online assaignment

              ASSIGNMENT

eTWINNING FOR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH IN LEARNING OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE

Submitted to,                                                                                       submitted by,                           DEEPTHY. C                                                                                     SANDHYA ASHOKAN 

Submitted on,                                                                                         PHYSICAL SCIENCE   03.10.2015                                                                                                                                                                                     REG.NO:18214379017                                                                                                                               SABARIGIRI COLLEGE OF                                                                                                              EDUCATION, ANCHAL

Sl.No	Content	Page No.
1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. 7. 8.	Introduction eTwinning  History Operation The Role Of ICT And  eTwinning Collaboration  And eTwinning Conclusion Reference	4 5 5 5 6 7 7 8

                

INTRODUCTION

Internet enables people to learn in a network without meeting in physical environments. Blogs, Wikis, Twitter messages and other Web 2.0 media forms bring learners many new learning experiences. Learning networks make it possible for learners to learn together and to show their achievements. Certain monitoring tools are required to monitor the learning activities. However, it is challenging to measure the performance of learning or to tell who make better progresses in learning some soft skills.

   eTwinning is a professional development network for European school teachers and has been aimed to promote European teachers' collaboration through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In order to recognize teachers' performance in project cooperation, additional values such as "Quality Label" and "European eTwinning Prizes" are applied to assess teachers' achievements within eTwinning. That additional information may help teachers and management staffs learn about teachers' learning performance or professional development path.

eTWINNING         

     The eTwinning action is an initiative of the European Commission that aims to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by providing the necessary infrastructure. Therefore, teachers registered in the eTwinning action are enabled to form partnerships and develop collaborative, pedagogical school projects in any subject area with the sole requirements to employ ICT to develop their project and collaborate with teachers from other European countries .The primary workspace for the eTwinningaction, is the eTwinning Portal and it is available in 25 languages. Teachers registered in the eTwinning action, also called eTwinners. This growing and active community enforced the change in the motto of eTwinning from "School partnerships in Europe" to "The community for schools in Europe".

HISTORY

The eTwinning action was launched in January 2005. Its main objectives complied with the decision by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 to promote school twinning as an opportunity for all students to learn and practice ICT skills and to promote awareness of the multicultural European model of society. More than 13 000 schools were involved in eTwinning within its first year. In early 2009 the eTwinning motto has changed from "School partnerships in Europe" to "The community for schools in Europe". Currently in June 2012, more than 20 000 projects have been developed between two or more schools across Europe, the total number of registered teachers is close to 170 000 and the number of involved schools is more than 90 000.

OPERATION

The main concept behind eTwinning is that schools are paired with another school elsewhere in the Europe and they collaboratively develop a project, also known as eTwinning project. eTwinning encourages and develops ICT skills as the main activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students' intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills.

   eTwinning projects last for any length of time ranging from only a week, to months, up to creating permanent relationships between schools. In contrast with other European programmes, such as the Comenius programme, all communication is held via the internet and therefore there is no need for grants. Along the same lines, face-to-face meetings between partners schools are not required, though they are not prohibited and some schools organise face-to-face meetings. European schoolnet has been granted the role of Central Support Service (CSS) at European level. eTwinning is also supported by a network of National Support Services (NSS).

          The aim is for eTwinners to share practice examples, discuss teaching and learning methodologies and find support for professional development.

COLLABORATION AND eTWINNING

 School organization Collaboration can take place on several levels:'

 • Collaboration between schools

 • Schools may have steering committees for monitoring school development measures, among which collaborative working is one method of working.

• Collaboration between teachers

• Exchanges may take place informally, in pedagogical conversations, in lesson or class conferences, during congresses and regional meetings

• Involvement of the social and economical community around the school.

• In order to allow collaborative learning in the classroom and to be able to moderate this process when necessary, it is fundamental that teachers themselves are well-trained and experienced in collaborative learning. Therefore, communication training (e. g. feedback rules) may be useful to help them to start thinking about their behaviour and communication processes and to deepen their confidence in this way of working.

• Team building methods may be carried out by intensive collaborative working days where the school manager and all teachers meet and exchange experiences on pedagogical questions, processes, the use of multimedia as well as basic competencies.

• Changes individual attitudes and behaviours by communicating, respecting and also adapting;

 •It is an advantage for the individual learning process: common help and several ideas lead to increased output;

•It has positive social effects by an unproved communication: helps for building teams and to get to know each other better;

•It is important for living and working outside the school, i. e. for the future profession;

•It needs rules in order to function;

•It is more fun than working alone.

THE ROLE OF ICT AND eTWINNING

ICT has been heralded as a tool that will change the face of society, not only educationally but also socially. Education has been caught up in this maelstrom of change with much debate about the positive and negative impact of ICT on the role of the teacher, the learning style of students and the institution of school itself. The integration of ICT into teaching and learning activities has been slowly formulating over many years from the use of tape recorders and language laboratories in language teaching, to the use of television and video material in all subject areas. The last twenty years has witnessed the invasion of computerized technology into all aspects of our lives, from banking to shopping and of course, education. This has led to the notion of Lifelong Learning, where the formal education process is no longer viewed as something that happens only within the solid walls of formal educational institutions. New models of learning environments are emerging: community based learning centres; home based digital TV screen; public information kiosks; WAP mobile information services; wireless education delivered through high speed cable connection to an interactive environment which permit the use of portable devices literally anywhere. These together with the phenomenal growth of the Internet means that teaching and learning tasks are being broadened in ways unimagined twenty, ten or even five years ago. The use of new technology is now seen as a means of encouraging a more personal style of learning in which the student is actively involved in seeking out knowledge and the answers to specific problems.

   ICT-use One of the main objectives for eTwinning is to promote the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. By using email, web-pages, blogs and vlogs, videoconferencing and internet, etc, the students’ and teachers’ ICT skills will be developed and used in a relevant and natural way. So far, European collaborative projects have been carried out by some schools by visiting each other, writing letters and sending photographs. ICT provides an inexhaustible variety of ways to structures and perform a collaborative project with professional and rewarding results that speed up letter writing and the sending of photographs and make face to face visits more rewarding and worthwhile by the ease with which the visit can be planned and extending the contact afterward easily.

CONCLUSION

Collaboration is a key issue in nowadays education. It is important that schools recognize the value of collaboration between teachers inside the school and between teachers of different schools. Engaging in this collaboration between teachers can reflect the potential for possible collaborative work between pupils and schools. ICT is viewed by many as a tool or set of tools that enable communication, but it is argued that ICT is more than just a tool. It is a means of interaction and communication that has never been possible up to this point, in that it enables interaction, construction of knowledge, collaboration and social activity in a way never conceived before. The challenge for independent learning and motivation are increased: ICT makes lessons more vivid and motivates pupils through experimental and active learning. eTwinning can contribute to all of this and provide a ready-made audience for collaboration by means of ICT and ICT tools

REFERENCE

1. Bassey, M. (1999).Case Study Research in Educational Settings.    Berkshire: Open University Press.    Balanskat, A., Blamire, R. &Kefala, S. (2006). The ICT Impact Report: A review of studies of ICT impact on schools in Europe.

2. Brussels: European Schoolnet. Retrieved from http://insight.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/impact_study.pdf

3. Central Support Service for eTwinning (2006). Learning with eTwinning. Brussels: European Schoolnet.

 4.Drent, M. &Meelissen, M. (2008). Which factors obstruct or stimulate teacher educators to use ICT innovatively? Computers & Education, 51, 187-199.