This document discusses the concept of e-Twinning and its potential for professional growth. It provides background on e-Twinning, including that it was launched in 2005 and allows teachers to collaborate on projects across Europe using ICT. Key points include that e-Twinning aims to encourage collaboration between schools using technology, provides online tools to support partnerships, and can help improve teachers' ICT skills, language skills, and cultural awareness through international collaboration. The document concludes that e-Twinning has grown significantly over time and aims to improve education quality in Europe through cooperation and exchange of ideas using technology.

1. ASSIGNMENT
SUBJECT: PEDAGOGY
TOPIC: CONCEPT OF E-TWINNING FOR INSTITUTIONAL OR
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
SUBMITTED BY,
NISHA RAJAN
MATHEMATICS
ROLL NO: 11
MTTC PTPM

2. INTRODUCTION
e-Twinning is a fundamental component of the European Commission's
e-Learning program. e-Twinning programme was officially launched in January 2005
in Brussels as the main action of the European Commission's e-Learning program.
e-Twinning grows in 2007, when the program is integrated into the Lifelong Learning,
as part of the Comenius 2007-2013, coordinated by European School net
organization that unites 30 Ministries of Education in European countries. Romania
joined e-Twinning in October 2007, currently having over 12,000 registered teachers.
Since January 2014 e-Twinning has been part of the EU program Erasmus Plus. The
initiative of this action derived from the Barcelona European Council
recommendations in March 2002. These recommendations encouraged institutions
and teachers to achieve school partnerships in order to give their students the
opportunity to learn through collaboration and to schools practice and improve their
ICT skills.

3. E-Twinning
The e-Twinning action is an initiative of the European commission that aims to
encourage European schools to collaborate using information and communication
technologies (ICT) by providing the necessary infrastructure (online tools, service,
support). Therefore, teachers registered in the e-twinning action are enabled to form
partnerships and develop collaborative, pedagogical school projects in any subject
area with sole requirements to employ ICT to develop their project and collaborate
with teachers from other European countries (at least two teachers from two different
European countries are needed). The primary workspace for the e-twinning action is
the e-twinning portal (www.etwinning.net) and it is available in twenty five languages.
Teachers registered in the e-twinning action, also called eTwinners, find each other,
communicate, share resources and collaborate through the e-twinning platform. This
growing and active community enforced the change in the motto of e-Twinning from
school partnerships in Europe to the community for the schools in Europe.
History of e-Twinning
The eTwinning action was launched in January 2005. Its main objectives complied
with the decision by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002 to promote
school twinning as an opportunity for all students to learn and practice ICT skills and
to promote awareness of the multicultural European model of society. More than 13
000 schools were involved in eTwinning within its first year. In fall 2008, over 50 000
teachers and 4 000 projects have been registered, while a new eTwinning platform
was launched. In early 2009 the eTwinning motto has changed from "School
partnerships in Europe" to "The community for schools in Europe". In June 2009, the
eTwinning community consisted of nearly 65 000 members. In 2011 nearly 30 000

4. projects have been registered, the total number of registered teachers has increased
dramatically to 130 000, and the number of registered schools has been 90 000.
Currently (June 2012), more than 20 000 projects have been developed between two
or more schools across Europe, the total number of registered teachers is close to
170 000 and the number of involved schools is more than 90 000.
Operation
The main concept behind e-Twinning is that schools are paired with
another school elsewhere in the Europe and they collaboratively develop a project,
also known as e-Twinning project. The two schools then communicate using the
Internet (for example, by e-mail or video conferencing) to collaborate, share and
learn from each other. e-Twinning encourages and develops ICT skills as the main
activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school
also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students'
intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills.
e-Twinning projects last for any length of time ranging from only a week, to
months, up to creating permanent relationships between schools. Schools (both
primary and secondary) within the European Union member states can participate in
the eTwinning project, in addition to schools from Turkey, Norway and Iceland.
In contrast with other European programmes, such as the Comenius
programme, all communication is held via the internet and therefore there is no need
for grants. Along the same lines, face-to-face meetings between partners schools
are not required, though they are not prohibited and some schools organise face-to-
face meetings.
European schoolnet has been granted the role of Central Support Service
(CSS) at European level. e-Twinning is also supported by a network of National
Support Services (NSS).
e-Twinning for institutional and professional growth
e-Twinning has great potential to make a significant contribution to teachers
continuous professional development and lifelong learning at the European level as

5. well as national and local level. Teachers report that for the moment, e-Twinning is
not a trigger for professional development, but an added value. The challenge for the
Future is to find the means for e-Twinning to become that trigger. Often teachers
start an eTwinning project without Often teachers start an e-Twinning project without
thinking of it as a professional development activity, but in the course of the project
they realize that they are gaining new skills and competences. e-Twinning projects
have impacted their teaching practice in numerous ways, for instance:
• Making it was fun
• More interest in taking part in future projects
• Improvement of ICT skills
• Improving foreign languages and communication skills
• Learning about other school systems
• Learning new teaching techniques
• Improving skill to work in interdisciplinary teams
CONCLUSION
e-Twinning is a model of successful program that develops year after year
through a well thought out marketing policy that combines various volunteering
strategies which focus on different target-groups of people from competitions,
publications, prizes, free classes to rooms of teachers, groups and so on. The
common goal of all these efforts is to achieve a uniform European quality education
that improves the quality of education in Europe through cooperation and exchange
of ideas. All these objectives are to be achieved through ICT.
REFERENCES
1. The impact of teacher’s participation e-Twinning on their teaching and
training, Gabriela Ileana Crişan, Scoala Gimnaziala.
2. https//en.wikipedia.org//e-Twinning-Wikipedia
3. Learning with e-Twinning A Handbook for Teachers- Christina Crawley, Petru
Dumitru & Anne Gilleran ,