On Wednesday, October 2, Deputy Minister for Education Maite Alonso opened the European eTwinning program. Organized by the Department of Education, the event was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz. About one hundred professionals in the Basque educational field met at the headquarters of the Basque Government. Many of them attended the European program to represent the schools participating for the first time this year; while others were veterans, they came to share and share their experience with other schools. As a result, this seminar is an ideal forum for public awareness of the European initiative and its operation, as well as the best practices of schools with extensive experience as participants in the program.

During the 2018-2019 academic year, one of the 103 schools in the Basque Country developed a project under the eTwinning program. Given the growing number of academic years, and given the interest of the teachers who attended the 2 nd of October, it can be expected that the number of schools developing a project through this European platform will also increase.
In recognition of the work and effort of the teachers, the 22 e-Twinning projects developed in the Basque schools during the 2018-2019 academic year have obtained the Quality Seal issued by the Ministry of Education. If so, they will now be able to win prizes at the national and European levels. Those in charge of these projects have received a diploma that recognizes the Quality Seal from Deputy Minister Maite Alonso.

Learning from other cultures

At the presentation of the conference, Deputy Minister Maite Alonso highlighted the benefits of participating in such a program for students and teachers. “Students learn from other cultures and also practice skills related to new technologies and foreign languages, developing curriculum content for any subject. And, as members of the European education community feel, so do European citizenship and dimension. " As for the teachers, the Deputy Minister emphasized “there are many opportunities for group reflection and learning. Teachers have the opportunity to meet other European teachers and exchange ideas and thus improve their teaching methods by comparing and applying different perspectives, spreading knowledge in a particular area or simply exchanging information. ”

In this regard, Alonso explained that the Basque Education System has already made great strides towards achieving its goals for Europe by 2020. “Our greatest challenge has always been to achieve excellence beyond equity. In this work, therefore, we do not start from scratch, we have a long and highly experienced career, made in all: multilingualism, information and communication technologies, coexistence, diversity treatment and also, in today's subject, European programs ”.

eTwinning, the European community of schools

Thanks to ICT tools (Information and Communication Technologies), the eTwinning program allows students to work geographically apart from one another. Students from different European countries collaborate on this project from start to finish thanks to this program.

eTwinning is part of the Erasmus + program, which aims to foster and facilitate the exchange, exchange of ideas and collaboration between students and teachers from different European countries participating through ICT. To this end, the program provides participating schools with the necessary online technology platform (www.etwinning.net) to provide them with the resources to learn, communicate, collaborate and develop their project.

eTwinning was established in 2005 and has been the most important initiative of the European Commission's eLearning curriculum. Since 2014 it is part of Erasmus +; European Union program in the fields of education, training, youth and sport.

Working together on the same project - always under the supervision of responsible teachers - student-participants expand their opportunities not only to learn about the cultural and artistic heritage of other countries, but also through scientific knowledge of their environment. In addition, they interact in the agreed language (usually English) and establish constructive relationships and relationships with the environment and other students living for miles. This initiative also promotes student teamwork, as group challenges pose challenges and solutions. And in this career, students learn how to search, interpret and produce content in digital formats. In this way, the hands-on project is developed with the contributions of all, and in the process of teaching and learning, and students are given prominence.
Each Autonomous Community has its own eTwinning ambassador. They are experienced teachers in the program, and they assist and advise other teachers on technical and pedagogical issues. In the Basque Country we have 13 eTwinning ambassadors, teachers in schools and consultants in Innovation Centers.