Wednesday, 04 April 2001

Observing how learning is changing: The European Experts' Network for Educational Technology (EENet) Observatory- an Information Platform for ICT in European School Education Systems

Carl Holmberg, EENet, Swedish Agency for Distance Education, Sweden
Harald Gapski, European Centre for Media Competence, 
GermanyCarl Holmberg, Harald Gapski:

The EENet Observatory - an Information Platform for ICT in

European School Education Systems

The European Experts’ Network for Educational Technology (EENet) consists of organisations from thirteen European countries. EENet will focus on a continuous reflection and evaluation process on policy level, supported by a sustainable information platform named "EENet Observatory". Due to the rapid developments in the field of ICT and the complexity of interweaving and interdependent factors like accessibility of ICT, teacher qualification or policy issues, EENet members decided to set up a dynamic "Observatory" with descriptive parameters. Thus the Observatory is a pool of information structured after a standardised matrix and accessible from the Internet.

Over recent years national action plans emphasises the importance of ICT in education. Despite of this awareness the introduction of technology support in many cases encounter problems. Praxis shows that the implementation processes are not dealing with the full complexity of the educational scenario. Bringing ICT into the educational systems is also facilitating pedagogical changes. In turn they e.g. demand organisational changes and provoke attitudes. One of the observations done in the work of EENet is that power shifts between different actors in education

The European Experts’ Network for Educational Technology (EENet) is an independent association consisting of institutions and organisations from 13 different European countries. The network has been founded in January 1997.

All member organisations agreed to a series of actions and a framework for working together to generate, gather, distil and disseminate strategic information in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education.

EENet's mission is to create a better understanding of ICT policies in European education and the processes linked to the implementation of them.

EENet's objectives are:

• to collect, share and analyse information regarding ICT developments, pilot projects, and implementing results beyond the core of the network,
• to advise educational establishments and policy makers at local, national, and European level.

The activities of EENet are:

• to develop monitoring and observing strategies in the field of ICT policies in education,
• to write and discuss reflections on developments and recommendations for actions,
• to inform each other on important national developments,
• to co-operate in international projects,
• to have close links to other European networks, activities or partnerships in this area,
• to stimulate a public discussion through printed and web-based publications and presentations on national and international conferences and workshops.

As of April 2000 EENet has thirteen active members: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Member organisations should be recognised as central or national focal points of ICT in education. They manage significant projects, are experienced in disseminating information and advice to schools and colleges as well as users generally, and they are close to their education ministries, though not necessarily part of them. Negotiations with other countries, EU and non-EU member states, have already taken place. In January 2000 EENet succeeded with an application within the framework of the EU Socrates programme. With a complementary measure named "EENet Observe - The EENet observatory, a basis for synergy and transparency between initiatives at national and international level in the area of ICT in education", EENet's work has been officially recognised.

In the future, EENet will be focusing on a continuos reflection and evaluation process on policy level, supported by a sustainable information platform named "EENet Observatory". Before describing the observatory in detail, general underlying assumptions on the relations between ICT and education will be outlined.

The dramatic shift from the industrial to the information or knowledge society affects all fields of life. As an integral part of our society, the education system is facing new challenges which arise from this societal transformation and transcend various boundaries, for example:

• spatial boundaries, when global and international networks as e.g. the European Schoolnet or distance learning facilities are established,

• pedagogical boundaries, when networked multimedia technologies create new forms of teaching and learning,

• strategic boundaries, when the acquisition of new competencies and (media and digital) "literacies" become part of educational objectives and strategies,

• public boundaries, when public educational institutions are facing challenges similar to those of private companies with regard to IT management, and

• private boundaries, when private companies co-operate in public-private partnerships in education.

ICT and new media shape our society, and the society shapes its social and communicative embedding. Digitalisation and global networks change the ways a society creates, stores, manages and disseminates information. With regard to this interdependent relation, several observations can be made:

• The importance of knowledge and competence is increasing in economy and society; both concepts become key factors in the societal transition.

• The education system is starting to react by focussing on issues like motivation, self-esteem, learning methods, and social competencies. Furthermore, societal changes and new fields of knowledge demand new competencies, for example ecological and networked thinking, ethical, inter-cultural and social reflection skills.

• Concepts like "life long learning" and "learning to learn" are highly valued due to the necessity for constant adaptation and the demand for flexibility. Fixed qualification schemes and the concept of a stable lifetime job qualification are losing importance, while open concepts such as competence are gaining importance.

• Outside the existing institutionalised forms of educational services, ICT can offer more flexible learning opportunities beyond limitations of time and space.

• ICT is increasingly becoming an integral part of everyday life and an important working tool. Every citizen must have the skills and competencies to communicate, to inform and express himself and to work with multimedia and ICT. This ability includes knowledge of and critical reflection on the background of media and new technologies.

• ICT and multimedia can play an important role in the transformation of the education system. These new media technologies can enrich the learning process. Their educational potential can only be exploited when they are responsibly embedded in the overall learning situation and organisation. Many educational institutions go through an organisational restructuring process and open up for new relations to other organisations and institutions.

The introduction of computers in schools started in the 1980s. At that time, programmes to equip schools and educational institutions were being initiated in most European countries. Using word processing, spreadsheets or databases and learning computer science basics were the first steps towards acknowledging the educational role of ICT.

After a period of basic computer training schemes, the network paradigm enters the educational sphere. The Internet with the World Wide Web (WWW) and online services have grown exponentially and have become an integral part of public educational policies and private activities in the educational market. Ambitious objectives to connect all schools to the Internet and to set up teacher training programmes can be found in almost every national policy paper and strategy plan for the information society. National school networks, educational servers and global co-operative learning projects indicate this new shift in educational use of technology.

Due to its universal impact, ICT moves from an isolated subject area taught in a computer room to a cross-subject, methodological and organisational issue in school. ICT is not only a subject of learning, but can also shape innovative methods of teaching and learning. The level of integration of ICT in schools ranges from applying ICT as a teaching aid to being a fully networked media school where project-oriented learning in a virtual environment transcends subject borders and introduces new places to learn. In this respect, ICT is a "non-subject" and becomes "invisible" when taken for granted in every day usage. Coping with this integration process implies a great deal of organisational restructuring, additional qualification for all participants and continuos technical support. In the beginning of most ICT diffusion processes in school education, this integration work is conducted by single enthusiastic groups of teachers.

Meanwhile, it is quite clear that a reliable technical infrastructure is one important precondition for fully exhausting the potential of ICT in schools. The more ICT applications and infrastructure are available, the more a demand arises for merging financial, organisational and technical issues into a strategic and sustainable development plan on school or regional level, involving school authorities, headmasters, teachers and external public and private partners.

3. Analysing ICT in Education

In order to describe these complex, interweaving relations regarding ICT in school education, three levels can be analytically distinguished.

1. On the societal or macro level the integration of ICT and multimedia into the education system is a complex crossing of various needs, interests and pushes. It is possible to identify some of these interrelated "imperatives" (see below, 2.5.) which urge educational policy makers on all levels to introduce ICT and multimedia into the education system.
   

2. On the organisational or meso level the school can be viewed as a learning organisation in the process of restructuring. Observing the school in its environment draws the attention to inner-organisational structures and communication processes. A holistic view on the complexity of using ICT in school education requires an analysis of internal and external communicative structures. This includes the communication between the school management and authorities, teachers and pupils, parents and external partners. With regard to future challenges of schools in the information society, it is often mentioned that seeing the school as an open and learning unit becomes a crucial factor for successful organisational development. A further step in differentiating the social system of the school focuses on the social interaction in the classroom. ICT can support more learner-centred learning environments, and can have an influence on the shift of roles taken by teachers and pupils. All communicative and social actions transcending the individual mind's world belong to this level.
   

3. On the micro level all cognitive and emotional aspects of learning and teaching are summarised. This refers not only to the level of qualification, skill and competence of teachers or pupils, but also to emotional barriers which prevent them from using ICT in new learning settings. Initiatives on meso and macro level have to take these reasons into account by including awareness-raising and supportive measures as well as targeted qualification schemes. Effects and impacts on this level are very difficult to observe or even to measure. They have to be converted to an observable level in order for us to judge the effectiveness of ICT in education.

When elaborating on the societal level (a), several "imperatives" can be listed which have an impact on the actual situation of ICT integration in education. They give reasons for pushing a restructuring process and - to a certain extent - can be found in most of the strategy plans and policy papers on education in the information society.

• Pedagogical imperative: ICT and multimedia can enrich the learning process by giving a multi-sensory impression of the content, by introducing new communication experiences or by stimulating project-oriented learning in teams. As cognitive research studies have shown, multimedia may increase the effectiveness of learning under certain conditions. These new technologies have a large pedagogical potential for developing learners' abilities, if they are embedded in an adequate communicative, social, organisational and technical context. In fact, this embedding makes it difficult to measure the effectiveness of ICT in education despite many best practice examples.
  

• Educational policy imperative: Educational policies determine the conditions under which ICT can be integrated in the learning process. The autonomy of schools, the role of teachers, the policies of using digital content and the extent of ICT integration in the curriculum are relevant factors in a possible educational reform. Media form the way we communicate in an organisation, and they can promote organisational reforms of educational institutions and change administrative procedures.
  

• Economic imperative: The skills and competencies in ICT and multimedia taught in the education system secure economic competitiveness and employment in the future. If education is to prepare for future life in the information society, ICT and multimedia have to be integrated into the classroom at some point. Not only the investment in human capital of the future, but also the development of a European and national educational multimedia and ICT market, represents a strong economical imperative.
  Underlying economical interests are also present when introducing distance learning, and computer-based learning offers cost-effective ways of delivering learning content. This imperative may be stronger in vocational training and higher education than in general education. On the other hand, the introduction of ICT in education is not only a large one-time investment, but requires ongoing financial support for maintenance. Zones in which the economic imperative merges with public interests often yield to various forms of public-private partnerships.

• Political imperative: Modernising the education system by providing access to new technologies is a topic on every political agenda. From an international perspective, the comparison of national financial efforts and equipment status with that of another "higher ranking" country has always been a useful political argument for action (charts showing pupils-per-computer ratio by country are typical examples here). Within an education system, the equal distribution of access to ICT is a strong political imperative to avoid social disadvantages for certain geographical areas or school sectors ("digital divide" or "information rich" and "information poor"). Acting against any forms of "knowledge gaps" forms a social-political imperative based on societal values.
  

• Cultural imperative: Culturally specific content has to flow into the world of new media. ICT and multimedia provide new ways of cultural reproduction and of presenting cultural identity. This imperative is - in combination with the economic imperative - visible in European strategies of ICT and in the establishment of software markets with national respective European content.
  

• Technological imperative: This imperative is often explained as the opposite of pedagogical responsibility: the driving force should not be the available technical possibilities or potential, but what is socially and pedagogically reasonable and wanted. Nevertheless, new technology changes the ways of storing, organising and distributing information. With the arrival of the computer, technology even processes information, which provokes pedagogical questions about whether certain skills should be taught and learned with or without the support of information technologies. This debate started with the pocket calculator in mathematics, but nowadays more complex cognitive processes can be executed by computers. It is the "mediality" of all communications, be it oral speech, printed books or multimedia, that needs to be reflected upon in concepts of a "new literacy".

These imperatives are not isolated, but interrelated and linked. Learning takes place in a specific environment, be that institutionalised in a school or in a virtual space on the Internet accessible from home or from school. To a certain extent, existing structures like the content of the curriculum, the integration of media in the curriculum or the inner organisation of schools can be regarded as effects of these imperatives.

The three interrelated levels - a) the societal, b) the organisational and social, and c) the individual-cognitive level - should help illustrate the complexity of ICT in education: the learning process itself is embedded in a setting determined by the competencies of all participants (pupils, teachers, headmaster), by the pedagogical content and materials used, by the organisational structure of the school, by the possibilities of access to ICT, by the educational policy and many other factors on all levels.

This sketch is not intended to be a theoretical model, but a way of structuring the levels of complexity. In order to depict developments in ICT in education adequately, it is not sufficient to focus on single parameters such as access to equipment or teacher training. From a holistic point of view several levels, including both cognitive, organisational and societal factors, need to be taken into account.

EENet's work on the Observatory is mainly focused on the policy level of ICT and gathers data, information and studies relevant to all three levels. Due to the methodological difficulty of analysing the cognitive level (c) and the lack of consistent and transferable international research results, EENet's methodological priority lies on the societal and organisational levels (a) and (b)). By keeping this multi-level complexity in mind, EENet seeks to avoid any unfortunate shortening of interpretations and conclusions. Despite this holistic demand, the availability and diversity of collected data in the actual Observatory shows the need for an intensive interpreting and framing process in order to get closer to the "whole picture".

This chapter deals with EENet's approach of reducing the described complexity to a set of parameters which is used to observe developments of ICT in education in Europe.

In EENet’s first working phase, country status reports were written in a common structure, then shared among the members for discussion before serving as a basis for the first EENet report "How learning is changing: information and communications technology across Europe", which was published in 1998. Soon it became clear that strict formalisation and standardisation does not yield an adequate depiction of the status of ICT in the field of education, where education systems and settings vary from country to country or even from region to region.

Due to the rapid developments in the field of ICT in education and the complexity of interweaving and interdependent factors like accessibility of ICT, teacher qualification or policy issues, EENet members decided to set up a dynamic "Observatory" with descriptive parameters on the Internet, to complement the written reports.

This virtual Observatory is a pool of information consisting of data items all structured to a standardised matrix. The parameters, explained in more detail below, are a result of an extensive discussion process among the EENet members. They reflect a compromise between comparability and singularity.

The overall concept of an "EENet Observatory" consists of three different parts:

1. The Observatory on the Internet with decentralised information on ICT in education, maintained by each EENet member. This collection of data is structured according to a standardised set of main- and sub-parameters (see below).

2. The reflection papers and transnational reflection papers, which are part of the internal "members' only" web site. These documents comment on the raw data nodes of the Web Observatory (a).

3. The printed reports published by EENet on the basis of the EENet public and internal discussions and reflection papers.

Primarily the Web-based Observatory is a working tool for the educational community. As mentioned above, it has replaced the static country reports from the first working phase and takes advantage of the new editing and networking possibilities of the Internet. Since all the core country data are publicly available on the WWW, EENet invites policy makers, teachers, authorities and the general public to draw their own conclusions from the observatory or compare them with EENet's recommendations. The EENet Observatory is intended to promote a public and international discourse on European policy issues of ICT in education by offering a platform with relevant data and information.

It should be stressed that the Observatory itself is not a comparison table, but rather a platform with "raw data" which can be used to draw international conclusions and recommendations. One has to bear in mind that "objective" country-to-country comparisons are very difficult to conduct: the inner-political reality may differ from the outside presentation, official statistics and evaluation documents often lag behind the rapid developments, national education systems may not be directly intercomparable, and different cultural backgrounds may hinder a mutual understanding of educational strategies.

The listed parameters in the Observatory are a result of an extensive definition process among EENet members. They are intended to

• reduce the variety of different national educational frameworks in Europe to a common denominator (parameters),

• be specific enough to depict relevant information and developments,

• be adequate for providing a holistic and informative platform for further interpretations and recommendations in the field of ICT in Europe.

EENet members are aware of the fact that most of these parameters strongly depend on the national educational settings, and that especially some of the statistical figures are not accessible. In the latter case, other available information sources which cover the theme of the parameters will be considered instead. No additional research will be undertaken by EENet. The EENet Observatory gathers and distils already available information and data. This overview makes it possible to identify "white spots" in the availability of information regarding ICT in education from an international perspective. These observations then might flow into recommendations of additional research necessary to fill these "white spots".

To sum up, the EENet Observatory

• focuses on ICT and multimedia developments in general school education in European countries from a policy-oriented point of view;

• has a holistic approach in depicting these developments and observes with a standardised set of parameters arranged in a matrix;

• is maintained by EENet members on a decentralised basis;

• serves as an information platform for conclusions and recommendations;

• is an open platform for promoting an international discourse in this field.

The virtual Observatory consists of a table or matrix where EENet members are positioned as columns and main parameters of ICT in education are depicted as rows. Each member takes care of his own data gathering and of the updating and publishing process on the Web. Each star in this matrix represents a block of information relative to its position in the matrix. By clicking on a star, the user gets the relevant information, which is usually structured in further sub-headings. This decentralised matrix can be accessed through the EENet homepage at http://www.eenet.org.

EENet members are responsible for the content in their country column. This open and decentralised structure can be expanded with new members' columns. On a lower level, additional sub-columns could be introduced to illustrate federal structures inside a national column.

The rows in the matrix of the Observatory contain the main parameter categories. Ten main parameters relevant to ICT in education have been identified by EENet members:

1. General educational facts and figures

2. Policies and policy making bodies

3. ICT initiatives and programmes / projects

4. Expenditures on education and ICT funding

5. ICT infrastructure and usage

6. Teacher education and training

7. Co-operation with private sector

8. Content development

9. Evaluation and research

10. School practice, models and projects

11. Summary

These ten content parameters contain sub-categories which will be described in more detail below. All information in these categories should carry a reference and source (WWW link).

(a) General educational facts and figures

A basic introduction to the general education system is given in the first row of the matrix. Most of this information can be quoted from ministerial servers, national statistics agencies and Eurydice - The Information Network on Education in Europe.

• Structure of the national educational system

• Numbers of schools (in each sector)

• Numbers of teachers (in each sector)

• Numbers of pupils (in each sector)

• Links and sources

(b) Policies and policy making bodies

This row identifies policies and policy making bodies relevant to ICT in education. Ranging from centralised in one national ministry to decentralised in federal states, European educational policies are defined in different ways.

• Are there national aims, policies and strategies for ICT in education?

• Where are they defined ?

• Links

• Main bodies

• Key documents

• Addresses

• Links

So far, all EENet member countries have introduced special initiatives, programmes or projects for promoting ICT in school education. These programmes are usually linked to national action plans describing strategies for moving towards the information society.

• Description of national / regional initiatives / programmes / projects

• Research and evaluation

• Key documents

• Partners

• Funding

• Links

Financial figures on ICT in school are separated into a national level and a local school level. Figures may differ greatly between different types of schools, and even between regions in one state. Some figures may not be available for certain types of schools.

Furthermore, the costs for telecommunications and Internet providers have an impact on the diffusion of ICT in education.

• Educational budgets

• ICT funding

• Links

• School budget / authorities

• Expenditures on ICT - hardware / software

• Expenditures on networking / telecommunications

• Expenditures on teacher training

• Expenditures on support / maintenance (personnel)

• Links

• Companies and providers

• Rates

• Special rates for education

• Links

Although a figure like the pupils-per-computer ratio is only one parameter among many others, it often occupies a dominant position in status presentations of a successful integration of ICT in education. The diversity of existing statistics on ICT in schools throughout Europe makes it hard to define one unified framework. EENet has tried to identify some parameters which describe the actual accessibility and usage of ICT. It shows that many of the data items listed below are not available in some countries, or they are not compatible as to school type or specification of technical equipment.

All statistical data should refer to usage both in school and at home, since usage in a non-institutionalised setting has a feed-back on the usage of ICT in the learning setting at school.

Hardware

• Computers (numbers, explanation of types and operating systems, types of networks (LAN))

• Internet connections, if possible with details on:

• Type of Internet connection (modem, ISDN, router-LAN / single PCs)

• Location of Internet access points (classroom, library, computer lab, access at home, teachers’ room)

• Percentage of schools connected to Internet (from all classrooms and from teachers’ study room)

• Percentage of schools with a homepage

• Internet Service Providers (ISP)

• Other available technical infrastructure (video projector, server etc).

• Types of available applications (word processing, databases, spreadsheets, Internet, E-mail, CD-ROM, games / edutainment, video conferencing, other programmes).

• Time spent with specified applications and infrastructure at home and at school.

• The use of ICT in different subjects (integrated into the whole curriculum, ICT used in parts of the curriculum).

• The use of ICT on different class levels.

• Technical maintenance and support (by teachers, by external partners, managing services)

• Amount of money allocated for

• new hardware and software investments

• maintenance and technical support

• staff development.

• School tariffs for Internet use or educational software.

In general, initiatives and programmes on ICT in education also include teacher qualification schemes ranging from courses of a few days to extended long-term qualification programmes. Both teacher education (pre-service training) and in-service training should be covered.

• Initiatives and programmes

• Bodies and partners

• Statistics on pre-service training

• Duration

• Costs and funding

• Evaluation

• Links

• Initiatives and programmes

• Bodies and partners

• Statistics on in-service training

• Duration of training

• Costs and funding

• Evaluation

• Links

The development of educational markets and products, the ICT skills needed in the future and limited financial resources are often cited arguments with regard to co-operation between the public and private sphere. Possible relations range from one-time sponsoring to long-term co-operation of mutual benefit. In every case, the management of these relations requires sensibility in terms of the different imperatives involved (pedagogical versus economical imperatives).

• Types of co-operation (national agreements / initiatives, regional projects, foundations etc)

• Description of public-private partnerships

• Links

Content, regarded as one of the bottlenecks in the successful integration of ICT in education, is especially challenging for smaller language markets. The development of content in digital format merges cultural, educational and economic imperatives.

• Policies

• Programmes / initiatives and financing

• Language versions

• Private content providers

• Public content providers / educational servers

• Educational software market / facts and (financial) figures

• Key and critical factors

• Links

Results of evaluative studies and research programmes give important feedback on the effects and problems regarding the introduction of ICT in schools. This row indicates larger programmes without going into methodological details, and provides links for further reading.

• Large research programmes on ICT in schools

• Partners

• Publications

• Links

While all the previous nine parameter rows describe information on the macro level of developments, this last content row provides examples of school practice, models and projects. The first sub-category links to existing national databases of schools and projects. Before giving a few illustrations of single schools and projects, reasons for selecting these are given.

• Sources

• Key factors for selecting the following schools

• School community and setting

• School as an organisation

• Background to development and projects

• Physical setting

• Technical setting

• Competence development and knowledge

• Project description and activities

• Contact and address

(k) Summary

This row sums up all the previous ten parameters and gives an overview of the national status of ICT in school education. The sub-categories are identical with the headlines of the main rows.

• General educational facts and figures

• Policies and policy making bodies

• ICT initiatives and programmes / projects

• Expenditures on education and ICT funding

• Statistics on ICT

• Teacher education and training

• Co-operation with private sector

• Content development

• Evaluation and research

• School practice, models and projects

Apart from these ten categories and a summary row, EENet uses additional information files for preparing printed reports which focus more on conclusions and recommendations. Two types of internal information nodes are in use:

• The internal column "transnational reflection papers" contains a horizontal cross-section of all national data referring to one parameter. Transnational editors are appointed by EENet, and summarise major developments in each parameter row. Conclusions drawn from this transnational perspective will be discussed in the EENet group before being integrated into the published reports.

• "Reflection papers" belong to a members' column and contain thoughts and reflections in progress. When published on the internal EENet members' area, they may be commented on by other EENet members.

Furthermore, there is an EENet e-mailing list and a discussion forum only accessible to the members of EENet. These virtual tools support and document EENet's work and are used in between the physical working group meetings.

With the completion of the virtual Observatory, EENet has installed a working and documenting tool which can be used by policy and decision makers on all levels of ICT in school education.

EENet will update and develop all data regularly. Transnational reflections and topic-oriented reflections based on the information gathered in the Observatory will flow into the writing process of the reports which will be published by EENet.

Already, it can be stated that power shifts will play an important role in the next report. Societal and technological changes move and transform relations between teacher and learner, between school and society, between global and local, between centre and periphery, between individual and groups and between the public and the private.

A general observation in all European educational systems regarding the importance of ICT can be made: Over the recent years all national action plans emphasises the importance of ICT in education. Despite of this awareness of challenges and necessary restructuring processes, the objectives and strategies often focus on only two change parameters: First there is the ICT technology, the equipment and its support and second there is the new and updated knowledge and changed attitudes of teachers and students which drive the implementation process of the ICT in education.

From the EENet's perspective these are indeed necessary, but not sufficient key parameters for an successful change scenario. Thirdly, organisational and regulatory changes and restructuring processes must take place in order to guarantee a sustainable integration and restructuring of the educational system which should not be driven by the potential of technology. Issues such as increasing school autonomy, commonly shared educational visions supported by ICT plans on regional level and schools as learning organisations belong to a triangle of key factors which have an impact on this development process.

With regard to the "power shifts" and the implementation of national policies, challenges of communicating on different levels can be identified. Simply top-down implementation strategies, from the ministry via the regional or local school authorities to the school do not work adequately.

While active schools develop their own innovative successful strategies for using ICT in education and co-operating with other public and private partners in their region or via telecommunication, the challenge arise how to establish feedback mechanisms back to the policy level. Policies need to be developed with consultation and the active wide participation of key players. In this convergence of bottom-up and top-down developments issues such as classroom imperatives, teacher knowledge, technology limitations need to be combined with framing conditions which facilitate organisational restructuring processes in the educational system. The most successful policies and measures are often those which combine central directive with local initiatives (policy coming down meets innovation coming up).

6. Contact

For further information regarding EENet (http://www.eenet.org) please contact:

EENet Chair
Mr Carl Holmberg
Distansutbilningsmyndigheten
Swedish Agency for Distance Education (DISTUM)
Box 194, S-871 24 Härnösand,
Sweden

http://www.distum.se

EENet Secretary
Mr Harald Gapski
ecmc European Centre for Media Competence
Bergstr. 8
D-45770 Marl
Germany

http://www.ecmc.de

Thinking About Institutional Strategies for Work-Based Learning
Deborah Trayhurn, Work-based Learning Project, Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Malcolm Shaw, Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

ABOUT INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR WORK-BASED LEARNING.

Deborah Trayhurn and Malcolm Shaw - Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

This workshop will begin by presenting and exploring the developing context of work-based learning in the U.K. This will include examination of recent developments in the work of agencies such as the Quality Assurance Agency and The University for Industry acting through its Learn Direct programme, where these are seen as part of the broader framework of Continuous Professional Development and Lifelong Learning. Key features of the context of work-based learning will be considered and a specific working definition of work-based learning proposed for the purposes of the workshop.

Participants will be invited to identify from their own experience, or to predict, the key issues and problems that they would anticipate in moving from campus-based methods of student learning to versions of work-based learning where work has a broad definition, paid and voluntary etc., and provides the framework for learning content, direction and purpose. These will be shared with the group and compared with issues which have arisen over a period of three years at Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) U.K. The importance of institutional cultures will be highlighted around such institutional parameters as academic / vocational, centralised / devolved, subject-based / discipline-based, regional / national and levels of collegiality and scale.

The principles and frameworks that have guided developments within the culture of Leeds Metropolitan University will be explored and discussed in response to the key issues identified from the above. These include problems around principles and practices concerning such as curriculum delivery, dealing with students or learners, dealing with staff, relationships with employers, and resourcing. Participants will be invited to investigate and share potential solutions to the underlying problems from the perspective of their own Institutional cultures. This will begin to allow some comparisons to be made across the spectrum of educational and other institutions. The group will be asked to identify what they feel might be successful models and approaches for investigating and embedding valid work-based learning processes and procedures within their own institutions. The group will be able to conclude views of the nature and impact of different institutional cultures on work-based learning and potential approaches to assuring the quality and standards of work-based learning provision across the institution.

F. Seddoh, Higher Education Division, UNESCO, France: " Open and Distance Learning in the framework of the World Conference on Higher Education follow-up"

V. Kinelev, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE), Moscow, Russia: " the Role of Distance Learning in the Information Society"

E. Khvilon, Division of Higher Education, UNESCO, France: " UNESCO Chairs in Open and Distance Learning and their contribution to bridging the digital divide"

J. Shabani, UNESCO Dakar, Senegal: " UNESCO’s Programme in Distance Education in Africa"

E-Challenges for Phare Countries
Hans-Peter Baumeister, European School of Business, Fachhochschule Reutlingen, University of Applied Science, Germany
Kay Mac Keogh, National Distance Education Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Joergen Bang, University of Aarhus, Denmark

E-Challenges for Phare Countries

E-Learning is regarded as one of the more important issues with which our societies have to deal with when we talk about global competition.
Concerning Europe the heads of the EU member states stated in Lisbon 2000 that the immediate improvement of educational structures as well as the appropriate equipment of schools to meet future requirements of a modern educational system are in a priority position on the
European agenda.
These political intentions will also concern the candidate countries on their way to full membership of the EU, since their agenda will already need to be influenced by those declarations.
A team of international experts has been asked to investigate, as far as possible, the current situation regarding e-learning in the candidate countries, both regarding the common awareness as well as any initiated developments, according to the support offered by the
Phare Programme of the EU.
The workshop presents the most important findings and also offers an opportunity to discuss on a more general level the problems related to the transforming of traditional educational systems to those with a better application of new ICTs.

Programme:
1. Introduction: Dr. Hans-Peter Baumeister, European School of Business, Reutlingen/DE
2. The strategic view of the EU regarding e-learning: Kay Mac Keogh, M.A., National Distance Education Centre, Dublin/IE and Prof. Joergen Bang, University of Aarhus/DK
3. The development of e-learning in Phare countries: Dr. Hans-Peter Baumeister
4. Discussion

Discussion Group: The Future of Women's Global Education
Authors: Future of Education Project Group, International Women's University, University of Hamburg
Lisa Link, Dept. of Technical Translation, Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Therona Moodley, Dept of English, UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa
Heike Pienkoss, Dept. of Textile & Clothing Technology, Physics, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Sara Sanchez Mera, Instituto Delta, University of Jujuy, Argentina
Birgit Thies, Bayreuth Chamber of Commerce, Germany

Discussion Group:

The Future of Women's Global Education

While in the last several decades there have been numerous studies of women’s issues in higher education, for the most part these issues have been ignored in recent discussions of open learning and distance education. Our extension event at the conference seeks to summarise international research on women’s higher education, in particular the problems of and strategies for online/distance education, and stimulate a lively discussion about these issues.

The origins of this project may be traced to project area "Information" of the International Women’s University (IFU), based at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Here members of the sub-project group The Future of Education, comprising seventeen women professionals from thirteen countries, co-operated as an interdisciplinary team. The group examined developments and trends in higher education. The primary focus of this research was the impact these changes have on women learners and educators throughout the world.

A significant outcome of this intensive three-month collaboration is a major Women’s Educational Resource Project, selections of which have been made available on the Internet.

This resource space, a perpetual work-in-progress as defined and dictated by the developing research and theories in this field, is aimed at women learners, educators, educational administrators, parents – basically anyone interested in issues pertaining to women's higher education.

Upon opening the homepage, a visitor encounters a brick wall. The ladder leaning against the wall offers a tacit invitation to climb over to the rolling green hills which extend to the horizon. The symbolism of the solid brick wall in opposition to the fluidity of the landscape is a reflection of the present state of women’s higher education. In identifying the various problems (bricks) facing a woman in her quest for education, we also offer strategies for surmounting these (the ladder). Herein exists the tremendous potential offered by online/distance education (the rolling hills and the horizon).

While the group identified numerous issues, temporal constraints dictated a concentration on five vital areas of concern: Access, Discrimination, Gender Roles, Language and Learning Styles. Each of these categories contains an analysis of research on the particular issue, data on educational resources ranging from distance education programmes to educational funding sources, and an annotated list of links to further information on the Web. The brick labelled Other is envisioned as an open forum where visitors may post their contributions and suggestions. We also actively encourage its use as a venue for continued discussion on women’s global education.

The following is a brief synopsis of the contents of each of the categories. We strongly recommend visiting the Web site for more information.

• Defines access as "the possibility to start and finish the higher education programme of one’s choice".

• Provides statistics on the unequal education of females vs. males throughout the world, e.g.

• Two-thirds of the world’s 300 million children without access to education are girls

• Women comprise two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people

• Lists the obstacles which create and maintain the status quo.

• Offers links to other relevant sites

Divided into two parts:

1. Gender Equity in Higher Education:

Includes an annotated bibliography and covers the following issues:

• Identifies gender based barriers experienced by women in higher education institutions

• Obstacles found in two critical areas: 1) under representation of women throughout professional ranks; 2) non-supportive professional climate

• Examines departmental barriers

• Lists proposals for gender equity plans at higher education institutions ranging from small practical changes to structural changes at university policy level

• Case Study: The University of Queensland’s Gender Equity Plan

• Assessment/Evaluation of these plans

• Questions to be asked

• Offers links to other relevant sites and to the above plan

1. The Importance of Women’s Education for the Welfare of the Nation and the Community

• Examines the facts and statistics surrounding female discrimination within socio-economic communities.

• Offers links to relevant sites

• Defines gender; gender sex; gender role and gender identity

• Examines stereotyping at home; in advertisements; in society; at school; in books and in teacher attitudes

• Analyses the importance of gender studies as well as courses offered at universities

• Looks at future strategies

• Offers links to relevant sites

Examines the following aspects of language and provides links to relevant sites:

Annotated bibliography with links to additional resources covering:

• Learning theories

• Methods and techniques of learning

• Learning styles

• Differences in learning styles between men and women

The Future of Women’s Global Higher Education extension event will present a summary of the findings of our project group’s ongoing research and collaboration. Women's education will be one of the biggest issues in the development of the global economy and in the new communication "revolution" as we connect the local and the global. Clearly, just adding some classes "for women" or just adding women to more classes is a totally inadequate response to the current situation.

The presentation will be structured to stimulate an animated moderated discussion among our colleagues and peers in this field. Incorporated into the presentation will be a visit to our Web site. While it is apparent we have a long way to travel in redressing the imbalances in the field of women’s higher education, our group’s focus is not limited only to the problems. We revel also in the possibilities offered by appropriately adapting the new information communication technologies and the manner in which women learners may utilise these media in acquiring higher education.

Joyce Agaloo, Moi University , Kenya
Francoise Chantal Amye Menyengue, Cameroon
Ananta Laxmi Uppuluri, Andhra Mahila Sabha College of Education, Osmania University, India
Ilona Blinova, Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute, Russia
Mamota Das, Annamalai University, India
Bokang Gwebu, University of Botswana
Vibha Joshi, Indhira Ghandi National Open University, India
Cheris Kramarae, Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon Eugene, USA
Lisa Link, Dept. of Technical Translation, Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Therona Moodley, Dept. of English, University of South Africa, South Africa
Heike Pienkoss, Dept. of Textile & Clothing Technology, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Sabine Prechter, Dept. of English, University of Giessen, Germany
Farzaneh Raji, Tehran, Iran
Sara Sanchez Mera, University of JuJuy, Argentina
Viktoria Sukovataya, Ukraine
Birgit Thies, Bayreuth Chamber of Commerce, Germany
Zhang Wei, Dept. of English, Peking University, China

Virtual studies and European degrees. the attitudes of students of European Distance teaching universities towards virtual studies and their views about bi- national degree courses and individualised course selection from a -future- "European Distance Teaching University"

Students' associations from the Open University (OUSA), FernUniversität
Hagen (ASTA) and the UNED

Areas: 
Universities and Higher Education

Issues: 
Quality, Partnerships/Alliances/Networks

Aspects: 
virtual, multi-/trans-/international
How can students from European distance teaching universities profit from
the present tendency towards virtual teaching and a closer cooperation
between European distance teaching universities? How will these trends
affect the studies of every single student? These questions will be at the
centre of this event, which takes place under the common auspices of the
students' organisations of the Open University, the FernUniversität and
the UNED. In the first part researchers working in the evaluation units of
distance teaching universities will present the results of surveys amongst
students from distance teaching universities on two topics: a) about the
students' experiences with virtual courses: how do they assess the chances
that this technology will contribute to making distance learning more
"student friendly" b) furthermore about the European dimension of studies,
particularly about students' demands for inter- university agreements at
European level, allowing a flexible, individualised course selection from
courses offered by the different European distance teaching universities
within a degree course programme. These aspects will then be debated in a
panel discussion by members of the students' associations of the above
mentioned universities. The discussion is intended to serve as a startting
point to lead to a common platform, in which the students' associations of
the universities mentioned state their views and common vision about the
virtual and European dimension of distance studies at the beginning of the
21.st century.

Som Naidu, The University of Melbourne, Australia

The goal of the proposed tutorial/workshop is to creatively explore your own ideas, and interests on the analysis of subject matter content in interactive learning environments. They will explore these critical questions on the subject:

1. What is subject matter content? Is it the same as facts, principles and procedures? Or is it something else as well?

2. Lets identify the various types of content there might be. What are some meaningful ways of identifying and viewing content? Why are these ways meaningful? Do they have something to do with "learning", how knowledge is acquired, and how is meaning derived?

3. What is learning? How do people learn various types of content? To what extent is learning an individual or social phenomenon? Does content feature in this equation? If so how and to what extent?

Participants will be asked to come prepared to work on their own project or something that has baffled them and their colleagues. they will be asked to be prepared to critically reflect on their current dispositions as well as that of the others. And perhaps work towards a prototype of a learning model which can be applied and then reported on as paper for submission to "Distance Education: An International Journal".

Wim Jochems, Educational Technology Expertise Center, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands
Rob Koper, Educational Technology Expertise Center, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands
Jocelyn Manderveld, Educational Technology Expertise Center, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands
Bert van den Berg, Educational Technology Expertise Center, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands

Edubox: a platform for flexible learning

The field of distance education is changing. Moreover the number of "traditional" distance education students is decreasing and new target groups come to the front. There is demand for more flexible
and personalised teaching, which also supports the new demands of learning as, life long learning and competency based learning.

The capabilities of the new internet technology have created a more interactive experience for the students, but it doesn't support real flexible and personalised learning. Real flexible approaches offer
students a choice in media and delivery formats and even in the pedagogical approach, most suitable or preferable to the students. These demands put a lot of pressure on the suppliers: the educational institutes. How can they manage to supply so much flexibility in a cost-effective way?

Edubox developed by Educational Technology Expertise Centre, supports the possibilities of flexible study of the students: freedom of place, time, pace and delivery media, but also the freedom in
sequence of contents and learning materials. Furthermore, Edubox organises and enables content design and creation, content management, data security and storage of all kinds of information
and interactions in the triangle between teacher, student and learning materials. The key feature of Edubox is Educational Markup Language (EML). EML is an XML application and complies to common standards such as IMS and IEEE.

The central aim of the workshop is sharing our concepts and ideas about flexible learning and creating and delivering the content with Edubox. The target groups of this workshop are educators and managers involved in the design and development of flexible learning content. In the workshop short presentations and demonstrations will be alternated with group activities and group discussions.

Presenters:

Prof Dr. Wim Jochems is general director of the Educational Technlogy Expertise Center at the Open Universiteit of the Netherlands.

Prof Rob Koper is a full professor at the Educational Technology Expertise Centre (ETEC) of the Open University of the Netherlands. He is head of the educational technology development programme, aimed at the development of electronic learning environments.

Drs. Jocelyn Manderveld has a degree in educational psychology and is working for 21/2 years for the Educational Technology Expertise Centre as an educational technologist. Her expertise is focussed on developing innovative and flexible education with the use of ICT. She is one of the developers of Edubox and EML.

Bert van den Berg is working as educational technologist in the Educational Technology Expertise Centre of the Open University of the Netherlands. His expertise is focussed on the use of
technology in (distance) education. He is involved in the development programme of the Electronic Learning Environment.

Brazilian Association for Distance Education (ABED) meeting Portuguese
Chair: Marcos Formiga, ABED, Brazil
Fredric Litto, ABED, Brazil
This session will be a forum for the presentation of current projects of the Regional Chapters of ABED and of the Special Interest Groups of ABED

Janet Poley, The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), USA
Thomas Fretz, ADEC, University of Maryland, USA
James Zuiches, ADEC, Washington State University, USA
Gary Miller, ADEC, Penn State University, USA
Luis Alvarado, Tech Virtual University, Monterrey Tech, Mexico
Pavel Sorokin, Moscow Agro Engineering University, Russia

The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) and its international partners propose
conducting a high quality facilitated half-day workshop for institutions of higher
education from around the world. The purpose of the workshop will be to chart
strategies for collaboration and cooperation, including sharing of methodologies
and technologies that can work. Public-private sector cooperation will be explored including
management and communication arranagements that work. Issues including content,
quality, trust, culture, financial arrangements, access technologies, open systems,
modularization, evaluation, intellectual property and future directions for distance
and open education will be included. The workshop will be lively and entertaining
and if arrangements can be made will include a showcase including bringing in
learning modules from a distance. ADEC will include brief cases about some of the
global consortia forming and experience to date with fostering these relationships.

World Bank Distance Learning and Knowledge Initiatives
Moderator: Harry Patrinos, The World Bank
Kathy Sheram, The World Bank: " Building Human Capacity"
Bruno Laporte, The World Bank: "Knowledge Sharing Networks " and "Global Development Gateway"
Samia Melhem, The World Bank: "Supporting the Enabling Environment"

The World Bank has developed a framework for supporting the knowledge revolution in its client countries. Within this framework, the World Bank Group focuses on four critical elements: supporting the enabling environment, building human capacity, expanding connectivity and access, and promoting knowledge generation and sharing.

Moderator: Harry Patrinos

Speakers:
Kathy Sheram
Building Human Capacity
A presentation of the World Bank Group's support for building human capacity, with a focus on distance learning programs, and programs that get schools on-line.

Bruno Laporte
Promoting Knowledge Generation and Sharing
A presentation of the World Bank Group's efforts to promote sharing of global knowledge, with special emphasis on the Global Development Gateway, a new knowledge sharing initiative in collaboration with the private sector, international agencies, governments, and non-governmental organizations.

Bruno Laporte
Knowledge Sharing Networks
The World Bank Group’s Knowledge Sharing Network supports more than 100 thematic communities of practice, comprising World Bank staff and development partners who share a common area of expertise or interest. The presentation will show how knowledge is being generated and shared within these communities, and how the principle of knowledge sharing is now being extended to practitioners in client countries.

Samia Melhem
Supporting the Enabling Environment
The World Bank Group is fostering policy, regulatory, and network readiness by supporting the development of the enabling environment for efficiency, competition, and innovation for knowledge sharing, and information and communication technologies.

Regional African Meeting
Moderator: Archie Dick, Faculty of Arts, UNISA, South Africa

Learning Communities as Distance Education Environments
Gus Wijngaards, European Schoolnet, Belgium

LEARNING COMMUNITIES AS DISTANCE EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTS

There are several definitions of Distance Learning.
A good one is the definition of the University of Wisconsin-Extension:
Distance Education is defined as a planned teaching/learning experience that
uses a wide spectrum of technologies to reach learners at a distance and is
designed to encourage learner interaction and certification of learning.

European Schoolnet believes that some EUN Learning Communities operate on
top of that, as active Distance Education environments,delivering
(instructional) resource-sharing opportunities and experiences.

Three examples will be presented and discussed:

1. The EUN Virtual Teachers College offers anyone a unique online platform
for
distance education. Its main elements are:
- collaborative tools
- audio and video-conferencing facilities
- full integration with the EUN site content, activities and projects

The system allows users to attend courses and workshops as well as set up
courses themselves.
The final goal is the establishment of a community of teachers and teacher
trainers continuously sharing and exchanging experiences and educational
materials.

2. EUN School Managers Centre
The School Managers Centre web site is a resource centre and virtual meeting
place for school managers. This Learning Community started in January 2001
in close co-operation with ESHA and Helsinki City Education Department.

3. EUN Virtual School
In the Virtual School you can find resources and service for learning
activities structured by subject areas (departments).
The Concept of the Virtual School is teachers meeting teachers, colleagues
exchanging materials, ideas and experiences and having discussions on
everyday-problems.
The Virtual School as an important Learning Community will help schools and
teachers to find quality resources in the Internet

Demonstration of the Virtual Campus - Idea Solutions: the most successful virtual campus in the world. More than seventy institutions and corporations are using it.

Speaker: Carles Esquerré, Àngel J. Garcia

Issues and Open Discussion on ICDE Task Force on Research
Olugbemiro Jegede, Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning, The Open University of Hong Kong, SAR, China

ICDE SCOP at its meeting in Hong Kong in 1999 set up the ICDE Task Force on Research as an outcome of its discussion and assessment of future needs and direction for the organisation and its membership. The main responsibilities of the Task Force primarily include:Formulating policy and suggested format for the creation of an ODL research community; Defining the ODL research agenda; Defining appropriate membership of multi-disciplinary research teams relevant to various types of research projects; Suggesting the modalities for establishing project teams (possibly
regional) with institutional support that are interested in developing applications for funding for specific projects, and Suggesting ways to establish a Research Network presence to all ICDE events eg Regional and World Conferences, SCOP meetings etc.

The Task Force conducted its meetings in two phases - through a web-site for the e-discussion for all members of the Task Force and an electronic discussion group open to everyone in the world interested in ODL research. This session will discuss the highlights of the report and contribute to mapping out the directions for the future of research within ICDE.

Global Seminar, International Networking: Concepts and Principles
Dean Sutphin, Cornell University, USA

"The future of learning: views from different continents"
The panel will feature Higher Education Institutions that are leaders in distributed education in their respective countries.
The discussion will be moderated by Blackboard’s CEO, Michael Chasen , USA

Tracy Lightfoot, Multimedia Developer, Griffith University (Australia)
Daniel Hok, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Wim Liebrand, University of Groningen
Rolf Granow, Virtuelle Fachhochschule, Germany

Despite turmoil in the Internet economy, education remains at the forefront
of the online transformation. The integrated enterprise is expanding from
the back office to the front office, reinventing the classroom. The result:
Barriers are falling on campus and among institutions and countries.
Panelists from leading educational institutions and the CEO of a global
software maker discuss the future of learning from the vantage of four
continents.

Blackboard develops, licenses and supports enterprise software platforms for
bringing education online. Blackboard solutions power many of the
Internet's most successful sites for courses, campus communities and student
commerce. Blackboard serves more than 5 million active users at more than
1,500 institutions in more than 100 countries. Blackboard has established
itself as the industry standard for e-Education.


Panelists:

Tracy Lightfoot, Multimedia Developer,
Griffith University (Australia)

Prof. Dr. Daniel Tiong Hok Tan
Director, Centre for Educational Development
Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

Prof. Dr. Wim B.G. Liebrand
University of Groningen (Netherlands)

Prof. Dr. Rolf Granow
Chairman, Flagship Project
Virtuelle Fachhochschule (Germany)

Michael Chasen
President & CEO
Blackboard Inc. (United States)

Michael Chasen
President and CEO
Blackboard Inc
+1 (202) 463-4860
mchasen@blackboard.com

Michael Chasen, President and CEO, brings to the company and its customers an expertise in managing fast growth Internet software companies, and a passion for the Internet's pedagogical potential for the education industry. At Blackboard, Chasen's work has expanded the company's leadership in the platform market, providing the company a series of highly synergistic business lines that leverage its traditional Blackboard 5 solution and website resources in a way that aid educational institutions, students, and faculty alike. Ernst & Young named Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman of Blackboard Inc., "Entrepreneurs of the Year for Emerging Companies in Washington, D.C.," for their work at Blackboard. Most recently, Chasen and Pittinsky were honored as "young innovators" by the Kilby Awards Foundation for having recognized and delivered on the demand for a high-quality, easy-to-use and cost-effective online educational software platform.

Before founding Blackboard, he was a member of KPMG Consulting's Higher Education practice, the world's largest professional services firm serving colleges and universities. There, Michael helped lead the technology consulting practice, working intimately with several universities and colleges to implement wide-ranging software systems.

Recently named one of DC's most-admired bosses by Washington Techway Magazine, and one of the area's rising stars by Washington Business Forward, Chasen has been featured in print, broadcast, and online media, including CNNfn, Fox News, Sam Donaldson's ABC.com, Internet.com, EXBETV.com, the Associated Press, WUSA-TV (CBS), Wired.com, Beyond Computers, Technology & Learning, and the Washington Post

Formed with the vision of transforming the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning, Washington D.C.-based Blackboard Inc. has become the leading provider of Internet infrastructures to the higher education market. Blackboard"s flagship Blackboard 5™ software platform allows colleges, universities and other commercial education providers to bring their courses, communities, campus services and total ".edu" Web presence online. Blackboard 5 is seamlessly integrated with Blackboard.com^SM, Blackboard"s multi-channel Web exchange, which provides users with access to customizable, subject-specific academic resources, global, interactive communities for students and instructors and more.

Eduventures.com, a leading e-Learning independent industry analyst firm, believes that Blackboard has established the strongest position in the marketplace to date - supported by a strong cash position, significant market penetration and key strategic partnerships. Eduventures.com"s landmark study, "After the Big Bang, Higher Education E-Learning Markets Get Set to Consolidate," places Blackboard squarely in the lead among competitors in the higher education e-Learning market.

Prof. Dr. Rolf Granow
Chairman Flagship Project "Virtuelle Fachhochschule"
Fachhochschule Lübeck

Germany
welsch@fh-luebeck.de
Tel: 0451/500 5419

born 1953 in Gütersloh, Germany
Thesis in "Strukturanalyse von Werkstückspektren" at university of Hannover in 1984

Fachhochschule Lübeck is a university of applied sciences with about 2.500 students in departments for applied natural sciences, structural engineering, eltrotechnology-engineering and mechanical-/industrial engineering. Fachhochschule Lübeck is managing the flagship project "Virtuelle Fachhochschule" in which a consortium of universities is developing online-study-courses.

Assoc Prof Daniel Tiong Hok Tan
Director

Centre for Educational Development

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

+65 790 5218

ETHTAN@ntu.edu.sg

Dr Daniel Tan is currently the Director, Centre for Educational Development, and Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University. He obtained his BSc from University of Aston, Birmingham, England. He subsequently achieved a PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and a post-graduate Diploma in Teaching in Higher Education from the Nanyang Technological University. His research interests cover Internet and computer security; human factors and usability. He is involved in several projects on information warfare, encryption, authentication, intrusion detection systems and usability.

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was established by an Act of
Parliament on 1 July 1991. It has its origin in the former Nanyang
Technological Institute (NTI) which was set up in August 1981 with the
primary function of providing facilities for tertiary education and research
in various branches of engineering and technology. Its first batch of 582
engineering students was admitted in July 1982. On 1 July 1991, NTI was
reconstituted incorporating the National Institute of Education (NIE).
Renamed Nanyang Technological University, it was empowered to award its own
degrees. It is a comprehensive University designed to meet the manpower
needs of the nation and the region. Degrees awarded by NTU are recognized
by the relevant professional institutions both locally and internationally.
NTU aims at becoming a university with general academic excellence and
niches of international eminence. Its mission is to train leaders,
professionals and entrepreneurs for Singapore and the region and to advance
research and development in both the academic and professional disciplines.

(Website: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/aboutus/

Members and Staff of the Equal Opportunities Committee and Office of the FernUniversität

Dr. Mechtild Hauff, PFA Münster, Germany
Judith W. Kamau, University of Botswana, Botswana
Gill Kirkup, Open University UK, Britain
Dr. Barbara Spronk, International Extension College, Britain
Dr. Christine von Prümmer, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany

areas: Universities and Higher Education
issues: Gender;  Quality;  Technology-Pedagogy Interface; Barriers/Constraints; 
aspects: multi-/trans-/international; global; virtual

This Extension Event on "Gender Issues in Virtual Open and Distance Learning Environments"is part of the ICDE Conference and open to all conference delegates. Nevertheless, it is a separate event in as much as it is organised by the Equal Opportunities Committee of the German FernUniversität.

The aim of the Extension Event is to bring together colleagues from across the world who are concerned about gender issues in education into the field of distance learning (distributed learning). Referring to the pre-conference seminar on "Gender Issues in Virtual Open and Distance Learning Environments", and drawing on the experience of all colleagues participating in the Extension Event, we will discuss key concepts relevant to the theme and work on developing a better elaborated theoretical understanding of the operation of gender in the context of virtual global education.

This approach is designed to help participants to reflect on their own situated research and experience of virtual teaching and to critically reflect on available theories by asking how far they explain our empirical and experiential evidence. The outcome should be the strengthening of a common theoretical platform from which we can all continue our work on gender and virtual education. Such a platform would also provide a better starting point for people entering the field, and slow down the academic practice of reinventing the wheel.

The discussion will centre around four key themes and concepts, each of which will be introduced briefly by experts in the field:

• Gender: Gill Kirkup, Open University UK, Britain

• Learning: Dr. Mechtild Hauff, PFA Münster, Germany

• Globalisation: Dr. Barbara Spronk, International Extension College, Britain

• Developing Countries: Judith W. Kamau, University of Botswana, Botswana

Regional Meeting for Oceania, review of regional activities in ODL and possible collaborative ventures
Moderator: James Taylor, ICDE Vice President for Oceania, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Dual Mode Revived - The Swedish Approach
Moderator: Janerik Lundquist, Swedish Association for Distance Education, Sweden

Josef Elias NKI-School, Sweden
Alvar Löfskog Karlstad University; Sweden
Christina Nordin Arvika Adult Education, Sweden
Martin Stigmar Växjö University, Sweden
Daniel Sundberg Växjö University, Sweden
Henrik Thörnqvist NKI-School, Sweden

Sirje Virkus, Chair of the Library & Learning Support Working Group, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities/EADTU, The Netherlands

Dieter Schmauss, Library & Learning Support Working Group, EADTU, The Netherlands

Albert Boekhorst, Library & Learning Support Working Group, EADTU, The Netherlands

Gill Needham, Library & Learning Support Working Group, EADTU, The Netherlands

Kari Garnes, Library & Learning Support Working Group, EADTU, The Netherlands

Terje Höiseth, Library & Learning Support Working Group, EADTU, The Netherlands

Many students are undertaking distance education courses and the question is how remote students access the information they need to support their educational goal and what kind of services library can provide them. Libraries will be called upon to find innovative and imaginative ways to support distance learning, and to treat remote learners on an equal basis with those on-campus. The virtual library is becoming also a reality, opening up new possibilities for delivering services. The importance of information skills has increased tremendously and libraries are strongly influenced by the changes in the education sector. There is an urgent need for all people to become information literate, which means that they are not only able to recognise when information is needed, but they are also able to identify, locate, evaluate, and use effectively information needed for the particular decision or issue at hand.

There are a lot of challenges for librarians and information professionals:

• how to establish a service for distance learners;

• what services are reasonable to provide and what services are not;

• how to improve the quality of services that we offer to distance learners;

• how to become a major partner in the ODL system, etc.

Still, the role of libraries has received little attention from those developing new methods of educational delivery. In recent past we do notice a sudden increase in the published literature on various aspects of distance education but still one will have to admit that the role of the libraries in distance education system has not attracted the attention of the proponents of distance education. There is little recognition of the central role that the library plays in support of the quality of education or in the development of lifelong learning skills. Scanning all the literature of ICDE conferences it is also difficult to find proper analysis on the topic. Library and information literacy services for open and distance learning is a topic of growing interest primarily in library environment and library literature. It was the recognition of this problem that led the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) to establish in June 1998 the Library and Learning Support Working Group (LLS WG).

The LLS WG is committed to the development of library and learning support and information literacy services as an essential element in innovative and cost-effective approaches to learning. The Group provides a forum and a focus for those responsible for library and learning support services within member institutions. It aims to address strategic issues as well as seek to identify, disseminate and encourage good practice in supporting both on campus and distance learners.

The focus of the workshop will be on the development of information literacy skills and is based on the assumption that information literacy among students is more likely to develop when educators fully understand the concepts of information literacy. Instructing students in information literacy skills needed for distance learning has become an essential component of library support for distance learning, the libraries enhance the ability of distance education students to use appropriate technologies for retrieving, on a self-service basis, information needed for independent research and study. The goals and methodologies of information literacy are similar to those of other educational reforms that are part of a constructivist-cognitive approach to teaching and learning. Librarians are the one group on the campus that knows how to navigate the information networks to locate, filter, and customise information for users and they can do information search better and faster than users.

Individuals who are information literate will be able to cope with large amounts of information, select sources that are appropriate for their needs, and make use of this information to solve problems and make decisions in all areas of their lives.

The major components of information literacy are:

1. Knowing when they have a need for information;

2. Identifying information needed to address a given problem or issue;

3. Finding needed information;

4. Analyzing, interpreting and evaluating the information;

5. Organizing the information; and

6. Using the information effectively.

The objectives of this workshop are to:

• Establish the central role of libraries for facilitating and supporting open and distance learning and lifelong learning;

• Learn about successful current models of delivering library and information literacy services for remote users;

• Learn about successful models of faculty/library partnership;

• Develop new strategic partnerships at local, regional and national levels in order to play an even more effective role in learning.

The members of the Library and Learning Support Working Group of EADTU, will address in this workshop the principal strategic issues, based on international, regional and cross-sectoral approaches, arising from the provision of library services to distant users and provide opportunities for researchers, practitioners and others with an interest in this area to discuss the latest developments.

The Nordic approach to Open and Distance Learning
Chair: Janerik Lundquist, SADE, Sweden
" Collaborative learning - some pedagogical considerations" by Joergen Bang, DAOU, Danmark
" Online seminars in adult education" by Ingeborg Boe, NADE, Norway
" University-Industry cooperation - towards a virtual university" by Seppo Collan, Finland
" Research and evaluation in DE" by Carl Holmberg, SADE, Sweden, and Jan Atle Toska, SOFF, Norway
Panel discussion with representatives from the Baltic countries involved in Nordic-Baltic collaboration.

AIESAD, 20 years of Iberoamerican University Cooperation ( "AIESAD, 20 años de Cooperación Universitaria Iberoamericana") Spanish

Juan Manuel Moreno, AIESAD, UNED, Spain: presentation of AIESAD
Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD), Colombia: presentation of the 9th AIESAD meeting in Colombia
Lorenzo García Aretio, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain.


BREVE INFORMACIÓN GENERAL DE AIESAD:

La Asociación Iberoamericana de Educación Superior a Distancia (AIESAD) es una entidad sin ánimo
de lucro cuya creación deriva de la resolución adoptada durante elI Simposio Iberoamericano de
Rectores de Universidades Abiertas, reunidos en Madrid del 5 al 10de octubre de 1980, quienes para
impulsar la Educación Superior a Distancia en beneficio de los pueblos de Iberoamérica, consideraron
conveniente crear un mecanismo permanente de información, coordinación y cooperación.
(http://www.uned.es/aiesad)

Research on Media-based Learning in Member Institutions

Educational Research and Technology Group

11.00 INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES
Chair: Prof Chris Curran
Chairman: Educational Research and Technology Group

11.10 Programme and scope of the Knowledge Media Research Center
Dr Felix Friedrich
Knowledge Media Research Center
University of Tuebingen.

In January 2001 the Knowledge Media Research (KMRC) in Tuebingen (Germany) was founded as a research institute focusing on two scenarios of technology-based learning (and their combination): individual learning with stand alone multimedia, cooperative/collaborative learning in telematic learning environments. This presentation addresses (among other things) the research strategy, the cooperation between cognitive science, educational science and media informatics, and the role of technology within the KMRC.

11.45 Metadata and versioning for ODL organisations.

Prof Mary Thorpe
Director: Institute of Educational Technology
United Kingdom Open University.

The presentation will outline the current high priority given to versioning of course materials, and the particular issues of moving from print based to web based delivery. Different kinds of versioning will be outlined, and the current approaches to supporting OU course teams in developing versioning strategies. The importance of designing from the beginning for reuse of materials will be emphasized, including development of metadata schemes for accurate search and reuse of elements within courses.

12.20 Discussion

12.30 Lunch

14.30 PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES
Chair: Prof dr Wim Jochems
Open Universiteit of the Netherlands

14.40 Cognitive Load Theory and Multimedia Design.
Prof dr Jeroen J G van Merrienboer and drs Huib Tabbers
Open University of the Netherlands

Cognitive load theory has been designed to provide guidelines intended to assist in the presentation of information, in a manner that encourages learner activities that optimize intellectual performance. The theory assumes a limited capacity working memory that includes partially independent subcomponents, to deal with auditory/verbal material and visual/2- or 3-dimensional information as well as an effectively unlimited long-term memory holding schemas, that vary in their degree of automation. These structures and functions of human cognitive architecture have been used to design a variety of novel instructional procedures, based on the assumption that working memory load should be reduced and schema construction encouraged. This presentation reviews the theory and the instructional designs generated by it.

15.15 e-University developments: the case of the Finnish Virtual University
Seppo Collan:
Director: Continuing Education Centre
University of Oulu.

In this presentation the speaker will describe the background to the Finnish National Virtual University, the aims of the initiative and the related business model. He will outline also the arrangements and procedures for implementing the proposal and will briefly compare the development with similar approaches - like the UK eUniversity.

15.50 Discussion

16.00 Break

16.30 TECHNOLOGY
Chair: Prof dr Paul Kirschner
Open Universiteit of the Netherlands

16.40 The international standardization scene
Prof dr. ir Erik Duval
Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven

Technological consolidation in academia and the commercial realm is rapidly gaining momentum, in the context of international standardization groups. In this presentation, the speaker will try to bring some order in the alphabet soup (ADL, AICC, ARIADNE, IMS, IEEE LTSC, ISSS LTWS, JTC1 and others). (This will not be an extremely technical talk. The speaker will concentrate on the relevance and potential far-reaching effects of standardization.)

17.15 The CUBER project
Prof dr Kraemer
FernUniversitat.

The EU project CUBER develops a broker system that will support individuals and personnel officers in industry, in searching IT courses and the study programmes of European universities. The CUBER search engine will match the specific needs and profiles of its user with core characteristics of courses including content, objectives, teaching method, workload, and personal and technical prerequisites. CUBER uses unified descriptions of courses based on a common metadata scheme, to make courses comparable and interchangeable. Thus, CUBER aims to increase the choice of the learner and to foster competition among universities in their roles as content providers. The objectives of this project, its approach, and a review of the state of work will be subject of this presentation.

                   17.50 Discussion

Wednesday, 04 April 2001

11:00-12:30

room 18

Extension Event

Quality Assurance for Service to On-line Students
Sally Johnstone, Director, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, USA
Featuring the work of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, the session will outline research in quality services to on-line students providing examples from colleges and universities throughout the U.S. It will also review the new Evaluation Guidelines for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs developed in conjunction with the U.S. accrediting community. Participants will be asked to share the applicability of these services and guidelines to their higher education settings.

Latin American Regional Meeting Spanish
Marta Mena, ICDE Vice President for Latin America, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

As a result of the 3^rd Regional Meeting, conclusions about the impact of globalization and transition in the field of Distance Education, attending the new technological advances, were elaborated. Some of the interrogates highlighted relate to real alternatives of appropriation and utilization of these advances that have different countries. In this sense, a relevant issue is the consideration of the technological impact and its valuation as ways of improving the formative processes and the intercommunication without hurting and weakening diverse cultures. On the contrary, we tray to recognize, in each cultural manifestation, its particularities and the key aspects to generate real transformations, taking as a significant tool the contribution of actual and future technology.

Other issues attended in the conclusions of the Meeting, related with the one expressed before, point the possible ways of cooperation to orientate the change through the democratization of knowledge trying to avoid the gap that already exist among the countries.

In this context, is it possible to develop proposals of quality, pertinent to Latin American reality? Which will be the conditions for countries cooperation? Transition and cooperation, quality and pertinence are the central aspects that will be focalized in our next meeting.

La Coopération Francophone pour l’EOAD: Nouvelles Orientations; Projets Réalisations In French
Anne Auban, ICDE Vice President for French Cultural and Linguistic Region, Pierre et Marie Curie University, France
Guy Aubert,: Recteur, Directeur du CNED, France

Chair Persons : 
Anne AUBAN : ICDE Vice President
Guy AUBERT : Recteur, Directeur du CNED

• Jean-Louis Billoet : Directeur des enseignements au CNED

Nouvelle Coopération Institutionnelle francophone en matière de EOAD dans l’Enseignement Supérieur ; une politique pour une offre harmonisée.

• Pietro SECURRO
  Les auto-routes francophones de l’information

 

• Michèle GENDREAU-MASSALOUX : Recteur, Directeur Général de l’AUPELF

• Hamidou SIDIKOU : Directeur DEFTP à l’Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie

• Françoise THIBAULT : Direction de la technologie au Ministère français de l’Education    Nationale et la Recherche

• Bernard LOING : Directeur du Canal Educatif Francophone : Une radio numérique à l’échelle d’un continent, l’Afrique

• Jean VALERIEN : Le Réseau RESAFAD

• Albert-Claude BENHAMOU : Université Médicale Virtuelle Francophone

• Claude LAMBLEY : Ville de Besançon
   Jean-Paul DEMARSON : Hachette Multimédia 

Mille ordinateurs à l’école dans une ville moyenne : partenariat collectivité locale, éditeur et système éducatif.

TALENTA is a business focused on delivering an integrated and high quality learning solution which builds on consultancy, design, implementation and operating learning services, which cover the areas of expertise in:

- training and educational design
- content and content management
- virtual communities
- technology and skills transfer

Speakers: Carles Esquerré, Antoni Riu, Diego Torres