Report from the Commission to the Council on using the internet to develop twinning between European secondary schools
Date: 2002-06-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Internet, educational institution, new technology, secondary education, twinning

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 4.6.2002
COM(2002) 283 final

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

ON USING THE INTERNET TO DEVELOP TWINNING BETWEEN EUROPEAN
SECONDARY SCHOOLS

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

ON USING THE INTERNET TO DEVELOP TWINNING BETWEEN EUROPEAN
SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Introduction

The  European  Council  meeting  in  Barcelona  on  15  and  16  March  2002  called  on  the
Commission  to  "undertake  a  feasibility  study  to  identify  options  for  helping  secondary
schools to establish or enhance an Internet twinning link with a partner school elsewhere in
Europe, and report back to the Seville European Council in June".

This report sets out the approach to implementing this Internet twinning project which fits in
with  the  process  defined  at  the  Lisbon  European  Council  of  23  and  24  March  2000  for
meeting  the  challenges  posed  by  the  new  economy  and  turning  the  Union  into  the  most
competitive and most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.

The  Commission  welcomes  this  project  with  interest,  since  it  could  be  a  major  catalyst  in
intensifying the cooperation already under way among schools. It believes that at the end of
2006  all  secondary  schools  in  Europe  should  be  in  a  position  to  twin  up  and  work  on  joint
educational projects via the Internet.

This  report  defines  Internet  twinning  as  the  use  of  multimedia  and  exchange  tools  (email,
videoconferencing, joint development of websites) to flesh out or set up ties and cooperation
between schools. Such twinning requires an overarching framework for cooperation between
schools  which  must  take  into  account  all  the  conditions  needed  for  sound  twinning,  in
particular  the  organisation  of  periodic  meetings  and  exchanges,  the  development  of  joint
projects and materials, plus regular contacts to enrich project conduct.

2

From traditional twinning to Internet twinning

The  twinning  links  in  education  referred  to  by  the  European  Council  could  take  various
forms,  viz.:  pupil-to-pupil  relations,  teacher-to-teacher,  class-to-class  and  school-to-school.
They  may  involve  nothing  more  than  exchanges  of  information  or  documentation,  the
mounting of discovery or research projects or, more elaborately, form an integral part of the
educational system.

By making for speedy exchanges, immediate communication, access to sources of knowledge
(education, culture, media, public information, etc.) and enabling the use of on-line language
translation tools, the Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) make
it possible to totally revamp twinning forms and functions and to spread them across Europe
as a whole by incorporating them even more into teaching methods and approaches. Internet
twinning  opens  up  new  opportunities  for  enhancing  relations  and  exchanges  between  all
young  Europeans,  teachers  and  schools,  thereby  underpinning  mutual  understanding,
stimulating pupils into playing an active role, fostering their spirit of initiative, and bringing
out the European dimension in education, so as to create the social and cultural ties needed for
interlinking and fanning out the European knowledge area. It opens up rewarding prospects,
based on thousands of school partnerships involving some two million pupils and hundreds of
projects  involving  educational  use  of  ICTs  made  possible  by  the  Socrates  and  Leonardo  da
Vinci programmes. The infrastructures nowadays available, thanks to Member States' efforts
and  introduction  of  the  eEurope  action  plan,  will  help  impart  a  new  stimulus  to  European
cooperation.

In  keeping  with  this,  the  Internet  twinning  scheme  fits  in  well  with  the  vision  of  mobility
pursued,  whereby  every  young  European  –  during  their  time  at  secondary  school  –  can
participate in an educational project of his/her choice (provided their teachers agree) with one
or more pupils or teachers located in one or more other countries. To achieve this, secondary
schools need to have the requisite infrastructures and necessary training and support in order
to  progressively  nurture  –  through  the  Internet  –  structured  learning  ties  in  a  multimedia
environment that is both multilingual and multicultural.

Several avenues and lines of action adopted by the European Council  since  its  Lisbon  2000
meeting (Stockholm 2001, Barcelona 2002) in the endeavour to set up a European knowledge
area  demonstrate  how  relevant  the  Internet  twinning  project  covering  the  whole  European
Union  is,  and  allow  us  to  look  forward  confidently  to  its  successful  implementation;  these
include:

–  Setting  up  learning  partnerships  between  schools,  training  centres,  firms  or  other
educational  resource  centres  (Lisbon  2000).  Internet  twinning  takes  the  form  of  active
partnerships  between  schools  that  can  be  expanded  to  other  knowledge  players  (media,
cultural  institutions,  firms,  youth  associations,  etc.)  when  running  educational  projects
shared by the twinned schools.

–  Encouraging mobility (Stockholm 2001). By helping schools, teachers and pupils to get
to  know  one  another  and  take  part  in  exchanges  and  multilingual  dialogue,  Internet
twinning  fosters  mutual  comprehension  and  joint  endeavours,  and  can  be  seen  as  paving
the way for or supplementing physical mobility.

–  Improving  mastery  of  basic  skills,  in  particular  language  learning,  and  developing
digital  literacy  (Barcelona  2002).  Twinning  arrangements  entail  concrete  use  of  the
Internet and the new information technologies, they  constitute an  active teaching method

3

through which pupils learn how to handle informatics tools which they can then use on a
life-long basis to acquire skills.

–  Promoting  the  European  dimension  in  education  and  integrating  it  into  pupils'  basic
skills by 2004 (Barcelona 2002). Internet twinning between schools in different Member
States  enables  cooperation  on  educational  projects  and  is  a  specific  manifestation  of  this
goal.

Implementation of the Internet twinning project

Given  the  commitments  entered  into  by  the  Union  and  its  Member  States,  the  Commission
believes  it  possible  and  desirable  for  all  secondary  schools  in  all  European  Union  Member
States – i.e. about 150 000 schools – to have signed an Internet agreement with one or more
schools in one or more different Member States by the end of 2006. In the Commission's view
this project can be translated into reality on the following bases.

Setting  up 

infrastructures,  equipping  secondary  schools  and  operating 

twinning

partnerships

The Union and its Member States have entered into specific commitments in this field1. The
European Union has stressed that the infrastructures for achieving these objectives should be
put in place rapidly.  In  was in this spirit that  the  Lisbon European Council  invited Member
States to take measures to ensure that:

–  all schools in the Union have Internet access and multimedia resources by the end of 2001,

–  a sufficient number of teachers are able to use the Internet and multimedia resources by the

end of 2002.

The Barcelona European Council called on Member States to ensure that by the end of 2003,
the ratio of Internet-connected PCs to pupils is brought down across the European Union to
one for every fifteen pupils.

Precise  complementary  aims  and  actions  for  schools  have  been  defined  on  this  basis  in  the
"eLearning:  Designing  Tomorrow's  Education"  Communication  (24  May  2000)  and  Action
Plan (28 March 2001),  while  respecting subsidiarity. They mainly  have to do with ensuring
the  availability  of  support  services  and  educational  resources  on  the  Internet,  together  with
on-line learning platforms for teachers, pupils and parents, plus analysis of and reflection on
educational uses and the dissemination of best practices.

Given  the  nature  of  twinning  partnerships,  operating  costs  for  an  Internet  twinning
arrangement can be estimated at an average of from € 1 500 to € 10 000 per  year depending
on  the  cost  of  visits,  training,  extra  equipment  and  Internet  communications.  This  amount
varies  even  more  from  one  school  to  another  –  given  the  notable  differences  between
countries and even within one and the same country – and depending on how educationally
ambitious  the  twinning  arrangement  is.  The  cost  should  be  borne  by  the  Member  States'
competent authorities.

Operating  costs  will  vary  extensively,  depending  on  the  weighting  given  to  these  various
parameters and on local conditions  for  remote  cooperation  (rapid  Internet  access  for  pupils,

1 Lisbon European Council – 23 and 24 March 2000

4

                                                
broadband access for videoconferencing, partnerships with local  authorities and/or providers
of content, services or equipment).

Training for teachers and teacher-trainers

The  availability  of  a  structured  framework  of  exchange  and  support,  especially  from  a
teaching  angle,  and  the  development  of  training  courses  for  cooperative  Internet  use  are
essential components, otherwise distance communication between pupils will more often than
not  remain  anecdotal  and  superficial  in  content  terms.  The  Internet  is  a  tool,  not  an  end  in
itself.

Such frameworks and training courses  will  generally  be set  up  at  regional or national  level,
even  if  European-level  models  can  be  proposed,  as  shown  by  the  "European  Schoolnet"
initiative  involving  24  Education  Ministries.  Since  twinning  is  meant  to  have  a  mobilising
effect,  it  is  essential  to  give  training.  The  purpose  is  not  to  make  people  familiar  with
information  and  communication  technologies  as  such,  but  to  ensure  they  are  successfully
incorporated into very diverse teaching practices.

A number of elements need to be taken into consideration, i.e. the need for a project teaching
approach  that  covers  the  multilingual  and  multicultural  dimensions;  the  relevance  of
multimedia tools for the educational projects; the heavy involvement of teachers required for
this  teaching  approach;  and  the  inclusion  of  new  twinning  partnerships  in  projects  already
under way in schools.

In order to ensure future twinning  partnerships are  successful,  it  is essential  to  mobilise  the
education players at competent authority level around several types of action, viz.:

–  advising and training schools on/in the practicalities of twinning;

–  training  teachers  in  'cooperative'  Internet  use  (for  cooperation  between  pupils  and
teachers),  bearing  in  mind  national  specificities,  access  inequalities  and  the  notable
differences in Internet usage;

–  training  head  teachers  in  how  to  set  up  and  incorporate  such  projects  into  their  school

setting.

This  training  drive  will  be  based  on  the  traditional  teacher  training  structures  (universities,
specialised institutes). It also requires interaction with national or regional structures already
involved in assisting schools with their strategy on educational use of ICTs.

5

Back-up in terms of support for services and content

Specialised structures or services need to be set up in Member States to develop, support and
get the best out of Internet twinning. The role of such structures would, for example, be to:

–  propose twinning models to secondary schools;

–  assist  in  the  search  for  partners  within  the  European  Union  and  outside  (as  part  of

intercultural dialogue);

–  develop  a  European-level  Internet  platform  to  provide  on-line  advice  and  assistance  for
school  heads,  teachers,  parents,  etc.,  and  facilitate  access  to  knowledge  sources  (cultural
institutions, media, public information, etc.) and on-line translation aids;

–  see  to  the  follow-up  and  sustainability  of  the  most  successful  projects  and  intensify  the

exchange of good practices.

At European level, the Union has already experimented with such assistance. For example, a
number  of  modules  were  devised  for  pooling  resources  and  exchanging  information  among
schools under the "My Europe" project and the "eSchola" action.

Numerous topics possible

Although  the  choice  of  twinning  cooperation  topics  is  up  to  Member  States'  competent
authorities – local authorities, schools and teachers – it is worthwhile recalling that twinning
traditionally focuses on topics largely covered by the Socrates programme and which dovetail
particularly well with achievement of the Lisbon process aims. For example:

–  Learning languages. the communication involved in twinning requires progressive learning
and mastery  of  the  partner's  language.  This  takes  place  through  educational  discovery  or
research projects mapped out and put into action jointly.

–  Intercultural  dialogue.  One  of  the  main  features  of  twinning  is  reinforcing  the  dialogue
between  different  communities  within  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular  to  focus  on
elements enabling comparative studies. It also helps to generalise projects among pupils in
countries  in  the  European  Union  and  in  Central  and  Eastern  Europe,  with  extensions  to
third countries, especially the Mediterranean ones, in keeping with the conclusions of the
Valencia 2002 Euromed Ministerial Conference.

–  European  citizenship.  This  entails  not  only  civic  and  political  education  but  also
progressively  anchoring  a  European  dimension  in  the  education  imparted  in  the  various
countries.

–  Multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches. A number of exchanges between pupils
on  the  ground  have  a  "transdisciplinary"  dimension,  i.e.  environmental  education,
intercultural  education,  and  cultural  exchanges  on  topics  such  as  peace,  tolerance  and
openness towards others.

Staging publicity events and demonstrations at European level

Publicity events and demonstrations staged at European level should ensure a high profile for
the "Internet Twinning" project, and also draw the attention of those in charge of education –
and beyond them public opinion – to its importance for society and Europe.

6

The  Commission  has  been  staging  such  events  for  a  number  of  years  now  and  they  have
proven to be a real success, viz.:

the Netd@ys bring together several tens of thousands of schools across the European Union
for one week every year, with the focus on specific projects (creation of websites, multimedia
productions,  on-line  chats  and  videoconferences,  discovery  trails,  etc.),  thereby  helping  to
promote  educational  use  of  the  Internet  and  the  new  technologies  and  to  foster  cooperation
and  exchanges  between  schools  in  Europe.  These  projects  often  lead  to  twinning  and
permanent ties between partner schools.

eSchola,  a  week  for  eLearning,  is  a  measure  launched  in  2001  under  the  eLearning  Action
Plan adopted by the Commission in April 2001 to make teachers aware of the good teaching
practices  developed  by  schools  in  Europe  using  the  new  technologies.  Over  a  thousand
schools joined in the week when it was held for the first time. This figure doubled in 2002,
and schools in Mediterranean countries can also join in eSchola week, the aim being to foster
intercultural dialogue.

These initiatives are good examples of the kind of publicity events and demonstrations which
would be staged when generalising Internet twinning across the European Union countries.

OPERATIONAL CONCLUSIONS

In the light of the foregoing, the European Commission, responding favourably to the wishes
expressed  by  the  Barcelona  European  Council,  reaffirms  its  interest  in  and  commitment  to
achieving the ambitious goal of providing, before the end of 2006, all secondary schools with
the option of setting up twinning links via the Internet to enable them to become involved in
joint educational projects. This goal fits in with the future developments already mapped out
by the  education and  research  programmes  and underpinned by  introduction of  the eEurope
and eLearning Action Plans.

It believes that this project is fully in keeping with the general outline drawn up in Lisbon and
fleshed out in Stockholm and Barcelona, which aims to intensify and improve the use of the
new technologies, the Internet in particular, to develop a digital culture and achieve education
systems'  future  aims.  This  initiative  will,  for  instance,  help  motivate  young  people  to  learn
foreign languages and promote the European dimension in education.

The  Commission  looks  forward  to  receiving  the  Seville  European  Council's  support  for
implementation  of  this  Internet  Twinning  project,  which  is  founded  on  action  by  the  local,
regional  and  national  authorities  and  also  the  Community  institutions,  while  respecting  the
principle  of  subsidiarity  and  ensuring  complementarity  of  efforts.  The  involvement  of
national,  regional  or  local  authorities  is  a  must  –  for  putting  in  place  the  necessary
infrastructures  and  equipment,  for  training  teachers,  providing  the  wherewithal  to  cover
twinning  operating  costs  and  for  establishing  national  or  regional  reference  centres  for
Internet twinning. A support framework will also be set up at Community level through:

–  provision  of  input  from  Community  programmes  on  education  and  training  to  devise
innovative  teaching  methods,  content  and  practices  relating  to  networking  and  virtual
mobility;

–  adoption  of  an  eLearning  programme  which  the  Commission  will  present  during  the
second  half  of  2002,  in  keeping  with  the  wishes  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the
European Council.

7

The  European  Union's  financial  contribution  to  this  project  will  draw  on  the  existing
possibilities  in  the  education  and  training  programmes  and  will  be  examined  in  connection
with the preparations for a future multiannual programme devoted to e-learning.

The eLearning programme will focus in part on promoting and developing Internet twinning
partnerships so as to foster, in particular, the creation of contact centres plus support, publicity
and demonstration activities at Community level, and exchanges of good practices, especially
in  training.  Preparatory  and  exploratory  actions  will  be  mounted  during  preparation  of  the
Internet Twinning scheme to guarantee its success.

8