Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter no. 5 - July 2015 | Page 35

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2015 Newsletter -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------them a chance to express their creativity, the feeling of success and learning through fun. Integrating eTwinning projects into classes of IT In Croatian schools IT is an optional subject in grades 5 to 8 (pupils aged 11 to 14, two classes a week). IT also exists as an extracurricular activity which can be held in grades 1 to 8 (pupils aged 6 to 14, one or two classes per week). Taking into account that eTwinning projects are based on information and communications technology, they are easily integrated into classes of IT. Also, the work on these projects offers plenty of ideas for integrating IT as a school subject with other school subjects. In the projects presented in this paper we managed to integrate IT mostly with English but also Art and Biology. Furthermore, activities on eTwinning projects provide an excellent chance to leave the IT lab and connect the syllabus of IT to different activities organized on the school level and in collaboration with the local community, e.g. marking important dates, eco-actions and similar occasions. Integrating eTwinning projects into optional classes and the extracurricular activity of IT The integration of eTwinning projects into optional classes of IT was carried out as a part of units The Basics of Drawing, Multimedia, Creating Presentations, Internet, Solving problems and programming, as well as a part of project tasks. In grade 5 students were introduced to eTwinning through creating drawings in MS Paint on different project themes and greeting cards for eTwinning partners. In grade 6 project activities were carried out within the units Internet, Multimedia and Creating Presentations. In grades 7 and 8 eTwinning projects were integrated into the syllabus of IT as a part of the unit Internet and project tasks which were planned to enable students expand and correlate their IT skills and introduce them to Web 2.0 tools. Workshop classes where one of the students had the assignment to demonstrate and explain the use of a Web 2.0 tool of his choice were very interesting for other students. Our eTwinning project ˝E-waste - What Can Citizens Do?“ drew attention to the comprehensiveness of the social, ecological and economic aspect of e-waste, the global challenge and the fact it has been an underestimated problem. The aims of the project were sharing information on e-waste, explaining and approac