Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 8, Nos.

3/4, 2016 279

Creativity and innovation in European education.

Ten years eTwinning. Past, present and the future

Stamatios Papadakis
Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Crete,
Mnisikli 38, 71305 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Email: stpapadakis@gmail.com

Abstract: In recent decades, the importance of information and communication

technologies (ICT) has become largely accepted at all levels of education. The
European Union could not remain uninvolved since one of the most significant
steps in the ICT diffusion in education is the eTwinning action. Launched in
2005 as the main action of the European Commission e-Learning Programme,
eTwinning has been firmly integrated into Erasmus+, the European Programme
for Education, Training, Youth and Sport, since 2014. Objectives of the action
include facilitating communication, developing relationships between European
schools, as well as enhancing students and teachers abilities in the use of
new technologies, foreign languages and developing intercultural awareness.
Currently, more than 358,000 teachers from 36 European countries and
155,000 schools are participating in eTwinning having implemented more than
40,000 projects. The aim of this paper is to inform the educational community
about the action and the benefits of using eTwinning in schools.

Keywords: eTwinning; information and communication technologies; ICT;

European Union; online collaboration; primary education; secondary education.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Papadakis, St. (2016)

Creativity and innovation in European education. Ten years eTwinning. Past,
present and the future, Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 8,
Nos. 3/4, pp.279296.

Biographical notes: Stamatios Papadakis is a graduate of the Economics and

Business (AUEB) University, Athens, Greece, Department of Information. He
received his MSc in Education from the University of the Aegean, Greece and
PhD from the University of Crete, School of Education. He has been working
for a series of years as an ICT Teacher in public sector secondary education. He
has published many articles in journals and has presented several papers in
conferences. His research interests include ICT in education, mobile learning,
novice programming environments and teaching of programming in primary
and secondary education.

1 Introduction

Education is one of the key levers to ensure prosperity and competitiveness in a

globalised world (Scott, 2015). All over the world, education policymakers work to
improve the various education systems in order to create a stable basis for sustainable
development in the 21st century (Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010). The primary
purpose of education is not only to develop knowledge, skills, competencies, and

Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

280 St. Papadakis

attitudes but also to help young people to become active, responsible, open-minded
members of society (Informal Meeting of European Union Education Ministers, 2015).
The European Union through the initiative Europe 2020 recognises that a fundamental
transformation of education and training is necessary in order for the member states to
cope with the range of new skills and competencies required in the era of the information
society (European Commission, 2011). According to Europe 2020 strategy, the goal is
for Europe to remain the most competitive economy while overcoming the current
economic situation and understanding new opportunities that arise from the crisis
(Grosjean, 2015).
Education stakeholders on EU level recognise the contribution of information and
communication technologies (ICT) in achieving the aforementioned objectives,
promoting at European and member state level the catalytic role of ICTs in the
development of innovation and creativity. ICT can support and enhance learning
(Kalogiannakis, 2008; Kalogiannakis et al., 2009). Students that are unable to navigate
through a complex digital landscape will no longer be able to participate fully in the
economic, social and cultural life around them. ICT also provides students with new
ways to practice their skills e.g. maintaining a personal web page or online publication,
programming computers, talking and listening to native speakers when learning a second
language, and/or preparing a multimedia presentation, whether alone or as part of a
remotely connected team (OECD, 2015). Especially over the last decade, a real
revolution in education occurred with the adoption of new technological environments
and Web 2.0 applications such as social networking (Kalogiannakis and Papadakis,
2008; Moyle, 2010). However, few existing educational practices actually support
social-constructivist learning models, which through authentic tasks in a meaningful
context emphasise knowledge construction by perceiving learning as an active and not a
passive process (Woo and Reeves, 2007).
Nevertheless, despite the recognised positive role of the use of ICT at all educational
levels, in fact, the results from the integration of ICT in European schools are not
encouraging. As OECD (2015) states in schools, we have not yet become good enough at
the kind of pedagogies that make the most of the technology; that adding 21st century
technologies to 20th century teaching practices will just dilute the effectiveness of
teaching. Timelessly problems such as the cumbersome, overloaded and anachronistic
curriculum, the outdated technological equipment, the inadequate (or inappropriate)
experience of teachers with the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning (e.g.
Web 2.0) contribute to schools not deriving the benefits of new technologies for the
modernisation of learning and teaching practices (Bingimlas, 2009; Koehler and Mishra,
2009; Kumar, 2015).
The European initiative under the name eTwinning aims to promote new and
innovative ways for ICT use in European schools through school twinnings encouraging
online collaboration among students and teachers (Galvin et al., 2006). It aims to promote
European teachers collaboration through the use of ICT. Within the eTwinning
community, members share knowledge, good practices and communicate with each other
via a diverse set of communication tools, including face-to-face communication and ICT.
Teachers (eTwinners) from pre-school, primary, secondary and upper schools can all
participate in eTwinning to exchange and collaborate, as well as to learn new ICT skills,
communication skills, teaching skills, and interdisciplinary working skills (i.e. the 21st
century skills) (Pham et al., 2012).
 Creativity and innovation in European education 281

Briefly, eTwinning is an institutionalised collaborative learning environment as well

as an educational social network within which the educational community cooperates
remotely synchronously or asynchronously with the use of internet technology in order to
conduct a common project. Numbering approximately 358,000 registered members from
across the European education community, it contributes to a growing number of teachers
in finding new efficient ways to integrate technology into their daily teaching practices
for developing teaching and learning innovations.

2 An introduction to eTwinning

Diachronically, the European Commission has a history of successful programs under

reconciliation of school life and European integration. For example, the Comenius
program (20072013), as part of the European Commissions Lifelong Learning
Programme (LLP) had played a major role in the middle of last decade in opening the
school gates to European cooperation (Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010).
Comenius program (20072013) enabled an impressive number of teachers, students
and other educational actors to participate in a variety of cross-border cooperation
projects in order to improve their communication skills, to exchange experiences and
finally help them improve their teaching-learning skills. Today, eTwinning the
community for schools in Europe is perhaps the largest network of teachers in the
history of education (Kearney and Gras-Velzquez, 2015). The initiative is an element
of teachers professional development, providing continual knowledge and skill
enhancement opportunities that aim at the improvement of their learning and teaching
methods with the students as direct recipients (Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010).
The eTwinning (initiative or action), as successor to the Comenius program, evolved
into a community for schools in Europe from the very first moment, via a free and secure
platform for teachers and students enabling them to connect and develop collaborative
projects and share ideas around Europe (eTwinning.net, 2016). The eTwinning action
provides European schools with the possibility of international electronic partnerships, or
in other words, a medium-platform for online communication, idea expression and
implementation of online collaborative projects. An eTwinning project offers an
opportunity for cooperation between teachers and students, of at least, two European
schools that work together with the use of ICT. As of 2014, national projects can also be
set up by at least two schools of the same country, as the first step to European
collaboration (Kearney and Gras-Velzquez, 2015).
At the same time, eTwinning creates a professional cooperation network among
European teachers (Gilleran, 2006). A number of studies show the effectiveness of
eTwinning as an innovative project that provides students and teachers with an
opportunity to implement effective instructional practices and projects which promote
21st century skills (Crawley et al., 2010b; Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010; European
Commission, 2013a).
For the last ten years, eTwinning exists as a part of a sub-programme in larger scale
cooperation projects of the European Commission such as Comenius and Erasmus+.
eTwinning does not offer funding for individual projects but offers tools and support to
teachers and students, such as the eTwinning portal (http://www.etwinning.net) and
seminars for teachers. National Support Services (NSS), as organisations that represent
and promote eTwinning in all EU countries, as well as Croatia, Iceland, Norway and
282 St. Papadakis

Turkey, provide training and user support over the telephone or online, organise meetings
and national competitions, and perform promotional campaigns. Ten years after its
introduction, the eTwinning initiative evolved from a partner-finding tool for teachers to
a rich, Europe-wide community of teaching and learning, constituting a rapidly growing
community between European schools (Brecko et al., 2014). In February 2016, according
to official statistics of the initiative, approximately 360,000 teachers have registered so
far, more than 155,000 school units from the 28 member states of the European Union
and other countries such as Albania, Norway, etc. (https://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/
news/press_corner/statistics.cfm).
Additionally, eTwinning Plus (eTwinning+) is a project that provides a platform for
schools in Europes immediate neighbourhood to link with schools participating in
eTwinning. The eTwinning+ countries are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova,
Tunisia, and Ukraine. A specific portal is dedicated to eTwinning+ at plus.etwinning.net
(Kearney and Gras-Velzquez, 2015). Tunisia is the first non-European country, which
inaugurates twinning with other continents. Those interested can find official statistics
available for individual countries as well as an interactive map of eTwinning coverage at
https://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/connect/browse_people_schools_and_pro.htm.
Undoubtedly, designed as an online platform dedicated to school partnerships,
eTwinning has become in only a few years, a social network for teachers that provides
them with great tools for a community-based education. Someone could argue that
eTwinning aspires to play a role of Facebook of the educational community via its social
networking opportunities. However, the similarity between the two networks is limited to
their social features. The eTwinning is much more than an educational Facebook, as it
provides students and teachers with a safe Web 2.0 environment (Crawley et al., 2009b;
Kampylis et al., 2012). It provides registered eTwinning users (eTwinners) with a range
of options (Web 2.0 tools) such as desktop, TwinSpace, newsgroups, webinars to
exchange training materials and dissemination of good practices broadening its horizons
and optimising its skills and competencies as a support in their professional development
(Gilleran, 2006; Crawley et al., 2010a).
Todays students are active learners rather than spectators. This transformation is a
significant and one for which todays schools must be prepared (Scott, 2015).
Technology supports new pedagogies that focus on learners as active participants with
tools for inquiry-based pedagogies and collaborative workspaces (OECD, 2015).
Additionally, one in three internet users are students and they spend more and more time
on social media, playing online games or using mobile apps (Digital Agenda for Europe,
2016). For students, eTwinning offers opportunities to collaborate with classmates from
diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds supporting and contributing to the
development of their language and cultural skills. The age of eTwinnings target audience
is in the age scope of 3 to 19 years. It is therefore aimed at students who attended
pre-school, primary and secondary education (general and vocational).
The duration of a project can vary from one week to several months depending on its
quality and scopes and though it may even be a permanent twinning. Correspondingly,
the working language may be any as long as the project partners have agreed to the use of
it. Kampylis et al. (2013) refer to the findings of the European Commission survey of
6,000 eTwinners, which identified benefits of involvement in an eTwinning project
among the educational community. These focus on increasing friendship feeling as well
as the sense of belonging to a wider international community. Other benefits of
eTwinning focused on increasing opportunities for cooperation and experimentation with
 Creativity and innovation in European education 283

the use of ICT, and the various skills acquisition related to the professional, social and
cultural life in other countries. In general, the benefits that eTwinning brings in the
educational community can be summarised as follows:
a an increasing motivation and improvement in the learning outcomes of students
b in the development of electronic pedagogy
c in professional and pedagogical development of teachers
d a growing culture of cooperation within and among school units.
As characteristically mentioned by Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture,
Jn Figel in his speech during the European eTwinning prize ceremony which took place
in 2009,
the becoming increasingly success of eTwinning is an example to foster
creativity in education. We need to promote innovation through education in
order to improve the quality and effectiveness of Europes school systems and
support young Europeans to be prepared for the society and economy of the
future. (European Commission, 2009)
Figure 1 shows the rapid acceptance of eTwinning within the educational community as
reflected by the number of registered users (eTwinners), as well as the number of
projects, messages, and comments among users between 2005 and 2012.

Figure 1 Registered users, projects, messages and comments among them (see online version
for colours)

Source: Pham et al. (2012)

284 St. Papadakis

3 The past, the present and the future of eTwinning

3.1 The past

January 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the eTwinning. The initiative
eTwinning was officially launched on 14 January 2005 under the eLearning Programme
20042006 as a tool for in-service teacher training in the use of ICT and in European
cooperation. The projects conceptual idea emerged from the European Council
conclusions in Barcelona, Spain in March 2002. At this meeting, the importance of
improving European cooperation through school education was emphasised. The
electronic twinning of schools as an opportunity for the educational community both to
learn and practice ICT skills and to promote the idea of the European multicultural social
model was also first recognised by the European Union member states (Papadakis and
Kalogiannakis, 2010).
In summary, the primary objective of eTwinning was to develop and/or strengthen
networking in schools through a pan-European scheme, which would enable a European
school to create and implement pedagogical partnerships with one or more schools
anywhere in Europe (European Commission, 2014a). As the European Commission
stated in its amended proposal for the adoption of the multi-annual program (20042006)
for the effective integration of ICT in education and training systems in Europe,
e-twinning of schools in Europe and promotion of teachers training include
actions in the education area that will support and further develop existing
schools and networking, to make it possible for all schools in Europe to build
pedagogical partnerships with a school elsewhere in Europe; to promote
innovative cooperation methods and transfer quality educational approaches
and reinforce language learning and intercultural dialogue; Actions in this area
will also address teachers and trainers skills in the pedagogical and
collaborative use of ICT through an exchange of good practices and the setting
up of transnational and multidisciplinary projects. [European Commission,
(2003), p.4]
The eTwinning action at its beginning, aimed at the twinning of schools in Europe for
joint projects through the wide use of ICT by providing the necessary infrastructure
(online tools, services, and support). Twinnings via the internet are defined as the use of
multimedia and information exchange tools (e-mail, video conferencing, and websites)
for the creation, expansion, and management of the cooperation between schools. An
eTwinning action is implemented in a non-formal way, enabling teachers to work
together as long as they think it is necessary for the implementation of their project
without the major commitment of long-term cooperation undertaken under the Comenius
(Gilleran, 2007) or the Erasmus+ type programs.
In 2007, eTwinning was fully integrated into the LLP, as part of the sub-programmes
Comenius. The objectives of Comenius were to enhance the quality and reinforce the
European dimension of school education, in particular by encouraging transnational
cooperation between schools and contributing to improved professional development of
staff directly involved in the school education sector, and to promote the learning of
languages and intercultural awareness (EACEA, 2007).
The year 2008 was a key year for the development of eTwinning. Turning points
were the introduction of the new digital portal, the clearest orientation of the platform in
interactive, collaborative, and multimedia Web 2.0 services, and the development of
 Creativity and innovation in European education 285

social networking within the project (Crawley et al., 2009). These changes had
immediately amazingly a positive impact on the degree of new users registration. While
the growth rate of new users in eTwinning was stable during the first four years of the
initiative (20052008) with an annual average growth rate of just over 80%, during the
school year 20082009, there was an increase of 300% compared to the previous year
(20072008) (Kampylis et al., 2013).
During 2009, eTwinning groups were made available to users. The eTwinning
Groups are private platforms for eTwinners, in which they can optionally participate in
order to discuss and work together on a specific topic or task using a variety of Web 2.0
services (such as forums, wikis, blogs, image galleries, etc.), and/or take part in online
activities based on their interests such as online workshops (webinars), expert
discussions, etc. Respectively, in early 2009, the eTwinning motto was changed from
school partnerships in Europe to the community for schools in Europe (Crawley et al.,
2010a). From October 2010, eTwinning witnessed a faster increase in the number of
messages as a new tool called My Journals (a replacement of Teacher Wall) was
launched. This new tool provides a better environment for message exchange between
eTwinners: posting messages on their own profile and on other teachers profiles is made
easier (Pham et al., 2012).
According to Wastiau et al. (2011), in the first six years of eTwinning (20052010),
at least, 750,000 students were involved from 33 different European countries. The same
researchers mentioned that according to the program data for the year 2012, the average
ratio of registered eTwinners per school unit was 1.96 persons while approximately 40%
of registered schools in eTwinning were involved with more than one-registered teachers.
In September 2012, eTwinning renewed its portal. By the end of the same year
followed respectively the renewed TwinSpace. The TwinSpace is a virtual classroom
where eTwinning partnerships run their projects (Crawley, 2009). As shown in Figure 2,
there is a long-enduring increasing trend of registered users and eTwinning projects
between 2005 and 2012.

Figure 2 Statistics of users and projects between the years 20052012 (see online version
for colours)

Source: Kampylis et al. (2013)

286 St. Papadakis

Additionally, since its early stages of eTwinning, the central support service (CSS) in
Brussels realised the need for a systematic support for teachers professional
development. In this context, various actions were organised from CSS in late 2005
(European Commission, 2013a). These included at European level, professional
development workshops for teachers and at member-states level, the organisation of
online courses from the respective NSS. A major transformation in the professional
development of teachers took place in 2008 as eTwinning orientation moved across the
community for schools in Europe and focused on building a network for professional
development opportunities for teachers. As a result, the introduction of various training
actions such as the implementation of regional development workshops (online and
face-to-face), the creation of digital groups and classrooms of teachers were intensified
(Vuorikari et al., 2011).

3.2 The present

At present, in its tenth anniversary, eTwinning is acknowledged by official educational
institutions as an officially teacher professional development network (see Figure 3). It
has gained a solid organisational structure and adequate viability plans for the future.
European commission views eTwinning as an environment to cultivate and promote the
school communication and collaboration in Europe through the use of ICT. Teachers in
Europe view eTwinning as an opportunity to communicate, to collaborate and to develop
their profession (Pham et al., 2012). In addition, the implementation of eTwinning and
eTwinning+ in the Erasmus+ program, the European Union Programme for Education,
Training, Youth and Sport for 20142020, has ensured the continuation of both actions
for the next years.

Figure 3 School partnerships across Europe via eTwinning (see online version for colours)

Source: Pham et al. (2012)

As already mentioned in previous paragraphs, eTwinning+ was launched in 2013 in the
framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. It offers the possibility to establish
collaboration links with schools in Europe through a partial participation in eTwinning to
teachers from pre-selected schools from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova,
Tunisia, and Ukraine (see Figure 4) (European Commission, 2014b).
 Creativity and innovation in European education 287

Figure 4 Maps of countries participating in eTwinning and eTwinning + actions (see online
version for colours)

As part of the Erasmus for All project, the European Commission has upgraded
eTwinning as a platform for all schools wishing to cooperate across borders with the
support of the European Union. The European Commission aspires the eTwinning action
to serve as the foundation and the connecting link for European cooperation between
schools. Within this framework, the European Commission has already implemented the
following initiatives:
the enrichment of the eTwinning platform with new possibilities for strengthening
cooperation between the schools
the creation of a new European educational portal parallel to the eTwinning platform,
which will provide tools that facilitate cooperative work among education
policymakers, school leaders, and educational institutes
the creation of a special platform, which will allow European educators to network
and collaborate with teachers from other parts of the world
a major expansion of professional development opportunities already offered to
educational community.
Figure 5 shows the successive phases and milestones in the development of the
eTwinning action from the year 2005 until 2014.

Figure 5 The successive phases and milestones in the development of the eTwinning action
(see online version for colours)

Source: Brecko et al. (2014)

288 St. Papadakis

3.3 The future

A key factor in the sustainability of any European program is the constant funding from
the European Commission. The eTwinning action as a result of its inclusion in the
Erasmus+ Programme has ensured uninterrupted funding until 2020. Additionally, the
qualitative statistics of the action, such as the high number of teachers and schools
involved in eTwinning projects develop a more sustainable future. It is positively
supported by the fact that eTwinning is the only European action that uses social
networking mechanisms to strengthen cooperation, communication and intercultural
awareness in school communities across Europe (Grosjean, 2015).
The way in which the European Commission addresses the eTwinning action is
reflected in the speech of the European Commissioner for Education, Culture,
Multilingualism and Youth, Mrs. Androulla Vassiliou who has stated that
The eTwinning initiative has been a success story from the start. It promotes
learning and creativity, as well as giving young people a sense of pride in being
European. eTwinning has no fixed agenda it includes everything from
encouraging youngsters to use their school library to promoting language
learning. Above all, its about using ICT to help children achieve their full
potential. (European Commission, 2011)
Figure 6 shows the active connections between countries per school partnerships and by
object partnership.

Figure 6 Connections between European countries per school partnership and partnership object
(see online version for colours)

Source: Pham et al. (2012)

4 The structure of an eTwinning action

The eTwinning action constitutes a schools community of Europe, or more

technocratically, a modern and secure web platform where teachers using ICT can search
for colleagues and cooperate in common actions (Vuorikari et al., 2011). It provides
flexible support for group interaction in collaborative school projects and has quite a
 Creativity and innovation in European education 289

unique design and structure on the level of support provided to school community
(Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010). The central core of action success is the eTwinning
portal (http://www.eTwinning.net), a communication platform that is built with Web
2.0 technology and is available in all national languages, offering a wide range of
software tools to teachers and students.
One of the most successful and unique features of the eTwinning action is the
existence of active support services at both European and national level. At European
level, there is the CSS, run by European Schoolnet or EUN on behalf of the
European Commission, and fulfils a number of roles and duties. The most important
are the development and operational support of the eTwinning European portal,
(http://www.eTwinning.net), which has both public and private areas and is available in
28 languages. The private area offers browsing visitors a range of information about how
to become involved in eTwinning; explaining the benefits the action offers and providing
inspiration for collaborative project work. The private area of eTwinning is restricted to
registered users, mainly teachers, and comprises a range of communication and
collaboration features. In the autumn of 2015, the eTwinning Desktop has changed to a
new version called eTwinning Live (https://live.etwinning.net) with more advanced
social networking and collaboration features, including the facility to set up live video
conferencing sessions (Kearney and Gras-Velzquez, 2015).
The NSS promotes and contributes to the consolidation of the eTwinning action in
each country. Each NSS provides training, assistance, support and advice to teachers as
well as a way to track the progress of the eTwinning projects. It can also organise
national conferences and competitions related to eTwinning, publish newsletters and
promotional material and maintain a national website of the action. Also with the help of
local action ambassadors, it organises workshops, seminars and information events at
region and/or county level.
Yet another unique aspect of eTwinning is the range of competitions for teachers and
schools who implement an eTwinning action. First, there is an annual European
eTwinning prize, which attracts hundreds of entries each year. eTwinning prizes are
awarded to projects. They are of European level and are called European eTwinning
Prizes. Each prize is connected to an application submitted by the eTwinner (Pham et al.,
2012). This prize provides participation of teachers and students of the winning teams in
an eTwinning camp that usually takes place in April. Secondly, there is a Quality Label,
which is awarded for the professionalism and quality of eTwinners work. The process for
achieving the Quality Label is relatively simple. School units make a relevant
application in the NSS requesting a prize and the respective NSS assesses the quality of
the work completed by the partnership. If the school partners are awarded the Quality
Label by the NSS of each country, then, participants also receive a European Quality
Label from the CSS as an acknowledgment and reward for their efforts (Gilleran, 2007).
Pupils are given recognition in the form of National Quality Label certificates (Kearney
and Gras-Velzquez, 2015).

5 Problems in the implementation of eTwinning

The distributed organisation of the eTwinning action with the existence of a CSS, the
NSS and a number of ambassadors (experienced eTwinners working at local level to
support other teachers and promote eTwinning) allows a certain degree of autonomy
290 St. Papadakis

between national, regional and central administration level (Brussels). In addition, the
structure of the project creates a safe and supportive environment for the educational
community (Papadakis and Kalogiannakis, 2010). However, in its ten years of existence,
it has not eliminated various problems and difficulties that mainly relate to flexibility
issues, the open character and its interoperability with other networks and initiatives
(European Commission, 2013b, 2013c).
Inevitably, there are still factors that hinder the integration and expandability of
eTwinning in the educational community. Kampylis et al. (2013) identify the lack of free
time during regular school hours as the most important obstacle to the integration of
eTwinning, combined with an unfavourable school environment characterised by
deficiencies in
a ICT infrastructure
b support to teachers by their colleague
c a prescriptive and non-flexible curriculum.
Moreover, even when teachers invest in the development of eTwinning projects beyond
the formal school environment, their efforts are still hampered by the limited or the lack
of official recognition from the national educational authorities. Even today ten years
after its initial release the eTwinning activities are not sufficiently integrated into a
number of national accreditation, reward, and recognition schemes. However, such
formal recognition should be implemented in a manner that does not eliminate the open,
flexible and non-bureaucratic characteristics of eTwinning.
A surprising and unexpected challenge in an eTwinning project implementation is the
nature of the action itself. Undoubtedly, one of the most positive benefits of teachers
involvement in eTwinning projects is the development of their digital skills and the
improvement of their self-efficacy on the use of ICT. However, the lack of digital skills
(digital poverty) (Kalogiannakis and Papadakis, 2008) even today by many teachers
across Europe remains an obstacle to the participation of the majority of teachers in
eTwinning projects (Kampylis et al., 2013). Other problems frequently cited by
eTwinners relate to a lack of funding for the various activities that take place in project
implementation, the lack of their education and/or their limited experience in
constructivist approaches and social constructivism activities, which constitute the
majority of actions that occur when implementing an eTwinning project.

6 Pedagogical use of eTwinning

Pedagogical literature defines educational innovation as every widespread

intervention/interjection in education, which is based on pioneering and innovative
teaching principles and ideas and their use in bringing forth significant changes in
attitudes, practices, roles and the overall culture of school (Matsagouras, 2011).
Pedagogically, eTwinning action can be seen in the light of cooperative learning
(learning via electronic interaction) and/or e-learning (learning by using ICT) (Kolourioti,
2013). Methodologically, eTwinning partnerships look like research projects, which are
considered the ideal context of student socio-cultural development and an appropriate
transition from the concept-oriented teaching in the interdisciplinary collaboration and
practice (Matsagouras, 2011). An eTwinning project except an electronic collaborative
 Creativity and innovation in European education 291

learning practice embodies an interdisciplinary approach to teaching (Kolourioti, 2013).

Research analysis indicates that eTwinning collaboration is interdisciplinary as projects
cover multiple subjects, which is reflected by the cohesiveness of the subject network. On
the other hand, the cohesiveness of the language network shows another evidence of the
international nature of eTwinning collaboration (Pham et al., 2012). Another key aspect
that emerges from eTwinning projects is the importance they place to allowing students
to take responsibility for their own learning. This is achieved by ensuring that students
have a say in the topics they focus on and the roles they will take on within the
implementation of the project (Gilleran and Kearney, 2014).
ICT is a key tool for students participating in cooperative learning activities in
eTwinning projects, as students are encouraged to communicate and operate throughout
the TwinSpace platform (http://twinspace.etwinning.net) (Figure 7). The geographical
distance of students requires the use of this platform, but also the web platform acts as a
learning field ensuring the educational character of the action. The implementation of an
eTwinning action in the long term contributes towards teachers and students improving
their literacy and training in ICT services, developing communication skills in English
and other foreign languages as well as fostering knowledge acquisition on democratic
citizenship, human rights, and intercultural dialogue.

Figure 7 An example of the TwinSpace platform of an active eTwinning project (see online
version for colours)

An eTwinning action offers many opportunities to a participating teacher, mainly in the

development of European key competencies. Key competencies are considered essential
skills and attitudes for Europeans to succeed not only in todays economy and modern
society but also in their personal lives. They are defined at European Union level and
comprise the following:
1 ability to readily and easily communicate in the mother tongue
2 the ability to speak foreign languages
292 St. Papadakis

3 mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology

4 IT skills
5 social and civic competencies
6 sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
7 capacity to learn how to learn
8 cultural awareness and expression (European Commission, 2012).
Moreover, the integration of eTwinning action in European education systems is the
key to achieving the key objectives of the program Lifelong EU Learning, which is
based on the four pillars of learning, as proposed by the International Commission for the
21st century. A central argument is that if education is to succeed in its tasks, the core of
its curriculum should be restructured or repacked around the four pillars of learning:
learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be (Nan-Zhao,
2005).
The result of a large-scale survey of eTwinning teachers that was launched at the end
of 2014 showed that a large majority of respondents believe that the top skill most
impacted by eTwinning is their ability to teach cross-curricular skills (such as teamwork,
creativity, problem-solving, and decision taking). The eTwinners also claimed that this is
the practice they implement the most, now more than before, as a direct result of their
involvement in the program. Additionally, they noticed that eTwinning action offers them
positive impact on their project-based teaching skills, foreign language skills and
collaborative skills in working with teachers of other subjects. The report suggests that
eTwinning might be more proactive in the future in developing specific activities to
support the pedagogical use of ICT, parental interest and involvement in European
projects, and the learning of students with special educational needs (Kearney and
Gras-Velzquez, 2015).
In summary, the implementation of the eTwinning action is considered quite
beneficial for the educational community, for the following reasons (Theofanelis, 2013):
It is quite simple in its implementation as it is easy for teachers to find partners.
Often, even, a teacher does not need to create a project as he/she may participate in
existing ones.
It is suitable for all ages and all levels of knowledge of a foreign language.
It ensures students active involvement in project implementation as it is done with
ICT, which is consistent with the interests of young people.
The implementation of an action is financially feasible as it utilises existing school
resources.
The implementation of an action does not require long-term commitments such as
Erasmus+ projects, providing flexibility for action members to define its duration
from week(s) to month(s).
The web portal of the action provides a safe environment for the educational
community for digital content management.
 Creativity and innovation in European education 293

The web portal of the action at central (CSS) and national level (NSS) provides the
necessary online tools for project implementation.
Last but not least, the possibility of obtaining the eTwinning Quality Label at
national or European level is a milestone for the educational community acting as a
key factor in successful project implementation.

7 Conclusions

The pedagogical and didactic theories demand a more efficient school and propose
the redevelopment of the classroom environment (Pearshouse et al., 2009). Modern
constructivist educational approaches place particular emphasis on the active
participation of students, in group work, the guided discovery learning and the interaction
with adults or more capable peers (Aldhahery et al., 2014).
Undoubtedly, the eTwinning action is a European project that is unique in size and
scope, and there is no previous or comparable activity within or outside of Europe
(European Commission, 2014a). The eTwinning action has strengthened and developed
school networking via a European-wide scheme that would make it possible for all
European schools to build pedagogical partnerships with a school elsewhere in Europe.
The eTwinning members cover almost all of European countries and this is one of the
evidence showing that eTwinning has reached its goal: a contact point to support teachers
and schools all over Europe to collaborate and communicate (Pham et al., 2012).
In summary, the eTwinning action is an open, secure, without cost and bureaucracy,
educational network which brings together the entire European (and not only) educational
community (teachers, students, schools) under one umbrella enabling innovation in
learning and teaching practices. The eTwinning action uses tools and ICT services to
facilitate schools partnerships from pre-primary to upper secondary level in any subject
area. The use of online community software, eTwinning Live (https://live.etwinning.net)
allow to virtually connect educational staff with common interests.
At the student level, it enables direct contact with other students around Europe, gives
them the opportunity to exchange information and express their opinions, enhancing
cooperation between the European schools and therefore contributing to European
identity formation. It also provides students with the opportunity to improve their
language skills as well as to acquire their knowledge in ICT skills through their project
activities.
In addition, the implementation of an eTwinning project unites not only the students
from different schools across Europe but also teachers from the same school units, since a
project may require the cooperation of teachers of various learning objects and subjects
(e.g. informatics, mathematics, biology, etc.). Besides provided possibilities for teachers
social interaction, eTwinning action contributes significantly to teachers professional
development while often working complementary to the implementation of the
formulated national targets relating to the training of teachers. In short, it fosters quality
improvements, innovation excellence and internationalisation at the level of education.
In conclusion, what the education sector today needs is a collaborative educational
model, which makes use of free technological tools in such a way that in parallel
improves the cognitive and critical skills of learners. In this scope, the eTwinning action
294 St. Papadakis

has already offered a lot and has much more to offer in the near future. It is in the hand of
the educational community to grasp that unique opportunity.

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