EC school e-twinning project enjoying growing popularity in Hungary

Primary and secondary school children from 25 European countries, including Hungary, have been keen on finding partnerships in schools on the continent. To make this process easier, an e-twinning project was launched by the European Commission at the beginning of this year as part of the e-learning programme, to give the opportunity for schools to learn from and with each other and to make friends; all this using modern information and communication technology.

The Hungarian coordinator of the project, Marta Snopek, told Radio Budapest how it has been faring in Hungary:

"The e-twinning project can be defined as a long-term partnership, where at least two schools from at least two different European countries use information and communication tools to work on a project together."

How has it been received in Hungary?

"Well, there is quite a significant interest from Hungarian teachers. The programme started in January and we already have more than two hundred schools registered and about twenty-five of them already work together with European partner schools. There is, for example, a partnership between a Hungarian school and an Icelandic school and the title of their project is Water and Fire and it's basically on geo-thermal energy and its uses. Another partnership between a Hungarian and an Italian school focuses on Hungarian and Italian cuisine and a third partnership called The Beauty of a Small River is between a school in Hungary and one in Latvia. So, there is a great variety of European countries, as well as subjects."

These children use information technology. So does that mean that they have to be IT literate?

"To some extent 'yes' but neither the students nor the teachers have to be ITC experts. That is not necessary. But they obviously have to be able to use some of these tools to some extent, such as the Internet, e-mail, and chat."

What language do they communicate in?

"That's their choice. It depends on what language they speak and what language is spoken by their partner school. It tends to be English but it can be any other language. There is a Hungarian school, for example, where the group of students taking part in this project study Italian and they can set up a partnership with an Italian school and co-operate in Italian. It really is their free choice."

What is the advantage of such a project? How does it differ from other school partnership programmes?

"What is different from other school partnership projects is the role and use of ICT, which this project is based on. What this entails is that it improves the ICT skills of teachers and students."

Is there any possibility for the students to meet their partners in person?

"Of course there is always the possibility but this is not an integral part of the project. These partnerships that are formed within the framework of e-twinning are often (or will hopefully be) long-term partnerships. So, meeting in person is probably an inevitable part."

You have launched a competition. What is it exactly?

"There will be two competitions. One of them is an international competition - for more details visit the European portal at www.etwinning.net. The best partnerships are awarded with very nice prizes. The first prize is a meeting of the school partners in a European city of their choice. There will also be a national competition with prizes to help the e-twinning groups to travel to their partners and meet in person."