Meeting the eTwinning guests in Vilnius (en)

2011-06-15

eTwinning Professional Development workshop “Web 2.0 technologies in education“ took place in Vilnius, June 10-11. The workshop was designed for teachers of various subjects, who are already experienced in eTwinning. It was the first time from eTwinning existence when our capital Vilnius met more than 100 guests. It was not the first international meeting in Lithuania, but it was the first with so many participants and from so many different countries.

Having had the opportunity to take part in the workshop, on behalf of all participants I would like to thank Violeta Čiuplyte and Aurelija Michailovaite, the representatives of the national eTwinning agency, for their hard work organising and coordinating the workshop.  Our lecturers Staselė Riškienė, Gitana Kaupienė, Elena Shulman ir Silvia Panzavolta coordinated the workshops and we would like to thank them as well for the informative and very useful material.During the practical workshops, organised by them, we got new ideas about implementing Web2.0 into our teaching process.

108 participants, lecturers and the organizers met at the Radisson Blu hotel, which is in the centre of Vilnius. The participants were met by 6a form students from Karmėlava Balys Buracas gymnasium with the song „We are the world“. Švenčioniai Art school folk dance group „Aukštaitukas“greeted the guests with the national Lithuanian dances. Folk music, dances and songs were the key to a succesful opening of the workshop.

Mantas Masaitis, the vice director of the Centre of Information Technologies in Education, greeted everybody wishing to have a creative and effective workshop. Anne Gilleran, a representative from eTwinning at European Schoolnet  not only greeted the participants , but also pointed out that eTwinning has become the most succesful project for the EU teachers. Besides, eTwinning has created the biggest and constantly growing  teachers‘ community. Dr. Eugenijus Kurilovas, a representative of the Centre of Information Technologies in Education, pointed out the importance of Web 2.0 technologies and their role in teaching. A special attention was given to Staselė Riškienė“s , an eTwinning ambassador from Kuršenai Pavenčiai Secondary school , presentation  „Web.2 based project sites“.

The evening ended up in the restaurant, where all the participants had a great opportunity to get acquainted, share the first impressions and make new contacts with new partners for future projects..

The second day was very productive working in groups. The participants had a possibility to choose 2 out of 3 practical workshops.After the hard work in the afternoon the guests had an excursion in Vilnius and visited Trakai. For the most of the participants it was their first visit to Lithuania and they were impressed by the beauty of our country, its people and their hospitality. The day ended up with the dinner at „Round Table Club“ with a nice sacsophone music. After the dinner there was a surprise for the guests- 50 blue and yeallow lanterns were lit and let into the sky. They symbolised not only the colours of eTwinning but the light which teachers bring to their classes and school communities as well..

During the third day a special attention was given to the eTwinning and Comenius link. Liutauras Ivoška,a representative from Comenius programme agency , presented the possibilities how to join the two projects effectively. Edita Grubienė, an English teacher from Petras Arminas Basic school, shared her experience in joining the two projects together.

The workshop ended, the work was evaluated and summarised, the certificates were given. But the main thing of the workshop was a non formal communication and collaboration between teachers, sharing their best experience, making new relationships and creating the new projects for future.And this can‘t be replaced by any computer!

So let’s collaborate and work together!

PDW website: www.etwinning.lt/PDW.

Pictures from PDW in our Facebook profile.

Konsuela Liaskovskaja
„Žaros“ Secondary School., Vilnius