eTwinning for DemocracyAnne Gilleran

PDW Goteborg, Sweden, 6 November 2008

Introductions

1. Democracy2. eTwinning3. The Internet phenomenon4. eTwinning & Democracy

What is Democracy?

It is derived from the Greek δηµοκρατία([dimokratia] (help·info)), "populargovernment” 5th - 4th Century BC

Do you know how many countries are in the world?

237 countries in the world

Do you know how many are democracies?

127 Electoral Democracies

A History lesson!

Who is this man?

Theodore Parker fromMassachusetts 1810–1860

‘Democracy is direct self-government, over all thepeople, for all the people, by allthe people’

And this man?

Abraham LincolnGettysburg Address 1863‘that all men are created equal.’

‘and that government of thepeople, by the people, for thepeople, shall not perish from theearth’.

The Consitution of the 5th RepublicFrance

States that the principle of the Republic ofFrance is

"gouvernement du peuple, par le peuple etpour le peuple"

a literal translation of Lincoln's words.

Wikipedia 5/11/2008 definition ofdemocracy

Even though there is no universally accepteddefinition of 'democracy',[4] there are twoprinciples that any definition of democracyincludes.

The first principle is that all members of thesociety have equal access to power

andthe second that all members enjoy universally

recognized freedoms and liberties.[5][6][7]

Another History lesson!

Now an accompanying measure to the Comenius programme

What is ?

?

eTwinning is

An initiative of the European Commissionto give an opportunity to as many EUchildren as possible to communicate withother children in other EU countriesusing Information and CommunicationTechnologies at school.

eTwinning

2005 - Officially launched in January

2007 - Officially Integrated into the Life Long Learning Programme

2013 - Due to run until this date

Central Support Service.

Run by the EuropeanSchoolnet on behalf of theEuropean Commission

National Support Service

(1 in each country)

Official Definition

eTwinning is a portal :

• Which takes advantage of the possibilities offered by the Internet and digital media

• to promote European school cooperation, collaborative learning and project based pedagogy.

• eTwinning does not finance single projects but supports them by offering tools and support.

Re-examine this sentence

To promote:

European school cooperationCollaborative learningProject based pedagogy.

Assumption

That teachers can only do these throughproject work

What has happened since 2005?

The Internet phenomenon

1. The Internet has changed

Pre 2004 Web 1.x– Passive– Read the news– Retrieve information

Essentially an online encyclopedia

Interactive & Creative Web 2.0

- make the news- publish ideas- create archives- comment on events- communicate

Phases of the Web

At the Technet Summit in November 2006,Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix,stated a simple formula for defining the phasesof the Web:– “ Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average

bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit ofbandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits ofbandwidth all the time, which will be the full videoWeb, and that will feel like Web 3.0.

Since 2005February 2004

January 2005

February 2005

October 2006February 2004.

200619992005/06

April 2006

http://election.twitter.com/

The Internet is democraticDemocracy and the WebEditorial New York Times - Published: May 19, 2008

‘Users of the Internet take for granted their ability to access allWeb sites on an equal basis. That could change, however, ifInternet service providers started discriminating amongcontent, to make more money or to suppress ideas they do notlike. A new Net neutrality bill has been introduced in theHouse, which would prohibit this sort of contentdiscrimination. Congress has delayed on this important issuetoo long and should pass net neutrality legislation now.’

eTwinning for Democracy

Who can join eTwinning?

What are the rules of eTwinning?

Who can benefit from eTwinning?

What has happened in eTwinning since 2005?

6 Nov 2008: 47630 active members

Active project run at approximately 15% of this figure

September 2005 7000 teachers registered

Image of the network of connected eTwinning schools in Europe

Networked World

eTwinning is not just about projects.Projects are the outcome of a much largerprocess

The process of community Social Networking

To benefit from a media you mustunderstand the media

What is the future?Teachers connected in groups 2008/2009

To collaborate and create together within and outside formalprojects

–Creativity–http://www.etwinning.net/creativity

–Maths & Science teachers–http://www.etwinning.net/mstgroup

–School Leaders www.etwinning.net/schoolleaders

–European eTwinning ambassadors–http://etwinningambassadorseurope.ning.com

2009

Online learning– eTwinning learning events– Professional development on line– communities of practice based on pedagogical

resources

eTwinning continues

To be supportive and offeropportunity for professionaldevelopment

To be connective & non bureaucraticTo offer recognition

To have built in qualityassurance at national andEuropean level in the formof Quality Labels

eTwinning also continues

To empower the teachers and pupils ofEurope to work together engaging andcreating ideas.

To provide the tools to promoteunderstanding between schools ofdifferent cultures

And

It still costs nothing!

Digital Natives?In this fast evolving world there are no natives!

But they all have a voice!

Over to You!

Thank you for your attention

anne.gilleran@eun.org

http://www.etwinning.net

Leonard CohenSong:Democracyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwb

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