Italian eTwinning microevents in 2013, model and examples

1. Micro promo events in Italy run by
ambassadors
Antonietta Calò, Claudio Natale, Alexandra Tosi

2. 120 events (90 organized by ambassadors
or eTwinning local authorities - 75%)
6.000 participants
425 registrations in May 2013, + 150%
compared to April
59,000 Italian visits to the eTwinning
portal, 14% of total visits (Italy 1° place in
May 2013)
• The idea of «A tea with eTwinning» comes from Francesca
Panzica, ambassador in Tuscany, beginning of 2012
• The format works well and spreads quickly all over Italy, replicated
by enthusiastic ambassadors
• In 2013 it reaches its maximum success with the Spring Campaign
«We are (eT)winning!»
Spring Campaign

3. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
aprile 1-7 aprile 8-
14
aprile 15-
21
aprile 22-
28
aprile 29-
maggio 5
maggio 6-
12
maggio
13-19
maggio
20-26
maggio
27-
giugno2
S…
Number of eTwinning registrations during the Spring Campaign
Compared to last year’s campaign

4. Heterogeneous events, varying in content, target,
number and reach according to:
• Local peculiarities
• Ambassadors’ personnel Inclinations,
characteristics and network
• School’s Network
• Support from Headmaster and colleagues
• Support from Local School Office
• …

5. Common features:
• Combination of info-day and party
• Majority of events > 40 participants
• Many events involved students and parents (cakes!)
• Target:
– Colleagues, students and parents in the school
– Colleagues of neighbouring schools
• Hands on, very practical workshops for teachers
• Great visibility in school and local community

6. Why this success?
• Easy, quick to organize, on individual initiative
• No burocratic and administrative implications
with NSS
• 0 costs!
• Informal atmosphere, word-of-mouth, peer
learning

7. Two examples
1. Antonietta Calò (Ambassador, Campania):
party within the school
2. Claudio Natale (Ambassador, Sicily): meeting
with teachers of neighbouring schools in
Caltanissetta /Enna

8. A tea with eTwinning
local mini-event in Gragnano (NA)

9. Taking inspiration from “A tea with
eTwinning” we joined the eTwinning
Spring Campaign 2013, on 16thMay,
organizing a meeting in the school
Library with students, parents and
teachers to celebrate and promote
the eTwinning/Comenius activities
"Let's have a coffee with the
(eT)winners".

10. The students involved in the
Comenius Bilateral Partnership
enthusiastically showed all the
outcomes of the activities
planned in the project "English
& Science conquer the new
spaces" to the whole school
Community, explaining the
sections of the eTwinning
desktop they had used
At the end of the meeting, we
celebrated all together tasting
the delicious cakes made by
students and savoring a very
good Neapolitan coffee.

11. The meeting was:
 Organized according to our local habits (coffee and handmade cakes)
 Supported by the headmaster and his staff
 Addressed to the whole school community
 Joined by students and their parents ( about 60 people)
 Centred on eTwinning students
AN OCCASION TO SHARE TO EXCHANGE TO DEVELOP TO GROW
ALL TOGETHER
http://youtu.be/iHwMSe_7bWM

12. eTwinning local Mini-Events
in the area of Caltanissetta /Enna (Italy)

13. Pre-workshop activities
• Ambassadors contact or are contacted by local school
teachers or headmasters to talk about eTwinning
• Ambassadors hold a meeting in the school that requires it:
– Participating teachers : about 25
– Duration time: 2 h max
– Object of the meeting: presentation of eTwinning
– Meeting place: school computer lab
• The local school headmaster or teacher asks their school
teachers by written advice to participate to the event.

14. Workshop activities
• Warming-up: participants are asked some questions on eTwinning
• 5- minute video presentation of eTwinning and question time
• Activities in the school lab:
Ambassadors use a friendly approach to explain the different
sections of the eTwinning Homepage and Desktop and give quick
explanations on:
 how to register a teacher: pre-registration activities
 edit a teacher profile
 how to find school partners and ideas to create a project
 explain briefly how to register a school project
• Ask participating teachers their email address for follow-up activities
• Participating teachers get a certificate of attendance signed by their
headmaster

15. Follow-up activities
• Ambassadors give teachers participating in the local mini-event an
evaluation survey about the event by mail (created on www.survey-
monkey.com)
• Objectives of the survey:
– To verify how interested the teachers involved were
– To know if they are interested in creating eTwinning projects
– To establish a permanent contact and give them support
– To verify if they were interested in the topics we had dealt with
– To understand better what their needs are
– To know if they would like a new meeting to get deeper information
about a particular topic

16. Thanks!
Antonietta Calò, tonia.calo@gmail.com
Claudio Natale, natalcla@tin.it
Alexandra Tosi, a.tosi@indire.it