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A €7million scheme, called eTwinning, was launched to get at
least 150,000 schools involved. Three hundred teachers from 28
countries met in Brussels to kick off the program.
The goal of the eTwinning program is to work not just as a
pen-pal system between students, but to get teachers to
collaborate on joint teaching projects and to share ideas from
their own schools. The program’s developers say that the
intention of the program is for students to build a European
identity from an early age by improving their language skills
and cultural understanding.
Institutions register their details on a central web site and
can search a database of prospective partners to see if there is
a suitable match. Teachers and administrators can search by age
of pupils, subject or type of project.
The program must overcome some challenges, however, before it
can be judged a success. Although 93 percent of all schools
across Europe have internet access, this varies widely between
nations. In 2002, only 59 percent of schools in Greece were
connected to the Internet, compared with 99 percent or more in
Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and the UK.
Educators at the launch seemed enthusiastic about the program’s
prospects. One British school teacher said she feels that the UK
can be very insular, and is looking forward to sharing
pedagogical techniques with educators from around Europe.
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