The eTwinning Portal: Europe's schools take on social networking

eTwinning supports schools in the process of setting up pedagogical projects involving two or more schools in Europe. Thanks to the new online platform, developed by European Schoolnet on behalf of the European Commission, schools in Europe can now use web 2.0 tools in their eTwinning work. This 2.0 revision confirms the position of eTwinning as a community-oriented portal rather than solely a project-oriented one.

The new features go into the direction of streamlining information and content to make it more accessible through user-oriented criteria, such as subject, theme and country. Registered members’ personal “Desktops” now provide several ways to make it easier for teachers to find each other and communicate by posting comments, exchanging ideas, establishing networking threads, etc. In addition, a new instant messaging system has been developed in order to make chatting easier.

In the near future members will also been given the possibility to set up and join restricted “groups” with tools which allow members to work together on a specific topic of their choice. Finally, the “TwinSpace” section will be restructured and relaunched in early 2009.

eTwinning Portal 2.0:
www.etwinning.net

Interview with eTwinning manager, Santi Scimeca, on the new portal:
http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/news/etwinning_goes_social.htm

The 2008 eTwinning handbook: Adventures in languages and culture

eTwinning has also recently released “eTwinning: Adventures in languages and culture”. Produced primarily as a handbook for teachers, this tool gives an overview of the possibilities that exist in eTwinning to incorporate language and culture in any subject area. Produced in 23 languages, it is available in print from each National Support Service, as well as electronically on the eTwinning Portal.

Following the success of eTwinning’s first two handbooks for teachers in 2006 and 2007, this latest publication focuses itself more concretely on the value and use of language and culture in any cross-border collaborative project. This publication also arrives as the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue enters its last quarter: the book brings together a wealth of successful, award-winning project examples from the past school year which have all used language and culture to create bonds and share knowledge.

In the handbook’s introduction, eTwinning’s Pedagogical Manager, Anne Gilleran, explains the importance of this year’s topic: “Through language comes culture: when the young people of Europe come together, they want to communicate, learn about life in each other’s schools and countries, and to learn words in each other’s language. That is the strength of eTwinning. It fosters communication, no matter what the topic.”

eTwinning Handbook 2008
http://files.etwinning.net/shared/data/etwinning/booklet/etwinning_handbook_2008/etwinning_handbook_en.pdf

Previous eTwinning publications
http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/publications.htm
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/school_innovation/teaching_models/etwinning_handbook2.htm

European Year of Intercultural Dialogue
http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu