Etwinning

New European eTwinning Portal

We want to inform you about the launching of a new European eTwinning Portal (www.etwinning.net) with a new interface which aims to be more intuitive and user friendly.

In a recent interview with Santi Scimeca, coordinator of the Central Support Service (CSS) he commented that the growth of the eTwinning programme in the last few years had meant the addition of new contents and sections to the Portal which made its initial layout unable to satisfy current needs for action and take advantage of the latest graphic advances in the field of web design. Furthermore, the experience of users had to be taken into account. Several studies on user friendliness carried out at the beginning of 2012 with the help of external consultants pointed to the necessity of facilitating navigation and marking priorities with regard to the structure and presentation of the information on the home page.

As you will see the most important changes are evident in the design of the user interface and the presentation of the information in a modern and fresh style which identifies the most important eTwinning concepts under key terms:

• Discover. A section which invites the user to find out about eTwinning actions, informs them about the necessary steps for participating and facilitates contact information on the different National Support Services (NSS). It is also a section which presents the extensive catalogue of the publications and reference material developed in the programme, and where the user receives guidance in the form of practical examples for using the new ICT tools.
• Contact. There is a paragraph on how to fully participate in the eTwinning experience as a member of one of the largest communities for teachers in Europe. There is a space in which to look for and find schools and partners with whom you can start a productive collaboration, and in this way incorporate a European dimension into classroom learning.
• Collaborate. The objective of this section is to inspire those users who wish to approach an eTwinning project with practical examples. It includes project kits which give step by step instructions on how to put predefined eTwinning projects into practice, modules of short activities to incorporate into any phase of the project, as well as suggestions on how to get the most out of student participation. In short a space for sharing ideas, collaborating and participating in projects.
• Progress. In this section the user is provided with information on the prizes and working groups active in eTwinning. It also publicises training events (learning events, professional development workshops) with which to develop new competencies in European collaboration using ICTs.

With regard to the Desktop, no modifications are planned but we will tell you in advance that the TwinSpace will be updated by the end of September 2012, to make it simpler, correct errors and modernize the current layout.

We hope that all these changes in the new portal image will help you to understand the basic eTwinning concepts and give you easy access to the different contents in the portal.