Digital School: Knockaclarig N S wins EU eTwinning Competition

Well done Knockaclarig National School, Castleisland, Co. Kerry.  The school has been announced as a winner in its category in a Europe-wide competition for schools involved in eTwinning. A joint project between Knockaclarig (Ireland), and its partner school in Vindängen (Sweden) with a project called "Make a film and share IT with friends 2.0!" won the award in the category for Age category 4-11. The pupils teamed up to produce films on topics picked from the syllabus. They also run their own project blog where they share and discuss the films.

At this year's annual eTwinning conference in Prague from 13-15 February the EU Commission announced the ten category winners in e-Twinning school projects. The jury said it had chosen the Knockaclarig project for making good use of a number of ICT tools to create something that could work as a model for other schools and at different age levels.

Mr. Roche, principal of Knockaclarig NS, believes that this e-Twinning project is a great example of social networking. There was "ease of communication, query and willingness to exchange and learn more about the other person's point of view" and his pupils got a picture of Sweden "that could not be assimilated through an atlas or a text book". He added that "while Science was the kernel of the project module and it was strictly adhered to, a myriad of topics surfaced and were treated in many different formats".

On the eve of the conference, Jan Figel EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, explained the significance of e-Twinning in 2009, "2009 is the Year of Innovation and Creativity, so it is especially fitting that we celebrate the ever-growing success of the e-Twinning scheme as an example of creativity in education. We need to encourage innovative approaches in education to improve the quality and effectiveness of Europe's school systems and help equip young Europeans for the society and economy of the future." See more about the event.

e-Twinning is an EU initiative to encourage schools from different EU countries to team up and work on specific projects together over the internet.

This year three other Irish schools were also short-listed among the finalists: and St. Catherine's National School in Rush, Co. Dublin.

Loreto Community School, Milford, Co. Donegal
St Mary's Special School, Navan
St Catherine's National School, Rush, Co. Dublin

As part of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, e-Twinning offers schools in Europe a means to communicate and share ideas over the internet on specific projects.  Through an online platform which makes use of web 2.0 tools to facilitate ommunication, e-Twinning has become a truly collaboration-based community where teachers can demonstrate and strengthen their work in the classroom.  

Currently there are 50,000 participants in the e-Twinning project and increasing numbers of schools are finding this an innovative way of teaching students about science geography and other cultures. e-Twinning is managed in Ireland on behalf of the Department of Education and Science by Léargas.

To learn more:

Visit the e-Twinning Portal: www.etwinning.net