F.2. COOPERATION AND COMMUNICATION

To ensure effective communication during the partnership, we will use the web portal Fronter, https://fronter.com/engelholm , and English will be our communication language. The portal has been created for educational instructions to make communication and information sharing easy. In Fronter we create a “room” into which you log in with a personal password and in the room there are folders where one can upload and download files, forum tools where you can take part in discussions or chats, make evaluations, you can post news and write e-mails to the members of the room. In Fronter there is also a creative tool called Creaza and with this the students can make cartoons, movies, audio clips and mind maps. Since every teacher and student can log on, it will be easy to communicate and the teachers will be able to monitor each individual student’s activities.

The teachers have their own “room” in Fronter where only they can access. In this room we cooperate by doing the lesson planning for the different parts of the work task, decide on dates for presenting results and video conferences, plan the visits and so on.

We plan to meet in person three times, first in autumn 2011, then in spring 2012 and finally in spring 2013. These meetings will be the opportunity to monitor progress and to do the planning for the next project step. During the exchange, the hosting school will be responsible for the overall planning organization. However, during the activities, for example the negotiations, all the participating teachers will be appointed important roles. Already during our preparatory meeting, we agreed on a well-defined structure of work process so we have a very detailed work plan and precise methodology. However, the decision making will be entirely the students’ responsibility and will be achieved through discussions. In this aspect, teachers will monitor and facilitate the process.

Before each of the three exchanges, so called summits, the student representatives are going to share their solutions for the problems to be dealt with during the summit. Each partner will decide themselves in what form the presentations will be, but they should be posted on Fronter at least one week before the summit. After the posting deadline, every school has one week to reflect and discuss the partners’ solution before the summit.

In order to introduce teachers, students, parents, to the partnership, we have also created a web site, https://sites.google.com/site/spaceshipsantamaria, and the site also gives a quick guide on how to use Fronter and the Creaza tool. On this web site there will be a Wiki where the common solution for the equipping of the Spaceship Santa Maria will be presented.

We also plan to have video conferences where our students will have the opportunity to express their opinion, listen and see their partners, debate and discuss.