Federal Minister Faßmann: eTwinning – virtual classrooms for 15 years
Everybody is talking about digital literacy. The European programme eTwinning has been promoting virtual school partnerships across national borders for 15 years. On 13 October eight schools in Austria were awarded the national quality label and four schools also received the national eTwinning prize.
As part of Erasmus+ eTwinning offers all teachers in Europe – from kindergarten to AHS (higher secondary school) – virtual classrooms and a variety of opportunities to exchange ideas with other schools in Europe. The eTwinning Quality Label is awarded annually to schools that have carried out outstanding projects with high pedagogical added value. On 13 October the schools from six federal provinces (Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Tyrol, Vienna) that had been nominated for this year's award met in a virtual way via video conference. As prize the teachers and pupils received technical equipment for future eTwinning video conferences.
Federal Minister Faßmann: "Important contribution for Austrian schools"
The Federal Minister Heinz Faßmann opened the online award ceremony with a video message in which he emphasised that the COVID-19 pandemic had clearly shown two things: "Global, transnational challenges can only be tackled by means of transnational cooperation and digitisation has long since become deeply embedded in our everyday lives. This has enabled us to remain capable virtually overnight to act, even though we were no longer able to meet in familiar places [...] like school." Faßmann continues: "eTwinning makes an important contribution to all Austrian schools, helping them to implement international and partnership-based ICT school projects."
In Austria eTwinning is coordinated by the OeAD as national agency for Erasmus+ Education. The OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice says: "The Corona crisis in particular has shown how important it is to intertwine analogue and digital cooperation. And on eTwinning.net there is already a large education network with 800,000 registered people across Europe and 205,000 schools from 44 countries – so even in an exceptional situation pupils and teachers can benefit from the biggest teaching and learning community in Europe."
National eTwinning Awards: The 2020 winners
Four schools received national eTwinning Prizes for their particularly high-quality eTwinning projects. The first prize as well as the special prize went to the primary school Volksschule am Tabor in Neusiedl/See (Burgenland). The second prize went ex aequo to the GRG 16 Maroltingergasse (Vienna) and the HLW des Vereins Don Bosco Schwestern für Bildung und Erziehung, Vöcklabruck (Upper Austria). The third prize went to the BG/BRG Kufstein (Tyrol).