activity1

Communicate with the people in other countries to learn more on Europe. Have a look at http://www.etwinning.net. eTwinning is a framework for schools to collaborate on the Internet with partner schools in other European countries. For full motivation and engagement, the pupils could blog/podcast work relevant to the study for assessment and feedabck from the other school. For suggested examples, have a look at the first two examples on [|this document.] ( Another alternative could be http://www.globalgateway.org/ which is a gateway to educational partnerships between international schools).
 * General Ideas**

The influx of Polish people would provide an oppportuity for the pupils to podcast/interview of some Polish people living in Edinburgh to learn more about their country and culture. Organise a trip to one of the new Polish delli's to have a look at their food and interview staff. Find out the postal codes of where these people lived in Poland, when back in the classroom zoom in on their house from Google Earth giving the kids a greater awareness and understanding.


 * Activity 1 - Map Work Europe**
 * Interactive maps can be created using simple multimedia applications such as Textease, Powerpoint or even Word. The learner can upload a graphic of the UK, France or even Europe. Small icons can be place on areas of interest and these can then be used to bring up small captions or links to other pages that will give more information. This can be done via roll over or hyperlink technique.
 * Photo sharing sites such as Flickr (is this barred from the network though?) allow users to geotag their photographs. This means that if the children have uploaded a picture of a model of the Eiffel Tower or Colisseum then this can be given a tag that when clicked will jump into Google Maps and zoom to exactly where the Eiffel Tower is on the map.
 * Similarly, Google Earth can allow the learner to create a journey from capital city to capital city along which they can virtually fly and visit within minutes. This is a superb application that could really help with children’s understanding of how aspects of maps relate to the world as we see it.
 * The tools that would bring this to life (part. Google Earth and kml files to show the various different elements on the map, Flash-based sites on Carbon footprints etc...) would help make it easier to understand for the learner.
 * http://www.thud.nl/wkmaps/"This site is hosted by EuroGeo and has a set of interactive European maps which can be resized and allow you to make comparisons between different regions in Europe" (SAGT website) These are interactive maps which map a range of variables and also allow comparisons between regions (including Scotland). It also relates to activity 3
 * http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/ Set of copyright free maps, of modest use
 * http://www.flashearth.com/ Flash Earth brings together a range of mapping services and should makeexploring more interactive and fun - eg zero in on Paris, Athens, Riga, Edinburgh


 * Activity 2 - Discussion about main cities**
 * If children are working in groups to research a city or a country then what are they going to use to record ands collect the information that they gather? Why not use a wiki or a Google doc to do this. It allows the children a dynamic interface in which to collect and grow their artefacts/information and it can show how the learning has progressed.
 * A database is crying out to be used here. Learners can decide which fields will go in their database. They will then collect, organise, display and interpret the collected data. Challenges can be setup within the peer groups to see who has collected the most detail.


 * Activity 3 - Use different map types**
 * http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/exemplification/place/level/d/d_1_2_2.asp This may be useful analogue material for the children
 * http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/ Map Machine is a website from National Geographic which allows display of European (and other) maps in a variety of forms; easy to use.
 * See points from Activity 1


 * Activity 4 - Comparison with un underdeveloped country**

Point- this is a huge and rather unfocused statement as an activity in the limited information supplied. What is to be compared and contrasted? I mean, are we to look at India as a third world country or as a powerful and developing economic power? Two activities that might allow a balanced view:
 * Have a look at this spreadsheet activity I did when I was a teacher. The focus of this came about when we discussed how some communities in India had to share a well in order to get water to drink, to wash and to clean. We used the spreadsheet to collate how much water we used in a week both as individual families and then as a class. Really good for developing informed attitudes. It’s the activity entitled Environmental Studies. http://sitc.education.ed.ac.uk/Case_Studies/whitfield/pages/pr.htm
 * What about investigating Bollywood and comparing the cinema industry in India with the western equivalent? Art & Design packages can be used to prepare Bollywood style posters and Hollywood dance routines could be created and videoed. A move away from looking at India as a deprived third world country?
 * http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/exemplification/place/level/d/d_3_2.asp This is sample material comparing Britain and Afghanistan
 * http://www.un.org/pubs/cyberschoolbus/ UN website which contains factfiles on every UN member as well as sections on issues such as poverty, peace, education and human rights


 * Activity 5 - Homework counrty research task**
 * How are children to present this task/research? We have access to very intuitive multimedia applications that can allow information to be presented that via text, image, animation, video, weblinks, audio etc. How can this be contextualised to motivate children to find out the information and then present it?
 * 1) What about a mystery tour of a particular city, country or continent? This could be in the guise of a branching story or as a treasure hunt or any other context that schools or children could think up.
 * 2) Learners could focus on a city or a country and prepare a multimedia advert that could attract business or tourists to that area.
 * 3) Learners could prepare a podcast for four or five aspect of the city or country that they are investigating.


 * Activity 6 - Research on European Union**

Again, like activity 4 this is rather unfocused from the limited information supplied. However I suggest that this is something that involves the children in the Citizenship aspect of what it is to be European. How about using some of the etwinning sites and organisations out there to encourage Scottish children to discuss with children form some other countries what it means to be European? This could be a way to make the politics relevant to the children.
 * http://europa.eu/index_en.htm Activities, institutions, documents and services from the Europa website; not written especially for young people. There is a youth portal, which includes a linkto information on Europe, at http://europa.eu/youth/index.cfm?l_id=en

Why not podcast the meeting with the Euro MP?
 * Activity 7 - Visit from MEP**
 * http://www.martinmep.com/ David Martin's website