Transcript Document

eLearning in Europe
Defining challenges - policies and
instruments
Global Utanningsmarked - Nordisk
utfordring
23/24 September 2004
Reykjavik
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eLearning
Wide definition – technologies to support and
within learning systems and processes –
formal and in/non-formal (including ‘flexible
and distance) learning
Integration – NOT separate
Slow adoption and integration
Technology adoption is within systems and
processes as they are today
Even slower systems changes
Technologies as a lever in change process –
not directly evident
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Education and training
systems
Still not possible to speak about ‘European
systems’
Some changes in systems and their role in
labour market changes (Germany/UK)
Lifelong learning demand growth
Pressure to reform supply side of systems
Attention to informal and non formal learning
growing
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Policy context
Lisbon eEurope objectives
Concrete Objectives for Education and
Training – Barcelona
‘Education, training and research are the key
to economic renewal… We need an
integrated strategy for education and
research based on networking and mobility
giving priority to the technologies of the
future’ (Commission president Romano Prodi in an address
to the European Parliament in January 2002)
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R&D programmes
R&D – 2nd Framework (DELTA 1) to current 6th
Framework - Changes in perspective and
expectations
Early documentation calls for research proposals relating
to Technologies for ‘flexible and distance learning’
Mid 1990s, clear shift conceptually in perceptions of
learning technologies.
By the 4th Framework, the terms ‘telematics for education
and training’ and ‘Educational multimedia’ are used.
5th framework programme, the term ‘eLearning’ appears
All but disappears in the 6th framework, where the term
‘Technology enhanced learning’ is the phrase used
? 7th Framework – reference dropped and using only
‘ICTs’
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Shift in calls
FP2 (1978-1991), development of
technologies and understanding how they
might be deployed.
FP 4 (1994-1998), high visibility through
Telematics for Education and Training and
ESPRIT ‘IT for learning and training in
industries.’ Also calls for first time under
TSER on socio-economic aspects.
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EMTF
Task force action plan ‘to make
European research more effective, to
strengthen the position of the European
educational multimedia industry and to
enable users - households, enterprises
and educational institutions - to derive
maximum benefit from the application of
new technologies to education and
training.'
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EMTF Joint Call for Educational
Multimedia Proposals
6 programmes managed by 4 Directorates
General Telematic Applications and TenTelecom (DG XIII), Information Technology
(DG III), Targeted Socio-Economic Research
(DG XII), SOCRATES and Leonardo da Vinci
(DG XXII). Joint Call generated a huge
response, (over 800 proposals) of which 46
projects involving about 425 participants were
supported with funding of €49M. The network
of schools established in the EUN Schoolnet
project is one of the most prominent results.
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FP5 (1998 - 2002),
KA2, New Methods of Work and& Electronic Commerce, research and
piloting for the workplace, in communities, for particular target groups
and in the home.
KA 3 - Multimedia Content and Tools of the IST (information Society
Technologies) Programme (€120M) , research firmly concentrated on
technology deployment in formal and mainstream education and
training systems and in informal and non-formal learning across
society.
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Technologies for collaborative learning and teaching,
Personalised learning (largely within the mainstream systems)
Lifelong learning
Professional development
Conceptualisation and operation of virtual universities
Open source systems and interoperability
Consensus Building and Standardisation
All reflecting the expectation for mainstream integration.
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FP 6
Far fewer projects
Much less emphasis as an R&D topic
FP4 really represents high point in R&D
Realistic – probably
Technologies far ahead of users
Focus should be on supporting take up and
adoption (or if not, accepting this won’t
happen – at least very soon!)
Recognises the shift which is given voice and
visibility in the eLearning Initiative and
programme
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Increased coordination of Education,
Training and Technology Policies
Watershed – EMTF initiative – a move away
from a dominant focus on developing
technology into the wider issues of
implementation and adoption.
Already present in Leonardo and Socrates 1
(and in predecessors)
Widely found in other programmes such as
Social Funded programmes (ADAPT/EQUAL)
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2002, Lisbon strategy & eEurope Action Plan
A leap forward in wider policy regarding learning
technologies. ICT technologies presented as a key
driver in achieving the economic and social aims of
the eEurope strategy. The dominant concerns are
social cohesion and improving European
competitiveness. In this context, there is explicit
concern for the personal needs and circumstances of
the learner and ensuring access and flexibility to
meet the needs of all citizens. New emphasis on the
communication technology part of ICTs as a means
to support collaboration, reflecting the widely held
view that learning is a social process and not
something undertaken in isolation.
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eLearning Initiative & Programme
Signalled the need for coordinated wholesale
structural investment as well as initiatives to
encourage take up and adoption. This new
effort intended to 'coordinate Community
actions concerned with eLearning mobilizing
the educational and cultural communities, as
well as the economic and social players in
Europe', was labelled the eLearning Initiative
(2002- 2004), later formalised into the
eLearning Programme.
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eLearning Programme
'The eLearning programme is a further step
towards realising the vision of technology
serving lifelong learning. It focuses on a set of
actions in high priority areas, chosen for their
strategic relevance to the modernisation of
Europe’s education and training systems.’
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Reflections
Slow adoption of technologies
Market stagnant?
Public investment huge but evidence of
meeting policy aims of access, quality,
increased LLL etc unclear?
Technology stimulating market growth in
‘educational products and services’ (esp HE)?
- Jury is out.
Technologies for learning or for presentation
and information?
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Reflections
Most activity is piloting or peripheral to
mainstream
Some outstanding work and
achievements
Sustainability remains an issue
Value in terms of either ROI or policy
objective/target achievement not yet
demonstrated
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Self learning – individual learning
responsibility
Policy aim & market expectation
Is a switch in ‘technologies’ for existing self
learning group
Not clear that availability of technologies is
changing anything else?
Surprise? No - Building self efficacy and
changing behaviour Linked to issues of
expectations, motivation, return and reward
to individuals as well as building self efficacy
through early learning.
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Some policy success
eLearning Initiative and subsequent
Programme - an initiative undertaken by the
political leadership of Europe to align their
investments in ICTs for education and training
against the broader eEurope and eLearning
strategies.
Investment / application of technologies
should help drive Europe's general economic
& social agenda.
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Some policy success
At Member State and EU level, making
technologies available and providing policy
support for their use in education and training
has been perceived as a good thing in itself.
If the future is about technology, then
everyone must have access to ICT
technology applications and it serves to
ensure that everyone is able to use them.
Helps to highlight need for reform and change
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Resistance and concerns
Concern for ‘instrumentalist’ dominance of
education and training policy
Technology is seen as part of instrumentalist
agenda
Anxieties that the agenda is about ‘efficiency’
in education and training systems
Commercial suppliers – concern that public
instruments are not helping to develop a
market but actually damaging and disrupting
its natural evolution
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Policies, politics and change
Frustration with the slow pace of change and
reform in the education and training systems
has pushed technology into the systems in
the hope that absorption of technology will
effect the desired changes. Expected
changes are not occurring (at least not at the
pace hoped for), and the absorption rates of
the technologies are significantly less than
expected.
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Policies, politics and change
Players in the education and training systems have
moved from position of generalized resistance and
antipathy to technology to one of passive
acceptance. But relatively little active endeavour to
see where the technologies can really effect
change and drive reform on the ground.
Policy dilemma - how to push ‘open the envelope’
while recognising reality
Ambitious political aims continue to be developed but
recognising more realistically that the systems are
not going to change just because the technology is
there to do things differently
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