IP/07/222
Brussels, 22 February 2007
eTwinning: 'Virtual'European school partnerships come of age
The proportion of European schools participating in the European Commission's eTwinning programme more than doubled in 2006, from 4% to over 8%, after just two yearsof operation. The eTwinning initiative promotes the creation of international 'virtual' school partnerships over the internet, and is available for free for schools across the continent. In recognition of these achievements, Ján Figel', the Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture, and Youth, will be awarding prizes to six shining examples of eTwinning school partnerships at a prize-giving ceremonyon 23 February in Brussels.
The eTwinning scheme was launched in January 2005 as the main action of the European Commission’s eLearning programme. The aims were two-fold: to encourage greater use of computers for communicating between schools, and in so doing, promote inter-cultural dialogue. The scheme differs from the European Commission's other action programmes in the domain of education in that it does not give grants to participants. Rather, it provides free access to a computing infrastructure, the eTwinning Portal, which facilitates the establishment of partnerships between schools across Europe. Schools are entirely free to decide on the type of cooperation they want: from short-term projects lasting a few weeks, to long term collaboration on joint curricula, for example. The subjects covered are also up to the participating schools. This freedom of action, combined with a minimum of administrative hurdles are the key characteristics of the scheme.
Ján Figel’,Commissioner in charge of Education & Training, said: “the eTwinning scheme can bringall corners of Europe to our children's classrooms. By participating in eTwinning, school children get to appreciate other cultures and other languages, while sharpening their computer skills. In this way, eTwinning not only brings Europeans from all over the continent closer, it helps develop the kinds of skills that our increasingly ICT-dominated economy needs.”
Although the eLearning programme ended in 2006, the eTwinning action continues life as part of the new Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013. As a celebration of the success of the scheme, each year, prizes are awarded to the best eTwinning projects. With the number of schools registered for eTwinningdoubling from 11300 to 23200 schools in 2006 alone and more than 8 000 schools already participating in a project, competition in this year's awards ceremony is even more intense.
The awards for six top-class examples of eTwinning projects will be handed out by Ján Figel' at an eTwinning conference in Brussels on 23-24 February.Divided between three age categories (4-12, 13-15 and 16-19 years of age), prizes will be awarded to projects based on —
- pedagogical innovation(how the project and the use of ICT change the daily life of the partner schools);
- curriculum integration (how the project and the use of ICT fit in with national policies and exam constraints);
- creative use of ICT (how to get beyond emailing);
- sustainability(how to guarantee that the project will last) — involving the whole school being the most effective way to do so; and their
- transferability, or how to share the benefits of my project with others.
The six finalists for the top three prizes have been chosen from a total of 350 submissions by an independent panel of experts composed of representatives from the European Commission, the Pedagogical Advisory Group for eTwinning, the Central Support Service, and national Ministries of Education.
The six winners and six runners-up are from the CzechRepublic, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Spain.
See annex for list of nominated projects.
The titles of the winning projects will be posted tomorrow on the eTwinning Portal.
More information:
eTwinning Portal:
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Annex
eTwinning Prizes 2007 : nominated projects
This is the list of finalists:
Age Category 4-11
Project:Once Upon A Blog
Schools:St. Joseph, Mater Boni Consilii School, Malta
Saint Attracta's Senior National School, Ireland
Teachers:Jacqueline Vanhear (Malta)
Joseph Molloy (Ireland)
Description of project:
Students exchange myths and legends from their island nations and learn about each other’s lifestyles and attitudes using Blog and Podcast technologies.
Comments from the jury:
This project involves a lot of interaction between two primary school groups in Ireland and Malta.
The project was chosen for the wonderful interaction achieved between both pupils and teachers in both schools.
Project:Gingerbread House
Schools:Základná škola Omšenie, Slovakia
Základní škola a mateřská škola Sivice, Czech Republic
Teachers:Denysa Križanova (Slovakia)
Pavel Vrtěl (CzechRepublic)
Description of project:
Students transform their school life into a fairytale one. Their fairytale worlds are expressed through drawings and then transformed into a digital audio-visual format.
Comments from the jury:
The jury was impressed that this project involved not only the entire schools but also their communities. It brought eTwinning out of the classroom and into the homes of the pupils involved.
Age Group 12-15
Project:24 pas - 24 βήματα
Schools:Collège Michel de L'hospital, France
Eniaio Lykeio Asklipieiou, Greece
Teachers:Véronique Drujon (France)
Anthi Theodorou and Constantin Rasias (Greece)
Description of project:
Dividing the ancient Greek alphabet in two, each class prepares twenty-four words for their partner class to translate as a base for discussion about the history of Greek and Latin.
Comments from the jury:
The jury felt that this project is an example of a project which is both pedagogically strong and technologically simple. The study of both Latin and Greek vocabulary and their influence on modern languages has given the pupils an appreciation of their common heritage. In exchanging their ideas, they have begun to understand not only their cultural differences but also their similarities.
Project:Eurofilm Factory
Schools:IES Carlos III, Spain
Prienai "Ziburys" gymnasium, Lithuania
Teachers:Libia Kowarik (Spain)
Irma Sneideriene (Lithuania)
Description of project:
Students develop together a guide of tips for film making and then put their guidelines into practice by producing their own films and writing their own reviews.
Comments from the jury:
The jury felt that project is a good example of collaborative work between two schools. The students jointly scripted and produced their film. In doing so they developed many skills, such as filmmaking, using ICT apart from perfecting their use of a foreign language and they also had a great deal of enjoyment.
Age Group 16 - 19
Project:Wir, die Jugendlichen von heute
Schools:Liceo Linguistico Internazionale "Grazia Deledda", Italy
Puumalan yhteislukio, Finland
Teachers:Loredana Vertuani (Italy)
Kirsti Lähdesmäki (Finland)
Description of project:
Students get to know each another through an online journal and produce articles, poems, short stories and critical essays to compare their lives to those of their partners.
Comments from the jury:
This project is an example of collaboration between two schools from different countries using a third language in a most effective way as their means of communication. The jury felt that it brought a new dimension to the teaching and learning of a foreign language in a way that was topical for the pupils concerned.
Project:Young people's search for personal identity
Schools:I LO im T Kosciuszki w Mysłowicach, Poland
ITIS "A.Monaco" Cosenza, Italy
Teachers:Ewa Światkowska (Poland)
Nicola Denardi(Italy)
Description of project:
Using numerous ICT tools, adolescent students search for their identity from both a psychological and cultural perspective as they become young adults.
Comments from the jury:
It was the opinion of the jury that this project is an excellent example of the creativity of young people and relevance to what really concerns them. The subject touches on the common experience of young people, of all countries, growing up in Europe today. Their amazing website can be used as a resource by any school who wish their pupils to take an active role in planning their own futures.
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