beyond school projects – a report on e twinning 2008 2009

BEYOND SCHOOL PROJECTSA report on eTwinning 2008-2009

Central Support Service for eTwinning (CSS)

www.etwinning.net

European Schoolnet (EUN Partnership AISBL)

Rue de Trèves 61 • 1040 Brussels • Belgium

www.eun.org • [email protected]

Christina Crawley, Anne Gilleran, Santi Scimeca,

Riina Vuorikari, Patricia Wastiau

Christina Crawley, Alexa Joyce, Nathalie Scheeck,

Silvia Spinoso

Hofi Studio, Czech Republic

Gérard Launet, Laurence Mouton / PhotoAlto

Getty Images / Lifetime learning

300

Published in September 2009.The views expressed in thispublication are those of theauthors and not necessarily thoseof European Schoolnet or the

eTwinning Central Support Service. This book is published under theterms and conditions of the Attribution 3.0 Unported CreativeCommons licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). This publication was created with the financial support of the LifelongLearning Programme of the European Union. This publication reflectsthe views only of the authors and the European Commission cannot beheld responsible for any use which may be made of the informationcontained therein.

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1

Beyond school projectseTwinning

Table of contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 1 Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2 User Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 3 Learning Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 4 eTwinning Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3


The eTwinning action will celebrate its fifth anniversary in 2010. When

it was launched in January 2005, its objective followed the decision

by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 to identify school

twinning as an opportunity for all young people to learn and practice

Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) skills, as well as

promoting awareness of the multicultural European model of society.

At the same time, it recognised the need to take school collaboration

further and give it a whole school dimension. In agreeing with this,

the European Commission proposed that eTwinning could be a major

catalyst in intensifying the sorts of cooperation already underway

among schools. eTwinning was then identified as one of the major

actions of the eLearning Programme to foster school collaboration by

using ICT.

The overwhelming success of eTwinning in recent years, both from

a quantitative and qualitative point of view, has also triggered various reflections

on the direction that schooling (teaching and learning) was taking. In particular,

it has become clear that the traditional paradigm of school collaboration was

too restrictive, that ICT had become part of the normal school environment, and

that learning (both for pupils and teachers) was taking place in more fluid

contexts – in terms of space and time. When the European Commission’s

Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) was launched in 2007, eTwinning (as part of

the Comenius action) started playing an essential role in education, far beyond

what was initially foreseen.

The main assets of eTwinning have always been flexibility and lack of

formalities. As a typical grassroots initiative, teachers became empowered to

decide what to do and how to do it, with the sole requirements of exploiting ICT

and collaborating with colleagues in another European country. eTwinning

Introduction

5

offered the rest: online environments to find partners and develop school

collaboration projects; pedagogical support and help; training initiatives; and,

recognition for what many teachers had been doing already. In short, eTwinningoffered a system composed of various elements in which innovative teachers

could feel at home, find other peers, and include other colleagues. Such

a system, at first populated by the most advanced teachers, has quickly

become a model for others. The eTwinning environment is suitable, not only for

contacting and communicating, but also for sharing practice and experience.

Thus, eTwinning has slowly, but firmly, become ‘the place to join’ for all

teachers interested in going beyond their school’s horizon, meeting colleagues

in Europe, and helping their pupils work together with foreign peers.

During the fall of 2008, a revamped eTwinning platform was launched. Having

taken on implicit and explicit suggestions from the community of over 50 000

eTwinners registered at that time1, the eTwinning Portal was transformed into

something new: a fresh new look with new tools, all aimed towards an

approach in line with Web 2.0 trends. The reasons are based on an analysis of

user behaviour and expectations as seen in the results of the 2008 survey

discussed in Section 2. It was realised that eTwinners used the platform to do

much more than beginning projects and then working in pairs (or in Twins). It

was found that teachers logged into the platform to exploit the potential of

a community of thousands of colleagues. The level of interaction among

eTwinners had turned multidimensional. School projects had become only one

of the many activities that eTwinners expected to do once on the platform. For

instance, the dimension of peer and rapid learning was quickly growing in

importance. The role of eTwinning was simply to provide the tools and the

environment to facilitate – and stimulate – this process.

During late 2008 and early 2009, eTwinning was enriched by diversifying the

offer and providing more opportunities. eTwinners can, of course, still login and

use the platform as they did before, but with the added value that it now offers

many social networking features to facilitate communication and networking.


1 The number of registered users in June 2009 stands at 65 500+.

Teachers can still find partners – even more easily than before – and begin

projects (for which they can be awarded Quality Labels and prizes). In addition,

eTwinners can now also participate in various other activities, such as attending

online workshops (eTwinning Learning Events) and join groups. They can share

their resources with colleagues and subscribe to – and comment on – project kits.

All in all, eTwinning has gone beyond a project development environment and

towards a one-stop-shop for teachers. Significantly, the eTwinning motto has

changed from School partnerships in Europe to The community for schools in

Europe.

All the changes and improvements summarised above would have not been

possible without a careful evaluation and analysis of the evidence of usage.

This report provides a digest of such evidence in the following sections:

1 Statistics

An online community of almost 65 000 registered teachers (as of early

June 2009) creates an enormous amount of information: user behaviour,

website analytics, user interaction, tools used, etc. This information is

analysed and discussed with various stakeholders on an ongoing basis

in order to provide a reading of the trends and perspectives of

eTwinning. The data and comments available in this report provide the

most interesting and important findings.

2 User Survey

At the end of 2008, only a few weeks after the launch of the new

platform, an online survey was launched addressing eTwinners2 from all

countries. A total of 1308 respondents completed the questionnaire,

2 Teachers registering in eTwinning are commonly called ‘eTwinners’.

6

eTwinning

7

Beyond school projects

composed of closed and open questions. The chapter in this report

presents the most interesting trends and identifies some issues for the

future development of eTwinning.

3 Learning Events

In line with the objective of providing simple, effective, and informal

learning opportunities to eTwinners, a number of Learning Events (online

moderated workshops lasting one week) were launched. These events

were very successful in the first trial, which confirms the need for an

online community where learning is strictly connected to the context in

which it takes place.

4 eTwinning Groups

Exploiting the potential of subject-based, or topic-based, sub-

communities of users, a number of pilot eTwinning Groups were

established to test the opportunity to mould the eTwinning platform in

this direction. The results of the pilot show the interest of eTwinners in

forming teams (although virtually) with colleagues and sharing practices

and experiences beyond school projects.

eTwinning

9


Data resulting from the usage of the eTwinning platform is extremely

useful for monitoring trends and opportunities, and developing

strategies to correct or adjust features and tools. Such data can be

roughly classified in two large areas:

• Data from web analytics (concerning usage of the

www.etwinning.net Portal and all the connected tools).

• Data from interaction between users and various eTwinning

tools (e.g., registration, the Desktop, social networking features

and the TwinSpace).

This chapter gives a quick overview of the most telling trends and

figures which have been considered essential pointers for any decisions

concerning the short- and mid-term adjustment of eTwinning.

PortalOne of the main assets of eTwinningsince its launch has been the critical mass

of users, which has been rapidly growing.

When the eTwinning Portal went online in

January 2005, the aim was to quickly

obtain a large number of visits, which

would naturally lead to a satisfactory

number of school and teacher

registrations. As a brand new initiative,

the main aim was to reach teachers.

StatisticsChapter 1

Figure 1. Monthly visits

The graph in Figure 1 shows thegrowth in total visits during thesame month (February) over thepast five years. It can be seen thatgrowth was stable during the firstfour years (more or less 80% peryear), and has greatly accelerated inthe 2008-2009 school year, witha growth, compared to the yearbefore, of more than 300%. This isa clear indication of the response tothe launch of the new platform.

Another view presented in Figure 2 shows a comparison between the 2007-

2008 and 2008-2009 school years. The trend displayed in Figure 1 is confirmed

for all months.

Figure 2. Monthly visits 2007-2008 and 2008-2009

These two graphs summarise the great impact eTwinning has made on

teachers in Europe; with a steep increase during the last school year of

teachers interested in visiting the eTwinning Portal and possibly becoming part

of the large eTwinning community.

1 September 2008 – 19 June 2009 1 September 2008 – 19 June 2009

600,000

300,000

600,000

300,000

1 Sep 2008 - 30 Sep 2008 1 Nov 2008 - 30 Nov 2008 1 Jan 2008 - 31 Jan 2008 1 Mar 2008 - 31 Mar 2008 1 May 2008 - 31 May 2008

10

50000

45000

40000

35000

30000

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0

February 2005

February 2006

February 2007

February 2008

February 2009

RegistrationsTeachers registering in eTwinning are commonly called ‘eTwinners’ and constitute

an increasingly established network of practitioners who find the platform an ideal

place to share experiences, ideas, and eventually find a partner for a project.

Figure 3. Daily member registrations

Figure 3 shows the trend expressed by daily user registrations on the Portal.

The figure above the bubbles (representing school years) shows the total

number of members registered during the time period. It can be seen that,

despite the fact that eTwinning is now no longer a novel initiative and

a consolidation phase started around two years ago, many teachers continue to

register. The average number of teachers registered per school is still rather low

(some 1.3 teachers per school, for a total of 53 000 schools), and this implies

that we are still at a phase where more new schools need to become involved.

The next phase of eTwinning will most likely see more teachers registering from

each school. It should also be noted that out of more than 65 000 members

registered, some 61 000 are still active on the Portal (using the tools offered

and logging in). This indicates an unusually high retention rate, demonstrating

the establishment of a very committed (and loyal) community of users.

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

1.1.2005 ➜31.8.2005

2004/05

61672005/06

100632006/07

12775

2007/08

16307

2008/09

19388

1.9.2005 ➜31.8.2006

1.9.2006 ➜31.8.2007

1.9.2007 ➜31.8.2008

1.9.2008 ➜14.6.2009

eTwinning

11


The main intention of eTwinning has been to provide a platform to find partners

to begin collaborative projects. We have seen in various sections of this report

that this is only part of the story, as many other activities take place. However,

the most explicit and tangible way to become part of eTwinning is still by

establishing projects with foreign colleagues. Since the launch of eTwinning in

2005, more than 12 000 projects were registered and a total of 10 781 were

approved by National Support Services, involving nearly 20 000 schools across

Europe. Altogether, projects have involved more than 28 000 teachers (many

schools are involved in more than one project), and this means, with an average

of 50 pupils per project, more than 500 000 pupils. Although projects normally

last one school year, many continue for longer. At the moment (June 2009),

nearly 11 000 teachers are involved in active projects.

Figure 4. Daily projects registrations

The graph in Figure 4 presents the number of daily registrations since the

launch of eTwinning and the totals per school year. A steady

increase shows that finding partners and beginning projects is still

a frequently used feature of eTwinning, which does not seem to lose

importance despite the introduction of other opportunities – such as

Learning Events, eTwinning Groups and social networking in gener-

al.

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

1.1.2005 ➜31.8.2005

2004/05

4182005/06

1502

2006/07

2749

2007/08

3555

2008/09

4211

1.9.2005 ➜31.8.2006

1.9.2006 ➜31.8.2007

1.9.2007 ➜31.8.2008

1.9.2008 ➜14.6.2009

12

Figure 5. Number of project members

The nature and composition of the

projects registered shows the

diversity and richness of eTwinning. The vast majority of projects are

still between two partners, as

shown in Figure 5. However, an

increasing number of projects

(27%) involve more than two

partners, indicating an increase in

networking among eTwinners, and

a level of commitment that goes

beyond the obvious difficulty of

managing multi-partner projects.

Figure 6. Age groups in projects

Another interesting factor is the age

group of the pupils involved in

projects. As expected, the majority

of projects involve secondary

schools, where foreign languages

play an important role. However, the

presence of pre-primary and primary

schools is relatively important

(16%), and this is coupled by mixed

age groups, with pupils ranging

from primary (< 11) to secondary

levels. On average, projects involve

50 pupils (typically, two classes of

25).

five and more 11 %

four 5 %

three 11 %

two 73 %

Mixed 29 %

Age group 0 > 11 16 %

Age group 12 > 21 55 %

eTwinning

13


3 A readymade plan for a project based on a specific topic.

Community In October 2008, the eTwinning Portal was updated with new features meeting

the need of registered teachers to get in touch, and stay in touch, with other

eTwinners. The first feature to be improved was the 'Contacts' area which, in

a clear reflection of all social networking websites, is where friends can share

what they do. Until the launch of the new Portal, eTwinners had a total of 203 000

contacts (accumulated over four years of activities). Five months after the new

Portal was launched, this figure had increased by 30% and reached 270 000.

On the eTwinning Desktop, eTwinners can browse other member profiles and

see which projects they are involved in and their contacts. This feature has

proven a very powerful method for making contact with other teachers. In

particular, eTwinners can easily flag that they are interested in sharing ideas by

simply putting a ‘me too’ in other teacher profiles. In just five months, 33 000

‘me too’ posts were left. If a member wishes to be more specific, they can write

a message on another member’s wall. So far, more than 13 000 messages have

been left. But most importantly, eTwinners can use the internal messaging

system, which enables direct private communication. Almost 1 100 000

messages have been exchanged among members. eTwinners can also enrich

their profile with information on what they are doing, upload pictures of their

activities (4 000 so far) and signal their interests.

When eTwinners cannot find a partner by using the partner-finding search

engine, they can leave a message in the forum. With an average of more than

10 000 messages every three months and an incredibly high rate of replies, the

eTwinning partner-finding forum has become one of the most powerful tools for

finding a partner for eTwinning projects, as well as for Comenius Partnerships,

and other international activities.

Finally, eTwinning has been promoting Project Kits3 as a way to more easily

design and register a project. With the launch of the new Portal, it is now

possible to indicate interest in a specific kit in order to facilitate the partner-

finding process. Almost 4 000 members used this opportunity in just five

months.

eTwinning

15


TwinSpaceAll eTwinning projects are given a collaborative workspace called a TwinSpace.

It is up to the teachers involved to decide whether they want to make use of

this space in the project, or choose other tools. The TwinSpace is an

opportunity, not an obligation.

Since the launch of eTwinning in 2005, some 10 781 projects have been

approved by National Support Services, and a corresponding number of

TwinSpaces have been created. Currently, there are more than 140 000

members on TwinSpaces.

The vast majority (88%) had at least one login, whereas 66% had at least six

logins (indicating an interest which goes beyond mere curiosity). Other

indicators measuring the usage when compared to the total number of

TwinSpaces created can be seen in the table.

Twinspaces with at least ... % of the total

1 login 88%

1 folder created 43%

1 web page created 20%

1 file archive created 51%

The usage of the TwinSpace is demonstrated by the overall figures in the table

below, related to the key features such as file and picture uploads, publishing of

webpages (public or private), and messages (in forums and mailboxes).

Feature Number

Files uploaded 161 528

Photos uploaded in photo galleries 134 771

Web pages 142 392

Messages in forums 195 124

Sent messages in mailboxes 407 572

16

Another interesting figure is the publishing rate. Almost 3 000 TwinSpaces

(30%) have been published by the administrators and are therefore visible on

the Internet without having to login. These can be accessed from the

TwinSpace section on the public Portal

(www.etwinning.net/en/pub/inspiration/twinspace).

Points for Consideration

The eTwinning action is growing! This is an indisputable fact. However, a certain

consolidation can also be perceived and the arrival of a more explicit ‘social

networking’ approach has triggered contacts between teachers in ways not

previously available. How to keep this momentum, encourage interaction, and

also continue to support project work in schools are priorities for eTwinningover the next few years.

eTwinning

17


As seen in Section 1, a great deal of development in encouraging

eTwinners to interact with each other has taken place during the

2008-2009 school year. The context for this development is better

understood by examining the results of a user survey carried out

during this period. This section gives an overview of the main

findings of this survey, which used both closed and open questions.

In the period 23 November – 23 December 2008, the Central Support

Service (CSS) of the eTwinning action conducted a survey with

participants in cooperation with National Support Services (NSS). An

online survey available in 23 languages was used. Overall, 1 308 valid

responses were received by 23 December.

2.1 Profile of respondentsThe distribution of the respondents by

country is a fair representation of

eTwinning users across Europe. Not

surprisingly, the very large majority of the

respondents in the survey were teachers.

Over two-thirds of the respondents teach

in secondary schools, and over a quarter

in primary schools.

Overall, foreign language teachers

dominate the picture. They account for

almost half of the respondents (in primary

schools, they account for more than one-

third of the respondents).

eTwinning

19


User SurveyChapter 2

Table 2. Main subject taught by teacher

2.2 How are eTwinning projects developed?

Time management

eTwinning projects are almost equally developed during and outside school time.

Table 3. When did you mainly develop your project?

20

35 %

30 %

25 %

20 %

15 %

10 %

5 %

0 %During school

timeMainly during school

time, but few activitieswere carried out in

out-of-school periods

Approximately 50% of the projectduring school time,50% out of school

Mainly in out-of-school time

Exclusively duringout-of-school time

55 %50 %45 %40 %35 %30 %25 %20 %15 %10 %5 %0 %

Foreign Languages

Primary School subjects

Informatics/ITC

Languages and Literature

Mathematics/Geometry OtherHistory

Geography

Pre-school SubjectsBiology

Social Studies/Sociology

Citizenship

Cross Curricular

Physics

Environmental EducationChemistry

Technology

■ Primary ■ Lower secondary ■ Upper secondary

Obstacles and challenges

As can be observed from the following graph, the most important obstacles

and challenges (each representing about a quarter of survey participants) are (1)

lack of time and (2) problems with access and functioning of ICT. Difficulties in

finding appropriate partners were mentioned by one survey participant in six. All

other obstacles were mentioned by less than 15% of the respondents. For

instance, only 8% mentioned language issues.

It is also important to note that about 25% of the survey respondents reported

that there were no main obstacles or challenges (the combination of ‘no

obstacles’ and ‘no answers’).

Table 4. Main challenges and obstacles encountered during the project


21

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Lack of time

Problems with access and functioning of the ICT equipment at school level

It was difficult with difficult to find an appropriate partner

It was difficult to organise collaborative work online

The eTwinning online platform is rather difficult to use

Other colleagues didn’t support the project

My partner left the project

Language problems when communicating with my partner

Other

The project was difficult to integrate in the curriculum

It was difficult to formulate ideas for a project

The school management did not support the project

Pupils were not interested

Parents did not support the project

There were no obstacles for me

No answer

Collaboration and communication

Collaboration with other teaching colleagues occurred with two thirds of the

survey participants. Parents and members of the school board were involved in

about one quarter of the cases. Less than 20% of the respondents said that

they had not cooperated with other members of the school community during

an eTwinning project.

Table 5. Collaboration with other members of the school community

In terms of communication, almost 80% of survey respondents discussed their

eTwinning project with the rest of the teaching staff. In 60% of the cases, there

was formal communication with the school board and, in about half of the

projects, information about the eTwinning project was published on the school

website.

22

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Teaching staff

Parents

School board

Administrative staff

Other non-teaching staff

Library staff

Other

Counselling department

No collaboration with othermembers of the school

Table 6. Communication about the project

2.3 Impact on teaching practice

Participant teachers were asked to indicate the effect of eTwinning on their

teaching skills and some other issues. As can be seen from the graph below,

for virtually all of the items listed in the survey, more than 75% of teachers

stated that there had been an impact or a high impact. The only exception is

local authority recognition (e.g., credits). This is due to the fact that such

recognition schemes do not exist in all the countries participating in eTwinning.

‘It was fun’ unexpectedly received the highest scores.

eTwinning

23


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

It has been communicated to the rest of theteaching staff

It has been communicated to the school board

It has been published in the school’s website or links to the project can be found there

Letters/emails were sent to parents

It has received coverage in local media (press, radio, television)

It has been part of lectures in teacher trainingactivities

Articles have been published in educationalreviews or journals

Other

eTwinning

25


Table 7. Impact on teaching practice

An interesting question is whether teachers who indicated in the survey that

one of the reasons for participating in eTwinning was to improve their teaching

skills actually achieved their goal.

We examined more closely the four skills shown in the previous graph (ICT,

foreign language, teaching and teamwork) and compared the results among all

teachers (who replied to this question) and teachers who indicated that one of

the reasons (or the main reason) for participating in eTwinning was to improve

their skills. We created a score, ranging between 1 and 4, based on the

answers (4 = high impact; 3 = impact; 2 = very little impact; and 1 = no impact).

The results of our analysis are shown in Table 8.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

It was fun

Investing in taking part in futherinnovation projects

Improving your ICT skills

Improving your foreign languagecommunication skills

Getting to know other school systems

Learning about new teaching methods

Improving your teaching skills

Improving your skills to work ininterdisciplinary teams

Local education authority's recognition

■ High impact ■ Impact ■ Very little impact ■ No impact

Table 8. Impact scores for skills improvement

Teachers who participate in All teachers eTwinning to improve teaching skills

Improving ICT skills 3.45 3.26

Improving foreign language skills 3.49 3.20

Improving teaching skills 3.38 3.10

Improving team work skills 3.23 2.98

Clearly, the impact of eTwining on skills improvement was even higher among

teachers who joined eTwinning because they more specifically wanted to

improve their teaching skills.

A similar analysis was carried out for teachers of a particular subject. We

looked at the four subjects most taught by the teachers (see Table 2): foreign

languages, primary school subjects, informatics/ICT and languages/literature.

Overall, there appeared to be little deviation from the average score: the impact

on skills improvement was somewhat lower with teachers of language/literature;

primary school teachers increased their ICT skills above average; and ICT and

maths teachers improved their foreign language skills more than the reported

average.

2.4 Impact at school level

For seven out of the eleven areas listed in the graph below, between 75% and

90% of the survey participants stated that there had been an impact, or even

a substantial impact, on the school. The greatest impact was ‘increasing

student motivation’. As can be observed from the answers, participation in

eTwinning also improves the school culture and climate, with a greater

willingness to collaborate and develop new projects.

26

Table 9. Impact of eTwinning on the school

2.5 Overall satisfaction96% of the survey participants who started an eTwinning project were satisfied

or very satisfied. In particular, the fact that over half of them stated that they

were very satisfied is a remarkable result.

Table 10. Overall opinion of eTwinning

eTwinning

27


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Increasing students’ motivation

Willingness to start futher innovation projects

Fostering collaborative work among students

Improving relations between teachers and students

Developing students' responsibility and autonomous work

Developing students’ learning skills

Improving personal relations among students

Fostering communication amongst teachers

Attracting other colleagues’ interest towards eTwinning

Attracting parents’ interest towards European projects

Improving teaching to students with special education needs

■ High impact ■ Impact ■ Very little impact ■ No impact

I'm very satisfied 53 %

I'm satisfied 43 %

I'm not very satisfied 4 %

I'm not satisfied at all 0,4 %

29

2.6 Respondents who did not start a projectOut of the 1308 survey participants, 284 or 21.7% had not started an eTwinningproject yet. As shown by the following graph, two main reasons stand out for

not having started a project: lack of time and the fact that no appropriate

partner had been found.

Table 11. Reasons for not starting a project


0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Lack of time

I haven’t found an appropriate partner

Other

Language problems when communicating with my partner

The eTwinning online platform is rather difficult to use

Problems with access and functioning of the ICT equipment at school level

It was difficult to formulate ideas for a project

Other colleagues didn’t support the project

It was difficult to organise collaborative work online

The project was difficult to integrate in the curriculum

My potential partner left the project planning

The school management did not support the project

Pupils were not interested

After investigating eTwinning, I didn't find it useful or

interesting

Parents did not support the project

2.7 How to improve eTwinning in the future?

The most frequently mentioned issues

Respondents were asked to express their views about how to improve

eTwinning in the future. The following five points were the most frequently

raised issues:

More (official) recognition

Increased general and official recognition for the effort and time spent on

projects, and for the skills developed through eTwinning participation. This

confirms what has already been identified through an ad hoc question in the

questionnaire. By comparison, participation in Comenius Partnerships is

sometimes mentioned as providing much better recognition.

More and clearer instructions

More and clearer instructions on how to proceed on various aspects of

eTwinning, i.e., how to use the TwinSpace; the difference between the

TwinSpace and the TwinBlog; how to (successfully) find a partner; how to

proceed when a project is accepted; what to do when partners abandon

a project that has already started, etc. Some suggestions call for the provision

of handbooks or offer ideas with a particular focus on beginners and

newcomers. Highlighting examples of good practice, or giving examples of

inspiring projects is considered part of a demand for more instructions on the

development of projects.

Simplified platform and tools

Clearly, the point is not to limit or reduce what can be done on the platform with

its various tools, but to make it simpler and more user-friendly, as well as more

intuitive.

30

31

Increased opportunities to meet face-to-face

Some suggestions refer to the desirability of meetings between teacher

partners from different countries as soon as a project is accepted, or later on,

or even at the end of the project. Some respondents also suggest inviting

pupils/students to major meetings (e.g., the annual eTwinning conference);

others mention that head teachers should be invited to meetings (e.g., meetings

that reward European Quality Labels). Some others advocate more meetings

between countries.

More training actions

This is requested with regard to various aspects, at various levels, and in

different ways. Project management, e-safety issues, ICT, specific eTwinningissues, and aspects related to content-clusters (such as waste management,

etc.) are mentioned as possible topics for training. These actions are sometimes

envisaged at local, national, or European levels. Virtual/online, as well as face-

to-face training actions are suggested. The existing Professional Development

Workshops are often mentioned and more such workshops are requested.

2.8 Summary and points for consideration

The survey was a good opportunity to collect evidence from eTwinningparticipants about their experiences, the obstacles they face, the impact they

observe teaching at various school levels, and how they believe eTwinningcould improve in the future.

In addition to gathering evidence that confirms a high level of satisfaction, more

precise information is available about what works and where to dedicate efforts

for further improvement.

In the coming year, a follow-up study will investigate in more detail some

specific issues. A follow-up case studies investigation will be launched to gain

an even better understanding of the challenges to address.


33

One of the issues raised by the respondents in the user survey

carried out in the 2008-2009 school year was the provision of more

training opportunities. In this section, we examine a response made

at European level to meet this demand by giving an overview of the

first series of such events launched in spring 2009.

As eTwinning has become an important educational force in Europe, several

countries have initiated eTwinning online training courses on a variety of topics

for their teachers. In some countries, the training forms part of a wider in-

service training – and completion of the course has career implications for

participants. In other countries, the training is provided online for “eTwinningAmbassadors” to promote the concepts on a wider scale. However, not every

National Support Service (NSS) has organised online training, and there is

a body of teachers who have no access to such training. It was therefore

considered appropriate to implement some learning activities at central level, as

well as coordinating information regarding

all available online courses organised by

the NSS. The challenge to provide online

training at European level required

a creatively different approach to the

traditional online training concept. The

approach taken was to provide within the

eTwinning platform a learning space

called the Learning Lab. Within this

space, an initial learning experience was

offered; what was termed a Learning

Event, designed to stimulate thinking,

interaction, and reaction on the part of the

participants, as well as produce further

activities and resources. A pilot

programme was then initiated.


Learning EventsChapter 3

As 2009 has been the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, it was

proposed that a series of eTwinning Learning Events be organised around this

topic. These were short intensive online events of one week duration, where

four experts presented materials in a variety of media, animated discussions,

and provided learning activities on the topic of creativity. Attendees committed

to follow each day's activity over a short period of time. The events included

interaction in both synchronous and asynchronous time; where participants

carried out a series of activities, and the outcomes were posted online or

discussed on the event blog.

Table 12. Overview of the Learning Events and the language used

Learning Event Moderator Language

Podcasting in the Creative Classroom Sebastian Dorok English

Creative Use of Media Jukka Orava English

Exploring Creativity Bettina Zeidler German

Mind Mapping Pierre Auboiron French

The four events took different approaches to the concept of creativity. Three of

the events (Podcasting in the Creative Classroom, Creative Use of Media, and

Mind Mapping) were tool-based and all activities were very focused.

3.1 Call for participants

The booking of participants began in early March 2009 with an announcement

of the four events on the public section of the eTwinning Portal. The

participants were given a link to an online application form where they were

asked to offer some basic personal information such as their name, email

address, age range, subjects they teach, age range of their pupils, etc. They

were also asked about the languages they spoke, and whether they had

experience of online courses or groups. This initial call elicited a large response

with 581 completed surveys.

34


3.2 Profile of participantsThe profile of the participants is interesting insofar as female applicants

outnumber male applicants by almost seven to one; it would also have been

interesting to examine this ratio in the global set of eTwinning participants. The

age range is spread fairly evenly between 25 and 55 with the middle range

being the most represented. The numbers drop dramatically in the 55+ age

group. In terms of level taught as determined by age of pupil, there is an even

spread between primary, middle secondary, and upper secondary – with the

bulge being in the middle secondary range.

Two of the questions related to applicant experience of online activities such as

groups or online training. The majority of the applicants (67.5%) stated that

they had some experience of either group or online training, while a much

smaller group (13.3%) said they were very experiences; and the rest (19.12%)

stated that they had no experience. In response to the questions 'have you

taken an online course before?', some 58% answered yes, while 38%

answered no. It may be inferred that the ‘experience’ mentioned is some type

of online group activity other than training.

Applicants were also asked what languages they spoke. As may be seen from

Table 13, English was by far the most common language. French, German,

Polish and Spanish were the next most frequently spoken languages.

Table 13. Languages mentioned

eTwinning

35

35030025020015010050

0

Bulga

rian

Croatia

nCzec

hDan

ishDutc

h

Engli

sh

Eston

ian

Finnis

hFre

nch

German

Greek

Hunga

rian

IrishIta

lian

Lithu

anian

Maltes

e

Norweg

ienPo

lish

Portu

gales

e

Roman

ian

Russi

anSlo

vak

Sloven

ian

Span

ish

Swed

ish

Turki

sh

■ Languages mentioned

The same technique was used to examine the range of subjects taught by the

applicants. The response ‘languages’ includes all reference to language,

literature, grammar and linguistics, and does not reflect the name of the

language mentioned. However, the analysis reflects the same spread as the

languages mentioned in Table 13 above. As can be seen from Table 14,

language teaching is the most common discipline, followed by an even spread

among the other areas.

Table 14. Subjects taught by applicants

Two questions related to the expectations of the participants. The results of the

collated responses are shown in Table 15. The surprising response relates to

the number of applicants who mention practicing a foreign langauge as an

expectation. This was not necessarily something that was planned when

offering this series of events. Obviously, professional development is very

important to teachers and most mention this point with respect to practicing

their skills in order to offer a better service to their pupils. Many also mention

that they hope to meet teachers from other countries.

36

450400350300250200150100

500

pre school/primary maths languages ICT/technology science/enviroment

■ Subject taught – Top range

37

Table 15. Question: What are your expectations for this event?

Finally, in the question relating to what types of activities they would like to see

in these events, the various reponses included discussion, chat, collaborative

work, practical demontrations and exchange of ideas. Some also mentioned

practical guidelines on how to apply their knowledge in their teaching.

3.3 Participation

This section examines the actual participation in the events, as opposed to the

applications received. The Creative Use of Media is the most popular (43%),

followed by Podcasting (34%) with a fairly even distribution between Mind

Mapping (12%) and Exploring Creativity (11%).

The next table shows the distribution of applicants per country. The data has

been cleaned in this graphic – and so duplicate applications and other test

applications have been removed.


18016014012010080604020

0To learn something new To improve teaching

skills/methodsTo meet other

teachers/exchange ideasTo practice a foreign

language

■ What are you expectations for this event?

168152

112

70

Table 16. Global - Twenty-seven countries represented

As can be seen, Poland outstrips the other countries in terms of numbers

applying. One explanation for this is that the Polish NSS ran a concerted

promotional campaign for the events, and this campaign seems to have had

extremely positive results. What is also interesting is the relatively high number

of applications from some smaller countries such as Finland, Ireland, and

Estonia. The larger countries such as France, the UK, Germany and Italy have

fairly low representation. This has obvious implications for the promotion of

such activities, and for a closer liaison between the Central Support Service

and the National Support Services in promoting such activities.

A total of 460 applicants were offered a place. The participation figures may be

seen in the table below and they represent 78.5 % of the total applicants

contacted, which may be considered as high, bearing in mind that two of the

events ran in the month of May, one of the busiest times of the school year.

38

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Aust

riaBe

lgiu

m F

RBe

lgiu

m N

LBu

lgar

iaCy

prus

Czec

h Re

publ

icDe

nmar

kEs

toni

aFi

nlan

dFr

ance

Germ

any

Gree

ceHu

ngar

yIc

elan

dIre

land Italy

Latv

iaLi

thua

nia

Luxe

mbo

urg

Mal

taNe

ther

land

sNo

rway

Pola

ndPo

rtuga

lRo

man

iaSl

ovak

iaSl

oven

iaSp

ain

Swed

enTu

rkey UK

■ Countries – global


39

Table 17. Number of participants per event

3.4 Evaluation

All the event moderators provided an exit satisfaction poll and 80% of

participants responded. The level of satisfaction across the events was very

high with a 95% satisfaction rate between the excellent and good range.

Table 18. Overall satisfaction of the Learning Events

The participants were also

asked to rate the activities they

most enjoyed, and it was

interesting to note that in the

three events that made use of

the online classroom Elluminate

vRoom™, the experience was

rated very highly. It seems that

participants really enjoy the

synchronous experience of

video and audio contact.

Another test of the success of an event is how many of the participants fulfilled

a sufficient number of tasks to obtain a certificate of participation. As can be

seen from the table below, the percentage of participants who actively engaged in

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Podcasting Creative Use of Media Exploring Creativity Mindmapping

■ Actual participants N = 321

133 130

28 30

Satisfactory 5 %

Excellent 66 %

Good 29 %

these events is high. In the most practical event, the tasks were highly focussed

and obviously fewer participants fulfilled all of the tasks required, and this to

a lesser extent is also true of the Creative Use of Media event. For the Exploring

Creativity event, the criteria was more aimed at participant interaction and activity

rather than fulfilling specific tasks, and therefore, was possibly easier to achieve.

In addition, as the numbers were smaller, perhaps the level of support was higher.

Table 19. Percentage of users receiving a certificate of participation

Event Percentage of participants receiving certificates

Podcasting 36%

Creative Use of Media 47%

Exploring Creativity 58%

Mind Mapping 73%

Finally, the question of the importance of obtaining a certificate of participation

must be considered. Many participants came to learn, interact, and experiment

with new ideas. It is difficult to gauge just how much of a further incentive

a certificate offers to potential candidates.

3.4 Summary and points for consideration

Lessons learned

As explained in the introduction, these four Learning Events were the first phase

of a pilot and are due to be repeated in the autumn of 2009. Were they

successful? Bearing in mind the strong positive response and enthusiastic

comments of the participants, it may be concluded that they were successful.

Of course, there are still many aspects to improve, and important lessons were

learnt from this first attempt.

40

41

Future actions

This form of learning seems to provide stimulation and enthusiasm among

eTwinning teachers and provides them with yet another way to network with

each other, improve their professional development, and exchange ideas and

practices.

The recommendation is therefore to expand the current programme, and

provide more Learning Events on a variety of topics. These could include such

topics as:

• How to run an eTwinning project

• How to use the eTwinning Desktop and TwinSpace

• Training for moderators of eTwinning Groups

The list is suggestive and by no means exhaustive. The possibilities offered by

this type of online training are endless and can be adapted to suit needs as the

situation warrants.

Finally, it may be said that launching these Learning Events was a leap of faith,

which has proved successful. The unexpected outcomes that some participants

experienced are especially heartening – as one participant wrote:

“For me, this was a unique opportunity to see how other people work, meet

dedicated teachers, share, learn, see, analyse, understand and feel new

things. It was both a very stimulating and demanding week that brought

a lot of knowledge and a huge boost to my self-confidence. I enjoyed every

minute of it. Thank you for this wonderful adventure! It was much better

than I expected.”

When a pebble is cast into the water, nobody knows where the ripples touch or

end!


43

In response to the growing demand for a more social approach in

eTwinning, as highlighted by the responses of teachers to the user

survey, and also by teachers in other eTwinning activities such as

conferences and workshops, a pilot activity called eTwinning Groups

was launched. eTwinning Groups are interest-based online

communities for teachers who are registered in eTwinning. The

groups are currently only operating on a pilot phase leading to

a public launch in 2010. The first phase of the pilot ran from October

2008 to the end of January 2009,

followed by a second pilot period.

This report gives an outline of the

pilot evaluation.

The first phase of the pilot included 203

European teachers from more than twenty

countries. They were recruited for the pilot

either through a call by from National

Support Services, or though the Central

Support Service. The main aim of the pilot

phase was to get a better understanding

of teachers’ experiences with online

communities and their expectations

regarding such online communities.

Another aim was to gain a better

understanding of how such online communities function and under which

constraints they flourish.

Three different groups participated in the pilot. Two groups were newly created:

The Creative Classroom and Maths, Science and Technology. The third group,


eTwinning GroupsChapter 4

entitled School Leaders, had already been running informally for a year prior to the

pilot. Pre and post surveys were conducted with participants as well as an

evaluation of observations by coordinators and other Central Support Service staff.

4.1 Pre-survey

Teachers’ experiences in online communities

Previous experiences and skills with online communities varied considerably. In

the pre survey, 32% of the respondents said they were ‘very experienced’ or

‘quite experienced’, and 29% had ‘some previous experience’, while 39% were

‘novice’ or ‘little experienced’. Some 74% of respondents said that in their

previous online communities they liked ‘taking part in discussions, posting in

forums and replying to questions’, 68% mentioned they preferred ‘reflecting on

their experiences, problems, etc.’, and 57% said they liked ‘sharing interests

through photos, links, etc.’ In the survey, 27% selected all three options (taking

part in discussions; sharing interests through photos, music, links, videos, etc.;

and reflecting on experiences, problems, conflictive situations). Interestingly,

26% had indicated activities that they followed without always contributing

themselves (i.e., passive participation). However, only 6% of respondents said

that they did not participate at all in these activities.

We also asked about the different roles that the respondents had previously

taken in online communities. We had defined eight roles based on Lai et al.

(2006)4 and which are shown in Table 20. Respondents were able to choose

more than one. Some 27% said that they had been a ‘leader’ of an online

community, and 42% of respondents said that they had only taken the role of

a ‘regular member’. However, it appears from this question that participants in

an online community often take many roles, as shown in Table 20.

44

4 Lai, K., W, Pratt, K., Anderson, M., Stigter, J. (2006) Literature Review and Synthesis: OnlineCommunities of Practice. Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand.

45

Table 20. Roles in online communities

Roles in online communities

Regular member 84%

Leader, e.g., someone who starts the group 27%

Help coordinating and managing content 24%

Moderator, e.g., someone who helps moderating the group 23%

Tutoring and supporting new members 21%

Introducing knowledge as a subject matter expert 17%

Facilitator of online events 13%

Helping with technical problems 12%

All in all, 84% said that they had the role of a regular member and another role.

Examples of this are that 24% said they had helped ‘coordinate and manage

content’, and 21% said they had helped tutor new members. Another 10% said

they had roles such as helping with technical problems, introducing knowledge

as a subject matter expert, helping in coordinating and managing content, and

facilitating online events.

Expectations regarding the eTwinning Groups

We asked the respondents about the expectations for the pilot eTwinningGroups. Most said that they sought to learn new skills (88%), share experiences

(87%), reflect on their existing practices (73%), gain practical relevance for their

school (57%), acquire a feeling of mutual trust and shared feeling within the

group (45%); and obtain respect for their contributions (25%). Regarding

activities, the respondents were looking for new experiences and ideas for

projects and resources (both 70%). They also mentioned discussing activities

aimed at professional development (65%), pooling resources and material

(56%), and documenting projects regarding possible problems and issues.

About half of the respondents also mentioned face-to-face opportunities, as

well as information-seeking activities.

We asked the respondents to identify the roles that they would like to undertake

during the pilot. Around 40% said that they only wished to take on the role of


47

a regular member, whereas 38% said they would like to be regular members

with some additional tasks (e.g., help coordinate content, tutor and support

new members, help moderate the group, and help with technical problems).

4.2 Activities in Groups

From October 2008 to the end of January 2009, each group ran their own

activities with participants. The Maths, Science and Technology group formed

a number of sub-groups for interest-based discussions, which were led by

participants; whereas the Creative Classroom group started with some common

forum discussions on various topics. Participants started their own discussion

threads and some sub-groups were formed. Face-to-face meetings using

Flashmeeting5 became popular in one of the sub-groups, where the aim was to

discuss creativity in eTwinning projects. The School Leaders group had its own

modus operandi, relying more on ‘broadcasting’ messages regarding ongoing

events and documents. Recruitment of new participants happened mostly

through word-of-mouth and from the list of people who had indicated their

willingness to participate in the eTwinning Groups pilot. After the initial pilot

period, an online evaluation survey was run. Since the evaluation, the groups

have been running with minimal moderation from the coordinators and will

continue to exist in the 2009-2010 school year.

4.3 Post-survey

Groups relevant from a professional point of view

In general, the participating teachers found eTwinning Groups relevant from

a professional point of view (77%). Participation in them had enabled the

participants to meet new people (66%) and share experiences (55%).

Additionally, 47% said they had the opportunity to learn new skills; 45% said

they had reflected on existing practices in their job; and 29% shared interests


5 This is an audio and video conferencing system (more at: http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk)

using media such as photos. These experiences came though taking part in

discussions by posting in forums, or replying to other users (67%); and through

reflecting on experiences, problems, and conflictive situations (61%). In

addition, 36% of the respondents said they had followed activities without

contributing themselves (i.e., passive participation). A closer look shows that

20% were entirely passive participants, whereas 16% displayed both active and

passive participation. While the majority (75%) enjoyed the groups, there were

slight differences between the groups. The Creative Classroom and School

Leader groups were enjoyed by around 80% of participants; while Maths,

Science and Technology was enjoyed by 65%.

Group structure and different needs

From observing the groups and interactions within, it was found that the

participants have very varied expectations of what happens and how things

happen in these virtual spaces. Before the pilot, we had focused on the issue of

leadership within the group and established different ways to structure groups.

Whereas Maths, Science and Technology had very little input from the

coordinator after the initial formation of sub-groups, the Creative Classroom

group had coordinators who were more present in discussions and activities. In

both ways, the coordinators observed that having the participants take

a leading role in activities was challenging. Even if it was recommended from

the beginning to allocate clear roles (e.g. ,in Maths, Sciences and Technology

there were sub-group leaders), and the participants had themselves indicated in

the pre survey their willingness to take on roles other than ‘regular member’,

activities that required the most planning, long-term engagement and fixing

common times remained few and far apart. One major reason for less

participation and engagement was the lack of time reported by teachers with

73% saying that they wanted to do more but did not have the time.

We asked the respondents about issues related to the organisation and the

structure of the group. As explained, each group had its own structure and

organisation. The majority (64%) seemed to cope well with the current

structure. However, 36% found that it was not clear what was expected from

them. In the two newly established groups, about 40% had indicated that: ‘It

was not clear what was expected from me’ or ‘I did not know what to do and

48

49

when’. The participants in these groups also indicated that more leadership is

needed – this demand being especially strong in the Creative Classroom group

(Table 21: 35%). Moreover, more than half of the participants in that group said

that tutoring would be needed.

Table 21. Needs per group

Creativity MST SL

Expert 35% 60% 60%

Leadership 35% 27% 13%

Tutor 53% 7% 7%

Interestingly, the other newly established group, Maths, Science and

Technology, also lacked leadership to a certain extent (27%), but hardly felt the

need for tutoring (Table 21: 7%). The coordinators point out that the Creative

Classroom group had many beginners who were probably not experienced in

online communities and were expecting more organised top-down events and

guidance. In the School Leaders group, which had already been operational for

a year, fewer participants indicated that it was unclear what was expected from

them (28%). Moreover, half of the respondents said they needed someone in

the groups who could introduce knowledge as a subject matter expert. This

request was more strongly expressed in the Maths, Science and Technology

and School Leader groups (60%).

Table 22. Should the group have a more outcome-oriented focus?

More focus Total

No, it's enough to discuss and reflect 13 (26%)

Yes, it would help focus the work 38 (74%)


Table 22 shows that 74% of the respondents felt that the group ‘should have

a more outcome-oriented focus’. On the other hand, 26% felt that it was

enough to discuss within the group and reflect on practices.

4.4 Summary of points for consideration

From the evaluation of the groups it may be inferred that the pilot period of

three to four months – with a December holiday period – was a rather short

time to get online communities ‘up and running’. Slightly more than half of the

respondents (58%) felt that the group grew during the pilot. We also find that

about two-thirds of respondents would recommend the groups to a colleague.

From this we can infer that the majority of the participants saw the potential of

the groups, and would use word-of-mouth ‘viral’ marketing to recruit more

members.

Leadership

Despite the good intentions and enthusiasm of participants involved in online

communities (e.g., many indicated roles that they would like to accept), we

observed that for many individuals it is difficult to ‘take the plunge’. Many cite

a lack of time (73% said they wanted to do more, but did not have the time).

The issue of leadership and engagement in coordinating and organising

activities and events is important: something that previous literature has also

reported. We found that groups with many novices and less experienced ICT

users desire stronger leadership and call for tutoring; whereas groups with more

experienced users call for subject matter experts.

Engagement

To a certain extent, it seems that the groups failed to engage people in the

activities: up to one-third reported in the post-survey that they had followed

some activities without contributing, and as many as 20% said they had only

passively followed discussions. Even if the inequality of participation in online

communities is a known issue, the latter figure seems high compared to the

50

51

pre-survey, where only 6% claimed to have followed actively without

participating.

Focus

Respondents clearly expressed in the post-survey evaluation the feeling that

groups need a more outcome-oriented focus (65%); as opposed to discussion

and reflection. However, the pre-survey showed that participants expected to

share experiences (85%) and reflect on existing practices (73%). One proposal

that could accommodate this mismatch is to tighten the link between eTwinningLearning Events and eTwinning Groups, so that group participants could attend

planned, structured events as well as continuing discussion on their own time in

the groups. Another solution could be inviting experts into groups for input,

which would lead to more structured exercises that help participants share and

reflect upon their experiences.

Future actions

The group pilot evaluation has shown a number of constraints in helping online

communities such as eTwinning groups to flourish. The issues revolve around

the following points: leadership; engagement of participants; and how to define

the focus of the group. Even if these issues were reflected in the ‘Group

Planning Tool’ that coordinators of groups use to help better plan the activities,

the evaluation shows only moderate success in these aspects. The

recommendation from this evaluation is to establish a second pilot with a more

bottom-up approach. A hypothesis could be that if only a little top-down

coordination existed, and the participants were made clearly aware that their

input is needed, then more inspiring and interesting activities could be planned

and better engagement and satisfaction levels reached.


53

As eTwinning continues to grow and becomes a driving force for

education in Europe, it is clear that its effects are multi-faceted. It

provides a wealth of good practice; gives opportunities for

international networking; promotes innovation and creativity in

schooling; equips teachers with free online tools for collaboration;

facilitates participation through a virtually formality-free registration

process; contributes to professional development and formal

recognition; and finally, encourages

teachers – and pupils – to

communicate and learn together

across Europe.

Over the course of the 2008-2009 school

year, a number of actions took place to

better understand the needs and

behaviour of teachers and, in return, to

answer these needs in the best possible

way. The launching of the new eTwinningplatform in September 2008 was the main

action in this regard – and responded to

trends seen in recent years. eTwinners

were making use of social networking

tools to collaborate and share and so the

Portal responded by providing explicit tools for this function. Following the

launch of the new platform, additional social networking tools were created for

teachers. In addition, a pilot study on eTwinning Groups was launched, online

training through the newly created eTwinning Learning Lab was provided and

the analysis of feedback from eTwinners through the eTwinning Survey

continued.


Conclusions

55

All activities have been both extremely revealing with regards to the

environments in which eTwinners live across Europe as well as helpful in

responding to what teachers need in order to better meet, network, learn,

teach, and enjoy being part of a European network of colleagues.

The results of the launching of the eTwinning Portal have been phenomenal.

The very fact that monthly visits have increased 300% in just one school year

shows that eTwinning is not simply maintaining itself but that it is growing

exponentially each and every day. In terms of professional development and

recognition, the new platform shows that the most popular way to get involved

is still to register and run an eTwinning project and so the increased provision of

social networking tools for community building clearly demonstrates the ease

and creativity with which eTwinners can meet and start working together. An

increasing number of projects involve more than the basic two partners and

there is more of an age spread across projects – with more kindergarten and

primary schools becoming involved. This leads away from the traditional two-

partner project for secondary pupils practicing their foreign languages and

reveals an increase in creativity.

The eTwinning Survey was launched shortly after the new Portal went online,

and helped gain a better idea of the environments in which teachers were

working and how eTwinning did, or did not, match teachers’ needs. While time

remains a major issue in getting involved in eTwinning (according to nearly

27%), it was very positive to see that almost 70% of teachers involved other

colleagues from their school in eTwinning work. This also implies that there are

many more eTwinners out there than those registered officially.

With regards to the needs expressed by teachers in the survey – namely: more

recognition, more instructions, simplified platforms, increased opportunities to

meet, and more training events – it is encouraging to report that eTwinning has

actually anticipated many of these points by responding to the trends that were

visible before the survey was conducted. This holds true for the new platform,

the pilot Groups and the Learning Events, as detailed in this report.


Providing online training at a central level this school year through the Learning

Events has responded perfectly to the need for further professional development

opportunities. A registration of over 450 people for the first four events, and an

active participation during one of the busiest times of the school year, clearly

shows the deep interest of teachers in such online activities. The overall

satisfaction rate for all events was extremely high (66% reporting excellent and

29% reporting good) and the participants seemed to find the format stimulating

and enthusiastically completed the various tasks assigned to them. The learning

events will certainly be an activity to extend throughout the remainder of 2009

and their continued development will be followed with interest.

With regard to a better understanding of teacher behaviour and experiences

with online networking activities, the eTwinning group pilot programme has

been very helpful in measuring expectations, levels of engagement, and the

notion of active and passive users. Each of the three pilot eTwinning Groups

was unique in its approach, being led by the moderator or a number of sub-

moderators, or left to the users to organise. The data from this area provides

interesting statistics about expectations and leadership. A key factor to emerge

was that users require at least some structured leadership, and want input from

experts to fuel discussions and idea building. The eTwinning Groups will

continue into the new school year, and their results are instrumental in opening

this service to all eTwinners.

With over 65 000 registered eTwinners (June 2009), and an increase of nearly

15 000 individuals in the 2008-2009 school year alone, eTwinning continues to

go from strength to strength. The next school year promises to be interesting as

the new TwinSpace platform, where teachers and pupils work together online in

an eTwinning project, will be launched with the specific aims of simplifying the

tools and involving more pupils; the eTwinning Groups and Learning Events will

continue to operate and grow in number; and the community will expand daily.

With Web 2.0 social networking facilities firmly in place and an increasing

number of activities on offer to stimulate ideas and collaboration, the action is

set to continue on its path of growth as the true community for teachers in

Europe.

56

A report on eTwinning 2008-2009