beyond school projects

BEYOND SCHOOL
PROJECTS
A report on eTwinning 2008-2009
Publisher
Central Support Service for eTwinning (CSS)
www.etwinning.net
European Schoolnet (EUN Partnership AISBL)
Rue de Trèves 61 • 1040 Brussels • Belgium
www.eun.org • info@eun.org
Authors
Christina Crawley, Anne Gilleran, Santi Scimeca,
Riina Vuorikari, Patricia Wastiau
Design coordination and
language issues
Christina Crawley, Alexa Joyce, Nathalie Scheeck,
Silvia Spinoso
Design, DTP and printing
Photo Credits
Print run
Hofi Studio, Czech Republic
Gérard Launet, Laurence Mouton / PhotoAlto
Getty Images / Lifetime learning
300
ISBN
Published in September 2009.
The views expressed in this
publication are those of the
authors and not necessarily those
of European Schoolnet or the
eTwinning Central Support Service. This book is published under the
terms and conditions of the Attribution 3.0 Unported Creative
Commons licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
This publication was created with the financial support of the Lifelong
Learning Programme of the European Union. This publication reflects
the views only of the authors and the European Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table of contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
1
2
3
4
Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
User Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Learning Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
eTwinning Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
1
2
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Introduction
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
3
4
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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, eTwinning
offered 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+.
5
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
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, subcommunities 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.
7
8
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Statistics
Chapter 1
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.
Portal
One of the main assets of eTwinning
since 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.
9
Figure 1. Monthly visits
50000
The graph in Figure 1 shows the
growth in total visits during the
same month (February) over the
past five years. It can be seen that
growth was stable during the first
four years (more or less 80% per
year), and has greatly accelerated in
the 2008-2009 school year, with
a growth, compared to the year
before, of more than 300%. This is
a clear indication of the response to
the launch of the new platform.
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
February
2005
February
2006
February
2007
February
2008
February
2009
Another view presented in Figure 2 shows a comparison between the 20072008 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
1 September 2008 – 19 June 2009
1 September 2008 – 19 June 2009
600,000
600,000
300,000
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
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.
10
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Registrations
Teachers 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
300
2008/09
250
19388
2007/08
200
16307
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
6167
10063
12775
150
100
50
0
1.1.2005 ➜
31.8.2005
1.9.2005 ➜
31.8.2006
1.9.2006 ➜
31.8.2007
1.9.2007 ➜
31.8.2008
1.9.2008 ➜
14.6.2009
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.
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
2008/09
50
4211
2007/08
45
3555
40
2006/07
35
30
2004/05
2005/06
418
1502
1.1.2005 ➜
31.8.2005
1.9.2005 ➜
31.8.2006
2749
25
20
15
10
5
0
1.9.2006 ➜
31.8.2007
1.9.2007 ➜
31.8.2008
1.9.2008 ➜
14.6.2009
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 general.
12
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Figure 5. Number of project members
five and more 11 %
The nature and composition of the
projects registered shows the
diversity and richness of eTwinning.
four 5 %
The vast majority of projects are
still between two partners, as
three 11 %
shown in Figure 5. However, an
increasing number of projects
(27%) involve more than two
two 73 %
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
Age group 12 > 21
55 %
Mixed 29 %
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
Age group 0 > 11 16 %
(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).
13
14
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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 partnerfinding process. Almost 4 000 members used this opportunity in just five
months.
3
A readymade plan for a project based on a specific topic.
15
TwinSpace
All 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 ...
1 login
1 folder created
1 web page created
1 file archive created
% of the total
88%
43%
20%
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).
16
Feature
Number
Files uploaded
Photos uploaded in photo galleries
Web pages
Messages in forums
Sent messages in mailboxes
161 528
134 771
142 392
195 124
407 572
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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 eTwinning
over the next few years.
17
18
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
User Survey
Chapter 2
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 respondents
The 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 onethird of the respondents).
19
Table 2. Main subject taught by teacher
■ Primary
55 %
50 %
45 %
40 %
35 %
30 %
25 %
20 %
15 %
10 %
5%
0%
■ Lower secondary
■ Upper secondary
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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?
35 %
30 %
25 %
20 %
15 %
10 %
5%
0%
During school
time
20
Mainly during school
time, but few activities
were carried out in
out-of-school periods
Approximately
50% of the project
during school time,
50% out of school
Mainly in
out-of-school time
Exclusively during
out-of-school time
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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
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
21
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
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 other
members of the school
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 6. Communication about the project
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
It has been communicated to the rest of the
teaching 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 training
activities
Articles have been published in educational
reviews or journals
Other
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.
23
24
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 7. Impact on teaching practice
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90% 100%
It was fun
Investing in taking part in futher
innovation projects
Improving your ICT skills
Improving your foreign language
communication skills
Getting to know other school systems
Learning about new teaching methods
Improving your teaching skills
Improving your skills to work in
interdisciplinary teams
Local education authority's recognition
■ High impact
■ Impact
■ Very little impact
■ No impact
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.
25
Table 8. Impact scores for skills improvement
Teachers who participate in
eTwinning to improve teaching skills
Improving ICT skills
Improving foreign language skills
Improving teaching skills
Improving team work skills
All teachers
3.45
3.49
3.38
3.23
3.26
3.20
3.10
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 9. Impact of eTwinning on the school
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
2.5 Overall satisfaction
96% 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
I'm very satisfied 53 %
I'm not very satisfied 4 %
I'm not satisfied at all 0,4 %
I'm satisfied 43 %
27
28
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
2.6 Respondents who did not start a project
Out of the 1308 survey participants, 284 or 21.7% had not started an eTwinning
project 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
29
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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 eTwinning
issues, 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 faceto-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 eTwinning
participants about their experiences, the obstacles they face, the impact they
observe teaching at various school levels, and how they believe eTwinning
could 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.
31
32
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Learning Events
Chapter 3
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 inservice training – and completion of the course has career implications for
participants. In other countries, the training is provided online for “eTwinning
Ambassadors” 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.
33
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
Creative Use of Media
Exploring Creativity
Mind Mapping
Sebastian Dorok
Jukka Orava
Bettina Zeidler
Pierre Auboiron
English
English
German
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
3.2 Profile of participants
The 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
■ Languages mentioned
Du
En tch
g
Es lish
ton
ia
Fin n
nis
Fre h
n
Ge ch
rm
a
G n
Hu ree
ng k
ari
an
Iris
h
Lit Italia
hu n
an
Ma ian
No ltes
rw e
eg
ien
Po Pol
rtu ish
g
Ro ales
ma e
n
Ru ian
ss
ia
S n
Slo lovak
ve
n
Sp ian
an
Sw ish
ed
i
Tu sh
rki
sh
Bu
lga
Cr rian
oa
tia
n
Cz
ec
Da h
nis
h
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
35
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
■ Subject taught – Top range
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
pre school/primary
maths
languages
ICT/technology
science/enviroment
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 15. Question: What are your expectations for this event?
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
■ What are you expectations for this event?
168
152
112
70
To learn something new
To improve teaching
skills/methods
To meet other
teachers/exchange ideas
To practice a foreign
language
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.
37
Table 16. Global - Twenty-seven countries represented
■ Countries – global
300
250
200
150
100
50
Austria
Belgium FR
Belgium NL
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
UK
0
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 17. Number of participants per event
■ Actual participants N = 321
140
120
100
130
133
80
60
40
20
0
Podcasting
Creative Use of Media
28
30
Exploring Creativity
Mindmapping
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
Satisfactory 5 %
The participants were also
asked to rate the activities they
most enjoyed, and it was
Good 29 %
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
Excellent 66 %
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
39
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
Creative Use of Media
Exploring Creativity
Mind Mapping
36%
47%
58%
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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!
41
42
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
eTwinning Groups
Chapter 4
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,
43
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.
4
Lai, K., W, Pratt, K., Anderson, M., Stigter, J. (2006) Literature Review and Synthesis: Online
Communities of Practice. Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand.
44
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Table 20. Roles in online communities
Roles in online communities
Regular member
84%
Leader, e.g., someone who starts the group
Help coordinating and managing content
Moderator, e.g., someone who helps moderating the group
Tutoring and supporting new members
Introducing knowledge as a subject matter expert
Facilitator of online events
Helping with technical problems
27%
24%
23%
21%
17%
13%
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 eTwinning
Groups. 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
45
46
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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)
47
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
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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
Expert
Leadership
Tutor
Creativity
MST
SL
35%
35%
53%
60%
27%
7%
60%
13%
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
Yes, it would help focus the work
13 (26%)
38 (74%)
49
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
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eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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 eTwinning
Learning 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.
51
52
eTwinning
Beyond school projects
Conclusions
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 eTwinning
platform 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.
53
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eTwinning
Beyond school projects
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 twopartner 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.
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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 submoderators, 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.
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A report on eTwinning 2008-2009