eTwinning and the 2008 Year of Intercultural Dialogue

As 2008 marks the Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Europe, two new eTwinning project kits have been developed for schools to run projects on this featured topic.

Based on the kits, we would like to invite all eTwinning schools participate in one way or another, either as a full eTwinning project or as an activity or module within an existing project. The topic of intercultural dialogue is a great opportunity for pupils and teachers to share their experiences, cultural backgrounds and traditions as well as to discuss the importance and impact of this in our everyday lives.

The official website of the Year of Intercultural Dialogue also features a lot of great information, ideas and competitions that can be easily incorporated into eTwinning project work. Have a look!

Other news from the eTwinning portal...

Tools

Blogs and eTwinning
Blogs are an excellent and easy way to increase and facilitate communication in your eTwinning project. Anything, starting from ideas, news and links to pictures and videos can be published.

Kits
Energy is Our Future
Based on the Futurenergia school programme, a new kit on how to conserve energy and contribute to a sustainable future is now available. The kit is also linked to the Futurenergia school competition.

What's going on in the rest of Europe...

France/Spain: Contact Seminar
From 10-12 April, an eTwinning contact seminar in Spain brought together a total of 30 teachers between the twinned cities of Toulouse in France and Elche in Spain to meet, learn about eTwinning and start new partnerships.

The Netherlands: Prize Competition Launched
Dutch teachers can now apply for the national eTwinning prizes for innovative eTwinning projects in the 2007-2008 school year. The prizes will be awarded on 19 September and applications will be accepted up to 1 July 2008.

Slovenia: KONFeT 2008
On 14 April, Slovenian teachers met in Ljubljana to participate in lectures and workshops about new developments in the pedagogical use of ICT and the impact of international cooperation.  The highlight of the event was the “Zlati kabel” award ceremony.

Estonia: eTwinning Award Ceremony
On 7 March, The national Estonian award ceremony took place in Tallinn. The best 10 projects where awarded by Enel Magi from the Tiger Leap Foundation and Toivo Klaar from the European Commission representation in Estonia.

Greece: Completing first Online Seminar
The first online seminar called “Cross-curricular thematic approaches in eTwinning” took place from 25 February - 30 March on a Moodle platform supported by the Greek NSS. Created by eTwinning ambassadors, the seminar ran for 6 weeks.

United Kingdom: eTwinning Awards 2008
The 3rd annual UK eTwinning Awards will take place during the national conference on 14 June 2008. All projects active during the 2007/08 school year and which have been awarded a Quality Label by 23 May 2008 will be automatically considered for an award. Learn about last year’s winners through the website.

Portugal: eTwinning Pizza Tournament Winner
From 10-15 March, partners from 5 countries (Italy, Portugal, Romania, Latvia and Hungary) came together for an eTwinning pizza tournament in Italy. The Portuguese won the first prize with their codfish pizza: a touch of Portuguese taste to an Italian tradition!

Czech Republic: European Workshop
The latest European Professional Development Workshop took place in Prague from 3-5 April. About a hundred of teachers, lecturers and the professors of teacher training colleges and teacher training centres took part in that interesting event.

Spain: New Search Tool
Interested in running a project with a Spanish school? Visit the Spanish National Support Service site to use a new tool for schools across Europe to more easily find Spanish partners. By providing some basic information, a message will be posted online on your behalf.

Estonia: Seminar for Head Teachers
On 18 March, an eTwinning seminar was held for head teachers to introduce the eTwinning Action and its portal. Teachers presented their eTwinning projects and innovative methods in their every-day teaching, and discussed how to integrate eTwinning into the school curriculum.

Belgium: Flemish eTwinning Awards 2008
Until 20 April, Flemish teachers are invited to submit for the the annual eTwinning awards 2008. Nominated projects will participate to the award ceremony on 28 May where the winners will be announced. All interested teachers are welcome to attend the ceremony.

Sweden/Finland/Norway: eTwinning Workshop in Sápmi
From 23-25 April, teachers met in Karasjok, Norway, to work in eTwinning projects using the Sami language. The aim was to use eTwinning can be a means of networking and collaborating among teachers and pupils who live in different countries, but share the connection to Sami language and culture.

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