Odysseus goes Portugal

The ten-day long Learning Odyssey that Bart and I were running in the eTwinning Learning Lab moved from the virtual to the real world in Portugal last week. At the annual eTwinning conference, held in Lisbon, we delivered two workshops about The Pedagogical Value of eTwinning projects.

The workshops were well received by the teachers who wanted to learn more not only about the web 2.0 tools that they can use in their eTwinning projects, but also about the pedagogy behind the tools (or ahead of the tools). We received fantastic feedback and I'm still over the moon about it, because so many teachers approached us after the workshops to tell us that our sessions were the best or among the best sessions of the entire conference.  Also, after the first workshop the good word about what we did and how we presented this topic spread around and we were asked to let in some other teachers who hadn't previously signed up for our workshops.

What the teachers liked most about the workshops (and so did we) was that they were full of surprises,  just like  Odysseus' voyage was full of unexpected twists and turns – however, in our Learning Odyssey, all the surprises were more than pleasant, from beautiful sandy beaches, Nutella jars and TTYPs to  exit slips, treasure troves and  sailor's wisdom for eTwinners.

The PORTalisbon is now in a safe harbor but ready to set sail to new, still undiscovered learning beaches and treasure islands.

Women's Day 2013 :Compare Two videos

Most of you know what a commercial, or advertisement is. But how much do you know about Public Service Announcements?

Public Service Announcements look and sound like TV or radio ads, but they are different in one important way.  Instead of selling a product or a service, PSA's as they are referred to, try to sell an idea.  

The idea must be aimed at educating or changing public attitudes about a social issue or problem such as drinks drinking and driving, bullying, taking drugs etc.  

International Women's Day is a day that raises many issues about about issues and problems that affect women all over the world. Some of these include: gender equality, poverty, violence towards women,  child brides, access to education and many more. 

Although women have made major strides in the 100 years since International Women's Day first began, the following Public Service Announcement videos aim to educate people about the problems still facing millions of women around the world. 


Today is no longer International Women's Day, but  March is Women's History month in several countries including Australia and the United States.  The following two activities can create some good speaking, listening and even writing activities  in an ESL classroom, or for any second language student   

Listening Activities:

Which video is the most effective? 

Here are activities for two different Public Service Announcements released for International Women's Day. . 


Both of them contain pre-listening discussion questions, listening comprehension questions and  post listening speaking activities. 

Watch both of them and compare them. Which of the two is most effective? Why? 

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New Song for International Women's Day 2013

Today is International Women's Day. 

All over the world women are participating in events to celebrate their achievements.   

and to discuss how much still needs to be done to win the battle for equality with men.  


In honour of International Women's Day,  UN Women, an organization associated with the United Nations released a song, called  "One Woman" to celebrate women from all over the world.

"We Are One Woman: Message of Unity

Recorded by more than 25 artists and musicians from around the world,  the song sends a message  of unity and solidarity to end violent crimes against women and girls. 

To the tranquil sitar playing of Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of famed sitar player Ravi Shankar, male and female artists sing the chorus: "We are one woman, your world is mine and we shall shine".

Focus: Reducing Violence Against Women

This year, International Women's day is focusing on  violence against women in a year where high profile cases like the shooting of teenager Malala Yousafzai  and  brutal gang rapes in India have gained world wide attention. 


The project was created by UN Women, an organization associated with the United Nations and founded in 2011 to empower women and to improve women's lives around the world. 

According  to the UN, 7 out of 10 women around the world are still victims of violence - a major human rights  violation.




For more information on  how the song was made and its artists go to  http://song.unwomen.org/

Background on International Women's Day

For more information, read a previo9us article I wrote on International Women's Day

The day, which originally began on February 28th, 1909 was  started as a campaign for better working conditions by women in New York. In those days, working conditions were so bad that many women got sick and died. The first official International Women's Day was held on February 28, 1909. No one knows for sure why the date changed to March 8, but this is the date when thousands of women started annual marches in New York’s streets.  continue this story here 

 
MORE TO COME: 

Tune in tomorrow for articles, videos and activities on women's issues and International Women's Day

A Learning Odyssey - the fun starts here!

The learning event The Pedagogical Value of eTwinning projects that Bart and I are running in the eTwinning Learning Lab is now in full swing. The warming up part was well received by more than 150 participants.

Bart and I have collected not only a lot of resources and tools to engage our particpants, but we've also prepared some fun tasks for them that they have been doing with pleasure and passion. We're delighted to see how enthusiastic and inspiring the eTwinners are and how committed they are to lifelong learning and collaborating with peers from across Europe.

Our first fun activity was a Thinglink map of Europe where they were invited to introduce themselves with a video, photo or link to the website of their school, hometown or country. We have two maps now - one bigger,  the other smaller and both are filled with beautiful videos and images.

The second task was to write their favorite saying on the 21st century education and learning on a Linoit Board. The result was amazing - there are about 100 quotes on the board.

More than 21

Our third task relates to the nickname of our learning event. We called it our Learning Odyssey, because our goal is to take the participants on a journey where they will acquire the skills to carefully navigate through the sea of availabale tools, to learn how to resist the seemingly irresistible allure of web 2.0 tools and how to strategically plan to use the tools as a means to achieve the required learning outcomes in their educational context.So we asked the participants to share their favorite song about the sea, which we will feature on the welcome page of the Learning Odyssey. Their response was fantastic - we now have 48 seasongs (and counting). And the event lasts for only 10 days!