From Ideas to Action Through eTwinning Projects and Design Thinking
Overview
SmartUp delivered "From Ideas to Action Through eTwinning Projects and Design Thinking," a capacity-building workshop series as part of the three-day eTwinning National Conference in Struga, organized by the National Agency for European Educational Programs and Mobility. SmartUp's design thinking experts, Milena Ignjatova and Ljubica Ruzhinska, led interactive sessions introducing educators to human-centered design methodologies for identifying educational challenges and turning ideas into structured, collaborative eTwinning projects.
SmartUp trained 45 educators from institutions across North Macedonia, organizing them into multidisciplinary teams that each built a national eTwinning project from problem identification through to launch. Every team successfully published its project on the eTwinning platform — a concrete, measurable output that builds on SmartUp's broader track record applying design thinking across national education programmes.
The challenge
Supporting educators in moving beyond traditional project planning by adopting design thinking as a practical methodology for identifying and solving authentic educational challenges.
Strengthening teachers' capacities to transform ideas into structured, implementable eTwinning projects through collaborative planning, user-centered problem solving, and iterative project design.
Increasing educators' confidence in using digital collaboration and ICT tools that support teamwork, project management, communication, and international educational cooperation.
Encouraging more innovative, student-centered approaches that promote collaboration, creativity, and active learning within school projects.
Activities and methods
The workshops were designed to provide educators with practical experience in applying design thinking throughout the project development process while simultaneously creating concrete eTwinning initiatives.
Key achievements included:
- Bringing together 45 educators from diverse educational institutions across North Macedonia.
- Organizing participants into nine multidisciplinary teams, each developing its own national eTwinning project.
- Building participants' understanding of the complete design thinking process, including problem identification, empathy, ideation, prototyping, and action planning.
- Introducing practical ICT tools that support collaborative work, project management, and digital communication within educational projects.
- Strengthening educators' capacity to design innovative, student-centered learning experiences that respond to real needs within their schools.
- Supporting every team in successfully launching its project on the eTwinning platform, contributing new collaborative educational initiatives to the national eTwinning community.
Impact and learning
The initiative demonstrated how design thinking can serve as an effective methodology for educational innovation and project development. By combining collaborative workshops with hands-on project creation, educators moved beyond theoretical learning and immediately applied new concepts to develop concrete educational initiatives.
Participants left the programme with practical skills in human-centered problem solving, collaborative planning, and digital project management, increasing their confidence to lead innovative initiatives within their own schools. The experience also strengthened connections among educators from different institutions, fostering a growing community of practitioners committed to sharing ideas and developing collaborative educational projects.
Most importantly, the workshops resulted in the creation and launch of nine new national eTwinning projects, expanding the network of innovative educational collaborations in North Macedonia while promoting student-centered learning, creativity, and international cooperation through the eTwinning programme.
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