by InkyEllieC www.inkythinking.com

This weekend I’ve been in Nottingham at the NCL (I think that’s what it’s now called!) for the National eTwinning Conference. “Interesting” given the events on Friday but also good timing as I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather have been at such a time, reaffirming the joy and value of collaboration.

After several requests following fascination with my sketchnoting at last year’s conference, I volunteered to lead a seminar on sketch noting, thus completing my busy week with a third presentation. You can see a very similar presentation on my Slideshare channel here. I also sketchnoted as many sessions as I could, trying not to be intimidated by the wonderful @inkythinking InkyEllieC from inkythinking.com who was provided ‘real time graphic animation’ of the event.

I’ll post my sketchnotes as soon as I’ve had time to tidy them up (not a spare moment all weekend!) as well as my reflections on the event. A hint: I had a great time!

¡Más vale tarde que nunca!

The first weekend of June saw the annual National eTwinning Conference take place at NCTL in Nottingham. Once more it was a weekend of learning, laughter and (can’t think of another L) celebrating the wonders of collaboration across boundaries.
I spoke once more about Twitter – Are you a Twit or a Tweep? You can see my presentation here –  twitter nottingham – if you’re interested! And there’s an eTwinning guidance document as well: TwitterGuidelines (thanks to Erszi for the photograph!)

During the weekend, I continued to sketch note the sessions.

Below are my sketch notes interspersed with pictures and comments on the sessions!

	Happy 10th birthday eTwinning! The cake was delicious too!
Dinner the first night in our regions – odd grouping but it meant that I got to chat with Helena. And special thanks to Kevin for being such an amazing sunshade when the setting sun got in our eyes 😉

	Really brilliant to see – and hear – Ewan McIntosh once more. A very important person in my ‘learning journey’, both as a language teacher and an eTwinner. A very thought provoking presentation – I think I’m captured the main points in the sketch note but you can check out the NoTosh website for more details!
An important thought that I wanted to capture!

	Ewan’s workshop ‘Diving Deep into Learning’ introduced us to Guy Claxton’s 3Rs and 3Cs, and also to ‘The Squid.’ Too much to take in at once, especially as the very first session had overrun so the session was truncated, but the materials are accessible from the NoTosh site!
And then on to Action Jackson – The Power of Motivation.  Lots of the session was really common sense that isn’t often considered or applied, but it was an empowering and sometimes emotional session! Certainly believed I. Am. Amazing.

	Coming back after lunch, Action Jackson did a short reprise – this slide sums up what he was saying.
And then onto the wonderful Sugata Mitra who presented via video link about the future of learning. Interesting ideas about the future of teaching and learning, particularly about the role of the teacher, and moving away from subject boxes.

	Final session of the day was John Rolfe (standing in for Vicky Gough) and Joanna Speak talking about British Values and International Work. The conclusion they reached – and many of us concurred- was that British Values aren’t anything new, and actually are values that are held by many, not just the British! Great ideas and good to hear how Joanna’s link with Tabasco has developed.
Robin Hood and Maid Marion joined us for dinner!And Vikki Bruff was highly commended for her eTwinning project using Skype.

Lovely to see the LiPS girls, Erszi and Vikki – and Fatima too!

And good to see that selfies live on 😉

You can find out more about the weekend here and via the Storify, photos here and more presentations from the weekend here .

News this week that the NCTL is being sold off so not sure where next year’s conference will be. I’ll miss my pre-dinner early evening break by the lake!

British Council Ambassadors from across the UK assembled in Manchester this weekend to meet one another and find out more about British Council projects, strategies and plans. Starting on Friday lunchtime and finishing today at midday, the conference was ‘all go’ with early starts (first session at 8.30am on a Saturday?) and a timetable that was stretched as time passed all too fast.

I decided to continue my sketch note journey and bought a new notebook on the way to the station, one that stays open on its own (spiral bound) and is slightly larger – and square which seemed to help!

Below are my sketchnotes and links to important /useful sites from the conference. I’m sorry that I had to leave early and missed the final sessions. I’ll catch up when the final presentations are shared!

Opening session (Emma Chaplin) plus quotations from the conference.

Dr Mark Potts – Living out our values

Update on SchoolsOnline: how it works (John McMurtrie) and what it offers and will offer – exciting stuff! (Vicky Gough)

British Council Strategy presented by Stephen Hull

Connecting Classrooms Professional Development offerings shared by Katherine Walakira

International School Award – Ludmila Vávrová (and John Rolfe!)

Funding for three more years of Connecting Classrooms; Stephen Hull shares plans to spend it!

Gary Shiells and Ana Paula Booth talk eTwinning as it celebrates its 10th birthday!

Dorota Drajewicz and Bethan Dinning – Erasmus+ opportunities for schools

SchoolsOnline

Global Learning Programme

Barefoot Billion

I’ve Storify-ed the tweets with the conference hashtag #BCAmb15 too.

And finally, as part of the programme I delivered a workshop on Twitter. You can access the presentation here –  twitter manchester

And here’s the eTwinning guide I mentioned 

I”ve been presenting today on Twitter at the UK National eTwinning Conference in Nottingham at the National College of Leadership. Below is my presentation – the videos have obviously not uploaded so I’ve embedded them below.

I’ve also added a link to my Pinterest where I’ve bookmarked some useful links to Twitter, particularly in education.

As regular readers will know, I am an eTwinning Ambassador (that is a very old picture!).  I say ‘I am’ as, whilst I’m no longer in the UK, I am hoping to continue to help promote and encourage involvement in eTwinning now I’m in Switzerland. Why? Because I’ve seen the difference it’s made to my school in terms of teaching and learning, the experiences that it’s brought and the new openess to ‘otherness’ that’s it’s brought. I see a school that looks outwards, celebrates the heritage of its pupils and understands more about UK traditions through looking at others. I see a school that is proud of differences and actively looks to make contact with people with different life experiences. And I see pupils who have grown in confidence through seeing that speaking a language other than English, or having a different religion to most others is actually a brilliant thing, not something to hide as well as experiencing the joy of talking to their peers across the world.

There is currently an Impact Study being carried out by Education for Change into eTwinning – see below. Evidence is being collected in a numbeer of ways but one is via a survey. I’d encourage you to fill it in as I suspect that the future of eTwinning with depend on this study!

If you want to find out more, please feel free to contact me and ask questions!

EfC has been has been commissioned for a 21 month study of the impact of eTwinning on pupils, teachers and schools.  The study will also be an analysis of the factors which contribute to, or hinder, successful participation in eTwinning.

eTwinning Partnerships is an activity under the Comenius sub-programme of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme. It was launched in 2005 with the objective of enabling school twinning as an opportunity for all young people to learn and practice information and communication technology (ICT) skills, as well as promoting awareness of the multicultural European model of society. The European Commission foresaw that eTwinning could be a major catalyst in intensifying the sorts of cooperation already underway among schools. Since the launch of the new platform in 2008-09 visits to the eTwinning portal have increased by over 300%, indicating a steep rise in interest among teachers. Registration continues to rise, and there are currently almost 100,000 registered eTwinners in 73500 schools.

The impact study will look at participation in eTwinning and what hinders or helps it success, specifically:

•    the networking of schools and teachers across Europe and their capacity to build social capital, and the way in which eTwinning is managed and promoted

•    the perspective of participating teachers

•    the impact of eTwinning on pupils, teachers and others at school level

•   the overall impact of eTwinning within the context of the Comenius Programme
The main activities will include:

•    Desk research and consultation with Central and National Support Services and others

•    A general survey of all eTwinning teachers, in 23 languages

•    Case studies research on impact in at least 20 schools in 10 countries, using country-based researchers

•    In the light of findings, will make recommendations on possible improvements to the eTwinning action, its design and management.

I’m at NCSL in Nottingham at the UK National eTwinning Conference.

This afternoon we’re having a Teachmeet and I’ve decided to share about one idea that has come from our Comenius Regio project and specifically a visit to the zoo.

Here’s the presentation (lots of pics!) and the link to my blogpost that expands on my idea.

Travel around the world by Harpagornis on Flickr

Here’s the presentation and notes from my second session at #ililc – What can eTwinning do for you?

Again, sound will follow as soon as possible!

What can etwinning do for you? notes

Whilst I was in Nottingham, I met many lovely people frm across Europe.
One such ‘lovely person’ was Lidija from Croatia who, as well as a teacher, is a writer and had asked if she might interview some people for an article.
Guess who got volunteered?

You can watch my interview below, and also others on Lidija’s Youtube channel Pogled kroz prozor including one with @niiloa. Lidija’s article will be published soon – I’ll let you know when!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspVv6GKe6k

* Pogled kroz prozor means Look through the window

Thanks to Lidija from Croatia, here are some brief highlights of the ‘TeachMeet styley thingy’ at #etwpdw, showing some of the people about whom I blogged earlier this week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41T8Df33OnY

Thanks to eagle eyed @joedale for spotting it!