EUROPEAN SCHOOLNET TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER #48
April 9th, 2001
Stuttur útdráttur
á íslensku er hér.
Harpa Hreinsdóttir |
eSCHOLA
eLearning Awards
Open Doors
New Web Site
Europe Across Time and Space
Grand Opening, May 7
eSchola Flash Presentation
Twins in EuropeCOMENIUS SPACE
Subscribe to the NewsletterCALLS FOR COLLABORATION
A Day in Europe, Virtual School
Exchange Geography, Ireland
European Label 2001, Italy
Creative Arts in a Technological AgeRESOURCES
Exploratorium San Francisco, USA
Training Pack, Dyslexia Across Cultures
Hymn to Language Teachers, ECML
myEUROPE Chat ScriptsEUROSCOPE
European Schoolnet Conferences and Events Page
Dear colleagues,
Now we are on the nice way to sunshine times, Spring is here, days are longer and many of you are planning the next Summer trip or stay in Europe. This is why we have thought of opening for you the possibility to exchange homes with other teachers. The eSchola web site has opened a special section in the “Travel and Learn” area that will allow you to post an ad for house exchange. This is a cheap and very interesting way to visit Europe. Start advertising in advance to have more chance to find what you want. Go to “Travel and Learn”, then ”HomeSwap”.
http://eschola.eun.orgWhat an adventure the eSchola week is going to be!
We are putting all our efforts in providing you with the best of Europe’s education and ways to show that you are the best.
Rush to your computers and make your presence felt among the worldwide community of teachers.With you all the way :-)
Brigitte__________________ eSCHOLA_____________________
Learning Together
________________________________________________If you are interested in competing for extravagant prizes and be featured among the best, submit an entry to the eLearning Awards. The highest reward is 10,000 Euro, then you get chances to win 5,000 euro (which is not bad at all!) or laptops and other technological “goodies”.
By competing you don’t only put your school forward, but also your country and its culture.Here are the four categories:
eSchool Awards
For a school or group of schools systematically using the Internet and other technology to improve the whole-school learning environment for all students, and provide wider learning opportunities.eTeaching Awards
For teachers making innovative use of information and communications technology in teaching.myEUROPE Awards
For teachers or a school successfully teaching about Europe, its institutions and European citizenship.eTeacher Training Awards
This category is for a teacher training institution, consortium, municipality or school that takes innovative approaches to develop teachers' skills in using the Internet and other information technologies as learning tools.Go to the site to know more:
http://eschola.eun.org
Go to “eLearning Awards”
_________________________________________________Open the doors of your school during the eSchola week and show your use of the new technologies in the classroom, school management and daily life to neighbouring schools and teacher training institutions. Make your ‘open day’ into an online event and allow schools all over Europe to take part.
We all know what “closed” environments schools and classrooms are! Nevertheless we also all know that the development of new technologies break all walls and allow teachers to communicate across borders and continents.
This section gives you the opportunity to show the wonderful projects you implement and share your experience of new technologies with others.http://echola.eun.org
Go to “Excellence and Innovation”
_________________________________________________The new eSchola website is dynamic. It offers many more possibilities than usual web sites: all data is retrievable and searchable and above all, when you submit information or documents, you do not need to know html programming, the content automatically transforms your data into a web document.
All this is very complicated and the ignorant ones like me have to learn every day to keep up with technological developments. The simpler it is for you, the more complicated for the technician!
We thank the EUN web team for their patience and efforts._________________________________________________
The Travel and Learn section is a very complex area which in itself can be considered as a collaborative platform.
The part called “Europe across Time and Space” is in its content gathering phase. At the moment and for the last couple of weeks, I have been calling for submissions. If you have a collaborative project related to one of the “means of transports”, please submit it and it will join other quality resources.
In a few days, this section will take another form: it will give visibility to the content. You will be able to click on one means of transport and see a map of the world or Europe sprinkled with small flags where you can find projects and resources. The travel will then start and allow you to visit or take part in projects.
Many more ideas already are in my mind to make this area a place for learning with fun.Go to “Travel and Learn”, then to “Europe Across Time and Space”
_________________________________________________eSchola will be opened in Stockholm on May 7, 2001 by Ms Ingegerd Wärnersson, Swedish Minister of Schools and Adult Education. In conjunction with the opening there will be an exhibition of Best practice in ICT at School held in an unusual setting; Gallerian, Stockholm’s biggest shopping mall. During two days teachers and pupils from all over Sweden, and Europe, will show their projects and activities to colleagues from the Stockholm region. Naturally, this will be highlighted on the eSchola web site so if you can't really be in Stockholm you can virtually join us!
__________________________________________________
If you wish to present eSchola to your colleagues without going through the whole web site, a new flash presentation of the initiative is now available online. Download it and disseminate!
http://www.eun.org/eun.org2/goto.cfm?did=5353
_________________________________________________
If you want to start getting into ICT without taking the risk on launching a huge collaborative project, this is for you. The principle is to find one partner in Europe, agree on a common topic, exchange and then publish a web page about your partner. You do not need to know html, we provide you the tools to do it easily. We also give you the partner finding forum. All you need to know is type, email, scan and upload.
Here is an example:
· I teach Spanish in Romania
· My partner teaches Spanish in Ireland
· We choose to work on famous playwrights
· Our pupils exchange information and pictures. We communicate in Spanish
· Soon I publish a page on Sean O’ Casey
· My partner publishes a page on Eugene Ionesco
Easy and great!http://eschola.eun.org
Go to “Travel and Learn”, then “School Pals”, then “Travel Pals”________________COMENIUS SPACE_________________
Team up and Meet in Europe
_________________________________________________The Comenius Space web site…another dynamic “beast”…will be up mi April. I described its future content in the previous newsletter. The projects has been officially launched in front of the representatives from all European National Agencies and welcomed with applause. We invite you to keep an eye on this web site, it will be the major platform for all current and future Comenius teams.
To be regularly informed about this initiative, subscribe to the Comenius Newsletter, available in English, French, German and soon in Spanish too.
Send an email to the editor: Brigitte
brigitte.parry@eun.orgThe Comenius Space URL: http://comenius.eun.org
__________CALLS FOR COLLABORATION_____________
Work Together
_________________________________________________A Day in Europe, Virtual School
Take part in the new “Canal Rêve” competition organized by the French department of the virtual school. All you have to do is present a typical day at school in your country. The best proposals will be displayed online and provide Europe with an overview of what a day at school in Europe is like.
The project is open from April 3 to May 26.
A special Europe Day Chat will take place on May 8 from 12 to 13 pm (Paris time).To know more:
http://www.en.eun.org/vs/french/french.html_________________________________________________
A call from Christine Flanagan:
“I am looking for any European schools who would be interested getting their students involved in e-mailing children in my class .(6 th class in a primary school ,Ireland.)
The subject of the e-mails would be in relation to students sharing information about their native country.I am talking about a relatively short period from now until early May.I would really appreciate a rapid response as this information is part of my research into the area of Computers and Geography.
Looking forward to hearing from you and your students soon,”_________________________________________________
I let the kids talk this time:
“We are students in a state secondary school in south Italy.
We have joined the European Label 2001 for innovative projects for languages teaching and learning; we are building some web pages about Calabria, our region, for our school's web site : http://www.bdp.it/icgirifalco
If you want, we could communicate in Italian and English.
We would like to have some contributions from you about the region where you live (something that we can put on our web pages: a short abstract (one/two pages) about your region and some photos).
Waiting for your reply
Students from Istituto Comprensivo Cortale-Girifalco”scmgir@libero.it
_________________________________________________Creative Arts in a Technological Age
Elaine Bowen, head teacher in a British primary school,l is looking for 1 or 2 more partner schools in Europe. They already have partners in England, Germany and Italy, they would be happy to have partners in Central and Eastern Europe as well as EU countries.
The theme is very interesting: "Creative Arts in a technological age"
Email: ej.bowen@talk21.com
___________________RESOURCES____________________
Teaching Differently
__________________________________________________Exploratorium San Francisco, USA
The European Schoolnet collaborated with all kinds of institutions in order to inform and support schools as well as possible.
Among the people I have recently met, there is the deputy director of the Museum of Science of San Francisco – California. The science center is a wonderful place where young and not so young people (!) experiment their senses and knowledge of scientific phenomena by themselves. There are many just as wonderful centers in Europe.
Take a look at the Californian web site and enjoy!
I advise you to visit the learning studio in particular, but the other areas are just as nice.___________________________________________________
Training Pack, Dyslexia Across Cultures
DITT volunteers create and promote tools to help dyslexic pupils be full part of our learning society.
They have designed a pack for teachers, parents and students concerned by this problem. It is composed of a guide and a video.
If you work with dyslexic pupils or of you have children who are affected by dyslexia, contact those people and share.________________________________________________
Hymn to Language Teachers, ECML
The ECML has launched a new project here to draw the attention of fellow professionals and educational authorities in international and national contexts to the importance of both language education and language teachers in today's ever-changing Europe. Through this web page, the ECML aims to encourage and support language teachers to introduce themselves in the most visible manner, and to allow interested web-users a glimpse into other teachers’ working background, professional experience and major concerns.
So if you wish to be a featured teacher, please use one of the two official languages of the Council of Europe, English or French, to fill in every field in the form – and then all you have to do is check the page regularly to find yourself ‘on display’ and to react to your colleagues’ responses to the question you have asked them.
___________________________________________________
Some weeks ago myEUROPE organised a chat on Environment. Commissioner Wallström came to the EUN office and talked with ten European schools about the new plan for European environment.
That chat was a very special event for the participating schools, and also for the Commissioner herself!
The script of the chat was put together by Petru Dumitru, who is responsible for the networking of schools in Central and Eastern European countries. Now we can offer you a unique resource: true information on European environment provided through a synchronous exchange between pupils and the Commissioner for Environment.
Take a look and use in your classroom!http://www.en.eun.org/myeurope/chats/chat4-trans.html
__________________EUROSCOPE______________________
Do Not Miss Anything or Anybody!
____________________________________________________European Schoolnet Conferences and Events Page
We offer you a list of key upcoming conferences in the area of Education and
Technology in Europe which is updated weekly. Events are listed
chronologically.
Bookmark this page to know what is going on!****************** THE EUROPEAN SCHOOLNET TEACHER'S NEWS******************
WHAT is the EUN?
The European SchoolNet is network-of-networks in Europe whose aim is to
promote the use of Information and Communication Technologies among schools
in Europe by:
· Supporting collaboration between schools
· Offering a broad range of educational content and services
· Promoting good practice and experience
· Advancing concertation and standardisation processes in education.You are receiving our electronic newsletter because you are subscribed to
the EUN's News listserve. Feel free to forward this newsletter as you wish.
The information contained herein is public-domain information and no claims
are made about its ownership or reproduction rights but if you have any
questions, or you need more information on this service, for unsubscribing,
or for subscribing to any of the EUN's other Newsletters, visit:
http://www.eun.org/newsletter
or send an email to: brigitte.parry@eun.orgIf you wish to see your project, your news or your call for partners
announced, please send us your project description and we'll try to promote
your work. Don't forget to specify the type of project and age groups
concerned and any other helpful details. When you ask for partners, please,
give us information about your own school and contact emails. Don't forget
to keep an eye on our News, Teachers and Pupils pages, they are regularly
updated in many languages:
http://www.eun.org/
The European Schoolnet is supported by the European Commission by grants
from The Socrates (DG EAC), Telematics Application (DG XIII), Esprit (DG III)
and TEN-Telecomm (DG XIII) programmes and from ISPO (DG XIII).****************************************************************************