eTwinning: opportunities for teachers

Anne Gilleran – pedagogical manager

eTwinning Central Support Service

I have been involved in many European Schoolnet projects involving schools, teachers and school leaders

I come from Irelanduniversity lecturerschool counsellorhead teacherresearcherexpert in ICT for education

Worked for the European Schoolnet since 2001

Pedagogical manager for eTwinning since 2005

Anne who?

The question……..The context……….The details……. eTwinning & ScientixSome reflections and considerations

Topics

What is eTwinning?

A Lifelong Learning Programme initiative- within the Comenius action

Launched January 2005

2005-2008 Phase 1

2008-2013 Phase 2

Key Facts about eTwinning

• 33 countries participate• Each of those countries has a National Support

Service NSS• Overall coordination by the Central Support

Service Run by European Schoolnet on behalf of the EU Commission

•It all happens on the eTwinning Portal www.eTwinning.net

The Context………

7

European key competencies

Lifelong learning strategiesLifelong learning strategies

Quality of Learning

Personal perspective:• Personal fulfilment• Social

inclusion/citizenship• Employability/careers

Social perspective:• Constructive

democracy

World of work perspective• Skills for innovation

Life

lon

g learn

ing

school

« F

rom

cra

dle

to

gra

ve

 »

Life-wide learning

formal

non-formal

informal

Life

lon

g learn

ing

21 Century Literacy Debate

4 suggested literacies

What happened in 2005 or….

The Internet context

Within two years………..

February 2004

January 2005

February 2005

October 2006

February 2004.

20062005/06

2005 – 08 eTwinning also changed!Evolved from a solely a project based activity between two teachers to…..

Providing a social network platform that allows for teacher exchange on practice and experience in a variety of different ways

+An improved dedicated collaborative working space for projects

+ Extended opportunities for professional development

eTwinning 2.0

3 main elements– Informal social network– Online collaborative work– Continuing professional development

The eTwinning Portal

The heart of eTwinning is the portal:

www.etwinning.net

Examples

Desktop tools………….

19

20

News from the eTwinning world

Suggests resources based on your profile

Informs on upcoming events

Personal profile

21

Personal content

Contacts & projects

Journal

Teacher Rooms

22

Designed as places to invite other people to discuss topics over a short period of time

Collaborative working tools……..

TwinSpace

Teachers

Pupils

•Chat•Image Gallery•Document folders•Publishing tools•Blog•Wiki

And professional development……….

eTwinning Groups34 Groups now active

Learning Events

27

15 Learning events in 2010

20,000 + teachers involved

Is eTwinning successful?

133,000 users

1million messages

20,000+ users/day

3 million + pupils

53,941 projects

eTwinning (May 2011)

Professional Development numbers

eTwinning & Scientix

Compliment each other

Scientix provides you with unique subject resources, contact with research and new developments in science education

eTwinning provides you with a communications platform for collaborative project work, formal and informal contact with other teachers and an alternate set of professional development opportunities

Sir John Holman

‘Science and art belong to the whole world and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.’ Goethe

‘Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.’ Henry Ford

Thank you for your attention!

www.etwinning.net

Contact:anne.gilleran@eun.org