184
Application of crowdsourcing 
in education on the example of 
eTwinning: the Polish experience 
Elżbieta GAJEK
University of Warsaw
While eTwinning is focused on facilitating collaboration among schools in 
Europe and beyond, the extensive participation of over one million teachers 
from 44 countries makes the program an extensive educational crowdsourc-
ing activity. In this paper the program which structures the related pedagogi-
cal approaches and practices will be analyzed and discussed in light of the 
crowdsourcing principles. Teachers and students participate in the program 
voluntarily. All collaborative activities, material production and publication 
of results which take place online and emphasize language learning fulfil the 
characteristics of the effective use of crowdsourcing in education. Two kinds 
of analyses are undertaken, a global analysis of the program features and local 
analysis of the selected projects. The global analysis relates the crowdsourc-
ing practices to the eTwinning activities. The local analysis is based on the out-
standing projects submitted for evaluation for national awards in Poland, fur-
ther exemplified by activities and reference to the public sites of the projects. 
The aim of the text is to show that teachers may effectively use crowdsourcing 
in educational practice even when not primarily focused on its application. 
Keywords: crowdsourcing, eTwinning, language learning
Gajek, E.: Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of 
eTwinning: the Polish experience. Slovenščina 2.0, 10(2): 184–201. 
1.01 Izvirni znanstveni članek / Original Scientific Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/slo2.0.2022.2.184-201
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
1 Introduction
It can be assumed that the eTwinning program framework fulfils the 
characteristics of crowdsourcing in education, which is illustrated be-
low in a global analysis of its components. 
The participation of schools in the eTwinning program can be per-
ceived as a crowdsourcing activity at a local level, as the following ac-
tions are performed by a crowd working online: the materials used in 
the eTwinning project are produced in various languages (cf. 4.3.1. 
p.2) by the teachers and students (cf. 4.3.1. p.1) from the participat-
ing countries; the activities are initially negotiated by teachers with a 
greater or lesser contribution by the learners (cf. 4.3.1. p.3); commu-
nication and collaboration take place online (cf. 4.3.1. p.3) and mainly 
via the tools provided by the program, but the participants are free to 
choose other tools available at their disposal; finally the stakeholders 
publish the results of their collaborative work so that other teachers 
and learners can make use of them (cf. 4.3.1. p.4). In addition, teachers 
support one another by sharing responsibilities within the project (c.f. 
4.3.1. p.5). This study reports on a detailed investigation into whether 
the program activities fulfil the requirements of using crowdsourcing in 
educational contexts globally and locally. 
2 Crowdsourcing practices in education
Crowdsourcing is a technology-mediated form of collecting, creating 
and distributing data (Howe, 2006). Howe (2009, p. 280) identifies 
and defines four primary categories of crowdsourcing applications: (i) 
crowd wisdom or collective intelligence; (ii) crowd creation or user-
generated content; (iii) crowd voting; and (iv) crowdfunding. 
The first category, crowd wisdom, relies on the fact that a crowd’s 
knowledge is greater than an individual’s. As such, creating an appro-
priate environment where the crowd can present and share their knowl-
edge is essential. However, this is no easy task, as privacy concerns 
(Yu, 2016), data breaches (Edwards et al., 2016), intellectual property 
infringements (Bettig, 2018), and in extreme cases even life-threaten-
ing behavior in the form of cyberbullying (Aboujaoude et al., 2015) can 
occur. That is why a level of ethical awareness among teachers who are 
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the main contributors to this process in an educational context (Chou 
and Chen, 2016) is a prerequisite for the effective introduction of the 
novel methodology.
Crowdsourcing has been applied in education, where it is per-
ceived as a “supplementary educational component to enhance the 
traditional in-class and online activities” (Zdravkowa, 2020). This mod-
el is based on engaging enthusiastic teachers on a voluntary basis. It 
ensures freedom of speech and actions limited only by ethical rules 
(Zdravkova, 2020). It can be defined as “a type of an (online) activity in 
which an educator or an educational organization proposes to a group 
of individuals via a flexible open call to directly help learning or teach-
ing” (Jiang et al. 2018, p. 3). According to Jiang et al. (2018), crowd-
sourcing can be beneficial for education in four different ways: “creat-
ing educational contents (Resources), providing practical experience 
(Activities), exchanging complementary knowledge (Support), and 
augmenting abundant feedbacks (Evaluation)” (2018, p. 4). Zdravko-
va (2020, not paginated), on the other hand, emphasizes the role of 
a digital platform where “teachers are able to create and observe the 
pedagogical content, which is consistent to [sic] effective learning and 
teaching methodologies, and facilitates the objective and efficient as-
sessment. Entitled by the increasing content, teachers will themselves 
become content consumers, as well.” 
Incorporating crowdsourced materials in ELT classes requires 
careful planning and detailed instructions for accessing online resourc-
es, as a certain level of computer and media literacy is required from 
both teachers and students. Jiang et al. (2018, p. 10) also suggest that 
“crowdsourcing educational contents collaboratively among online 
crowd requires time and effort in coordinating the writing and review 
process to ensure that the end-product is beneficial to learners and 
maintained moving forward” (Skaržauskaitė, 2012; Weld et al., 2012). 
Although this process requires a great deal of enthusiasm from both 
teachers and learners, it is believed that the benefits certainly outweigh 
some potential drawbacks. Skaržauskaitė (2012, p. 74) concludes that 
“crowdsourcing gives students real world experience in coming up with 
creative solutions to important problems. Students can apply class-
room knowledge to real world problems and learn the ins and outs of 
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
their chosen fields from a practical perspective.” Such learner contri-
butions to the active construction of knowledge are a major feature of 
constructivism (McLeod, 2019; Zdravkova, 2020). However, to ensure 
learner safety and protection of their data, the participants need to 
be acquainted with privacy and data protection rules (Johnstone and 
Soares, 2014; Zdravkova, 2020).
Teachers’ participation in crowd-oriented education thus requires 
responsibility and readiness for continuous professional development 
(Zdravkova, 2020), with support for the participants being provided by 
outstanding and experienced teachers (Sallis, 2014).
3 Description of the eTwinning program 
The eTwinning1 program is widespread in primary and secondary edu-
cation (Gajek, 2007a, 2007b, 2021). Its aim is to empower learners 
and teachers, and it is focused on a holistic educational practice which 
allows various theoretical perspectives to be taken in the analysis of 
its structure, procedure, activities and outcomes. It applies blended 
learning pedagogy (Gajek, 2021) as well as constructionism2 (Gajek, 
2017) and constructivism3 (Gajek, 2010). It also helps to develop key 
competences4 (Gajek, 2009a 2009b) with teachers communicating, 
collaborating and producing materials together with their learners. 
The aim of the program is to facilitate collaboration among schools 
in 44 countries of the EU and 17 beyond outside it, including Armenia, 
Azerbaijan, Norway, Iceland, Moldova, Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia, Serbia, 
Georgia, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, and North Mace-
donia. Teachers voluntarily register on the eTwinning portal and search 
for partners. Then they work out a concept for a project, which they 
1 https://school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning
2 Constructionism, in the context of learning, is the idea that people learn effectively through 
making things.
3 Constructivism is a theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just passively 
take in information. Social constructivism teaches that all knowledge develops as a result of 
social interaction and language use, and is therefore a shared, rather than an individual, ex-
perience. Cognitive constructivism states knowledge is something that is actively construct-
ed by learners based on their existing cognitive structures.
4 The key competences for lifelong learning include the following: literacy competence; multi-
lingual competence; mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and 
engineering; digital competence; personal, social and learning to learn competence; citizen-
ship competence; entrepreneurship[ cultural awareness and expression (2019). 
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develop together. Next, teachers and learners prepare and share ma-
terials, communicate and collaborate on the project. Eventually, they 
evaluate the project and disseminate the results of their work. How-
ever, they are free to apply elements that are not harmonized with their 
partners, e.g. assessment criteria or levels of knowledge or skills at-
tainment. All participants monitor the ethical aspects of intercultural 
communication. Examples of good practice are open to the public and 
shared among other teachers. 
The main pedagogical approach applied in such projects is Content 
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), which means that language 
and content are learned simultaneously. This ensures linguistic devel-
opment in one or more languages used by the partners while they work 
on any subject theme. There are projects especially focused on a lan-
guage which is foreign to all participants, but these constitute a small 
share of the total. CLIL combined with ongoing collaboration focused 
on the end-product create a natural environment and context for lan-
guage learning, as the foreign language is most often the only means of 
communication among partners. It is claimed that a language is learned 
more effectively when it functions as a tool for achieving other purposes 
(Kurcz, 2011). In eTwinning languages are learned in practice, through 
learning by doing in clear contexts, not only as school subjects. 
In this program social and organizational incentives are empha-
sized, although there are also financial incentives for very active teach-
ers in the form of reimbursement for participation in conferences, 
workshops, and dissemination events at regional, national and inter-
national levels. In two countries, Poland and Malta, the program is rec-
ommended in the curriculum.
The presentation of data on the participation of teachers in the 
program is based on the information displayed on www.etwinnig.net 
(accessed 25.04.2022 at 10:11 am) The eTwinning community in-
volves 1,052,832 teachers employed in 233,087 schools and work-
ing on 138,621 projects, which creates a considerable community of 
contributors.
The statistics which demonstrate the level of participation are tak-
en from the Polish eTwinning National Support Service in and https://
etwinning.pl/o-programie/statystyki (January 2022).
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
The numbers represent the number of schools (S-), number of 
teachers (T-) and number of projects (P-). The leading country is Tur-
key (S-52,205, T-287,685, P-50,795), followed by Poland (S-19,358, 
T-79,556, P-36,118), Italy (S-11,178, T-94,652, P-33,440), Spain (S-
16,721, T-77,790, P-30,272), France (S-22,143, T-68,501, P-26,719), 
Romania (S-9,985, T-34,167, P-24,569), Greece (S-10,658, T-33,086, 
P-18,696), Portugal (S-1,881, T-21,699, P-14,860), Germany (S-
10,353, T-30,587, P-13,112), Slovakia (S-2,926, T-12,403, P-10,074), 
Czechia (S-4,257, T-11,875, P-9,563), Lithuania (S-1,992, T-11,497, 
P-9,222), Croatia (S-2,813, T-17,796, P-8,219), Bulgaria (S-2,996, 
T-10,574, P-7,923), Ukraine (S-1,560, T-2,966, P-5,265), Latvia (S-
1,153, T-7,607, P-4,585), Finland (S-2,512, T-8,801, P-4,467), Alba-
nia (S-1,551, T-5,485, P-4,426), Slovenia (S-875, T-5,419, P-4,204), 
Sweden (S-3,540, T-12,660, P-4,108), Belgium (S-2,450, T-9,226, 
P-4,025), Georgia (S-1,162, T-2,095, P-3,937), Serbia (S-1,286, 
T-4,161, P-3,920), Holland (S-2,534, T-9,652, P-3,657), Estonia (S-
1,004, T-5,454, P-3,576), Azerbaijan (S-1,001, T-3,503, P-3,552), 
North Macedonia (S-493, T-2,365, P-3,473), Hungary (S-2,358, 
T-5,867, P-3,043), Norway (S-1,787, T-6,352, P-2,952), Denmark (S-
2,066, T-9,277, P-2,840), Austria (S-1,993, T-5,915, P-2,330), Cyprus 
(S-643, T-3,163, P-2,226), Armenia (S-623, T-2,125, P-1,999), Mol-
dova (S-412, T-950, P-1,985), Malta (S-296, T-4,035, P-1,981), Tu-
nisia (S-885, T-2,189, P-1,908), Ireland (S-1,820, T-3,659, P-1,824), 
Bosnia & Herzegovina (S-581, T-1,863, P-1,507), Jordan (S-408, 
T-1,133, P-1,398), Iceland (S-320, T-1,796, P-1,102), Luxemburg (S-
151, T-691, P-372), Lebanon (S-80, T-185, P-97), and Lichtenstein (S-
17, T-42, P-19). 
It is worth mentioning that registration does not equate with active 
participation, or the creation and sharing of materials. On the one hand, 
the program is a great success. On the other, as it involves so much 
scaffolding, continuous professional development opportunities, tech-
nical support, support from peer teachers (who serve as active ambas-
sadors of the idea), and support from the National Support Services 
and Central Support Service, producing new ideas and new practices 
based on crowdsourcing in education is very challenging.
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4 Methodology
4.1 Aims
The aim of this analysis is to demonstrate that the eTwinning program 
can be perceived as a widespread application of crowdsourcing in ed-
ucation. First, a comparison of features of crowd-oriented education 
related to eTwinning practices (Table 1) is presented. Then crowd-ori-
ented tasks and procedures are illustrated on the basis of examples 
of selected projects. Finally, the extensive use of digital tools for ed-
ucational purposes is presented to reflect on another perspective of 
eTwinning – its application for crowdsourcing. 
4.2 Global analysis of eTwinning practices as crowdsourcing 
activity
Table 1 shows the relation between the crowd-oriented educational 
features in relation to the eTwinning practices presented above.
Table 1: Characteristics of general crowd-oriented educational practices applied to the 
eTwinning program
Crowdsourcing practices eTwinning features and activities
Existence of a crowd Over 1,000,000 teachers, together with learners and school 
communities in participating countries create the crowd.
Crowd wisdom and 
collective intelligence
Anybody involved in the educational system in their country can 
contribute to the development of the project ideas and their 
implementation regardless of the languages used, the system 
organization, specific curricular requirements and educational 
traditions.
Freedom of speech and 
actions
The organizational framework is open to exploration. There are 
no limits related to time, content, number of participants, tools, 
products, etc. However, some recommendations are published 
only to facilitate participation by the teachers.
Organization of support Initial support is provided via open models displayed by National 
and Central Support Service offices, project ambassadors via 
webinars, training sessions, contact meetings and conferences. 
Readiness for 
continuous professional 
development
Participation in the project allows for professional development 
of the teachers through sharing experiences, resources, 
multilingual negotiations and discussions.
Inclusion of practical 
perspectives on the 
chosen fields
The projects undertake topics related to the close neighborhood 
of the learners, or they relate globally discussed themes to the 
learner’s neighborhood. They ensure linguistic variety in shared 
activities.
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
Crowdsourcing practices eTwinning features and activities
Flexible digital area 
where the crowd can 
present and share their 
knowledge
TwinSpace is meant to be a place for contact, communication 
and storage of materials. It is the main area where participants 
meet, collaborate, get support, store project resources 
and evaluate the outcomes of their projects. But the use of 
technology is not limited to TwinSpace.
User-generated content 
(Resources)
Teachers, learners, and other invited stakeholders create the 
content, which may relate to the curriculum or go beyond it. The 
materials can then be published on websites that are open to the 
public for use by others. 
Sharing practical 
experience (Activities)
Teachers, and to some extent learners, develop activities 
collaboratively and decide on the project outcomes, forms of 
evaluation and its dissemination. 
Exchanging knowledge 
(Support) 
Within the project participants share knowledge, experiences 
and resources at a local level, according to their specific needs 
and contexts. 
Providing feedback 
(Evaluation)
At the end, each project is evaluated by stakeholders: teachers, 
learners, and others, such as parents via questionnaires and 
interviews. 
Compliance with in-class 
teaching 
The content and theme of the project need to comply with the 
curriculum, or go beyond it if there is a need for such actions. 
Focus on ethical issues 
in education, GDPR and 
privacy policies
Clear guidelines on safety and etiquette are provided on the 
eTwinning portal. 
It is worth noticing that such features of crowdsourcing as crowd-
funding, crowdvoting, crowdshipping, and crowdsolving, etc. are not 
used in the eTwinning program.
To sum up, the features of eTwinning related to elements which 
characterize crowdsourcing clearly show how they are interrelat-
ed globally, and how crowdsourcing is applied in this program. They 
are also in line with theoretical approaches to the educational use of 
crowd-oriented activities.
4.3 Analysis of selected projects 
4.3.1 Criteria of analysis of the projects
Analysis of local projects as crowdsourcing activities provides insights 
into how the general ideas are translated into in-class practices. As 
there are thousands of projects undertaken among European schools, 
it was necessary to specify criteria for the selection of projects for this 
study. These criteria were as follows:
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1. the activities and materials had been designed and prepared by 
teachers and students together; 
2. the language learning tasks involved various languages: native and 
foreign depending on the needs of the participants; 
3. digital technology was used widely for communication, develop-
ment collaboration and publishing of the materials;
4.  the results of the project were published for further use by other 
teachers and learners; 
5. teachers’ workload was shared, thus enhancing professional 
development. 
Although assessment is a very important part of education, it is not 
included in the analysis as it is not performed as a crowdsourcing activ-
ity in the eTwinning projects.
The examples of projects selected for analysis are from those sub-
mitted for the Polish national contest titled “Our Project 2022”. They 
cover all age categories, from kindergarten to secondary education, 
to provide a variety of techniques used in eTwinning projects. All the 
materials and results of the analyzed projects are published on the in-
ternet and comply with the copyright and safety rules as all the partici-
pants (teachers and students through their legal representatives – that 
is, parents) agreed to publish the photographs and outcomes of their 
work. All of them are focused on the learning outcomes related to both 
the content and language or languages used in the projects. The pro-
jects for which resources were shown exclusively to adjudicators of the 
contest were not considered for analysis. 
4.3.2 Identification of crowdsourcing practices in the projects
The four examples analyzed below fulfil the abovementioned criteria. 
A Project for Children 3 to 6-Year-Old Learners
Natural Pharmacy is a project which focuses the young learners’ at-
tention on various treasures of the natural world, and the role of na-
ture in our lives. Children learn about healing herbs by exploring their 
neighborhoods. 
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
The partners in the project were from Slovakia, Turkey, Greek, Slo-
venia, Czechia, Spain, Estonia and Poland, with the results are present-
ed at https://twinspace.etwinning.net/121166/home.
Ad 1. Projects with the youngest group of children require teachers to 
communicate and involve learners in those activities which they 
are capable of doing. However, children are very effective in the 
production of materials if they are properly supported. 
Ad 2. English was the main language of communication and collabora-
tion. The native languages of the participants were used but rare-
ly documented in writing, as such young children do not possess 
the literacy skills needed to communicate in writing. More often 
the children were filmed while speaking their native or foreign 
languages.
Ad 3. Digital tools were used for all communication, activities, the pro-
duction of materials and reporting, but TwinSpace remained the 
main area of collaboration. 
Ad 4. The project was extensively presented on its public TwinSpace, 
mainly through photographs. The teachers got the parents’ con-
sent to publish the children’s faces on the internet. 
Ad 5. Teachers shared the responsibility to ensure the flow of work was 
done in parallel at all partner institutions. 
A Project for 7 to 10-Year-Old Learners
Steamist is a very innovative and creative project about biomimicry. 
Teachers and students from Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, Roma-
nia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Tunisia, Albania and Italy 
worked together on holistic topics which integrate themes from various 
school subjects, such as natural science, maths, languages, art, and 
digital technology. The students observed nature and found relations 
with various technological solutions that people use in their everyday 
lives, i.e. biomimicry. Here the public TwinSpace documents the work 
and products of the project: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/118413/
home and https://steamist20.blogspot.com/. 
Ad 1. Teachers and students communicated online synchronously and 
asynchronously to share their work on the materials and activities. 
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Ad 2. English was the main means of communication and collabora-
tion, but the native languages of the participants were also used 
in parallel to explain the work in school communities, as well as 
for presentation and dissemination of the results.
Ad 3. Digital tools were used for all communication, activities, the pro-
duction of materials and reporting, but TwinSpace remained the 
main area of collaboration. The results are presented on a blog. 
Ad 4. Various materials such as video clips https://youtu.be/nVFPRyXt_
Uk?t=18, a summary of the project https://steamist20.blogspot.
com/ and many photographs can be used by other educators. 
Ad 5. Teachers clearly stated that they learned a lot during the projects 
themselves, as biomimicry is not a popular topic in the curricula. 
A Project for 11 to 15-Year-Old Learners 
My Water Footprint is a project about the role of water in both nature 
and the human world. Its public website shows the partners, results, 
and activities, as well as illustrates the work involved in the project: 
https://twinspace.etwinning.net/120761/home. The participants 
come from 13 countries: Turkey, Croatia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
Ukraine, Belgium, France, Lithuania, Romania, Greece, and Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. 
Ad 1. Teachers and students communicated online to share their work 
on the materials and activities. 
Ad 2. Project members used English as the main language of commu-
nication and collaboration, but their native languages were also 
used to share their work in school communities, for presentation 
and dissemination of the results.
Ad 3. Digital tools were used for all communication, activities, the pro-
duction of materials and reporting, but TwinSpace remained the 
main area of collaboration.
Ad 4. Various materials such as video clips https://youtu.be/Ar6Td-
HqKf8?t=19, dynamic presentations5 and reports document the 
5 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSsSnKLdRJswX-VZk5FhyvV6fSP-
b3x7x8O7qORu2Inzk-j8PfIK5kQInUUHSA6naSp8vasRjVJvaeAC/pub?start=false&loop=-
false&delayms=3000#slide=id.gd864009de4_0_5
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
results of the project work. They are ready for further use by oth-
er stakeholders. 
Ad 5. Teachers shared the responsibility to ensure the flow of the work. 
A Project for 16 to 19-Year-Old Learners
The theme and title of the project, Wonderful Journey, refers to the 
importance of railway transport. The participants collaboratively pre-
pared various materials, such as maps, posters, journeys itineraries, 
virtual trips, games and quizzes. Some of these products can be seen 
online at https://twinspace.etwinning.net/163327. 
Ad 1. Teachers and students from Portugal, Italy, Czechia, Serbia, Fin-
land, Greece, Turkey and Poland communicated online to share 
their work on the materials and activities. 
Ad 2. They used English as a means of communication and collabora-
tion, but the native languages were also used for local purposes, 
such as presentation and dissemination of the results.
Ad 3. Digital tools were used for all communication, activities, the pro-
duction of materials and reporting, but TwinSpace remained the 
main area of collaboration.
Ad 4. The booklet6 was one of the final results of the project, and shows 
the various perspectives that were applied, with focuses on ecol-
ogy, economy, safety, comfort, and sustainability. 
Ad 5. Teachers shared the responsibility to ensure the flow of the work, 
which is well demonstrated on the project website. 
4.3.3 Discussion of the analysis of projects
The projects described briefly above only illustrate some of the activi-
ties undertaken in all good projects, and thus show features character-
istic of many eTwinning projects. What is more, one of the criteria of 
selection was the presentation of the resulting content on TwinSpace, 
which is thus made available to the wider public. It has not been pos-
sible to provide detailed data about closed projects that are only avail-
able to the adjudicators of the Polish contest, as this would be contrary 
6 https://read.bookcreator.com/b3Rh2kc4eQUQFHXQNszpWWTwpsq2/hqSYLpGJQ8iZpS-
3b6EhXjQ
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to ethics and safety regulations. That is why the general discussion be-
low not only presents an interpretation of the processes and activities 
observed in the projects outlined above, but also gives more holistic 
insights into the program as a crowdsourcing phenomenon.
Even such a limited presentation and analysis of project activities 
shows that they have a lot in common. In all projects both teachers and 
learners work together to prepare materials and tasks. However, their 
level of contribution depends on the age of learners, their computer 
literacy and ability to take part in making videos, and to participate in 
discussions independently. 
In most of the projects subject to analysis and beyond, the main 
language of communication is English, and to a lesser extent German 
and French. In the case of Polish, it is the language of communication 
between schools in Poland and Polish schools abroad, such as in Lat-
via, Lithuania, and Ukraine, where a Polish community has been pre-
sent for many years, as well as between schools hosting children from 
the recent waves of emigration, such in Great Britain. In all projects, 
language learning can be seen as one dimension of holistic learning 
which takes place during the related activities.
In all projects TwinSpace is the main digital platform for collabo-
ration and communication in foreign languages. This is a place where 
partners are searched for and found, materials stored, ongoing reports 
written, oral and audio-visual communication is performed, project ac-
tivities documented, and evaluation and dissemination applied. How-
ever, TwinSpace is not the only digital tool used in the projects, as it is 
shown below (cf. Table 2). 
Open sharing of the materials and access to activities depends on 
the teachers involved. They need to compromise between ensuring 
the safety of their students, keeping parents’ consent and the desire to 
present new educational practices and models in action to inspire oth-
er teachers. The open results, however, are usually prepared in such 
a way that they do not break the ethical regulations stipulated by the 
program.
A final but important point to note here is that the teachers en-
sure their own professional development through such collaboration. 
Teachers constantly improve their linguistic skills in natural interactions 
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
with other members of the projects, which is of special importance for 
teachers working with learners at lower proficiency levels. They devel-
op intercultural competences while learning about other school sys-
tems, curricula and educational traditions, as well as how to adjust the 
content of their projects to various time and curricular constraints. They 
share responsibilities in a collaborative way, which is rarely observed in 
class as the European tradition of separating school subjects form one 
another rarely allows for intensive holistic collaboration across the cur-
riculum. Teachers also get acquainted with various technological tools 
and find reasons for using them in their practice, finding support and 
advice if needed from others. 
All in all, the eTwinning project has the characteristics of crowd-
sourcing applied to education in local, in-class, contexts with regard to 
the criteria that were applied: creating content, gaining practical expe-
rience, and sharing knowledge. 
4.4 Digital technology in projects 
The use of various digital tools available for participants also represent 
the preferences and purposeful actions taken by the crowd of teachers 
within the eTwinning program. Table 2 shows the technology, free of 
charge or commercial, applied in projects and used to achieve specific 
educational goals at various stages.
Table 2: Digital tools for various purposes (Upgraded source: Gajek, 2021)
Project activities Examples of digital tools
Project posters and logos Canva, Logomaker, Poster Maker, RedenForest, 
Postermywall, Tagull 
Map of partner schools Google Maps, MapLoco, Tripline, Zeemap, Pictramap
Timeline Flipidity, Powtoon
Surveys, votes, evaluations Google Forms, Pollmaker, Tricider, Wakelet, SurveryMonkey 
AnswerGarden
Checklists, lists of groups Google sheets, TwinSpace Table
Partners’ presentations Wakelet, Kizoa, Biteable, Animoto, Animaker, MsMovieMaker, 
RedenForest, Phrase.it, Voki, VoiceThread, BlabbeRize, 
AvatarMaker, Avachara PhotoTalks, FactoryForAvatars, 
TellaGami, YouTube, Quik, Canva, Dotstorming, Chatterkid, 
Pixton
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Project activities Examples of digital tools
Schools’ presentations Emaze, Prezi, Kizoa, Visme Biteable, GoogleSlides, 
Piktochart, Animaker, MsMovieMaker, RedenForest, 
GoProQuik, YouTube, Knovio, Voki, Create Avatar, Scoompa 
Video
Making and editing videos Scoompa, InShot, Flexiclip, Voki, Create Avatar, Animoto, 
Kioza, Animaker, Biteable, Flixpress, VivaVideo, TellaGami, 
Filmora, VivaVideo 
Discussions and 
communication 
TwinSpace Journal, Facebook Messenger, Twinspace 
Forums, Messenger Chat Groups, WhatsApp, Edmodo, Skype, 
Adobe Connect, Hang Outs, Zoom, Flipgrid, Doodle, Padlet
Taking notes and making 
mindmaps 
Evernote, Mindmeister, Coggle
Cartoons and avatars Avachara, Voki, Create Avatar, Avatar Maker, 
FactoryForAvatars, Toontastic, Phrase.it, PhotoTalks
Infographics Pictochart, Genial.ly, Canva 
Project blog Blogspot, Blogger
Activity photos, photo editing Padlet, Adobe, Spark Joomag, Canva, Story Jumper, 
Madmagz, Paint, Befunky, inCollage, Pixlr, Ipiccy, InShot, 
Tuerchen, Collage-maker,7 Pixiz, Pizap, PhotoCollage
3D design Thinkercad
Collaborative area Jamboard, Padlet, Sway, Pearltrees, VoiceThread
Exchanging instructions QR code tools
Comparing opinions Mentimeter
Collages BeFunky, pixi, Piccollage8
Classroom applications ClassDojo, Google Classroom, ThingLink
Recording and editing audio Audacity, Vocaroo
Storyboard creators StoryboardThat
Games LearningApps, Bookwidgets,9 JigsawPlanet, Gimkit, Quizziz, 
Quizlet, Actionbound, Crosswordlabs.Com, Kahoot, Poll 
everywhere, Cram
Project websites Weebly
Statistics IBM Statistics 20, Surveymonkey, jamboard
Final products and 
publishing
Blogspot, Quik, Powtoon, Moviemaker, Bookcreator, Smore, 
Google Slides, Calameo, Genial.ly, Wordart, Storyjumper, 
YouTube, issuu, Flippity, Wordart, Prezzi, Yumpu
The list of digital tools used for educational purposes in eTwinning 
projects is extensive and constantly changing, as such tools frequently 
7 https://collage-maker.com/
8 https://piccollage.com/
9 https://www.bookwidgets.com/
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Application of crowdsourcing in education on the example of eTwinning
appear and disappear. It is thus likely that crowd wisdom and collec-
tive intelligence are the best ways for teachers to get oriented as to the 
variety of products and platforms that currently available.
5 Conclusion
To conclude, the size of the eTwinning community and the three dimen-
sions of the program investigated in this study, i.e., the global and lo-
cal activities undertaken, as well as the various digital tools used for 
educational purposes, demonstrate that eTwinning is a valid example 
of crowdsourcing applied in education. Among others results, the lin-
guistic outcomes and progress observed in both learners and teach-
ers establish the added value of using crowdsourcing in this context. 
However, both the founders and participants of the program are bare-
ly aware of this fact, as in general teachers do not know much about 
how crowdsourcing relates to their work (Arhar Holdt et al., 2020). This 
shows that the cultural trend that encourages shared collaboration on-
line, which is described under the umbrella term of crowdsourcing in 
education, may be embodied in various organizations and attract vari-
ous stakeholders who appear able to translate the general into local. 
However, sometimes their vague ideas, intuitions and hopes with regard 
to crowdsourcing can be turned into concrete actions, and the success 
of these may gradually change educational practices on a large scale. 
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Uporaba množičenja v izobraževanju na primeru eTwinning: 
izkušnje s Poljske
Projekt eTwinning je usmerjen predvsem v spodbujanje sodelovanja med šo-
lami v Evropi in v drugih državah, obenem pa program zaradi sodelovanja več 
kot milijona učiteljev iz 44 držav predstavlja tudi obsežno dejavnost množiče-
nja v izobraževanju. V članku bo projekt, ki strukturira povezane pedagoške 
pristope in prakse, analiziran in obravnavan z vidika načel množičenja. Učitelji 
in učenci v programu sodelujejo prostovoljno. Vse dejavnosti sodelovanja, pri-
prave gradiva in objave rezultatov, ki potekajo na spletu in poudarjajo učenje 
jezikov, izpolnjujejo značilnosti učinkovite uporabe množičenja v izobraževa-
nju. Opravljamo dve vrsti analiz, in sicer splošno analizo značilnosti programa 
in lokalno analizo izbranih projektov. Splošna analiza povezuje prakse množi-
čenja z dejavnostmi projekta eTwinning. Lokalna analiza temelji na izstopajo-
čih projektih, ki so bili dani v ocenjevanje za državno nagrado na Poljskem, kar 
je ponazorjeno tudi z dejavnostmi in sklici na javna spletna mesta projektov. 
Namen besedila je pokazati, da lahko učitelji učinkovito uporabljajo množiče-
nje v izobraževanju, tudi kadar niso ciljno usmerjeni v njegovo uporabo.
Ključne besede: množičenje, eTwinning, učenje jezikov