Six myEUROPE teachers were invited to present our activities at the BECTA Netd@ys 2003 Conference which took place in Coventry, the UK, on November 21, this year. The theme of the conference was ‘Celebrating Cultural Diversity’. Noemi Lusi from Italy talked about Pretty Europe and WORDLand, and how they may enable students to become aware of the European cultural similarities and diversity.
Why choosing Pretty Europe?
When I started to get involved in myEUROPE, I thought I would use Pretty Europe as just a way to break the ordinary school life rhythm of my students and increase their motivation. Only later, did I fully understand what a powerful tool it was!
By means of little ICT competence, teachers are able to use an easy myEUROPE tool which allows them to upload a picture and a text respectively taken and written by the student who, seeing his work online, directly feels to be part of a large educational community.
The result is a leisure-like activity which enables students to travel virtually along the paths of Europe, admiring landscapes and cities some of them would never be able to see otherwise.
It is an actual chance of focusing their attention on different panoramas absorbing their cultural valence and identity. It is an encouragement to improve their writing capability and their language through an enjoyable task, which actually engages them in integrated skills and linguistic development practice.
Pretty Europe is a way to extend our reach drawing together many human qualities such as language, tradition and technology. It also helps boys and girls to freely communicate their feelings, learn about other cultures and establish a meaningful connection with European teenagers.
By using Pretty Europe as a precious ally in your daily schedule, your students will appreciate the pleasure of learning from each other discovering, step by step, a whole world at hand.
And why choosing WORDLand?
Everyone of us dearly keeps in his heart sweet remembrances of old sayings and proverbs absorbed, throughout our childhood, and heard as they were used by parents, relatives, teachers and old friends who played a fundamental role of some kind in the preceding part of our lives. They are the result of the wisdom and experience of generations.
WORDLand is a way of sharing such a heritage using simple ICT tools for a huge range of interactive relations, favouring European awareness. This way people meet not only on a rational level, but also manage to communicate through emotional keys, substantially connecting their souls.
Students feel closer to one another wherever they are. They get the chance to reflect on their own heritage, to find out similarities with neighbour countries, thus realising that differences are less redundant and analogies more likely to be present and found in mankind.
With WORDLand, the past intermingles with their present lives revealing its meaningful essence. It is an activity which underlines the relevance of past acquisitions, stresses the importance of present connections, consolidates, by comparison and contrast, useful and creative diversity, leading towards a better future where our past common wisdom is made everlasting through the use of technology.
By means of little ICT competence, teachers are able to use an easy myEUROPE tool which allows them to upload a picture and a text respectively taken and written by the student who, seeing his work online, directly feels to be part of a large educational community.
