Looking for partners.

Hello everyone, here I present an interesting new entry. As you remember, in previous posts, we created a prototype of a CLIL Educational Digital Project and later we enrich it turning it into a collaborative one. Now it is time to enhance the quality of this project looking for partners and finding collaborative running projects where ours may fit in.

"Business"Photograph by TeroVesalainen. CC0 Public Domain 

Firstly I reviewed so many collaborative projects to find the most appropriate. It was not easy because although most of them were so attractive none of them fit with my project. 

Nevertheless here I am going to mention some of them (the most attractive from my point of view) in case it could be useful for someone:

- The ESL Times: it is an online collaborative project with the aim of publishing an English digital magazine to promote TICs, language skills, collaborative work and reading in English. 

- Tertulias con sabor a chocolate: it is an educational blog where any institution with educational purposes can participate. The idea is to share projects to promote quality education. 

- No me cuentes historias, ¡Dibújamelas!: it is a blog in which teachers share their experiences about teaching through drawings.

Finally I decided to join the Twima project but, what is Twima?

Twima is a project, which aim is to compile a collaborative iBook. Twima begins with the question: "What would happen if one classroom form every state and country in the world came together to write an publish an eBook?". I believe that it is an amazing project because it is open to everybody and students can public their project (which is a motivating aspect). All students can also work to find patterns in their wold, regardless of their age, level, location, or interest. Patterns can be found in music, math, art, writing, science, computer, history and beyond. 

The Twima project is in connexion with my project of creating a sound map of nature. We share two on the main aspects of this project: the students are the protagonists and they work collaboratively with students from other countries.

But, how can I persuade them to take part in this project? As you can see below, I have crated an elevator pitch video. An elevator pitch is a metaphor that tries to answer the following question: How would you present a project to a potencial customer to convince him in just 20 seconds?

Basically an elevator pith is a brief, persuasive speech that you use to spark interest in a project, idea, or product or in yourself. They should be interesting, memorable and succinct. They also need to explain what makes you (or your organization, product, or idea) unique. 

Here you can see me elevator pitch:

As you can image, it was difficult to do such a short video with the aim of persuading somebody. I followed the next steps:

   1. I saw examples of elevator pitch videos on the internet.

   2. I wrote down the points I wanted to talk about in a mind map :

• To start with an engaging question.
• To talk about what I have created and how it can be useful.
• To explain why I need his / her help.
• To give information about me in order to be contacted.

   3. I redacted a draft.

   

   4. When I was secure of my speech, I recorded the video. 

   5. It was time to edit it. Then using iMovie I created the video (if you want know more about      

       iMovie, you can see it on my previous post, where I have talked about it).

I would like to finish by doing a reflection about what I have learned through this challenge. First of all I have known different collaborative projects and maybe in a future some of them will be useful to take part into a collaborative / international project. Also, my prototype of a CLIL Education Digital Project has evolved notoriously from my latest posts till here. I am so proud of it and I think that this step has been the goal that I have been looking for. 

It has been so funny to do an elevator pitch. I thought that this kind of videos was more typical for futures businessman but somehow a teacher has to be an entrepreneur too. Also it has served to convince myself about how good my collaborative project was. Anyway I will need more attempts to do my best in an elevator pitch although this has been a good attempt. 

I will be pleased to receive ideas to improve my work. Together we can do an awesome project!

Thank you!