Schoolovision2009

Schoolovision2009

Project by:
Maria Antoinette Magro
Year 4
San Gorg Preca College
Hamrun GP Primary

The year 2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation and Michael Purves, a Scottish eTwinner, came up with the idea of creating the “Schoolovosion2009″ Project. This project was open to primary schools from all eTwinning countries. Each participant country (thirty one in all) had to choose a song of their choice, video record it and upload it in the project blog using the video upload section within blogger. Songs had to be uploaded by the 8th of May so that each participant class had enough time to watch and listen to all the songs and vote for their favourite ones. My students watched and listened to all the songs on Monday 11th May.

Each child was given a voting sheet and they voted for the songs they liked best. On Friday 15th May, all participant schools met through Flashmeeting, live webcam conference, to cast their votes in the style of the real Eurovision Song Contest and finally found out who has won the contest. The winners of the contest were Czech Republic, a Primary School in Brno.

My students have been very enthusiastic about this project. We chose the song “Il-Vapur tal-Art” (music by Joe Tanti and lyrics by Mike Spiteri), a Maltese traditional song about the old railway which served as a means of transport between 1883 and 1931. The children themselves decided which actions they could perform during the singing and it was also their idea to wear Maltese traditional clothes. They really worked hard at it and the finished product was brilliant. One of the children captured the video and this made them feel that they could present something wonderful to other eTwinning children, a project from children to children. Some of the children were eager to watch the videos at home too and they often came to school telling us what a wonderful experience it was.

They have learnt more about far away countries and realised that ICT has really made the world closer and closer. Schoolovision2009 was really a wonderful experience for all of us as we made use of the latest technology and met other eTwinners through webcam conferencing on FlashMeeting twice. We also made use of a projector to have a better view of what was happening in far away classrooms.

This project was also honoured with 2nd Prize in the National eTwinning Awards of Malta and is also winning other national awards in other countries.