Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Post-eTwinning
by Virgilio Iandiorio
Quibus enim nihil est in ipsis opis ad bene beateque
vivendum, eis omnis aetas gravis est; qui autem
omnia bona a se ipsi petunt, eis nihil malum potest
videri quod naturae necessitas adferat. (Cic., Cato
Maior De Senectute, II, 4).
retrospect, to name a few, but I do not know if they
are the most important or most frequently
encountered: a) the worry of not knowing foreign
languages, and English in particular, for many
teachers has been a cause of non-participation, b)
often the lack of consideration of meeting between
teachers of a class about the validity of the project
as curricular work in all respects, c) the consequent
lack of motivation of the students for a work
undeservedly regarded as detached from teaching
subjects without due recognition and evaluation.
Most of the time the school favorable conditions
decide great, amazing and exciting results of
eTwinning. The recognition has come, and it occurs
at every levels, from the national agencies, by
colleagues, by students and their families. Local
communities, appropriately involved, show similar
sensitivity to innovative proposals that open the
horizons of students and citizens. It can rightfully
claim that eTwinning is an important contribution to
innovation in educational systems and retraining of
teachers.
Ten years ago, when the Italian Agency launched
the eTwinning programme for schools of every
grade, I joined immediately because the proposal to
work on school projects together with European
colleagues, who you have not known before,
intrigued and fascinated me. The enthusiasm of
those who try a new thing for the first time, I sent
to pupils and colleagues. Because this work was
interesting, done for the sake of working together
to create something beautiful and useful for pupils
and for the school. I am among those who support
the goodness of eTwinning in not having tied the
project to an economic “evaluation”. Of course
others will think otherwise, and argue that
eTwinning without financial rewards or similar is in
danger of bankruptcy. The data for the participation
of teachers, students and schools in all these years
are an objective evidence of the goodness of a
program born almost unnoticed.
eTwinning projects carried out in recent years have
been numerous, and all with an innovative drive
unprecedented. It should be said that the path was
not always easy and simple. Of course, in all these
years, the programme’s critical points have been
recorded, which, however, have not prevented, at
least in my experience and in those of my
knowledge, the continuation. I am going, as in
Since the beginning of eTwinning, considering the
aim of this innovative program, which was to renew
the teaching from the bottom, I joined without
hesitation: teachers, students and their families –
architects and implementers of programs. Now that
I have been retired for a few months, and I am no
longer working in the school, I ask myself the
question: has my eTwinning experience ended? Is
eTwinning only in my scrapbook?
We are convinced that as we are aging, we pass the
baton without creating too many problems, so we
make room in the school to younger teachers and
new experiences. All this means that we live
together in time. Time is corrosive of course, you
have to build your ties against time. The past
practice (the definition and the following
considerations are derived from r eflections on the
history of Hayden White, 2008) is something that
everyone has inside themselves, in their daily life;
the past that we carry with us, built up of memories
and inventories of practices learned and forgotten.
The question is: how to use and cultivate the
practical past to help us answer the question “what
to do”. This is not about morality, but of ethics. The
moral is dogmatic: it tells you what to do and what
not to do. Ethics is related to the awareness that
“something must be done”.
The idea of the practical past is linked to memories.
But the memory belongs to the imaginary, not to
reason, even if it can be rationalized. Most of the
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