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This paper reports on the impact on student teachers’ professional skills, knowledge and attitudes of engaging in the eTwinning international Hands of the World (HOTW) project which connects over 2000 students and their teachers in 50 schools across the world to undertake a wide range of educational collaborative work, supported by digital and online technologies. The University of Dundee’s HOTW project won the eTwinning prize for the best project two years running and is the only university to have won this annual prize. Student teachers are working in a world where digital technology is firmly embedded and undergoing rapid expansion and change. This study examined the experiences of student teachers as they engaged in a global project to develop their knowledge and understanding of intercultural learning using ICT. An explanatory sequential mixed method design analyzed data publicly available on YouTube™ and Padlet™. Two main data sets were used: responses to professional development webinars and reflections on participating in the project. Data were analyzed thematically focusing on ICT competence, pedagogy and relevance. Participation in the project enhanced the students' ICT competence and confidence to use and explore technology for current and future teaching practice through contextualization and social learning. Our analysis enabled us to identify that the Covid-19 lockdown had a positive impact on the students' learning due to time, space, and relevance. This paper demonstrates that engagement in a contextualized project enabled student teachers to develop their ICT competences and that for many, lockdown provided a conducive learning environment. El artículo presenta el proyecto de eTwinning internacional “Hands of the World” (HOTW), que conecta más de 2000 estudiantes y sus profesores en 50 institutos de todo el mundo para llevar a cabo una gran variedad de trabajo educativo colaborativo apoyado por tecnología digital y en línea, y explora el impacto que ha tenido la participación en el proyecto para los estudiantes de magisterio a nivel de las competencias profesionales, el conocimiento y las actitudes. Este estudio examinó las experiencias de los estudiantes de magisterio para desarrollar su conocimiento y comprensión del aprendizaje intercultural utilizando las TIC al participar en un proyecto global. La investigación empleando un diseño de método mixto secuencial explicativo analizó los datos que se encontraban disponibles públicamente en YouTube™ y Padlet™. Se utilizaron dos conjuntos de datos principales: las respuestas a los seminarios web de desarrollo profesional y las reflexiones sobre la participación en el proyecto. Los datos se analizaron temáticamente centrándose en la competencia de las TIC, la pedagogía y la relevancia. En las conclusiones se destaca que la participación en el proyecto mejoró la competencia en las TIC de los estudiantes a través de la contextualización y el aprendizaje social y su confianza para utilizar y explorar la tecnología para la práctica de la enseñanza actual y futura. Nuestro análisis a nivel del tiempo, el espacio y la relevancia nos permitió identificar que el confinamiento de Covid-19 tuvo un impacto positivo en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Este trabajo demuestra que la participación en un proyecto contextualizado permitió a los estudiantes de magisterio desarrollar sus competencias en materia de TIC y que, para muchos, el período de confinamiento proporcionó un entorno de aprendizaje propicio.

This paper explores a small group of female student teachers’ experiences of learning through a pandemic. Students from the University of Dundee, Scotland and University Roma Tres, Italy participated in the award winning eTwinning international Hands of the World (HOTW) project which connects schools and universities across the world to undertake a wide range of educational collaborative work to develop their knowledge and understanding of intercultural education. One of the project activities required student teachers to share their learning experiences of learning to become a teacher in a pandemic, through a multimodal narrative that involved text, images and music. This study, therefore, examined student teachers’ narratives with a focus on how different aspects of the pandemic affected their studies alongside their mental well-being and what strategies students utilised to enable them to be successful. An explanatory design analysed students’ reflective narratives, which were publicly available on the project’s Padlet™ page. Data were analysed thematically where the themes, Transitions, Mental Wellbeing and Coping Strategies were explored through the messages conveyed through the text, images and music. Our analysis enabled us to identify that at different stages of the pandemic, students experienced similar feelings and anxieties, where a range of strategies were used that demonstrated resilience and determination to succeed. This paper provides a small insight into the impact a pandemic has on student teachers’ learning and well-being through a narrative storyline.

The English Language fifth-year Lab at Primary Education Science in Roma Tre (academic year 2019-2020, second semester) aimed to foster trainee teachers’ language competences while providing them with methodological skills and examples of active engagement in intercultural projects using e-learning/distance learning. The Covid-19 lockdown deeply affected the course development: it forced participants to restructure their learning and activities so as to meet their new needs of self e-teaching in an e-didactics modality, as well as the fears that the new scenario was triggering; it also enabled them to discover unforeseen perspectives of international cooperation and emotional empathy with their peers at home and abroad, which fostered their will to use English as a lingua franca and improved their linguistic skills. Task-based activities regarding the different Lab modules, which ranged from self-/peer-directed assessment questionnaires to story writing and video recordings of different games, singing and creativity sessions, made the Lab become a sort of hub for innovative strategies and practices in language teaching, including the use of Makaton and music to tell stories and describe illustrations. These outputs, which have been collected and are currently under research, were meant as an assessment for the students, but also as motivating challenges to tackle the future teachers’ competences in intercultural international activities (and use English) themselves. Strategies for L2 teaching and learning have proven effective also in conveying a sense of extended community, belonging and participation in achieving shared goals to foster responsible citizenship.