Pedagogical Innovation and Creativity (max. 150 words)

The project presents an innovative approach to the teaching/learning process: for the first time a team of teachers from different European Countries had the opportunity to build a space to share learning strategies and practical ideas concerning didactics.We created a pathway for collaborative professional teacher training. We wanted to transfer – from one school to the others and from one Country to the others – good practices and pedagogical experiences. All the involved teachers said their approach to didactics changed through the project, being enriched by sharing and comparing. They put into practice in their classes some of the activities, suggested or built together through debate, and monitored the results in the TwinSpace. So, the pupils’ approach to the learning process changed as well, since they’ve been offered more flexible and varied learning opportunities. LLT is a creative project, being one of the first experiences of virtual community between European teachers.

Curricular integration (max. 150 words)

The teachers involved in LLT do not only come from different European Countries, but also from different school levels (from primary to high school). This fact, that could be a weakness, was soon revealed as a strength and another opportunity of development for LLT.First, we choose to have teachers from different school levels as we wanted to create a continuity in our debate and comparison. We wanted to approach activities, learning pathways and pedagogical strategies from the widest possible perspective. We compared National curricula and discussed how to create activities related to the different teachers’ and pupils’ needs.We then referred to the “Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council” (18.12.2006), dealing in our project mainly with cross-curricular issues: language learning, science/mathematics learning, creativeness/awareness in the use of ICT, learning to learn (meta-learning competence), social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression.

Collaboration between partner schools. (max. 150 words)

We believe that every single teacher, as individual and as representative of his/her national school system, keeps a legacy of experience that shouldn’t be isolated, but enriched by sharing. That’s why we created LLT.The project structure was created by the founders. Other teachers were contacted with a post in the eTwinning forum. We had a huge response, showing that a teachers-only project was a shared need in the twinners’ world.We created a mailing list to contact the members, asking them to keep a minimum of continuity in their activities in the TwinSpace.Every two months, a different topic of debate is chosen, and its apposite folder is created in the TwinSpace. All members contribute, answering questionnaires, filling in forms, sharing materials, etc. Then, the teachers put into practice with their students some of the activities. We then have monitoring and feedbacks for the community. All steps are shared.

Creative use of ICT. (max. 150 words)

Creative has been the main idea: the use of ICT as a medium for auto–training among teachers of all European Countries. In our experience of European projects we often felt the need for teachers to share ideas at an higher level than the national one. So, if ICT and eTwinning help pupils meet and learn from each other, why not teachers? That was the starting point.Afterwards, we concentrated on the pedagogical use of ICT. In the folders 0.1 and 1.6 we shared links, materials and software, giving explanations and examples of how to use them with pupils. This enriched the digital competences of teachers and obviously of students as well. You can’t teach something if you have not been taught yourself.Innovative has been the collaborative use of ICT: we create together a corpus of experiences and good practices, sharing it with everybody, as the TwinSpace is public.

Sustainability and Transferability. (max. 150 words)

LLT is sustainable over time because there’s zero cost: eTwinning portal and blogspot are free; teachers share their competences not for money but with the only aim of enriching their didactics. Our main asset is teachers’ time which is given for free.We are planning a further development of LLT: in fact, after the huge response at the beginning, the number of members has been steadily increasing in time (the majority willing to join after seeing the public TwinSpace). In this project it’s particularly true “the more, the better”: all tasks are shared and we are planning to create a proper website with a free host service.Moreover, all our materials and experiences are available to everyone for free and for unlimited time, as long as the portal is active. For all these reasons, the project can be easily implemented in any different context, without any costs (just teacher’s time!).

Results and Benefits (including why your project deserves to be awarded). (max. 150 words)

The most relevant results of LLT are: 1)the corpus of good practices, strategies and activities collected in the TwinSpace; 2)the partnerships created among members, resulting in new projects (teachers met through LLT eventually created new eTwinning/Comenius projects, self-financed pupils’ exchanges…). As individuals, we benefited from LLT for the people we met.As teachers, for the more flexible and innovative learning pathways we could create together for our pupils.As representatives of our schools, we took advantage of a net of connections with Institutes all over Europe. As European citizens, we profited from the different professional and cultural experiences coming from other Countries. This way, we’ll be able to develop a deeper sense of European belonging in our students.LLT deserves to be awarded for its results (visible and measurable) but also because it answers a universally felt teachers’ need: hence the number of members and the quality of their contribution.

Other Awards (if applicable). (max. 150 words)

The project has been awarded the National Quality Label in Italy, Hungary, Romania, and the European Quality Label. The Italian and Hungarian Institutes have organized learning events for the dissemination of the project’s results.