Social networks
and
networking
to support
eTwinning teachers
Riina Vuorikari
European Schoolnet
riina.vuorikari@eun.org

Topics
•Social networks
• Participation - digital traces
• What are social networks?
• How do social networks look in eTwinning?
• What do social networks tell us?
• Social networks and eTwinning Ambassadors

“Social”
makes
trails
visible..
by Stiphy

and
shows
where to
do go

Digital traces
• Making your profle available on eTwinning
• Creating links to other people, projects, tellinig that you like it,
etc
• Creating also links to what happen outside of eTwinning
platform:
• your pictures on Flickr, your blog posts, your website, etc

Participation inequality
• J.Nilsen (2006) Participation inequality: Encouraging More Users to
contribute

Power law of participation in
digital communities

Power law of participation for
eTwinning?
project participation
and sharing experiences
signing up in the portal

Social network
•..is a social structure made of nodes and ties
• Nodes are actors in the network, e.g. teachers, schools,
countries
• Ties are relationships between actors, e.g. friendship,
professional tie, eTwinning projects
• Can be presented as a chart that shows the structure of
relations
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network

Visualising social ties and
networks
• makes the ties between eTwinning members, projects and
schools visible
• helps fnding interesting groups of like-minded people and
projects
• but, also helps making the social network better connected!

nodes

ties, something I declare explicitly

Social networks - be aware!
• a digital representation of a social network can hardly ever
accurately show all the connections of a rich real life situation,
like here today
• Yet, it can be useful!

eTwinning as a social network?
•What are the nodes and what are the ties?
•For example:
• schools or teachers can be the nodes
• projects done together can be the ties

nodes

ties

eTwinning as a social network
•Visualisation includes data from Summer 2008
• Number of teachers: 45 212
• Number of projects: 8 035 o
• Number of countries: 30

What type of information do
social networks reveal?

tightly connected nodes in the
central

isolated groups interacting mostly
amongst themselves

“singletons” with no connection,
least central

What more?

closeness: the shortest distances between each individual and every other
person in the network

Reach: the degree any member of a network can
reach other members of the network

Betweenness: Degree an individual lies between other
individuals in the network: an intermediary; liaisons; bridges

eTwinning Ambassadors
•What can the eTwinning network do for you?
•What can you do for the eTwinning network?
•

eTwinning Ambassadors
• Your relationships and ties with other eTwinning members are
important!
• Your “power” within the network comes from the degree to which
your are at the center of many relationships
• The \"the strength of weak ties” - open networks, with many weak
ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas
and opportunities to members!
members
•Be aware of “cliques” where each member knows more or less what
the other members knew

“Power” places for Ambassadors

eTwinning Groups
• Groups are places for eTwinning teacher who share a concern or
a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as
they interact (regularly).
• CALL FOR MEMBERS: Pilot period for 3 Groups in October
• Group School leaders: http://www.etwinning.net/schoolleaders
• Group MST: http://www.etwinning.net/mstgroup
• Group Creativity: http://www.etwinning.net/creativity

More about how to
social network
using Web 2.0
in the workshop!
thanks! attention
for your
social networks user communities
discover people and projects
questions?

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