The use of eTwinning Teachers Rooms in Italy

1. eTwinning Teachers Rooms
Massimiliano D’Innocenzo
NSS eTwinning Italy
8th eTwinning UK National Conference
Nottingham 21-23 June 2013

2. Teachers Rooms
• Introduction
• What is/isn’t a TR
• Join a TR
• Create your TR
• Some numbers
• Italian experience
• Tips and hints

3. What is a Teachers Room…
Teachers Rooms are one of the “social”
aspects of eTwinning
They are online spaces created by
eTwinners for eTwinners
They are inside the eTwinning Desktop
They (can) cover a wide variety of topics

4. What is NOT a Teachers Room…
Teachers Rooms are not…
for partner finding!
Teachers Rooms are not…
designed to develop projects!

5. A word cloud to start…

6. Search your favourite rooms…

7. Featured rooms… Popular rooms…
And rooms you joined…

8. Have a look and decide if you want to join…

9. You can easily search, found and join as many
rooms as you wish…
BUT…
You can also CREATE YOUR OWN ROOMS!!!
“Social” perspective

10. How to create your Teachers Rooms

11. Give a description to the room

12. Choose subject(s) and language(s)

13. First activity
Working in little groups, let’s try to propose at
list of new TR:
- Discuss about content and aims
- Give a title or definition
- Insert your proporal here:
https://tricider.com/en/brainstorming/wmBO

14. At the moment, there are 194 active rooms
44 rooms have at least 50 messages
Helpdesk has a total number of 3566 messages
Ideas for teaching English has 1731 members
7 out of 44 were created by Italian (16%)
Some numbers…

15. eTwinning e la realtà
is the second room for message
number with 3067 messages
Many Italian rooms are among
the first 15 rooms
Message numbers
NAME MESSAGES
Helpdesk 3566
eTwinning e la realtà 3067
ideas for teaching English 1181
web 2.0 applications and IT-tools for projects 754
Deutsch & Co. Neue Technologien im Daf Unterricht 677
Mathematical Variety 540
eTwinning Romania 496
Challenging students with Maths in eTwinning 492
Friendly help and advice - Here we are to help one another 427
sala insegnanti Lombardia 396
Ortak arayan Turk ohullarini bu odaya beklyoruz 379
web 2.0 applications and IT-tools for projects 2011 319
Les langues romanes 282
Seminari Lazio 235
How work and where use the tools of Desktop and TwinSpace (Bulgarian) 231

16. Italian rooms (in Italian)
have not so many members
(language is a barrier)
English is largely the most
used language and can
attract more users.
Members numbers
ROOM MEMBERS
ideas for teaching English 1731
web 2.0 applications and IT-tools for projects 1634
Ortak arayan Turk ohullarini bu odaya beklyoruz 1536
Helpdesk 1377
A shortcut for Comenius preparatory visits 903
web 2.0 applications and IT-tools for projects 2011 902
Friendly help and advice - Here we are to help one another 897
Social Solidarity 790
eTwinning Weeks 2012 - Project! Project! Project! 753
Deutsch & Co. Neue Technologien im Daf Unterricht 722
Promoting eTwinning 682
Primary School Teachers (4-11 years old) 663
eTwinning Romania 524
Comparing different educational systems in Europe 508
Les langues romanes 454

17. Sala insegnanti
Lombardia is the forth
room 5,1
eTwinning Liguria is
the seventh room 2,27
Seminari Lazio is the
tenth room 1,85
Message numbers per participant
ROOM
AVERAGE
MSG/MEMBER
eTwinning e la realtà 12,78
Mathematical Variety 7,50
Helpdesk Istanbul 5,24
sala insegnanti Lombardia 5,08
HUNgarikum 3,00
Helpdesk 2,59
eTwinning Liguria 2,27
Teaching Evolution in Europe 1,97
eTwinning training 1,92
Seminari Lazio 1,85
HELP/ПОМОЩ за българските eTwinn-eри 1,71
Physical Education, what do you teach and how? 1,56
Challenging students with Maths in eTwinning 1,53
How work and where use the tools of Desktop and TwinSpace (Bulgarian) 1,22
Deutsch & Co. Neue Technologien im Daf Unterricht 0,94
eTwinning e la realtà is the first room with 12,6

18. Sala insegnanti
Lombardia has 0,75
Deutsch & Co. (one
the first rooms active since
2010) has 0,70
Message numbers per day
eTwinning e la realtà is the first room with 5,55 messages
per day of activities (launched in december 2011)
NAME msg/day
eTwinning e la realtà 5,55
Helpdesk 4,31
Organization and management of teacher training 2,50
ideas for teaching English 1,50
Mathematical Variety 1,37
Helpdesk Istanbul 1,25
Friendly help and advice - Here we are to help one another 1,11
eTwinning training 1,09
Ortak arayan Turk ohullarini bu odaya beklyoruz 0,86
How work and where use the tools of Desktop and TwinSpace (Bulgarian) 0,84
web 2.0 applications and IT-tools for projects 0,77
sala insegnanti Lombardia 0,75
Deutsch & Co. Neue Technologien im Daf Unterricht 0,70
Challenging students with Maths in eTwinning 0,64
eTwinning Romania 0,57

19. Teachers Rooms in Italy
General
Regional
– For discussion and promotion
– For training
Specific

20. Regional Rooms:
Sala insegnanti Lombardia
Created by Ambassadors (end of 2011)
Discussion on regional/local seminars
Coordination among Ambassadors and
regional representatives
Availability to help newbies
Promotion of national and European
events

21. Regional Rooms:
eTwinning Liguria
Created by a teacher, due to the lack of a
network of ambassadors/representatives
Coordination among Ambassadors and
new regional representatives
Discussion of general issues at local level
Promotion of the involvement of
Ambassadors at local/regional level

22. Regional Rooms:
Seminari Lazio
Created by an ambassador very active in
online training, active since 2010
Training, help and guides
Follow-up to regional/local seminar

23. General Room:
eTwinning e la realtà
Created by Ambassadors
Discussion on general and relevant
topics, inside and outside eTwinning
Open place where teachers are free to
give their opinion and comments
Italian NSS decided to follow in depth
this room (and then also others)

24. eTwinning e la realtà:
examples from the room
TFA – active and practical training
– Launched by an ambassador involved in
teachers training
– NSS discovered many Amb. involved
– And decided to join the European taskforce
and start a pilot activities with trainees

25. eTwinning e la realtà:
examples from the room
E-books
– A common goal
– A clear and tangible result
– Each one could contribute according to his/her
preferences
– Six books already online!
– The last ebook
http://it.calameo.com/read/0012527443d513317d09f

26. Hints and tips…
Check if your room already exists
Define the objectives
Give precise and relevant information,
aiming to attract teachers interested in
Invite your contacts
Advertise your room in your desktop
journal

27. Hints and tips…
Be present in your room
Don’t act as the “owner” of the room, you
could be the moderator, but not alone
Post questions, ask others point of view,
involve participants
Try to bring out some conclusions,
outputs, products

28. Strengths & Weaknesses
Language: English can help if you wish to involve teachers
from all over Europe in the same discussion
Topics: not all topics are interesting for each European
teacher, so try to indentify on what it may be worth discussing
Culture: certain Europeans are more “shy”, some others are
there willing to chat! Find your way!
eTwinning and…: Teachers Rooms are inside eTwinnig, but
not only for eTwinning!

29. Second activity
1. Using the online tool, please vote for your
favorite room!
https://tricider.com/en/brainstorming/wmBO
2. Let’s try to open your new Teachers Room!

30. Useful links
Zen and the art of Teachers Rooms Maintenance
Videotutorial:
How to create a new room
Managing a Teachers room
Thanks to our Ambassador Laura Maffei
eTwinning e la realtà:
- ebook n. 4 (in English)
- ebook n. 5 (multilingual)
- ebook n. 6 (multilingual)
Thanks to Laura Maffei and all the teachers involved in the TRs

31. Massimiliano D’Innocenzo
NSS eTwinning Italy
m.dinnocenzo@indire.it
Facebook eTwinning Italia
Twitter eTwinning_Ita – max_dinnocenzo
Thank you for your attention!