Interview with Aris Louvris

Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Greece? To learn about how eTwinning is working in Greece, we recently talked to Aris Louvris, the Information Coordinator for eTwinning in Greece.

1. How does education in Greece differ from other countries in Europe?

We strongly believe that education in our country differs somewhat because of our country’s geography: thousands of islands and varied morphology all over Greece make the scheme a bit difficult to decentralise. This polymorphic picture reflects regional differences in terms of both social and educational needs while also positioning a need for extra care in regards to bordering areas and areas that are difficult to access.

2. How is ICT being implemented in Greece?

Efforts have been made to integrate innovative actions and European or international collaboration into Greek curricula. Experimental methods of flexible curricula design are implemented at both primary and secondary school levels. Appropriate educational software is developed and distributed to the entire educational system and digital material, links, pedagogical articles and lesson plans are available from the official Educational Portal and Pedagogical Institute website.

Furthermore, the Greek Schools Network (GSN) is the educational intranet of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, which interlinks all schools and provides basic and advanced digital services. It thus contributes to the creation of a new generation of educational communities that takes advantage of ICT in the whole educational process.

Last but not least, the training of more than 80 000 Greek educators on basic ICT skills has been completed and a new training session for educators on advanced ICT use, by field, has been scheduled by the Ministry.

3. How has eTwinning impacted your country? How are schools and teachers responding to it?

eTwinning has been a great success in our country! So far teachers and pupils in the Hellenic schools have embraced the Action to an extent that gives us the strength to keep up the hard work in a unique team spirit. Up to now more than 900 Hellenic schools have registered (and we expect many more) and almost 400 partnerships have been established – which is quite an impressive figure by European standards! This high ratio (partnerships to registered schools at almost 45%) indicates the effectiveness of our eTwinning training campaign across Greece: 51 regional training workshops were conducted by the promoter task force in 2005-2006 and in the current school year, more than 70 workshops are being conducted all over Greece, from 15 November to 15 December 2006.

Having achieved satisfactory quantity indicators, the Hellenic NSS has decided that beyond numbers, it is time to invest in quality. We are therefore working towards this goal at this point in time.

4. What kind of projects are Greek schools most often interested in?

Exploratory, collaborative and cross-curriculum approaches to projects enrich the means and methods of teaching. There are, for instance, different cross-curricular and collaborative programmes in primary and secondary education, focusing on the environment, health and career education, as well as the programme 'Cultural affairs and arts competitions'. In addition, the programme 'Flexible Zone' is used in primary schools; in this programme, an educational topic is developed in a cross-curricular way with the collaboration of educators. It goes without saying that eTwinning is a great challenge for Hellenic schools as it gives a European dimension to the classroom.

5. Are there special eTwinning activities going on in Greece?

Our special task force of 36 teachers (30 regional ambassadors and 6 ambassadors in charge of a special field of interest, i.e., special needs) is carrying out more than 70 workshops across the country at the moment (Nov-Dec 2006). The workshops focus on the training of both inexperienced and advanced users on the eTwinning platform as well as on the means of incorporating eTwinning into the various school activities. A two-hour reduction in the teachers’ course load has been introduced this year as further motivation for their participation in an eTwinning collaboration project, even for projects of minimal duration (at least a five-month project).

6. Do you have any advice for teachers who are interested in twinning up with schools in Greece?

So far, our teachers have shown a strong eTwinning spirit! With three foreign languages officially taught in Hellenic schools (English, French and German), and the establishment of the importance of using ICT as a great tool to communicate and exchange pedagogical methods and ideas, there seems to be a great interest in "learning through practice and collaboration". We invite teachers to share the enthusiasm Hellenic teachers have for eTwinning, to twin up with the birthplace of western culture and civilisation and, at the same time, take a virtual tour to a country famous for its history! Our motto applies to the whole eTwinning community: KEEP ON e(T)WINNING!

Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Greece?

Learn more about Greece by having a look at information on its national school structure and eTwinning projects.