E Twinning Pdw 28 5 10

Reinforcing the eTwinning community Brian Holmes Head of Department Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture Villasimius, Italy 28 May 2010

Reinforcing the eTwinning community Agenda
The Executive Agency – what we do
Evolution of the eTwinning community
Role of eTwinning Ambassadors
Online learning communities

The Ex ecutive Agency Partners with Complimentary Roles Directorates A, B & C Policy and Programmes European Commission Policy Programme implementation Centralised actions
Policy documents
Programme definition
Priorities
Committees
Impact analysis
Management of decentralised actions via National Agencies
Management of centralised actions
Calls, selection, contracts
Monitoring, acceptance, payments
Clustering & dissemination
Results & feedback
Centre for Programme management
~400 staff
Based in Brussels
Managed by EC officials
Executive Agency

The Ex ecutive Agency A widening portfolio of programmes 2010 Total Budget: ~660 Million € Leonardo da Vinci Comenius Erasmus, etc Lifelong Learning Erasmus Mundus Tempus External cooperation Europe for Citizens Youth in Action Culture 2007 Media 2007

Evolution of the eTwinning community More than just projects Source: eTwinning (2009) Meet new people

Evolution of the eTwinning community More than just projects
eTwinning projects at the core of the initial strategy
Projects were just the tip of the iceberg
Below the surface, a whole range of networking activities were taking place
Supported by a vibrant community
Strategy changed in 2008:
from School Partnerships in Europe

to The Community for Schools in Europe
Informal collaboration Comenius Partnerships Peer learning Sharing of resources and ideas Community building eTwinning Projects Source: eTwinning (2010)

Role of eTwinning Ambassadors eTwinning is about people Through personal contact Source: eTwinning (2009)

Role of eTwinning Ambassadors The personal touch
Ambassadors support eTwinning through personal contact and expertise
At the national level:
Promoting eTwinning: e.g. potential headmasters
Helping teachers: from isolated projects to whole school
Linking with the wider community: town twinning, partnerships, etc
At the European level:
Learning events: leading an event, replicating an event locally
eTwinning groups: moderating/animating a group
eTwinning book 2010: contribute and encourage others
Help widen the eTwinning community and make it sustainable

Online Learning Communities Online Community
Possible features of an online community:
people who interact socially while striving to satisfy their own needs ;
shared purpose (an interest, need, information exchange, or service) that provides a reason for the community to exist;
policies in the form of tacit assumptions , rituals, protocols, rules, and laws that guide people’s interactions;
And computer systems that support and mediate social interactions and facilitate a sense of togetherness.
Preece (2000) cited in Ala-Mutka (p.25, 2008)
eTwinning is an online community of teachers. The community aspect is being reinforced through Learning Events and eTwinning Groups

Online Learning Communities My research
Looking at Learning Events as examples of non-formal learning in online groups
Looking at eTwinning Groups as examples of Communities of Practice
My research is looking at competence development in online learning communities and the impact of social issues. Supervisor Dr. Julie-Ann Sime. Observed the Learning Event entitled ‘ Exploiting web 2.0 – eTwinning and collaboration ’ led by Tiina Sarisalmi. Carried out an online survey of participants after the event to solicit their opinion. Obtained 130 valid replies from the community of 207 participants.

Online Learning Communities Survey results (1 of 6) 87% indicated that they felt more confident and competent after the LE 45% 42% 10% 2% 2% Positive change Negative change

Online Learning Communities Survey results (2 of 6)
17% preferred the independence 47% preferred the collaboration
C: I preferred the independence D: I preferred the collaboration Number of replies 36% 4% 13% 20% 27%

49% felt a stronger sense of community
E: There was a stronger feeling of community F: The feeling of community was roughly the same Number of replies 27% 14% 10% 26% 23%

62% found the profile pages really useful
K: I didn’t really use the profile pages L: I found the profile pages really useful Number of replies 7% 16% 15% 30% 31%

Preference for receiving feedback rather than giving feedback
n= from 101 to 109

‘… taking part in the online Web 2.0 course was a great and exciting discovery for me that acquainted me with the amazing possibilities available to teachers nowadays’
‘ I find it amazing, even more as in the school where I work my colleagues do not want working in team’
‘ Learning events community is a special garden of teachers. it is far away from etwinning’
‘ I have noticed a great openness and liveliness in the way the teachers collaborated and interacted’
98% would recommend the Learning Event n=111

Reinforcing the eTwinning community References Ala-Mutka, K. (2008) Review of learning in ICT-enabled networks and communities , Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), JRC, European Commission, http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2721 eTwinning (2009) Beyond school projects - a report on eTwinning 2008-2009 , Brussels, eTwinning Central Support Service, http://resources.eun.org/etwinning/25/EN_eTwinning_165x230_Report.pdf eTwinning (2010) eTwinning 2.0: Building the community for schools in Europe , Brussels, eTwinning Central Support Service, http://resources.eun.org/etwinning/25/EN_eTwinning_brochure.pdf Preece, J. (2000) Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Socialbilty, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY, USA.

Thank you! http://www.etwinning.net/ Comenius and the Lifelong Learning Programme: The Executive Agency: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/index.htm eTwinning portal: http:// ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html DG Education and Culture: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/index_en.html My research blog: http://holmesbrian.blogspot.com/

http://groups.etwinning.net	111
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E Twinning Pdw 28 5 10

by Brian Holmes on May 16, 2010

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