Cyber-community for schools

Published: 17 February 2009 y., Tuesday

Pamoka
It started off as a project to help schools collaborate over the internet. But four years on, an EU-sponsored website has a new claim to fame: it has become a popular social networking site for teachers.

So far about 55 000 teachers, head teachers and school librarians from 29 countries have signed up with the free eTwinning portal – and the numbers are rising fast.

“Never before have we seen European schools cooperate on such a large scale,” wrote one academic predicting far-reaching effects, in the recent publication eTwinning – Adventures in language and culture.

Launched in 2005 under the EU’s education programme Comenius, the online service still does what it set out to do – enable schools to set up virtual classrooms equipped with tools like audio and video conferencing. Students in different countries can hold meetings, store work and exchange resources on joint projects in a secure environment. More than 5 300 projects are currently registered with the portal, available in the 23 languages. Kits are available for projects like setting up a mock company and, for younger children, producing a digital fairytale.

But, as is often the case in cyberspace, the website has taken on a life of its own as more and more teachers have discovered it. Of the 55 000 active members, two-thirds are not registered with a school project. Most signed up to meet other education professionals and share ideas. Teachers post more than 5 000 messages on the site every month.

The portal is run by European Schoolnet, a partnership of 31 European education ministries. Thrilled by the new success, the webmasters last year released a new version of the portal to encourage the trend. It features new tools (like blogs and wikis) geared to general collaboration, not just projects.

A contest is held every year for the best projects. This year’s finalists include a project by four schools (in the UK, France, Spain and Italy) that explores the use of podcasts as learning tools. Winners will be announced at the annual eTwinning conference in Prague on 13-15 February.

Šaltinis: ec.europa.eu
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

Ifilm.net: Kill Your VCR

The golden age of independent filmmaking. more »

India moves to crack down on Internet crime

Controlling and regulating Internet companies. more »

More accurate search results

HotBot Searches for a Direct Hit. more »

Distribution real-time traffic data on Web site visitors

WebSideStory Releases HitBOX Tracker Viewer for Windows. more »

USWeb/CKS Acquires Geneva-based Firms

A local presence to serve European markets. more »

Nettrends: Return Of The Bots Coming To Your PC

The smart technology would transform shopping in the best direction. more »

Hotmail is truly one for the road

There is a vast audience of Internet users hungry for Web-based services. more »

Italy Explores Internet via Electrical Circuits

No modems, telephone connections, per minute charges. more »

Linkbot Pro 4.0

The Best Gets Better. more »

Pentagon scaling back online info

Military Web sites offered adversaries a potent instrument to use an unprecedented volume of information. more »