recommendations for ministry of education related to open educational resources and practices

8/13/2019 Recommendations for Ministry of Education related to Open Educational Resources and Practices

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Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Ministry of Education and Research

Helsinki Consulting Group Ltd

KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY PROJECT

Development of Education Policy Concern ing the I ntegration of I nformation

Technology and Communications in the Pre-Un iversi ty Romanian Education System

Activity 1

Technical Requirements of Educational

Software Report

Composed by Carmen Holotescu

August, 2007


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Carmen Holotescu * Technical requirements * 4.12.2013, p. 2 (25 )

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... 3

1. Aims, Methodology and Rationale .................................................................................................. 41.1. Aims ......................................................................................................................................... 4

1.2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 4

1.3. Rationale ................................................................................................................................... 4

2. ICT infrastructure ............................................................................................................................ 7

2.1. Arguments ................................................................................................................................ 7

2.2. Suggested actions and systems ................................................................................................. 7

3. Open Source Software ..................................................................................................................... 9

3.1. Arguments ................................................................................................................................ 9

3.2. Suggested actions and systems ............................................................................................... 11

4. Educational ContentOER, proprietary solutions, transparency, quality criteria ........................ 124.1. Arguments .............................................................................................................................. 12

4.1.1. Open Educational Resources .......................................................................................... 13


5. Collaboration and SharingWeb2.0 technologies ........................................................................ 175.1. Arguments .............................................................................................................................. 17


6. Personalisation of LearningVirtual Learning Environments, eAssessment, ePortfolios .......... 206.1. Arguments .............................................................................................................................. 20

6.2. Suggested actions and systems .............................................................................................. 20

6.3. Proposed structure for an integrated online system for schools ............................................. 21

7. Teachers Trainingflexibility, online courses, new technologies ................................................ 237.1. Arguments .............................................................................................................................. 23

7.2. Suggested actions and systems .............................................................................................. 23

References .......................................................................................................................................... 25

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AEL

ARACIP

CNFP

CPD

Education Assistant for High Schools

Agency for the Quality in Undergraduate Education

National Board for Teacher Training

Continuing Professional Development


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DE

EC

EU

FLOSS

ICT

IES

IT

MCIT

MERY

OECD

OER

OSSEI

TTH

WB

Distance Education

European Commission

European Union

Free / Libre Open Source Software

Information and Communication Technologies

Institute for Educational Sciences

Information Technology

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Ministry of Education, Research and Youth

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Open Educational Resources

Open Source SoftwareSistem Educational Informatizat - Education Based IT System

Teacher Training House

World Bank

1. Aims, Methodology and Rationale

1.1. Aims

As stated in the Consultant's ToR, the aim of this report is to specify the technical requirements forthe educational software, in accordance with the identified needs, including the results of the re-

search realized in Activity 4. The final technical requirements will be delivered at the same moment

as the research report, which shall be part of the bidding documents prepared by the MCIT-PMU

for the bidding process in order to award the contract for supply and installation of the educational

software ( digital content ).

In this draft report, the Consultant provides proposals for software systems needed in education in

general and related actions, not only for educational software. Based on the feedback from PMU

and the project team, the Consultant will give more specifications on the agreed parts of the report.

Note: There is not a common understanding on the term Educational Software. It can be considered

similar with Educational Technologies, i.e. all software designed or used to facilitate teaching and

learning or computer software whose primary purpose is teaching or self-learning. In this report the

first definition is considered.

1.2. Methodology

The proposals of this report are based on:

The Pilot School Survey Analysis The Pilot School Pilot Program and its evaluation


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School visits Policy documents and reports available through the MCIT/PMU and the MERY Research-based documents accessible through the Internet European benchmarks, priorities, programmes, projects, trends related to ICT in education European Schoolnet, Insight Service reports OECD, UNESCO reports Innovative projects in the EU.

1.3. Rationale

The Education & Training 2010 programmeconsists of common objectives for the improve-

ment of education and training systems and a work programme to achieve the EUs Lisbon strategyobjectives [9]; the programme was adopted by Ministries of Education from the EU, and thus beinga programme of MERY too. It is implemented through the open method of coordination and

indicators and benchmarks play an important monitoring role and provide support to the exchange

of experiences and good practices. Member States are responsible for the organisation and content

of education and training systems. The role of the European Union is to support them.

The indicators and benchmarks are structured by reference to eight key policy domains identified

within the strategy [10]. These are ( in italics those related to pre-university education ):

2.1. Improving equity in education and training- core indicators for this policy area: 1, 2, 3, 13

2.2. Promoting efficiency in education and training19 ( related document Study on the returns to

various types of investment in education and training )2.3. Making lifelong learning a reality ( note: for teachers training ) - 9, 16, 17

2.4. Key competencies among young peoplecore indicators cover the following key competences:

literacy in reading, mathematics and science, language skills, ICT skills, civic skills and learning to

learn skills - 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

2.5. Modernising school education3, 10, 11, 12

2.6. Modernising vocational education and training (the Copenhagen process)9, 13

2.7. Modernising higher education (the Bologna process)14, 15, 19

2.8. Employability17, 18, 20.

Below there are the 20 core indicators for monitoring progress towards the Lisbon objectives in

education and training, which represent priorities for Romanian education and training systems too:

1) Participation in pre-school education

2) Special needs education

3) Early school leavers

4) Literacy in reading, mathematics and science

5) Language skills

6) ICT skills

11) Schools as multi-purpose local learning cen-

tres ( Schools and training centres, all linked to

the Internet, should be developed into multi-

purpose learning centres accessible to all. Presi-

dency Conclusion Lisbon (2000) )

12) Professional development of teachers and

trainers

13) Stratification of education and training sys-


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7) Civic skills

8) Learning to learn skills

9) Upper secondary completion rates of young

people

10) School management

tems

14) Higher education graduates

15) Cross-national mobility of students in higher

education

16) Participation of adults in lifelong learning

17) Adults skills

18) Educational attainment of the population

19) Investment in education and training

20) Returns to education and training

TheEuropean benchmarks for 2010used to monitor progress of the Lisbon's strategy objectives in

the field of education and training [10]:

1) No more than 10% early school leavers

2) Decrease of at least 20% of the share of low-achieving pupils in reading literacy

3) At least 85% of young people should have completed upper-secondary education

4) Increase of at least 15% of the number of graduates in mathematics, science and

technology, with a simultaneous decrease of the gender imbalance

5) 12.5% of the adult population should participate in lifelong learning

The Key competencies that should have been developed by the end of the compulsory schooling ortraining, and should act as a foundation for further learning as part of lifelong learning [11]:

Communication in the mother tongue Communication in a foreign language Mathematical literacy and basic competences in science and technology Digital competence Learning to learn Interpersonal and civic competences Entrepreneurship Cultural expression.

Indicators related to ICT in schools in i2010 - Annual Information Society Report 2007 [12]:

number of computers connected per 100 pupils - 4.57.5 in pilot schools; 9.9 in EU25 percentage of schools with broadband access - 44% in RO; 67% in EU25


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percentage of teachers having used the computer in class during the last 12 months - 40% inpilot schools; 74.3% in EU25.

Annual Information Society Report 2007 underlines that the information society is becoming a real-

ity, the importance of web2.0 technologies and user-created content: emerging technologicaltrends such as the migration towards very high-speed networks, ubiquitous wireless technologies,

web 2.0, the Internet of Things, Grids, new network architectures, web-based services, user inter-

faces, user-created content and social networking. These trends will affect the business and work-

ing environment, providing new industrial opportunities and new solutions for eBusiness and em-

ployment, thus improving the work-life balance. They will also extend the role of users as innova-

tors. This is already visible in the explosion of user-created content.

2. ICT infrastructure

2.1. Arguments

Since 2001, the MERY SEI programme has equipped schools with modern networks [1-7].

The Knowledge Economy programme has provided already modern equipment to 17 pilot schools

in rural areas, and the number of schools is increasing.

There are still a lot to do in this domain in order to reach the indicators of EU25 [12], and to elimi-

nate the discrepancy between the schools in urban and rural areas, and also the large differences be-

tween the primary / lower secondary education and upper secondary education.

Recent Romanian and European surveys and studies prove a positive impact of using ICT followinga pedagogical approach on students motivation and skills, independent learning and teamwork.Embedded, reliable and high capacity broadband in the classrooms, the use of interactive white-

boards increase the quality and quantity of educational activities that can be undertaken [6,15,18].

2.2. Suggested acti ons and systems

1. The number of computers, especially in the rural areas, should be increased at least at thevalue of the EU indicator of number of computers connected per 100 pupils: 11.3.

2. More computers should be located in classrooms, in libraries, in teachers rooms. 61% ofEU25 schools provide computers in classrooms.

3. Investigate the possibility to provide to schoolspresentation toolkits consisting of ( wireless) computer / laptop, projector and interactive whiteboard for be used in the classrooms.

4. The provision of other ICT equipments could be taken into account: whiteboards, laptops,printers, projectors, PDAs, scanners, digital video cameras.

5. Broadband access for schools should be providednow 44% of Romanian schools are con-nected, while 67% in EU25.

6. Assure ICT support and maintenance: extend the possibility that schools sign contracts forICT support or maintenance with professional ICT service providers.

7. Create a website for ICT support ( on MERY or MCTI websites ):


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with tutorials, FAQ ( both could be organized as wiki ), live chat, discussions forums, online courses for administrators, technical staff, teachers who want to im-

prove their knowledge,

presentation of free and open source solutions, download area, blogs of practitioners, RSS feeds.

8. A methodology and a specific online integrated system are needed to the ongoing monito-ring and evaluation quantitative and qualitative of ICT use and impact in education ( ARA-

CIP makes no references to the ICT evaluation and doesn't have an online system for eval-uation ).

Such a methodology is needed to inform decision makers on whether to ex-pand or modify a particular policy or programme and develop future actions.

The online system could offer the possibility to schools to evaluate the gradein which ICT is used and to suggest future steps.

The system to implement the European indicators and benchmarks [10], Ro-mania has to report in EU and international programmes.

3. Open Source Software

3.1. Arguments

Open Source, a term proposed in 1998, refers to a set of principles and practices that promote the

access to the process of planning and implementing various products, resources. The term is mostly

used for software.

Among the 10 characteristics of the open source software ( http://opensource.org ), the most impor-

tant are: Free Redistribution - the software may be redistributed freely or sold, it may be a compo-

nent of other products, Source Code - sources are available, Derived Works - the software may be

modified and distributed under the same terms as the original one, and Distribution of License.

A wider term is FLOSS ( or FOSS ) - Free Libre Open Source Software.

The benefits of open source software as concluded by UNESCOs International Institute for Educa-tional Planning and by the symposium organized by the European Commission [34,35]:

adaptable functionality lower overall costs vendor independence, increases choice and competition increases transparency adherence to open standards
http://opensource.org/http://opensource.org/http://opensource.org/http://opensource.org/


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positions software as a public good interoperability and security.

IDABC - Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services of European Commission has

an Open Source Observatory, providing OS guides, case studies, resources, news [33]. In January

the Commission has approved the EUPL v.1.0 - Public License, an Open Source Software (OSS)Licence, to be used for the distribution of software developed in the framework of the IDABC pro-

gramme - http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/6523.

Of course, the Linux Operating Systems is the best known OS software and the Linux user

communities are the most active. The same, the LAMS technologies ( Linux, Apache, PHP,

MySQL ) for developing Web applications are very well known.

But open source software means a large area of systems, applications and tools, which can be used

in schools, and in other educational institutions for:

operating systems

Web and mail server applications desktop applications applications and tools to edit text, images, audio and video files, to develop programs communication and collaboration systems.

The recommendations of the EU for educational policies are to avoid lifelong vendor lock-in in ed-

ucational systems [32]:

by teaching students skills, not specific applications; the learners should be supported toabstract concepts from the tool. When learning with FLOSS they are given the opportunity

to implement their own ideas and often improve existing functionality

by encourage participation in FLOSS-like communities, thus adding value to the skills learntby students, such as an attitude towards information technology that favours the ability to

create and actively participate and collaborate rather than just consume.

Open source software is based on and uses open formats, and for this, it is used to create open edu-

cational resources.

A non-mandatory policy to stimulate the usage of FLOSS in education would encourage the stu-

dents to:

have a critical point of view on the different software solutions; understand better what is FLOSS and its differences with proprietary software; possibly become active contributors at various levels to a FLOSS tool.

Why Europe Needs Free and Open Source Software in Schools is an EUN Insight report thatsuggests four areas where school communities can make a use of open source [38]:

use of free software for educational purposes use of GNU/Linux on desktops and servers common development of Virtual Learning Environment and Content Management Systems co-development of open educational content.

Initiatives related to OS could be met in almost all the countries of EU, such as [36-40]:
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/6523http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/6523http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/6523http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/6523


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the Ministries of Education from Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia have an explicit role in promot-ing the use of open source software as an alternative choice for schools

Ministry of Education and Culture from Hungary states as measure in its educational policyan Open source initiative to gap the digital divide and support the entire teaching profession

open source software is a key element in Norwegian ICT-strategy: educational courses onthis subject are offered at college, university level, and in further education.

the government of Catalunya has recently started distributing a (partly locally developed)Catalan language distribution of GNU/Linux tailored for educational use to 120 000 desk-

tops in schools

in UK, Becta published many reports and evaluated the use of OS in schools; OSS Watchpromotes provides advice and guidance to UK higher and further education for OS.

European Schoolnet has many projects and reports related to OS Xplora, European Schoolnets science portal, offers schools a package of software to make

science accessible to schools.The interest and use of open source software by teachers, pupils, and students in Romania is very

important, but there are mainly personal initiatives [41-43].

Many Linux and LAMP users are active in user groups, building online communities, with online

support, discussions forums, but also periodical f2f meetings. Romanian Linux distributions were

developed by teams formed by young students.

A lot of workshops and conferences in which actors from educational system participate take place,

such as Linux and Virtual Learning Environments at University Vasile Goldis Arad (

http://www.uvvg.ro/lvle,with 5 editions ), Linux Open Alternative Days ( LOAD -

http://www.load.ro ) or the International Conference eLiberatica organized by Romanian Open

Source Initiative ( http://www.rosi.ro ).

The teachers in the 17 pilot schools use many OS or free applications, such as Linux or OpenOffice,

as resulted from the survey. A special topic in the pilot program was the use of OS for collaboration

and for creating educational materials.

This important issue of open source sofware and its benefits for education were not the subject of a

concrete initiative or programme of MERY or MCIT.

Browsing the overview of the eGovernment situation and progress in EU Member States -

http://www.epractice.eu/factsheets on the new EU site related to eGovernment

http://www.epractice.eu,one can find initiatives related to Open Source in public sector in almost

all coutries; not also in the factsheet about Romania

http://www.epractice.eu/files/media/media_720.pdf.


Some specific actions related to open source software could be:

implement pilot programmes in schools to evaluate the using of OS encourage the use of open source software in schools and in educational institutions for

operating systems, applications, for virtual learning environments and content management

systems, for open educational content development
http://www.uvvg.ro/lvle/http://www.uvvg.ro/lvle/http://www.load.ro/http://www.load.ro/http://www.rosi.ro/http://www.rosi.ro/http://www.rosi.ro/http://www.epractice.eu/factsheetshttp://www.epractice.eu/factsheetshttp://www.epractice.eu/http://www.epractice.eu/http://www.epractice.eu/files/media/media_720.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/media/media_720.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/media/media_720.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/http://www.epractice.eu/factsheetshttp://www.rosi.ro/http://www.load.ro/http://www.uvvg.ro/lvle/


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the training programmes for teachers and administrators to contain open source solutionspresentations and applications, not only proprietary solutions

teach pupils and students skills, not specific applications; the ICT and Technological Educa-tion manuals to present both proprietary and OS solutions

implement a dedicated website ( or an area on the Ministry's website ) which provides tech-nical support, download area, best cases sharing, online communities for actors from educa-

tion systems and other practitioners

organize ( be partner ) round tables, conferences related to open source software equip schools with DVDs containing OS software and guides partnership with organizations which activate in OS, with user groups.

4. Educational Content OER, proprietary solutions, transparency, quality criteria

4.1. Arguments

Educational content development is one of the priorities for investment, especially for the countries

with a satisfactory level of infrastructure and connectivity in schools.

Ministries of Education in Europe have adopted different approaches for content development,

usually all the approaches are applied in a specific grade [17]:

by encouraging schools and teachers to develop their own electronic contentsuch asTeacher Education Exchange, UK - http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk, Open Idea, Finland -

http://www.edu.fi/openidea,Didactic.ro, in our country http://www.didactic.ro by investments in digital resources provided by educational software companiessuch as

Curriculum Online, UK http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk,Sulinet Portal, Hungary http://www.sulinet.hu,AeL Educational Materials, in Romania -

http://portal.edu.ro/materiale_ael3/interfata.html

by setting up major partnership with publishers, broadcasters, libraries, cultural institutionsto provide access to their own resources; BBC Schools - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools,and

BBC Twinning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass - are wonderful such examples

by participating in projects developing open educational resources, encouraging teachersand students to use, validate, and create such resources.

The resources could be accessed from a single educational portal or distributed in more repositories.

The most important issues in the policy domain of educational resources are:

to assess and assure the quality - European Quality Observatory was set up to assist thisissue [50]

to accommodate them with the curricula to integrate them in the process of teaching- studying-learning to provide services for effective search and discovery intellectual property licenses to be respected to assure the sharing of best practices
http://www.edu.fi/openideahttp://www.edu.fi/openideahttp://www.didactic.ro/http://www.didactic.ro/http://www.didactic.ro/http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/http://www.sulinet.hu/http://www.sulinet.hu/http://portal.edu.ro/materiale_ael3/interfata.htmlhttp://portal.edu.ro/materiale_ael3/interfata.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/http://portal.edu.ro/materiale_ael3/interfata.htmlhttp://www.sulinet.hu/http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/http://www.didactic.ro/http://www.edu.fi/openidea


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to realize a balance between the investments and the usefulness for the educational process to encourage a competitive market, guarantee transparency of supply and equal opportuni-

ties to market actors.

As resulted from the survey and work with the pilot schools, in spite that teachers create a lot of di-

dactic materials, very seldom the materials are shared, validated in discussions with others or createin a collaborative way.

The AeL materials are not used on a large scale. The teachers are not aware about the OER or li-

cences such as Creative Commons, don't have the necessary skills to search materials in repositories

and to evaluate their quality.

4.1.1. Open Educati onal Resour ces

In Europe and worldwide there are developed many projects concerning the Open Educational Re-

sources - OER, which are the subject of numerous debates, studies, policies and educational priori-

ties.

The term Open Educational Resources - OER was adopted at the UNESCO Forum in 2002, follow-

ing the analysis of the impact that the Open Courseware projects had on higher education [44].

The definition adopted for the OER was: "The open provision of educational resources, enabled by

information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community

of users for noncommercial purposes."

The open educational resources - OER- include:

materials ( content ) for teaching - learning: open courseware and open content projects ,free courses, learning objects directories, educational journals

open sourcesoftware - for the development, use, reuse, research, organisation and access tothe resources; these also include virtual environments ( LMS - Learning Management Sys-

tems ), learning communities

intellectual property licenses promoting the open publication of the materials, such as Crea-tive Commons, design principles and good practices, the localisation of the content.

Information technologies enable educators to access and exchange online resources. Until a few

years ago, most of the materials created were protected, the authentication of the users being need-

ed. Nowadays, most of the resources are created and posted freely on the Web, by using the collab-orative systems Web 2.0.

Just like the FLOSS enables the users to reuse / modify the software, the OER allow users to adapt

the materials and systems necessary for the self teaching / learning necessities.

Recent European documents, like the studies of the project OLCOS - Open e-Learning Content

Observatory Services,show the importance of the OER for the formal education, but also for the

continuous education, for acquiring competences and knowledge that could allow teachers and stu-

dents to take part actively in the society and economy based on knowledge [47].

The OER imply a fundamental change in the educational process, favouring the focus on the stu-

dent.

The open educational resources are generally characterised by the following attributes [47]:


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the access to open materials -open content- is free for educational institutions and individu-al users

the content is licensed so that it may be reused / modified during educational activities; tothis end, the content observes open standards and formats

educational applications are open-source- the source is available and it can be modified /adapted or interfaces are made available - APIs - enabling the creation of new applications.The use of the OER brings the following advantages for regional, national and European education-

al institutions and networks:

they ensure a long term background for collaborating in order to design and use the educa-tional resources

they render efficient the public funds investments through the common use of the same re-sources by institutions and professional communities

they encourage the development of digital skills, of critical thinking and creativity they improve the curricula and the teaching-learning methodologies, including resources in

the public domain, libraries, museums, other cultural organisations

the collaboration in the production and use of the resources leads to their validation, to theirimproved quality

they facilitate lifelong learning and social inclusion, by ensuring the open access to re-sources, otherwise inaccessible to many groups of users.

For educators and students, the use of the OER has the following advantages:

the OER cover a wide range of domains and topics; materials can be used for teaching,learning

by reusing the materials, we can save time and materials allows teachers to participate in the validation, improvement of the resources through the

feedback offered after their evaluations and their use in teaching

taking part in learning and practice communities realised by blogs, wikis and various socialnetworks

promotes user-centered learning and lifelong education; users can create their own portfolioof activities, studies, projects

helps to acquire the essential skills for participating in knowledge-based society: personal organisation / development and creativity critical way of thinking skills for solving practical issues collaboration and communication skills.

Some notable projects related to OER [57]:

Famous universities worldwide, collaborating for the project OpenCourseWare Consortium- http://ocwconsortium.org,facilitate the access to course materials in text, audio and video

format, to discussions and exam subjects, the first being MIT in 2001, with the MIT Open

Courseware project. The Open University recently launched the Open Learning project.
http://ocwconsortium.org/http://ocwconsortium.org/http://ocwconsortium.org/http://ocwconsortium.org/


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OER Commons Open Educational Resources - http://www.oercommons.org:is a projectaddressing teachers in primary, secondary and post secondary schools, developed by

ISKME - Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and financed by

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,with collaborators in the entire world; the project

uses Web 2.0 technologies, tags, communities.

European SchoolNetEUN http://www.eun.org:has been developing for some years afull-sized initiative for creating an OER portal for teachers and pupils in European schools,

called LRE - Learning Resource Exchange http://lre.eun.org:

Within the LRE, CELEBRATE - http://celebrate.eun.org/ - is a project financedby EC, under the coordination of the EUN, with 23 participating parteners from

11 countries: education ministries, universities, developers of educational mate-

rials, companies producing learning virtual environments. The project resulted in

a portal of open educational resources - Learning Objects - LOs ( should be seen

as resources with a standard description ): 1350 LOs developed and assessed by

319 schools and 75 teachers from 6 countries. The resources address primary and

secondary education.

CELEBRATE is continued by CALIBRATE - Calibrating e-Learning in Schools- http://calibrate.eun.org.

Recently has been launched the preview version of the collaborative environ-ment LeMill - http://lemill.net/,as part of the CALIBRATE project. LeMill - an

open source project, which can be implemented by any school or educational

network - has four sections :

Content - Learning Objects can be created by use of templates; these arefound by tags, language ( Romanian language can be found as well ),

target group ( teacher training, school, higher education ); it is possible to

translate an existing resource;

Activities - includes activities intervening in formal or informal educa-tion, their description (what misses is the connection with materials under

the first category) - assessment, book, check list, collaboration, concept,

teaching, visualization, etc;

Tools - open-source tools, with their description and the activities wherethey can be used (the connection with materials under the first category is

missing again); the search is done again by tags - collaboration , commu-

nication, idea generation, knowledge building, messages, mindmap, etc;

Community - users may be grouped according to interests, can be foundby name, language, location, skills, interests, can communicate in forums,

and work on a specific resource;

Unlike other LOs directories, what makes it interesting is the organisation

according to tags, the addition of activities, tools, communities; there are

RSS feeds, even for research.


The educational content which already exists, mainly in AeL, should be used more intensiveby teachers and students: connections with curricula, the skills they develop should be more
http://www.oercommons.org/http://www.oercommons.org/http://www.oercommons.org/http://www.iskme.org/http://www.iskme.org/http://www.hewlett.org/http://www.hewlett.org/http://www.eun.org/http://www.eun.org/http://www.eun.org/http://lre.eun.org/http://lre.eun.org/http://lre.eun.org/http://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/http://celebrate.eun.org/http://celebrate.eun.org/http://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/http://calibrate.eun.org/http://calibrate.eun.org/http://lemill.net/http://lemill.net/http://lemill.net/http://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://lemill.net/http://lemill.net/http://lemill.net/http://lemill.net/contenthttp://lemill.net/contenthttp://lemill.net/activitieshttp://lemill.net/activitieshttp://lemill.net/toolshttp://lemill.net/toolshttp://lemill.net/communityhttp://lemill.net/communityhttp://lemill.net/communityhttp://lemill.net/toolshttp://lemill.net/activitieshttp://lemill.net/contenthttp://lemill.net/http://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://lemill.net/http://calibrate.eun.org/http://calibrate.eun.org/ww/en/pub/calibrate_project/home_page.htmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://celebrate.eun.org/http://celebrate.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfmhttp://lre.eun.org/http://www.eun.org/http://www.hewlett.org/http://www.iskme.org/http://www.oercommons.org/


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clear; encourage and support the sharing of best practices - could be published on the MERY

website, and aggregated from other sites, blogs of educators.

Partnership with European Schoolnet and eTwinning Schools and participation in projects re-lated to OER, presented above. Schools to be informed and stimulated to participate. It seems

that in the autumn Romania will be a partner in the eTwinning programme, with ISE as the

national coordinator ( update: in October 1 st, Romania has become partner ). Also the possi-ble partnership with Romania appears inEuropean SchoolnetWork Programme 2007[20].

Create a repository with the educational projects in which Romanian schools and educationalorganizations have participated, such as Leonardo, Socrates, eContent programmes: trained

human resources, gained experience and skills, produced materials could be used, projects

could be continued or new ones could be started.

Partnership with publishers, broadcasters, libraries, cultural institutions to provide access totheir own resources.

Implement an online system for collaborative production of open educational resources byteachers and students, based on Web2.0 collaborative technologies. OER can make a valua-ble contribution to a diversified supply of learning resources, supporting methodological di-

versity, and promoting the individualization of the learning process:

content organized by tags, specifying target groups, disciplines, skills, types ofactivities in which to be used; define quality criteria; possibility for peer review,

user comments and ratings, best practices sharing. It is not necessary that the re-

source to be created and uploaded on this platform, but it is possible that a link to

a resource elsewhere created by user is shared, and then validated with the other

users

collaborative tools to create materials; templates could be provided community users profiles could include interests, name, location, skills, inte-

rests specified and searched by tags; users to be able to work together for produ-

cing educational materials, communicating in discussions forums, and using the

collaborative tools; support also for blogs, wikis, RSS feeds

training self-paced tutorials, but also online courses could be organized forteachers and students on this platform.

In general, the teachers training programmes should contain topics related to OER, new li-censes and tools to create educational materials in a collaborative manner.

Encourage a competitive market for educational resources production, guarantee transparency ofsupply and equal opportunities to market actors.

Define a set of quality criteria:

pedagogic principles:effective learning and teaching, the focus from presentingcontent to engaging learners in productive learning activities. assessment, im-

prove practical and cognitive skills

design principles: resource design, accessibility, interoperability.An online system to evaluate the educational software with a database of suppliers

could be implemented.

A central portal can be created to provide the connections with all the categories of resourcesabove.


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5. Collaboration and Sharing Web2.0 technologies

5.1. Arguments

The term Web 2.0 appeared in 2004, during a brainstorming between O'Reilly Media and

MediaLive International, when organizing a conference concerning the Web. Web 2.0 or social

Web represents the second stage in the development of the World Wide Web and comprises its

utilities and services.

The Web 2.0 technologies are: RSS, blogs, podcasts, wikis, collaborative bookmark systems, social

networks, web APIs, Ajax.

The Web 2.0 could be described by the following characteristics [56,57]:

it includes a wide range of applications and services that use the Web as a unitary and struc-tured communication platform;

it is built on an architecture that encourages the active participation of users; it allows an easy interaction between users with similar interests; it offers users the possibility to:

create a content, share it with others, so it allows a stronger interactivity; have an experience closer to desktop applications, with intuitive graphic, agreeble,

programmable and, most of all, transparent interfaces,

it allows public access to databases through API's; it has the ability to connect various applications or services and to aggregate data from dif-

ferent sources - RSS, blogs;

it talks about: socialising the information - a concept about applications and people; the ap-parition of collaborative tools such as wikis, socialising platforms like MySpace, Hi5,LinkedIn or Second Life, blogs, data and file communication structures, bookmark collec-

tions ( like del.icio.us or digg ), video clips ( YouTube ) or images ( flickr ) etc;

syndication - RSS and tag structures: eliminating tree classifications and applying tags sothat a certain thing does not strictly derive from another, but it may belong to several catego-

ries;

the increase of usability - improving the users' experience; democratisation of the content and its distribution (the content is created by the user and it is

freely distributed);

it uses the power of online communities; points to a change in paradigm with reference to the Web.

These technologies are used by an important percentage of the young people almost each day, in an

informal way, from their computers or mobiles, to communicate, to socialize, to create and share

content with the others.

The Web2.0 technologies are used more and more in traditional education, but also in continuous or

online education under the term eLearning2.0.

These technologies offer mechanisms for preparing and creating educational materials, for assessing

and analysing the students' progress, for creating informative and formative presentations, for time-

planning, setting the timetable and the activity calendar, for developing projects in collaboration,

being participant- / student-centered, for research, for creating communities of interest.

There are many studies, research, conferences, ongoing debates going on on blogs, social networks.


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The attributes of the new technologies are:

reducing the costs; flexibility in the sense of being able to choose the technologies; an easier and faster access to information, at the time and place when needed;

integrating various Web 2.0 technologies in teaching activities; extended information and collaboration possibilities by use of social marking / collaborative

bookmark services;

sharing best practices using blogs, wikis; not depending on the platform - all you need is a computer, with an Internet browser and a

network connection.

compatibility with elements of the educational environment and the existing contextual dy-namics;

reduced level of utilization complexity - minimum abilities of working with the Internet; redistribution of effort so that less time and energy should be dedicated to the information

search and managementRSS feeds, del.icio.us; the increase in number of utilization methods and the heterogeneity of didactic practices and

formation types due to the diversity of the new technologies;

possibility of being tested with existing didactic practices, without major chages in the cur-rent modus operandi;

being largely centered on introducing didactic innovation and not the technology as such; creating digital content; attractive multimedia materials obtained by combining images with sounds, video clips.

Consequently, the adoption of new Web 2.0 technologies by educators is likely to:

allow the access to more extended and diversified information and knowledge sources;

lead to a considerable increase in documentary research; offer opportunities for introducing new situations in the learning process; shift the focus from teaching to learning; adopt active, participative methods; promote independent work, inventivity, creativity; stimulate co-operation and dialogue by integrating specific web 2.0 collaborative environ-

ments;

develop participants' autonomy and flexibility; harmoniously combine individual with social learning.

The Social software and learningreport published by Futurlab, UK last year states [58]:

knowledge is changing, from one in which knowledge is organised in strictly classified 'dis-ciplines' and 'subjects', to a more fluid and responsive practice which allows users to organ-

ise it; knowledge is also generated in virtual and cross-institutional settings;

educational agendas are shifting to address ideas about how users can create personalisedand collaborative knowledge spaces, where learners can access people and knowledge in

ways that encourage creative and reflective learning practices that extend beyond the bound-

aries of the school, and beyond the limits of formal education;

for these to flourish schools should offer support for risk-taking, and for dialogue betweenschools, teachers, parents and children about new approaches to learning that involve col-

laboration between young people across different times and spaces.


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Summarizing, a recent report of JISC states the following recommendations for educational use of

Web2.0 technologies [54]:

the integration of VLEs and Web 2.0 technologies might make use of their combinedstrengths and further exploration

assessment and grading in a Web 2.0 world, in which collaboration, knowledge sharing andmore constructivist approaches are more common, will need further review Web 2.0 will pose new challenges to the issue of plagiarism and these need to be explored further work is required on understanding the pedagogy implications of these services, to

explore further the social aspects of the learning.

The teachers who have participated in the pilot programme had no prior knowledge related to

Web2.0 technologies, only they knew about blogs, without editing them.

They were very enthusiastic in using such technologies during and after the pilot programme; they

have created RSS feeds collections, useful resources collections using collaborative bookmarking

systems, blogs, wikis, collaborative projects [57].They have used the experience gained during the pilot programme for the e-Vacanta project, creat-

ing blogs such as http://aninoasa.weblog.ro/, http://iscroni.weblog.ro/, http://sinca.weblog.ro/.

5.2. Suggested actions and systems

Inform, train, and encourage the teachers and pupils to use Web2.0 technologies: RSS,blogs, podcasts, wikis, collaborative bookmark systems, social networks.

Topics such as online plagiarism, new licenses, online security should be discussed with pu-pils.

The educational websites should offer information related to these issues. Provide RSS feeds for all the educational sites developed, for better monitoring by possible

users.

Promote blogs written by innovators in education. Offer hosting service for educational blogs and wikis, using open source solutions. Encourage and support schools and other educational institutions to use virtual environ-

ments for learning and collaboration based on these solutions.
http://aninoasa.weblog.ro/http://aninoasa.weblog.ro/http://aninoasa.weblog.ro/http://iscroni.weblog.ro/http://iscroni.weblog.ro/http://iscroni.weblog.ro/http://sinca.weblog.ro/http://sinca.weblog.ro/http://sinca.weblog.ro/http://sinca.weblog.ro/http://iscroni.weblog.ro/http://aninoasa.weblog.ro/


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6. Personalisation of LearningVirtual Learning Environments, eAssessment, ePortfolios

6.1. Arguments

Schools should become multi-purpose local learning centres, and should become spaces of colla-

boration between learners, teachers, parents, community [27-30]:

for pupils: contribute to the individual development of each pupil, encouraging his / her

personal skills and interests

assess the pupils achievements, and give feedback for improvements for teachers:

have facilities for adapting the curriculum, for assessing the pupils permit collaboration and communication with pupils, parents, other teachers in

the same schools or others

support continuous training for parents:

permit communication and collaboration with the school for supporting theprogressing of their children

for community: feedback for the curriculum adaptation the the community's needs offer blended training opportunities for the members of community.


Start with a pilot program to investigate the impact on education of a 21thcentury open school,

having an integrated online platform, based on open source solutions and open source resources and

practices:

spaces for communities of learning and interest dynamically created

traditional courses supported by a virtual environment with online resources and discus-sions, being accessible from anywhere, anytime, from home too, open also to parents to

monitor their children's progress

online tool to assess pupils knowledge and skills, and to provide online guidance and mate-rials for development

support for pupils ePorfolios which will be ongoing developed during their lifelong learn-ing; learners set up and develop their own ePortfolio for documenting and reflecting on theprogress and results of their study work

school online resources accessible to the community online projects collaboratively developed with other schools blogs, wikis to share experience.


19/25


6.3. Proposed structur e for an in tegrated onl ine system f or schools

Central Server Modules

Proprietary and

Open Educational

Resources

Management Unit

Collaborative

Spaces

ManagementUnit

eAssessment

Tool for

pupils,

teachers

ePortfolios

Management

Tool

Open

Source

Softwarekits and

links,

tutorials

Discussions

Forums

Blogs

Wikis

User

Accounts

Manage-

ment Unit

RSS

Feeds

Search

Tool

School Server Modules

eContent ManagementTool

CollaborativeSpaces

ePortfolios Discussions Forums

Blogs

Wikis

User

Accounts

Management

Unit

RSSFeeds

Search Tool

Facilities for Pupils

Access to educational

resources, collabora-

tive spaces

ePortfolio

management

Skills and

knowlegde

assessment,

feedback for

improvements

Access to discussions

forums and private

online discussionswith professional

school counselors for

maximizing personal

achievement

Contribute to

personal / class

blog, school

website

Facilities for Teachers

Access to

educational resources,

possibility to adaptthem, to create and

share new resources

Pupils assessment

tools

Access to

collaborative

spaces withpupils,

parents, other

teaches

Access to self

assessment tool,

online tutorialsand course for

continuous

training

Contribute to

personal / class

blog, school

website


20/25


Facilities for Parents

Facilities for Parents

Access to information related

to school activities

Monitor their children

progress

Access to discussions

forums with teachers,

counselors, other par-ents

Access to specific

resources, tutorials

Facilities for Community

Access to information related

to school activities

Feedback for the curriculum adaptation

the the community's needs

Access to online tutorials

and courses

7. Teachers Training flexibility, online courses, new technologies

7.1. Arguments

A better education requires teachers who are better and continuously trained, who assume the

responsibility of improving continuously their own knowledge and skills, who are motivated, en-

thusiastic, e-mature, who collaborate, sharing their experiences and learning from the others, from

their students too, who innovate, improving support for learners through ICT.

The recent communication from EU calledImproving the Quality of Teacher Education states that

changes in education and in society place new demands on the teaching profession [59]:

as well as imparting basic knowledge, teachers are also increasingly called upon to helpyoung people become fully autonomous learners by acquiring key skills, rather than memo-

rising information;

they are asked to develop more collaborative and constructive approaches to learning andexpected to be facilitators and classroom managers rather than excathedra trainers.

they are required to use the opportunities offered by new technologies and to respond to thedemand for individualised learning;

and they may also have to take on additional decision-taking or managerial tasks consequentupon increased school autonomy.

To equip the teaching body with skills and competences for its new roles, it is necessary to have

both high-quality initial teacher education and a coherent process of continuous professional devel-

opment keeping teachers up to date with the skills required in the knowledge based society [60]. As

with any other modern profession, teachers also have a responsibility to extend the boundaries ofprofessional knowledge through a commitment to reflective practice, through research, and through


21/25


a systematic engagement in continuous professional development from the beginning to the end of

their careers. Systems of education and training for teachers need to provide the necessary opportu-

nities for this.

As reported by the teachers in the pilot programme survey, they consider they need continuous

training, with a more practical and pedagogical approach, with new technologies, with more con-

crete examples.

During the pilot programme, they were very interested to know and to use online tools for collabo-

ration and communication, which are used also after the program end, in the e-Vacanta project.


The standard for ICT skills for teachers to take into account the new skills recommendedby EC, required to collaborate, to share practice, to use the new technologies, to moder-ate online environments.

Encourage a competitive market for training programmes, guarantee transparency ofsupply and equal opportunities to market actors.

During the training programmes, teachers should be able to know and practice new col-laborative and communication technologies.

The training programmes for teachers to contain open source solutions presentations andapplications, not only proprietary solutions; also OER, new licenses, tools to collabora-

tively create educational materials.

The possibility to acreditate online courses would assure flexible in-service training, as-suring the tailoring to the specific needs, and would give examples of good practices

Competences developed via formal, informal and non-formal to be recognized, as rec-ommended by EC.

Implement an online system to assess teachers ICT competencies and to offer guidancefor future development.

Peer mentoring and collaboration in online communitieswith online tutorials andguides, case studies, discussions - assure experience sharing, learning from the othersexperience.

Encourage the use of blogs, wikis to share experience and to continuously learning. Train e-trainers, use the experience of organizations which activate in this domain, in Leo-

nardo, Socrates, and Grundtvig programmes too.

References

Romanian Education Policy

[1] Strategia Dezvoltrii nvmntului Preuniversitar n perioada 2001 2004, Planificare pro-spectiv pn n 2010 - http://www.guv.ro/obiective/mec/strategiepreuniv.pdf

[2] MEC, Calitate i echitate n nvmntul romnesc, 2004 -http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/3584
http://www.guv.ro/obiective/mec/strategiepreuniv.pdfhttp://www.guv.ro/obiective/mec/strategiepreuniv.pdfhttp://www.guv.ro/obiective/mec/strategiepreuniv.pdfhttp://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/3584http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/3584http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/3584http://www.guv.ro/obiective/mec/strategiepreuniv.pdf


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[3] MEC, Raport asupra starii sistemului national de invatamant, 2005 -

http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/3590

[4] MEC, Strategie Postaderare 20072013 (Proiect), 2007 -http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/7737

[5] Raportului Comisiei Prezideniale pentru analiza i elaborarea politicilor din domeniile educaieii cercetrii, 2007 - http://www.presidency.ro/index.php?id=8983

[6] The SEI Program - http://portal.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c111/

[7] Istrate.O., Dima, G., Pataki, G., World Bank: Towards Romanian Knowledge Society. Imple-

mentation of ICTs in Formal Education. An analytical survey of documents and experiences, 2004

European Commission Programmes and Reports

[8] European Commission, DG Education and Training: Cooperation on policy issues -

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/pol/policy_en.html

[9] European Commission, DG Education and Training: The Education & Training 2010 pro-

gramme -

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/et_2010_en.html

[10] European Commission, 2007: A coherent framework of indicators and benchmarks for moni-

toring progress towards the Lisbon objectives in education and training -

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2007/com2007_0061en01.pdf

[11] European Commission, DG Education and Training, 2004: Key competences for lifelong

learning - http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/basicframe.pdf

[12] European Commission: i2010 - Annual Information Society Report 2007 -http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/annual_report/index_en.htm

[13] European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Study on the returns to various types of

investment in education and training, 2005 -

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/studies/invest05_en.pdf

[14] European Commission, DG Education and Training: Public consultation "Schools for the 21st

century", 2007 - http://ec.europa.eu/education/school21/index_en.html

European Schoolnet Reports

[15] Benchmarking Access and Use of ICT in European Schools 2006: Results from Head Teacherand A Classroom Teacher Surveys in 27 European Countries,

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/studies/final_report_3.pdf

[16] eMapps Project:The use of ICT, games and mobile technology in the New Member States,

2006 - http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/policy/policy_briefings/emappsbrief.htm

[17] EENet Online, eWATCH Education in e-Europe Public Policies for ICT in Schools, 2002 -

http://www.eenet.org/front_content.php?idcat=65

[18] Insight EUN, The ICT Impact Report: A review of studies of ICT impact on schools in Europe,

2007 - http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/impact_study.htm

[19] Insight EUN, Country reports -http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/country_report.cfm
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[20] European SchoolnetWork Programme 2007 -http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/shared/data/corporate/pdf/WP2007full.pdf

UNESCO Reports

[21] UNESCO, Information and communication technologies in schools: a handbook for teachers orhow ICT Can Create New, Open Learning Environments, 2005 -

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139028e.pdf

[22] UNESCO, Indicators of ICT Application in Secondary Education of SE European Countries,

2005 - http://www.iite.ru/img/upload/INDICATORS.pdf

[23] UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning - http://www.unesco.org/iiep/

[24] UNESCO, ICT in Education - http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-

URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

OECD Reports

[25] OECD, ICT and Learning Publications and Documents -

http://www.oecd.org/findDocument/0,3354,en_2649_34519_1_1_1_1_37441,00.html

Other Reports, Standards related to ICT in Education

[26] Becta: Key findings for further education colleges based on evidence from the evaluation of

the ICT Test Bed Project, 2007 -

http://www.evaluation.icttestbed.org.uk/files/Key_findings_FE.pdf

[27] DfES e-Strategy - 'Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services',UK - http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/

[28] C2k, Delivering Technology for Learning, Ireland - http://www.c2kni.org.uk/

[29] Department of Education, Australia, Ultranet - Implementation and Managed ICT Services in

Government Schools - http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/ultranet/

[30] Ministry of Education, NZ: ICT Strategic Framework for Education -

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=11734&data=l

[31] National Educational Technology Standards for Students, USA, 2007 -

http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/index.html

NETS for Students: The Next Generation -http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdf Profiles for Technology Literate Students -

http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/Student%20Profiles-Draft.pdf

Necessary conditions to effectively leverage technology for learning -http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/essential-conditions2007.pdf

Reports and Studies on Open Source Software

[32] European Commission, Enterprise and Industry, Study on the Economic Impact of OpenSource Software on Innovation and the Competitiveness of the Information and Communication
http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/shared/data/corporate/pdf/WP2007full.pdfhttp://www.europeanschoolnet.org/shared/data/corporate/pdf/WP2007full.pdfhttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139028e.pdfhttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139028e.pdfhttp://www.iite.ru/img/upload/INDICATORS.pdfhttp://www.iite.ru/img/upload/INDICATORS.pdfhttp://www.iite.ru/img/upload/INDICATORS.pdfhttp://www.unesco.org/iiep/http://www.unesco.org/iiep/http://www.unesco.org/iiep/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://www.oecd.org/findDocument/0,3354,en_2649_34519_1_1_1_1_37441,00.htmlhttp://www.oecd.org/findDocument/0,3354,en_2649_34519_1_1_1_1_37441,00.htmlhttp://www.evaluation.icttestbed.org.uk/files/Key_findings_FE.pdfhttp://www.evaluation.icttestbed.org.uk/files/Key_findings_FE.pdfhttp://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/http://www.c2kni.org.uk/http://www.c2kni.org.uk/http://www.c2kni.org.uk/http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/ultranet/http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/ultranet/http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/ultranet/http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=11734&data=lhttp://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=11734&data=lhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/index.htmlhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/index.htmlhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/Student%20Profiles-Draft.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/Student%20Profiles-Draft.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/essential-conditions2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/essential-conditions2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/essential-conditions2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/Student%20Profiles-Draft.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdfhttp://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/index.htmlhttp://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=11734&data=lhttp://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/ultranet/http://www.c2kni.org.uk/http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/http://www.evaluation.icttestbed.org.uk/files/Key_findings_FE.pdfhttp://www.oecd.org/findDocument/0,3354,en_2649_34519_1_1_1_1_37441,00.htmlhttp://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2929&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlhttp://www.unesco.org/iiep/http://www.iite.ru/img/upload/INDICATORS.pdfhttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139028e.pdfhttp://www.europeanschoolnet.org/shared/data/corporate/pdf/WP2007full.pdf


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Technologies (ICT) Sector in the EU, Final report, 2006 -http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf

[33] European Commission, IDABC - Open Source Observatory -

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/452

[34] European Commission, Symposium on use of open source software in EU public administra-tions, 2001 -

www.isoc.lu/agenda/evenement/symposium-on-use-of-open-source-softwarein-eu-public-

administrations

[35] UNESCO, Free & Open Source Software Portal - http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-

URL_ID=12034&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

[36] Insight EUN, Open source software for education in the spotlight, 2006 -

http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/policy/policies/oss_education.htm

[37] Insight EUN, Open Content and Source: European Schoolnet Riding the Wave, 2005 -

http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/open_content_source.htm[38] Insight EUN, Why Europe Needs Free and Open Source Software and Content in Schools,

2004 - http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/osseurope.htm

[39] Becta, UK, Open source software in schools: A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT

infrastructure costs, 2005 - http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25907&page=1835

[40] Becta, UK, Open Source Software, 2003 -

http://foi.becta.org.uk/content_files/corporate/resources/technology_and_education_research/open_

source_software.doc

[41] European Commission, IDABC: A Brief OverviewOpen Source Software in Romania, 2005- http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/5016

[42] European Commission, IDABC: Romania - Successful Open Source conference 'should inspire

government', 2007- http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7178

[43] Carmen Holotescu: Open Source in Romanian Education, Checkpoint eLearning -

http://www.checkpoint-elearning.com/article/4467.html

Open Educational Resouces and Practices

[44] UNESCO, Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing

Countries, Final report, 2002 - http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/128515e.pdf

[45] OECD, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), Open Educational Resources- http://www.oecd.org/edu/oer

[46] OECD, Giving Knowledge for Free, The Emergence of Open Educational Resources, 2007 -

http://resources.eun.org/insight/giving_knowledge_for_free.pdf

[47] OLCOS - Open e-Learning Content Observatory Services - http://www.olcos.org/

[48] LIFE, EUN, Can European teachers find curriculum related digital learning resources?, 2006 -

http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/interoperability/life/reports/curriculum.htm

Evaluation[49] Evaluation of the ICT Test Bed Project, UK - http://www.evaluation.icttestbed.org.uk
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[50] European Quality Observatory - http://www.eqo.info

[51] Olimpius Istrate, Eduational Software Evaluation -

http://www.1educat.ro/resurse/software_educational/evaluare_software_educational.pdf

[52] Carmen Holotescu, Quality in eLearning -

http://www.timsoft.ro/weblog/index.php?blog=1&title=evaluarea_calitatii_learning_objects

Web 2.0 technologies in Education

[53] Will Richardson: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms,

Corwin Press, 2006

[54] JISC, Web2.0 - Ideas, technologies and implications for education, 2007 -

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf

[55] Quentin D'SouzaWeb2.0 Ideas for Educators,http://www.teachinghacks.com/audio/100ideasWeb2educators.pdf

[56] Carmen HolotescuGhid eLearning, Editura Solness, 2004[57] Carmen Holotescu, Seppo Tella: Pilot program materials, 2007http://www.ecomunitate.ro/moodle

[58] Futurelab - Social software and learning, 2006 -

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/opening_education/Social_Software_report.pdf

Teachers Training

[59] European Commission, DG Education and Training, Improving the Quality of Teacher Educa-

tion, 2007 -

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1210&format=HTML&language=E

N, http://ec.europa.eu/education/com392_en.pdf[60] EC, Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications, 2005 -

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/principles_en.pdf

[61] EUN Insight: Assessment Schemes for Teachers ICT competence, 2005 -http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/ictcompetencies.htm

Other resources on ICT in Education - http://del.icio.us/cami13/_ke
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