eTwinning 3.0 LE - connect

Welcome aboard
A warm welcome to the Learning Event
eTwinning 3.0

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome aboard Flight Wings of eTwinning, non-stop service to eTwinning 3.0. The skies are clear, visibility is excellent and we expect a smooth flight.

Please make sure that your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position and your seat belts are securely fastened. Also, we advise you that as of this moment, any electronic equipment must be turned ON!
As you may know, in our previous event  we took the participants on a cruise - a Learning Odyssey to discover and define thepedagogical framework of eTwinning projects  while using a wide array of web 2.0 tools. In this learning event we want to fly together with you on the Wings of eTwinning in order to broaden our horizons and discover new visions of eTwinning 3.0.
Over the past years we have witnessed the transformation of education 1.0 to education 3.0. Not only witnessed! Along the way we – teachers and students – have actively participated in the process of change, we have brought and will continue to bring new ways of learning into our classrooms. Together we have transformed the roles of teachers and students: From Education 1:0where teachers were lecturers and know-it-alls and where students were passive onlookers and receivers of information; throughEducation 2:0 with teachers as moderators and facilitators who showed the right direction and students as active participants and consumers of information to where we are right now in Education 3.0: there where the line between teachers and students is blurred, where we are all learners, discoverers of information, producers of new content and creators of new knowledge.

New knowledge indeed! Because there's nothing that can't be changed, reinvented, redefined, improved and then if necessary redone all over again! It's up to us to decide what and how we want to learn in order to achieve the outcomes and to enhance the process of learning. Along the way we'll find out that some things don't work at all while others need little tweaks, but the main point is that we know how to take advantage of  the abundance of possiblities at our fingertips. We want teachers and students alike to use and reuse all the available resources and to reshape them as they think fits the new ways of learning. In other words, we want them to  remodel and remake the internet in a way that empowers them to become successful for the world they live in.

We strongly believe that with eTwinning we can significantly transform the process of education. eTwinning represents a unique opportunity for students and teachers to connect and to network in a safe environment where they can engage in active learning, create new resources and share them so that others can reimagine, remix and combine them into new, rich, easily accessible learning content. This learning event will focus on the ways of implementing the three C’s (connectcreate, combine) that characterize a new educational paradigm, whereby the emphasis is placed on self-driven learners as creators of knowledge.

We are supporters of the culture of sharing and your contributions to this learning event are greatly appreciated. During our “flight” you will be able to design new learning activities, share your experiences, ideas and examples of best practice, take part in forum discussions, in eTwinning Ignite Webinars as well as in our final event, the well-known TeachMeet.
So, are you ready to board our eTwinning aircraft and soar to new heights along with us? If yes, then get your boarding pass and proceed to the Stop-overs section on the menu above. There you will find a timetable and an orientation guide for our Learning Event, as well as a myriad of tools, activities and fun tasks and most importantly, you'll get together with eTwinners from all over Europe.

Thank you for choosing to fly with us today and we wish you a pleasant flight.
Soar to new heights

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

or as put in other words by Mozilla Teach the Web: If you make and learn, but don’t share and gather feedback, have you really learned?Before the Age of the Internet the answer might have been a yes to the above question, but in today's networked world, with all the possibilities for connectivity that are just a click away, this simply doesn't hold water.
Or to paraphrase another saying, the world has always been our oyster, but it's much easier to open it in today's digital world. eTwinning has helped most of us pave the way into the world of connected learning. It has helped us open the doors of our classrooms and break down the walls of our schools. Our students don't learn and aren't happy in the confinement of the four walls  of their homes any more. Learning has moved to a world  with no boundaries whatsoever. Never before had we been offered such amazing opportunities to learn and to connect. There are four principles at the core of connectedness.

Connectedness is cross-generational. Students don't only learn with peers and from peers, they also learn from adults. Learning from others, no matter how old they are opens up a new perspective on the world they live in. Respecting different points of view, accepting different opinions, learning from experiences of other people and being non-defensive about their own ideas  will help them become open-minded and thrive in their careers and social life.
Connectedness is cross-cultural. Living in a networked world, students are provided with unprecendented opportunities to connect with people from other cultures and to learn directly from them. This will empower them to become cross-culturally competent and to succeed in different socio-cultural, socio-economic as well as linguistic settings.
Connectedness is inter-disciplinary. Students are encouraged to make connections between ideas as well as between different academic disciplines and to compare, analyse and use different methods and strategies from one discipline to solve problems in another, as well as in their everyday life. Connectedness helps them to think outside the box.  
Connectedness is interwoven. Too often students are not motivated to learn because they don't see the connection between the learning content and their everyday life. School and life are two totally different universes. By making learning authentic, students will be able to implement what they have learned in the classroom in everyday situations. In such an environment in which the learning content is deeply interwoven with their everyday life, students will not feel alienated any more.

Being connected makes us grow both personally and professionally. It helps us create new visions of the world and reshape it according to new perspectives.  By being connected, students develop their communicative and social competences, learn how to promote mediation and cross-cultural understanding and are prepared for constructive and successful participation in their future social and working life and for efficient collaboration among members of diverse societies.
 In-flight entertainment

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES

Let's get down to work now. (But don't worry, there'll be lots of fun, too) We'd like you to have a look at the materials we have provided for you. First, please read the post entitled Food for thought as an introduction to the CONNECT Stopover.
In Miles and More Resources  there are lots of resources about the ways to connect, communicate and collaborate for you to read and discuss in thePedagogics Category of the CONNECT Forum.

On the left-hand side of the  Activity Design Terminal you will find several lists of web 2.0 toolsthat you can use to enhance your students' communicative and collaborative skills. On the right-hand side there is a list of short and sweet tasks that we've created for you to try out. Choose one or more that you like and do it in the way we suggest or add your touch to it and adjust it so that it fits best your teaching context.

Finally, design your own learning activity from scratch. Use our 
Activity Design Template  as a guide through the design process. Once done, click the submit button and your activity will appear shortly on our website eTwinning Learning Event Outcomes. Tell us more about your activity in the Learning Design Category of the CONNECT Forum. Respond to other posts about learning activity design.
Please be active in the CONNECT Forum above. Add one or more posts to the threads and react to the posts of other participants. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.
There are two categories in the Connect Forum:
Pedagogics: give your view on one of the resources on teaching connectivity, connectedness, communication and collaboration.
Learning Design: familiarize yourself with one or more of the given tools in the TerminalExplore the ways how these tools can be used to engage students in meaningful and authentic tasks. Share your activities, as well as thoughts, ideas or experiences with other participants. 
...and keep on tweeting! #etwinLE #etwinning

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