Download The Internet projects as a means of development of communicative

The Internet projects as a means of development of communicative skills
Irina Volynets
a teacher of English
Slonim gymnasium 1
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn»
Benjamin Franklin
Globalization and cultural diversity of the world in the 21st century require
education and upbringing of a generation with a new thinking, a generation
possessing all the 21st century skills necessary for life as global citizens. That’s
why the main goal of teaching English at school is to develop communicative
competence: the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to
accomplish communication goals. Learners should be able to make themselves
understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid
confusion in the message (due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary); to
avoid offending communication partners (due to socially inappropriate style); and
to use strategies for recognizing and managing communication breakdowns. What
is the way to achieve this goal? From my point of view, the internet projects are
one of the ways. The Internet network is useless without communication as it is an
international multinational, cross-cultural society which is based on electronical
communication of billions of people in the world. While participating in it we learn
to communicate and produce meaningful and real communication. All the internet
projects are based on teaching communicative skills at all levels. Besides, they
teach children to act and get knowledge. As Bernard Shaw said, the best way to get
knowledge is through activity and the internet projects, especially the IEARN
projects, allow students to experience it. Nowadays they have become an
irreplaceable means in teaching English as they provide students with an
opportunity to use authentic materials, to communicate with real people, answer
their questions and express their own ideas – that is to create real communication
to achieve the main goal of teaching English.
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That’s why when schools got an access to the Internet about 11 years ago our
school registered on the IEARN website and started to participate in different
IEARN projects. As is known the IEARN – International Educational and
Resource Network is a non-profit organization that works in more than 130
countries. It includes 15000 schools, 30000 teachers and 2000000 students. The
IEARN suggests interactive curriculum-based projects in which students aged 5-20
are creating, researching, sharing opinions, and becoming global citizens. Every
day a million students are involved in collaborative work in the projects. Students
and educators communicate and collaborate in over 200 forums through texts,
images, videos, sound and real-time media, all on a multi-lingual and visual
platform.
Since 1988, iEARN has pioneered on-line school linkages to enable
students to engage in meaningful educational projects with peers in their countries
and around the world.
iEARN is:
 a safe and structured environment in which young people can communicate
 an opportunity to apply knowledge in service-learning projects
 a community of educators and learners making a difference as part of the
educational process
The IEARN enables the youth to learn with, rather than simply about, the world.
As Dr. Ed Gragert, the visionary Executive Director of IEARN said, "IEARN is a
community of educators, students and other individuals who share the vision that
1) education can be enhanced when students interact globally on issues that are of
interest and passion; and 2) generations of global citizens who understand that the
problems the planet is facing are human-made and can be resolved when people
work together..."
The motto of teachers working in the IEARN projects “Teach and learn with joy
and inspiration” has become my motto too. Having analysed school curriculum and
the IEARN project booklet that contains more than 150 projects, I chose those
topics which were interesting for us and were to be studied at school in accordance
with our school curriculum. I’d like to admit that due to these projects the lessons
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have become more effective and creative and the students have learnt to write
compositions, essays, poems, letters, to make power point presentations, to create
videos, to communicate and collaborate in forums and video conferences.
Every year the students of our gymnasium take part in more than 25 projects of
international and national levels. Now I’d like to present some of the IEARN
projects we are taking part in this school year.
A Vision is an anthology of students' writings on various literary genres- essays,
stories, poems, and poetical sketches, which aims to showcase the youth's
thoughts, viewpoints and insights of the things around them and even across
borders, regardless of cultural and racial diversity. Its purpose is to use the art and
the medium of creative writing to demonstrate that despite differences, teenagers
around the world share the same hopes, fears, interests and concerns.
For three years the students of senior grades have been participating in the One
Day of life project organized by Chris Byer, a teacher from the USA. Students
write about, photograph and discuss their daily lives, both on ordinary days and on
special occasions (media.iearn.org/projects/onedayinthelife). This project gives an
opportunity to children of different ages and at different levels of English to speak
and write on many topics studied at school, such as My Working day, My Day off,
My School, My Meals, My Summer Holidays, to learn more about the culture of
other people and to compare our customs and traditions with those of other people.
This year we are included in small groups , e.g. Cultural photo exchange (8 grade)
and Meals (grades 4 and 6). Having introduced themselves in the forum my
students are creating their websites about our motherland to let their peers from the
USA, Pakistan, Ukraine and Taiwan learn more about Belarus.
In 2010 we joined the One Day on Earth project (http://www.onedayonearth.org).
The goal of the project is to create an open shareable archive and documentary film
of the world on October 10, 2010 and on November 11, 2011. The coordinators of
the project hope to enlighten, teach and benefit humanity through global
collaboration and inspired media creation in order to find a deeper understanding
of life on this planet. On October 10 and November 11 thousands of people from
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every nation around the world filmed their perspective and contributed their voice
to the largest participatory media events in history. One day on earth showcases the
amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy and triumph that occur in one 24-hour period.
The participants include schoolchildren from different countries to Academy
Award nominated filmmakers and charitable organizations. Our students
documented those days with still photos and videos. Some episodes from our
videos were chosen and included in the documentary films that best represent daily
life on the planet as recorded on those days. There is also Geo-tagged Archive – a
dynamic video archive of all context shot on 10.10.10 searchable by topic,
popularity and location. One can also enjoy a book – a published collection of still
photography shot on those days.
Last year 3A and 3B graders tried the Teddy Bear Project for the first time. The
program aims to encourage tolerance and understanding of different cultures
through a beloved teddy bear or other soft toy. We were paired with the students of
form 1 and 2 from Heron Primary School, Gloucester, England. Each week the
bear was sent home with a different student to write a diary message as if they
were the visiting bear, describing its experiences in the new culture. The students
took photos of the bear chilling at home, watching a hockey match in Minsk
Arena, playing the piano and also many whole class photos with him in the canteen
and playing basketball at school. The bear sent home diary messages by email or
through the iEARN Teddy Bear Forum at least once a week. While the students of
the third forms were bursting with excitement, they were also learning about a
different culture through the eyes of a teddy bear.
(http://teddybearslonim.wikispaces.com)
We are active participants of the Environment online (ENO) programme
(www.enoprogramme.org) and since 2009 we have been the main ENO school in
Belarus. ENO is a global virtual school and network for sustainable development
which unites over 10 000 schools from 150 countries. The ENO programme is
coordinated and maintained by ENO Programme Association based in the city of
Joensuu, Finland. ENO approach in learning has two dimensions: local and global.
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Learning is student and problem-centred with both online and offline activities. At
the end of each theme there is a campaign week during which the results of
learning are raised in local communities and on the web. Students eventually
become ambassadors for the environment of their respective local communities
and regions. Regular themes are forests, climate change, ecological footprint and
different cultural themes. Environmental themes are studied throughout the school
year and campaigns arranged simultaneously around the world. Schools have made
concrete deeds for the environment like planted five million trees so far. Millions
of children and adult learners have been involved in this activity with their teachers
and local communities. ENO is an example of how small can become big and of
how one can make a difference. It makes us think globally and act locally. It has
become a tradition to celebrate International Peace Day and ENO Tree Planting
Day on September 21 and on May 22 at our school.
It should be mentioned that Tree Planting Day (http://www.enotreeday.net) is the
most popular activity within the ENO programme. It is held twice a year on
September 21 and May 20. We were really happy to invite 75 educational
establishments of Belarus (schools, an ecological centre, a kindergarten and a
university) to plant trees together with the whole world. We can’t imagine our lives
at present without the March of frogs and the Climate Change Campaign the goals
of which are to learn the concept climate change and the mechanism (causes and
consequences), to understand local and global impacts of climate change, to learn
how we can act to reduce the impact of climate change and to raise the issue
locally and get people involved. The mascot for the campaign is Frank the Frog, a
frog that fights against the climate change. Frank collects pledges from people to
reduce the impact of climate change. The highlight of the campaign is the March of
Frogs that takes place on the 21st of January. Schools march with their self-made
frogs and collect pledges from people and ask them really DO SOMETHING to
reduce the effect of climate change.
All our works: presentations, essays, drawings, posters and videos were highly
appreciated by our partners from Finland and we were invited to the “Act now!
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Forest for Future” ENO conference which took place in Jouensuu, Finland on
September 13-17, 2011. Act Now Conference 2011 was focused on forests in the
world, in conjunction with the celebration of the international year of forests. “Act
Now! Forests For Future” gathered together 4000 students and teachers from 60
countries, altogether 5000 visitors.
We were pleased to be part of this huge team who gathered there to present their
scientific achievements or solutions to different environmental issues, to let the
world know about the traditions and customs of their countries. the JoensuuWay
2009 and SciFest - an ecological conference in Finland. We took part in different
workshops: water pollution, 3Rs:Reduce.Reuse. Recycle, planning a town for
future generations to live, global warming, etc. We made paper ourselves, tried to
make Chinese knots and write Chinese, learnt more about the culture of India,
Turkey, Slovenia, Tanzania, Finland, etc. Our workshop “Forest Wonders” where
we let the participants of the conference learn about flora and fauna of the
Belarusian forest and how we take care of it was a success too. We also visited
Finnish schools and learnt about the system of education in Finland. Art and
creativity has been an important part in ENO Tree Planting events. We started with
the play “The Drops of Life” in 2007, a play about the importance of trees and
global co-operation. Then a new book by ENO students, called “The Peace
Forest”. was published on the16th of September 2011, in the ENO Conference in
Finland. The first story to publish in the book was the story created by Kate
Dyatlova, a fifth grader from our gymnasium.
The students of our gymnasium have been participating in the WWMC with great
pleasure for three years. World Water Monitoring Challenge is an international
education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in
protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic
monitoring of their local water bodies. The primary goal of World Water
Monitoring Challenge is to educate and engage citizens in the protection of the
world’s water resources. Many people are unaware of the impact their behaviors
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have on water quality. Conducting simple monitoring tests teaches participants
about some of the most common indicators of water health and encourages further
participation in more formal citizen monitoring efforts.
There’s a project that I’d like to recommend for starting your participation in the
IEARN project. It’s Learning Circles (http://media.iearn.org/projects/
learningcircles). IEARN Learning Circles has been a long running project that has
facilitated Internet and communication technology collaborative project-based
learning among classrooms in diverse regions of the world since 1995. Learning
Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small number of
schools located throughout the world. The idea of the Learning Circles belongs to a
wonderful woman, scientist and educator from California, Margaret Riel. The
intention is to create a circle of schools - connected through computers and the
Internet - simultaneously working on the same topic, exchanging information and
learning from each other. The project usually takes 10 to 16 weeks and two circles
are organised every year. A Learning Circle is created by a team of 6-8 teachers
and their classes joined in the virtual space of an electronic classroom. The group
remains together over a 3-4 month period working on projects drawn from the
curriculum of each of the classrooms organized around a selected theme. At the
end of the term the group collects and publishes its work. Then, just as any class of
students does, the Learning Circle comes to an end. The result is authentic student
work and true international collaboration. Participation in a Learning Circle can be
a very rewarding experience for both students and teachers. For teachers, it
provides a way to team-teach with many different teachers in a virtual classroom.
Developing working relationships with teachers all over the globe enables teachers
to develop a very strong sense of the field of teaching. This professional
development is more current and dynamic than more traditional avenues of
education. For students, working in a collaborative setting with peers around the
world gives them a wider perspective on issues and a greater understanding of
similarities and differences. The work with others can be a powerful mirror that
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will help them see who they are, where they live, and who they live with in new
way. The most valuable among the benefits we obtained from our learning circle
are: a) new knowledge and experience obtained while participating in the learning
circles;
b) improved ICT skills and wider knowledge of computers and the Internet;
c) improved general language skills, especially reading and writing, and the
knowledge of the vocabulary of a specific topic;
d) experience and skills in teamwork;
e) getting acquainted with and learning about other cultures;
f) contacts around the world.
I’d like to present one more project which is getting more and more popular with
our students – the Adobe Youth Voices project (http://adobeyouthvoices.org).
The AYV project engages people around the world to create with purpose.
Educators empower the youth to engage with their communities by sharing their
ideas, concerns, aspirations through the use of cutting-edge multimedia tools. It
provides opportunities for youth to explore and comment on their world, take
positive actions where they live and develop the ability to think creatively,
communicate effectively and work collaboratively, to acquire critical 21 century
skills needed for school, career and life as global citizens.
Within this project we created the video “My Slonim” about our native town which
got the first prize in our region video contest. Our video ‘ENO makes us one” was
chosen Top 10 in our group and got into Top 40 in the “Change our climate,
change our world” video contest organized by Exchanges Connect and the United
States Department of State's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs
(http://connect.state.gov). Our first video “My culture + your culture=?” was
highly appreciated by the AYV coordinators and the Adobe Foundation and we
were honoured to represent Belarus at the First Annual Adobe Youth Voices
Summit which was held in Stanford University last summer. It was a great reward
for us as only 100 participants (36 teachers and 64 students) were chosen among
7500 students and 400 teachers from 30 countries to participate in the Summit. We
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visited Adobe San Jose headquarters and Dreamworks studios where we learnt new
media-making methods in the workshops led by famous filmmakers and Adobe
employees, met with the makers of such movies as Shrek and Madagascar. We
created collaborative media projects together with the youth from the USA, India
and Argentina. Black Nature, the famous musician, and Wendy Levi, the Director
of Creative Programming at the Bay Area Video Coalition inspired us with stories
how media could make us resilient and inspire others around us towards awareness
and action. The gala event AYV Live was really unforgettable as we were given a
chance to meet up with famous American singers and hip-hop dancers.
In conclusion I’d like to say that the IEARN projects are a really useful, effective
method that can be integrated into the learning process. They bring teachers and
students valuable benefits as they have an enormous motivation potential and
stimulate students’ learning, broaden young people’s outlook, develop their
personalities and master their language skills. Being part of these projects you can
find partners and friends abroad and students can improve their ICT skills and of
course their communicative skills thus develop their communicative competence.
If you get interested you are welcome to the IEARN projects. What you have to do
is to click on the Internet sign on your computer and go to the IEARN website
(www.iearn.org) to register there and start working with your students there.
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