe Dale visits the eTwinning conference and finds out how technology can help bring nations closer together.

When the British Council invited me to attend the eTwinning conference in Brussels in February, I felt a bit of a fraud to be honest. Admittedly, I had blogged quite a lot about eTwinning projects in the last year, but had not actually taken part in one myself. That said, my snail mail links with a school in Brittany and Chibougamau, Quebec have been coming on nicely and of course there is always the potential of using technology in the future to make them stronger and more established.

The three day celebration of informal European union was an inspiring prospect as was the luxury of being able to catch the Eurostar instead of having to plump for my usual Flybe option from Southampton. The two hour hop from Waterloo brought me conveniently into the centre of the Belgian capital meaning I was only a short taxi trip away from the lavish Crowne Plaza where the conference was taking place.

After a good night’s sleep and hearty breakfast, I was delighted to spy Ewan McIntosh exchanging some YouTube gems with Christelle Roubelat, an English teacher from Montélimar in the south of France. Then teaming up with John Mason, technician at Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline, Fife, we sauntered off to a practical and inspiring session by Oscar Stringer about creating simple one stop animations using a webcam, a few static objects and a colourful backdrop.

Oscar’s opening message was "keep things simple and have fun" and showed us his own creation How to make a mummy by way of example. Taking us through a step by step guide, we learnt how easy it can be to bring everyday items such as a pair of shoes or a plasticene figure to life by shooting a sequence of frames and making small incremental adjustments to the subject to create the illusion of movement.

Here are Oscar's top tips to anyone wanting to get started with animation in the classroom:

• create simple characters with big features which can easily convey straightforward ideas
• get your pupils to think visually
• draw on film conventions such as a heart indicating a character is in love
• choose commercial software such as Stop Motion Pro (PC) I can animate (Mac) or free open source equivalents SM Animator or Monkey Jam
• make sure your webcam is plugged in before you launch your animation software
• keep to the '12 frames per second rule' and include half second pauses to slow down the action and emphasise what happens next
• use onion skinning to allow you to see two or more frames at once
• make your plasticene characters wink by removing their eyes for three shots and then put them back again and take another six shots
• put your students into groups of four or five so they can collaborate and learn from each other
• delete individual frames which contain handshots
• add title screens to anchor meaning
• use simple transitions like fade-in instead of more fancy ones which can be distracting
• add video effects such as lightening or rain
• add sound effects to create mood
• render your finished film in iMovie or MovieMaker and save it in different formats for playback on the web, a computer, CDRom, pen drive or mobile phone
• use linseed oil-based plasticene which will retain its shape and not dry out
• aim for advert length stories with simple ideas
• break action into visual bullet points
• restrict the number of characters to two or three

The next session was equally thought-provoking, not only for its varied presentations on different web publishing tools such as Skill2Skill, Wideboard, Magazine Factory and Flashmeeting but also for the opportunity to see Ewan blog everything live. He listened, typed in his thoughts, surfed the web, took pictures with his SLR digital camera, transferred them to his Mac with a USB lead and uploaded them to his Flickr account where they were automatically posted to his Typepad blog. A brilliant lesson in itself!

As for the 'official' presentations, for me the best of the bunch was Flashmeeting created by the Knowledge Media Institute (KMI, part of the Open University) and promoted by education ICT consultant Jeff Howson on behalf of  the East of England Broadband Network (E2BN) and KMI, and presented by John Warwick in a glorious ten minute whistle-stop burst. Flashmeeting is a free and easy videoconferencing solution for schools wanting to connect with each other safely and securely anywhere in the world. To get started, all you need is a webcam and the latest version of the free Macromedia Flash player installed on your computer. Just contact Jeff or John to set up an account.

Once registered, you can book a meeting for a specific time for a set number of participants or guests. Flashmeeting then generates a unique web address which you can send to all those wishing to take part. Up to twenty five guests can attend any one Flashmeeting and the beauty is that you can choose to record and archive everything (video, audio, text chat). This can then be accessed later on the web or downloaded as a zip file and edited.

At the end of John's presentation, I cheekily asked whether I could borrow his laptop as mine was sulking and take part in a pre-arranged Flashmeeting on Podcasting and Language Learning. He kindly agreed and within seconds the remaining audience had the opportunity to see Jeff highlighting the main features of Flashmeeting to a collection of EFL teachers from around the world. You can watch a replay of the whole discussion here or just jump to the part when Jeff appears on screen by clicking on the list tab in the main window and select 28:15 Joe

To hear more about Flashmeeting, listen to the following interview I recorded with Jeff in Brussels where he describes in more detail how the free videoconferencing service can be used in MFL lessons to engage pupils and give them real contact with native speakers in their own classrooms. You can also see this example of pupils from China and England singing songs, playing music and showing their artwork to each other in a heart-warming 'show and tell' session.

You can also listen to the conversation, Ewan, Christelle and myself had in a nearby brasserie (complete with authentic background atmos) at the end of the conference where we chat about our impressions of the event and what we found most interesting.

I agreed with Ewan that keeping things simple, a recurring theme from the conference was an important and powerful message. This was exemplified by Marc Durando in his closing speech where he referred to the following SIMPLE acronym as a way of encouraging more teachers to launch and maintain eTwinning projects in the future:

Share
Innovate
Motivate
Participate
Learn
Exchange

These may be only buzzwords, but they are useful reminders nonetheless on how technology can motivate us and keep us connected in the 21st century. We now have the powerful and versatile tools we need for sharing video, audio, images and text easily and safely with each other. We no longer have to be restricted to the four walls of our classrooms and can reach out across countries and continents via the world wide web. By highlighting our differences and similarities, we can also help to break down cultural barriers, produce mutually beneficial learning outcomes and give our pupils a real reason for communicating in a foreign language.

eTwinning cannot solve the world's problems overnight, but it can help to bring nations closer together and let us learn more about each other. Exciting stuff indeed.

Comments

[erwan ansquer]

Hello
Great to hear from you from the e-twinning conference. I have been involved in e-twinning for the past year and couldn't agree more about your comments on snail mail - quite rewarding project that I have with two schools in Brittany. IT has hardly been used and pupils are really looking forward to the mail once a month.
Keep up your excellent blog
brilliant !! I keep recommending it to all my colleagues.
See you
Erwan

[Joe Dale]

Hi Erwan,

Thank you for your comment. I found the conference really inspiring and hope to find the time to try out Flashmeeting with my pupils soon as well as get into animation.

Cheers

[kerenan]

Hello! I love these exchanges. I have 12 of them (I work in several schools). I went to the Nottingham etwinning meeting at the beginning of the school year and got to experiment with animation and flashmeeting as well. I have been able to help a teaching assistant to start an animation project (She has to teach a class of D&T!!!) but there is no MFL element in that lesson. I will see if we can organise something for next term and do a little cross-curicular activities. It will possibly take less time if the children already know how to animate.
Personally, I find that it is sometimes very difficult to get other teachers on board. Maybe it is down to the fact that the middle schools are closing at the end of the year and staff lost motivation for big projects. But I find the same at the primary school. I really have to pester them (ok I am really good at that!!!) to get something from them. There is never enough time.
Joe, have you tried videoconferencing with your pupils already? Will you use flashmeeting? Now that I have done postal and email exchange, podcast, projects with phototstory and moviemaker, I need a new challenge. But I believe the real challenge will have to find a suitable time for both schools across the channel!

[Joe Dale]

Hi Kerenan,

Is this you at the eTwinning conference in Nottingham?
http://etwinninguk.typepad.com/photos/uk_etwinning_workshop_200/pdwoscarteachers3.html

I haven't taken part in a videoconferencing session with my pupils yet, but when I do I will undoubtedly use Flashmeeting.

Joe

[kerenan]

Well spotted, Joe!
Regarding videoconferencing, do you find it is difficult to agree on a time? I might have to do the experiment with a few willing pupils outside lesson times.

Kind regards

Kerenan

[Joe Dale]

I would imagine choosing a time during the school day could be problematic, particularly if your link school is not in the same time zone as you. This will always be a problem with any sort of videoconferencing I would imagine. Good luck!

Joe

[Adam Sutcliffe]

once more excellent post Joe. Really liked the chat in the brasserie. How did you record it, superb quality? It is nice to know how many folk out there think the same. I agree with Ewan's comparison of making a podcast and producing a powerpoint...podcast anyday for me.
All the best, Adam.
Will try to join in on Thursday.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Adam,

I recorded the conversation on my iRiver H10 20GB and Ewan used his Flash Mic http://www.hhb.co.uk/flashmic/

See photo here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14969299@N00/402596582/in/set-72157594556587581/

Best wishes

Joe

[kerenan]

Hi Joe!
I have just listened to the conversation you had with Christelle and Ewan. Excellent! Is the recording we listen to the iriver one one? Do I need a flashmic? (I ask you as I am taking 12 boys and our FLA to the rugby club on Tuesday to interview some players.)

As a French national, I can relate so well with Christelle. The French system really does not encourage creativity and is a bit suspicious to new things... There is not enough leaway in the system. I guess I felt the same when I used to work in secondary in England though. Unless you give a lot of your time outside your lessons (I have nothing against it and actually enjoy it), you cannot do all these, especially if the pupils insist on doing a perfect job (and who can blame them?). If you do a podcast and it is only a recording. They repeat it several times and it is what you want in the end. But if their motivation is increased by them producing something more elaborate where they edit their recording, cut the silences, amplify, cut what they don't like, create a jingle with a music programme,select podsafe musics, play with the effects... Then it takes too long for our two hours a week (year 7 and 8). It is the same with Photostory and moviemaker. They tend to take too much time with the non-language bits (and again who can blame them.)
I am lucky this year as I made the decision that as I was not going to follow the schemes of work to the letter. I do what I can but don't worry to much really. The middle schools are closing at the end of the year: are they going to fire me. OFSTED might come: who cares... I might not even teach next year if the right job does not come along. And at the primary.... same thing: I am not following the SoW but have introduced a wonderful methodology based on gestures, dance and drama that I got from Canada.
But, really, it is a shame that I have to be in such a desperate situation to be able to finally teach the way I want to and HAVE FUN with my pupils!

Cheers

[Joe Dale]

Hi Kerenan,

The conversation I uploaded was recorded on my iRiver. I'm not sure if Ewan is planning to publish his.

I do appreciate that things must be difficult as you know that your school is closing at the end of the year.

Editing audio in Audacity and using PhotoStory can be time-consuming, but as you say it gives your pupils the opportunity to listen to the target language repeatedly. Could you not start a lunch time club for the really keen ones?

As I said in the recorded conversation with Ewan and Christelle, I think it is important to be creative and follow the scheme of work at the same time. Technology is one way a teacher can do this, but there are obviously many other ways.

I'm sure if you choose to go into primary languages there will be lots of opportunities for you. Good luck!

Joe

[Graham Davies]

It's interesting to read about this. I was the evaluator of an e-twinning project known as ELNET(European Languages Network). 15 schools and colleges in England, France and Germany were hooked up via a basic text-only conferencing system, and they also took part in "real" exchanges, visiting one another's institutions. The project was managed by Dick Davies and Charles Jennings at the CECOMM unit, Southampton Institute. The project ran for two years, 1990-91 - which was in pre-Web days, so you can imagine how primitive the technology was at that time.

Looking at what is going on now, with much more advanced and cheaper technology available, there are still a few lessons which I think can be learned from our past experiences. Joe, I can send you a couple of articles on ELNET, which may be of interest. Some of the activities, e.g. the business simulation and the collaborative novel, were quite successful. The tutor-led and peer-led tandem language learning activities also worked quite well (some of the time) and eventually led on to a much bigger and more technically advanced Multimedia Teleschool project involving Berlitz and the Arte TV channel.

[Joe Dale]

That would be great Graham. My experience in eTwinning and videoconferenceing is more limited compared to other areas.

Thank you in advance.

Joe