The eTwinning action is an initiative of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

that aims to encourage European schools to collaborate using

Information and Communication Technologies Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and compute ...

(ICT) by providing the necessary infrastructure (online tools, services, support). Teachers registered in the eTwinning action are enabled to form partnerships and develop collaborative, pedagogical school projects in any subject area with the sole requirements to employ ICT to develop their project and collaborate with teachers from other European countries.

Formation

The project was founded in 2005 under the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

e-Learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...

program and it has been integrated in the Lifelong Learning program since 2007.eTwinning Portal, http://www.etwinning.net/ eTwinning is part o
Erasmus+
the EU program for education, training, and youth.

History

The eTwinning action was launched in January 2005. Its main objectives complied with the decision by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 to promote school twinning as an opportunity for all students to learn and practice ICT skills and to promote awareness of the multicultural European model of society.Crawley, C., Gilleran, A., Scimeca, S., Vuorikari, R. & Jolivet, M. (2009). Beyond School Projects - A report on eTwinning 2008–2009. Central Support Service for eTwinning, European Schoolnet, Rue de Trèves 61, 1040 Brussels Belgium, eun.org, published September 2009. Retrieved: 20 December 2010, http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/publications.htm More than 13,000 schools were involved in eTwinning within its first year.Gilleran, A. (2006). Learning with eTwinning. Central Support Service for eTwinning, European Schoolnet, Rue de Trèves 61, B-1040 Brussels Belgium, eun.org, published April 2006. http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/publications.htm In 2008, over 50,000 teachers and 4,000 projects have been registered, while a new eTwinning platform was launched. As of January 2018, over 70,000 projects are running in classrooms across Europe. By 2021, more than 226,000 schools in taken part in this work. In early 2009, the eTwinning motto changed from "School partnerships in Europe" to "The community for schools in Europe".Konstantinidis, A. (2012). Implementing Learning-Oriented Assessment in an eTwinning Online Course for Greek Teachers. ''MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching'', 8(1), 45-62 In 2022, eTwinning moved to a new platform.

Participating countries

Member States of the European Union are part of eTwinning: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands. Overseas territories and countries are also eligible. In addition, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia and Turkey can also take part. Seven countries from the European neighbourhood (including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) are also part of eTwinning via the eTwinning Plus scheme,eTwinning website
/ref> as well as countries which are part of the Eastern Partnership, and Tunisia and Jordan (which are part of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, EUROMED).

Operation

The main concept behind eTwinning is that schools are paired with another school elsewhere in Europe and they collaboratively develop a project, also known as ''eTwinning project''. The two schools then communicate online (for example, by e-mail or video conferencing) to collaborate, share and learn from each other. eTwinning encourages and develops ICT skills as the main activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students' intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills. eTwinning projects can last from one week to several months, and can go on to create permanent relationships between schools. Primary and secondary schools within the

European Union member states The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of Lists of member states of the European Union, 27 member states that are party to the EU's Treaties of the European Union, founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and ...

can participate, in addition to schools from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. In contrast with other European programs, such as the

Comenius programme The Comenius programme is a European Union educational project. It concerns school-level education, and is part of the EU's Erasmus Plus, Erasmus + 2014-2020 Programme. It aims "to help young people and educational staff better understand the ran ...

program, all communication is via the internet; therefore there is no need for grants. Along the same lines, face-to-face meetings between partners schools are not required, although they are not prohibited. European schoolnet has been granted the role of Central Support Service (CSS) at European level. eTwinning is also supported by a network of National Support Services.

References

Gilleran, A. (2007) eTwinning - A New Path for European Schools, eLearning Papers

European Schoolnet (2007) Learning with eTwinning: A Handbook for Teachers 2007

European Schoolnet (2006) Learning with eTwinning

European Schoolnet (2008) eTwinning: Adventures in language and culture

Konstantinidis, A. (2012). Implementing Learning-Oriented Assessment in an eTwinning Online Course for Greek Teachers. ''MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching'', 8(1), 45-62

Video clips

eTwinning YouTube channel
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