Examples and tips about how to achieve collaboration in eTwinning projects

1. Ourania (Rania) Bekiri
eTwinning ambassador in Greece

2. What is collaboration in eTwinning?
 Let’s begin with teachers’ collaboration!!! If teachers don’t
collaborate, how can pupils?
 Teachers need to discuss and plan the tasks of a project
together.
 They share the same responsibility for the completion of all
tasks.
 They can assume roles for the project (each teacher can
coordinate a different part of the project – such as ‘the
pages’, ‘the chats’, ‘the forum’, ‘different thematic areas’, ‘the
games’ etc). That way, they all assume responsibility but
also carry equal burden of the project’s work!
 If there are transnational groups, each teacher is
responsible for a different group!

3. What is collaboration in eTwinning?
 Let’s talk about pupils’ collaboration!
 If we wanted them to work independently, we wouldn’t
need eTwinning!
 What will pupils do together with their peers in class?
 What will pupils do together with their partners?
 All pupils need to perform some tasks that will lead to a
joint product! Each pupil’s contribution will be
important for the successful completion of the task and
the good quality of the final product!
 Pupils assume responsibility for their project!

4. What is collaboration in eTwinning?
 Have we planned tasks that involve all partners and all
pupils?
 Have we planned tasks that involve different skills so that all
pupils’ talents are required?
 Have we explained the importance of each pupil’s work?
 Have we planned tasks that require interaction, discussion,
negotiations, decision making?
 Have we planned tasks that require inquiry skills and work?
Research to be planned, organised and carried out by our
pupils?
 Have we given them the responsibility of making most
of the project decisions? (the older they are, the more
decisions they make)

5. How to use tools!
 Whether Twinspace tools or web tools, we need to be
careful how we use them.
 Creating a collaborative activity with the appropriate
tool is important.
 We may use a collaborative tool in the wrong way, non
collaboratively!!!!
 We may use a simple tool in a very collaborative way
depending on the procedure we follow and the whole
idea of the task!
 It’s up to us!!!

6. Examples
 Some examples follow that show you how some
tasks have been designed to actively involve
pupils.
 You can always attend online events that present
good practices!

7. Twinspace tools
 Twinspace provides us with tools that promote
communication among partners (teachers and
pupils) and subsequently collaboration among us.
 Good use of these tools creates opportunities for
our pupils and enhances collaboration.

8. FORUM
• Create categories and threads of discussion so that
pupils can actively participate.
• Pupils reply personal questions so that they get to
know each other.
• They give opinions about tasks they have done
(ongoing evaluation of tasks).
• They add data or images on topics as preparation for
final presentations.
• They vote on work uploaded (e.g. videos, logos).
• They discuss and reach decisions (e.g. group name,
book titles, topics to work on).

10. PROFILE
 Pupils are invited to Twinspace with their own
accounts and can be active and more independent!
 They complete their profile!
 They visit their partners’ profiles and post notes.
They get to know them better!
 Good communication leads to better collaboration!

12. CHAT
 Inform pupils that they can communicate with
their partners in the chatroom. It can be done
without planning and can lead to a nice discussion!
 Organise chat meetings at certain times with a
different topic each time! A different teacher
may be responsible for each chat meeting!
 Download the chat history so that you can have a
record of the pupils’ communication and
collaboration! Include part of it in a page!

13. ONLINE
EVENTS
 Create online events through the eTwinning Live
page or the LIVE page in your Twinspace.
 Plan the event carefully and set a different goal for
each meeting.
 Don’t forget to take screenshots of the event and
export the notes, the whiteboard image, the chat
history!
 Add the pictures and the products in a page in your
Twinspace!

14.  Partners can create poems or short
stories (in the notes).
 They can vote in the poll.
 They can discuss in groups and make decisions.
 They can draw together in the Whiteboard.
 They can sing (together sometimes).
 They can act, dance, teach their partners!
 … and so much more!!!

15. WEB
TOOLS
 There are many online web tools that help us plan
and implement collaborative tasks for our pupils.
 They can be used in many different ways and many
of them can be embedded in Twinspace so that all
partners can work on them.
 Even when a tool is not collaborative, we can include
it in tasks and plan other activities for our pupils to
interact and achieve collaboration.
 Use your imagination and plan: Which task?
Which tool? Which product?

16. padlet
A great and easy tool. A wall with
posts, pictures and videos. One
partner creates the wall and
embeds it in Twinspace. All
pupils can then add their own
post! Suitable for many tasks!
Just try to make pupils read the
other posts!
TASK: to write what they have for
breakfast and say whether it is
healthy or not! It would have been
more interactive if they judged each
other’s breakfast and not their own!
(Green Missions)
TASK: to create a dictionary in the 2
partners’ languages (Greek and
Catalan) with words about the
project’s topics.
(powerfulnaturekingdom.et)

17. thinglink
A wonderful tool that
allows us to make a
picture interactive. We
upload a picture, embed
it in Twinspace, and all
partners add tags with
comments, notes,
questions and answers,
videos. A final product
with everyone’s
contribution. TASK: to present our
timetable and learn more
about our partners and their
school life. Partners ask
clarification questions and
we answer them.

18. answergarden
A tool that allows us to
collect pupils’ answers.
We can use it to collect
answers in surveys
among partners (‘what’s
your favourite…?’) or to
suggest and vote for
names, titles etc. The
more the votes, the
larger a word gets!
TASK: to choose a name for our mascot.
Pupils suggest names and vote for the
ones they like. ‘Greennie’ was the
chosen name of the mascot who cared
about the environment. (Green
missions)
TASK: to brainstorm about what
influences people in relation to image-
obsession. (‘Mirror, mirror…’)

19. Surveys are good tasks that provide
opportunities for collaboration. Here
is an example from ‘Healthy Booky’
project (2nd prize 2016, ages 4-11).
TASK: First pupils of the project wrote down
the questions they wanted to ask in the
survey about everyday Healthy Habits. They
used a titanpad and all contributed to the
questions. Then they used Google Forms to
create the survey and answer the questions.
Finally the results of the survey were made
into an ebook and published with issuu.
surveys

20. Word clouds
Word clouds can be used for many
activities. They can be used as part
of guessing games (look at the words
and guess the sentence) or to
recreate stories etc. They can also
be used for evaluation. Pupils can use
their favourite tools and tasks in the
evaluation word clouds.
TASK: Pupils wrote a text
describing someone’s
life. Then they chose
the important words and
made word clouds. Their
partners tried to write
the original texts using
these words. (WALL)
TASK: Pupils of each transnational
group collected a positive and a
negative characteristic of each
member and created a word
cloud. (LYPS)

21. fakebook
It looks like Facebook, so pupils
are familiar with the format!
We create a (real or imaginary)
hero’s profile, add contacts and
start posting! Great tool for
History but also for creative
writing through short posts and
comments. All partners
contribute to it, dividing roles.
TASK: to write the journal of our
hero throughout the project. Posts
are added with comments on school
activities, the hero’s visits and
adventures! Comments and ‘likes’ by
the hero’s friends and enemies!
(Green Missions)
TASK: to write the journal of a
scientist. Each group chooses a
scientist and start his profile.
Group members add data based
on his life and work! (LYPS)

22. ebooks
 A great collaborative activity is a story written by
all partners.
 One partner starts, another continues, a third
continues and so on until the story is finished!
 We can also have different transnational groups
write their own stories!
 Another way to interact is to have a partner
illustrate another partner’s story.

23. ebooks
 We can either use a web tool embedded in
Twinspace so that all partners can write the story.
 Or we can use a tool outside Twinspace or the
Forum and write the text, add the pictures in the
MATERIALS and when the final story is ready, we
can upload it on an ebook creator and add it in
Twinspace!

24. storyjumper
It’s a very beautiful tool
that allows the creation
of a story
collaboratively. Each
partner can create
different pages or
contribute to other
partners’ pages!
TASK: The project’s mascots visit
the partner schools. After each
visit, the partner adds some
pages in a storyjumper ebook
with the activities done during
the visit. The next partner
continues and the final ebook is
like a log of the hero’s visits.
Or it could be a story written by
partners in turns. Each partner
adds the next couple of pages
with text and drawings.

25. BoomWriter
Online story writing. Partners
form groups and write the
first chapter of a story
online. Then each group
votes. The winning chapter
becomes the first chapter
of the story. The same
procedure is followed for
the second chapter and so
on until the story is
finished.
TASK: Pupils write a text with
their project heroes (or
certain words given, such as
Halloween words). Each group
provides a different chapter
of the story! The groups
cannot vote for their own
chapter! It’s collaborative and
pupils actually create the final
story, often in an unexpected
way!

26. issuu
They are ebook creators.
Partners write their stories,
poems, texts etc together
with pictures, photos,
drawings, they create a final
document. They upload it on
an ebook creator and embed
it in Twinspace.
calameo youblisher

27. Wikia maps
Partners can upload a
fictional map drawn
by pupils on wikia and
embed it in
Twinspace. Then all
partners add tags on
it with information.
TASK: The partners drew a new
planet (competition among many).
The planet map was uploaded on
wikia. Then each partner chose a
part of the planet and named the
area, rivers, mountains etc
adding a short description as
well. The map was used in
stories, posters and other tasks
as well! (WALL)

28. Games - kahoot
Games can be used to
promote interaction with
the material produced by
partners!
Collaboration can be
achieved when all partners
contribute to the
questions! TASK: The partners created many
products during the project. To make
sure that the pupils read them well,
they created a kahoot game with
questions relevant to one of the
products, a story written and
illustrated by all partners. Kahoot
enhanced their competitive spirit so
they ‘did their homework’, read the
story carefully and played the quiz. A
thread was added in the Forum with
each partner’s results! (WALL)

29. Games – learningapps
 Games can be used to
promote learning of the
language used in a project!
They can include scores so
special threads should be
created in the Forum so
that pupils can add their
score and watch their
partners’ scores! It works
perfectly with competitive
students!!! Such games can
follow all project tasks!
 Learningapps offer a
variety of games!

30. glogster
A great tool to make
interactive online
poster presentations.
There is a free
educational account
with limited features
but quite good for the
sake of a project!
TASK: The pupils in groups
created glogs (interactive
posters) about everyday
healthy habits.

31. An online presentation created by a
partner who embeds it in
Twinspace. Then it can be edited
by all partners simultaneously!
They add slides with texts and
images and work on each other’s
slides! The final presentation is a
joint product!
Google Slides
TASK: The partners had created
transnational groups with
animals’ names and each group’s
members added slides for their
animal with pictures, drawings
and information on this animal.
(Green Missions)

32. Voting
or …just…
collecting ideas
Reaching a decision through voting is a
collaborative task that gives all partners
opportunities for joint decisions. Pupils
suggest and others vote mentioning pros
and cons (tricider)! Or they vote for the
best photo, best title etc (surveymonkey)!
Or these tools can be used for
brainstorming and collecting ideas…

33. Awarded projects
 Getting ideas from awarded projects is a very good
practice!
 Awarded projects use many tools and have
achieved a high degree of collaboration among
the pupils!

34. Tools used in the awarded project
‘Is this castle haunted?’

35. Awarded projects - 2016
 Mirror, mirror… (Overall winner 2016, ages 16-19)
 Looking for Beau and Delfi (1st prize 2016, ages 4-11)
 Healthy Booky (2nd prize 2016, ages 4-11)
 Is this castle haunted? (1st prize 2016, ages 12-15)
 Time Capsule 2014-2114 (2nd prize 2016, ages 12-15)
 Jeunes et journalistes (2nd prize 2016, ages 16-19)

36. Awarded projects - 2015
 Art Connects Us (Overall winner 2015, ages 4-11)
 Powerfulnaturekingdom.et (1st prize 2015, ages 4-11)
 Soundtrackers ( 1st prize 2015, ages 12-15)
 Interesteen: An on-line MAGAZINE for cultural
exchanges (2nd prize 2015, ages 12-15)
 etwinautas en las ciudades (in)visibles etwinauts in the
(in)visible cities (1st prize 2015, ages 16-19)
 Physical Awareness 13 – 14 (2nd prize 2015, ages 16-19)

37. Awarded projects - 2014
 LYPS: Let Your Passion Shine (overall winner 2014, ages
4-11)
 Talking Pictures (2nd prize 2014, ages 4-11)
 Health4life (1st prize 2014, ages 12-15)
 Stories in History (2nd prize 2014, ages 12-15)
 Photography as a pedagogical tool (1st prize 2014, ages 16-
19)
 Euroguide (2nd prize 2014, ages 16-19)

38. Good luck in your projects!