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This is the second year the eTwinning Annual Conference has taken place online due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The premises of the eTwinning Central Support Service in Brussels were once again transformed into a fully functional TV studio so that the session could be streamed live: more than 850 people remained engaged until the end.

The conference was officially opened on Thursday 28th October by Themis Christophidou, Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission, who congratulated eTwinners for their hard work and innovative projects and stressed the importance of this year’s Annual Theme also by announcing this year’s eTwinning book, . In addition, she announced that the eTwinning Annual Theme for 2022 will be “Our future, beautiful, sustainable, together: Schools and the New European Bauhaus”, and that a new integrated European School Education Platform will be launched in 2022 to streamline users’ journeys and de-duplicate content and functionalities of the existing two platforms: eTwinning and the School Education Gateway.

 The keynote address “The Importance of Educating for a Media Literacy for the 21st Century” was delivered by Zeynep Tufekci, columnist at the New York Times and visiting associate professor at the University of Columbia. In her rich intervention, among the many inspirational points, Ms Zeynep addressed the need to consider media literacy as a lifelong learning effort for both young people and educators to be better protected against disinformation:

“It is vital to teach pupils and students how/why information ends up on the Internet. Understanding processes in society, institutions and algorithms empowers them to figure out what is trustworthy.”

The second part of the first day was dedicated to the exceptional teachers who were awarded the eTwinning European Prizes. More than 50 teachers from all over Europe connected live to be rewarded by the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency for their successful projects. The videos of the winning projects were premiered, and the winning teachers were given the opportunity to express their gratitude and inspire the other eTwinners connected.

The second day kicked off with an interactive learning activity in which participants met in small groups and took part in several activities related to the Annual Theme. Throughout the whole conference, participants also had the opportunity to visit the virtual , including materials and resources eTwinning had created to guide and inspire eTwinners. The exhibition will remain open until 30 November. 

After three sessions for a total of 38+ workshops (), a very inspiring panel discussion on “Media literacy at school: challenges and opportunities” took place and engaged eTwinners, experts from the field and students. The panel shared different standpoints about the importance of teaching young people to recognise the credibility of our institutions and the potential frailty of decision-makers. From the discussion it appeared clear that media literacy is not just the preserve of young people, and that adults are just as much at risk from disinformation and online threats.

On the third and last day of the conference, the participants attended with great interest the keynote address “eTwinning: a light in the age of media confusion” delivered by Arjana Blazic, Media education expert. Ms Blazic introduced the ways people can be deceived on the Internet and presented the inherent value of eTwinning in equipping teachers with the right tools to intercept and neutralise fake news.

 The conference was closed by Dr Markus Rester, Head of Sector – Online Education Platforms, DG EAC, European Commission, who thanked all participants and underlined that, although online, the Annual eTwinning Conference is still able to convey the energy and enthusiasm of eTwinners.