e-me

e-me is the Digital Educational Platform (Ψηφιακή Εκπαιδευτική Πλατφόρμα) of Greek primary and secondary schools, a school LMS and social learning space for students and teachers. Its footer credits design, development and operation to the Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantos" (ITYE Diophantos), through its directorate for educational technologies, training and certification, and the "What is e-me" section says the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs provides it as the asynchronous learning platform for Greek schools.

The site describes e-me as a modern, collaborative, social and extensible platform built for formal, non-formal and informal learning, and as a personal learning environment that gives the school community a safe digital space to work and collaborate. The home page counters show 584,103 students, 142,470 teachers and 207,530 hives, the platform's name for its digital classrooms.

Two editions

e-me comes in two installations. The official edition at e-me.edu.gr is for students and teachers who hold an account on the Greek School Network (Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο, PSD), and only those accounts can sign in, so every user is identified. The site says this edition carries the most complete and most recent functionality, and includes user support. The FAQ says it is open to all students and teachers, permanent or substitute, in primary and secondary education, and that teachers in public or private schools can apply for a PSD teacher account online. A teacher posted to a school abroad can use the official edition too, as long as they have a PSD account.

The European e-me "for all" is the open, multilingual installation, aimed at anyone in Greece and abroad. The site says it is provided freely for collaboration between schools, universities, organizations, teachers, students, parents and academics, with registration by any active email address, and it is available in eight languages: Greek, English, Portuguese, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, German and Bulgarian. The FAQ gives examples such as international projects with schools abroad and university courses. Both editions offer the same functions and apps; the one difference the FAQ names is member search, since the official edition provides ready lists of each teacher's students. Because "for all" users are not identified, the FAQ says it does not give the same level of safety, and support goes to the official edition first. Activity does not carry across editions, though files, blog content and objects built with e-me content can be moved.

The hive: classes, groups and whole schools

The hive (κυψέλη) is the basic workspace. The FAQ says a hive usually represents a whole class or a section for one subject, but it can just as well be a small project team, an after-school group putting on a play, teachers organizing a school event, a whole school, or classes from schools in different cities running a joint activity. Hives can be public or private, and a private hive does not appear in search results. There is no limit on how many hives a teacher or a student can create.

Setting up a class takes a few steps. Students sign in once with their PSD account, which creates their e-me account automatically. The teacher then creates a private hive, opens Members, chooses "Invite Members" and then "My classes", picks a section and invites one, several or all of its students; they join when they accept. The FAQ also describes an older route in which the principal sends teachers their students' usernames.

Inside a hive, members post ideas, announcements and comments on a wall, share exercises, assignments, links, images, videos and files through a built-in editor, and use a shared folder that every member can edit. The hive owner can name assistants who help moderate the wall, and two or three teachers can share one digital class, either as members or by making colleagues co-managing assistants. A post or comment that receives three reports is hidden automatically from everyone except the owner and assistants. Students can create hives as well, after accepting the platform's rules of use, and the site publishes a leaflet of 10 rules for student hives.

Teaching and learning tools

The functions page lists the apps that make up the platform:

• e-me assignments for creating, organizing and assigning work to hive members, with answers, feedback, assessments and comments, and tracking of each assignment's progress.
• e-me Courses (e-me Μαθήματα) for arranging digital content into units that serve the teacher's learning objectives.
• e-me content for building interactive learning objects in H5P, such as interactive videos, presentations, exercises and memory games, shared through hive walls, assignments or blogs.
• e-me LAMS for learning designs built as sequences of learning activities.
• e-me survey for questionnaires and online surveys that collect data in real time, export it, and can be shared with users inside and outside e-me, along with polls for hive members.
• e-me forums, e-me blogs (a personal blog for every user and an optional collaborative hive blog), e-portfolio for collecting and showcasing selected work and achievements, and e-me Badges for creating and awarding digital reward badges.
• e-me whiteboard for live shared drawing, collaborative text documents, e-me draw for diagrams, e-me mindmaps, e-me Notes and e-me Annotation for adding notes, images, drawings and highlights to PDF files.
• A classroom plan that maps the layout of desks and students, a calendar, bookmarks, real-time notifications, and video calls, audio calls and chat between contacts.

Content from the wider Greek education system is wired in. Users can build a personal repository from the Photodentro learning-object collection, reach the Photodentro learning scenarios and the Interactive School Books service, keep a myTextbooks library of links to school books on ebooks.edu.gr, and use add-ons from other providers such as a sign language dictionary and the illustrated physics dictionary EleFyS. The platform also links to the Greek School Network's own blog and teleconference services. Extra micro-apps are installed or removed at will from the e-me store, and the e-me appository holds interactive educational apps.

Files, blogs and personal setup

Every user gets a personal cloud file space, and the FAQ sets the storage at 2GB per member, counting both personal files and files uploaded to hives the member created. A sync app keeps files in step with a computer, phone or tablet. Blogs can take add-ons from a list, and a WordPress importer add-on brings in a copy of an existing WordPress blog from a WXR file. Users can change the theme, background image and font, edit their profile picture and motto, reorder the apps on the home screen and group them into folders. The official site switches between Greek and English.

Support, guides and privacy

The help desk answers by email at support@e-me.edu.gr and by phone on 210 3350748, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 15:00. The terms also name a support form inside the platform and the official Facebook page. For training, the site offers step-by-step leaflets for teachers and students, a 12-step familiarization scenario built around a digital class on e-me, a concise guide, a detailed guide that is also online in HTML, eight videos on the official YouTube channel, and the "e-me FROM ALL" site with hundreds of videos made by the e-me community. A help icon on every screen opens the matching part of the detailed guide.

On privacy, the official edition falls under the Greek School Network's data protection policy. The site lists what it stores when a user signs in with PSD: surname, first name, school or unit, username and email address, plus an optional photo or avatar. It says this information is not shared with any private party or body outside e-me or the PSD. Deleting an account is a request by email to the support address, sent from the PSD email account for the official edition. The terms state that ITYE Diophantos accepts no liability for loss of stored data and does not guarantee uninterrupted service.

Who it suits

e-me is the natural choice for a teacher or student in a Greek primary or secondary school, public or private, who has a PSD account: classes come pre-listed, users are identified, and the tools cover assignments, courses, interactive content and class communication in one place. The "for all" edition suits universities, researchers, trainers, organizations and international school partnerships that want the same tools without a Greek school account. It is not a product a company can license, and a course creator looking to sell courses will find no storefront or payments here.