What's going on in Iceland

	Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Iceland? To learn about how eTwinning is working in Iceland, we recently talked to Gudmundur Ingi Markusson, the Coordinator for eTwinning in Iceland.

How does education in Iceland differ from other countries in Europe?
The Icelandic education system is rooted in Scandinavian soil. Apart from higher education, the system incorporates three levels: Pre-school, compulsory school (primary and lower secondary) and upper secondary school, with normal age ranges of 2-6, 6-16 and 16-19. The majority of children progress through all three levels.

How is ICT being implemented in Iceland?
While access and level of use may differ from one school to another, depending on support and school policy, Icelandic schools are very well equipped with ICT. This is particularly true for compulsory and upper secondary schools. Furthermore, high-speed internet access is ubiquitous throughout the school system. Thus, the infrastructure and technology is there for eTwinning to use.

Now in its fourth year, how has eTwinning impacted Iceland so far?
In the first three years, eTwinning was somewhat eclipsed by its cousin, the Comenius partnership programme, which held the gaze of partnership-minded teachers. However, this autumn, especially during the back-to-school weeks, we have seen almost a doubling of partnerships and registrations. Hence, we are really looking forward to further progress this year. We are also excited to see the success of our first eTwinners at pre-school level. The impact we expect from eTwinning is increased usage of the excellent ICT Icelandic teachers have at their disposal.

What kind of projects are Icelandic schools most often interested in?
We have a fair amount of distribution of subjects such as history, sagas, language, culture, math, sciences, the environment and energy. Themes that would be particularly apt for Iceland could be geothermal energy, islands, small states (the population is only 300.000), literature (such as sagas) and popular music (Björk and Sigur Rós being only the largest fish in a brimming musical pond). And of course, we have excellent teachers in most subjects.

Are there special eTwinning activities going on in Iceland?
We proudly held our first national prizes and conference last spring, awarding four great projects active during the previous school year. The event was a success and generated quite an attention within the school system—the benefits of which we are now reaping in numerous registrations and partnerships. We have now already launched our national competition, looking forward to another positive event this coming spring.

Do you have any advice for teachers who wish to twin up with schools in Iceland?
Apart from the usual suggestion of knowing what you want while being flexible at the same time, I would simply advise them to not hesitate and make contact! The number of registered Icelandic teachers is continually growing and most of them cannot wait to take a refreshing plunge into the digital stream!

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

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

• Education system
• General information (Wikipedia)
• eTwinning projects
• National Support Service

	Web Editor:	Christina Crawley

	Published :	23/11/2007

	Last changed :	23/11/2007

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