Bridging a Digital Divide

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Bridging a Digital Divide

• Information Technology in Education for Urban and
  Rural Community Development

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IT Landscape in Romania

• Background

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Ministry of Communications Information
Technology (MCIT) Mission

• Ensure Romanias transition into an Information
  Society defined as
• A society and economy in which the access,
  acquisition, storage, process, transmission,
  propagation and use of knowledge and information
  plays a capital role.
• This vision of an Information Society supposes
  changes must be made in
• Administration (e-government)
• Business (e-commerce)
• Education (distance and e-learning)
• Culture (multimedia centers and virtual
  libraries)
• Additionally, IT development is a condition for
  Romania's accession to the European Union.

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Start Making Sense Surveying the IT Landscape

• In February 2004 the eEurope progress report
  released 2003 statistics on PC and Internet use
  in Romania as well as in other EU Candidate
  Countries.
• The data for this report reflects the evolution
  of the IT landscape from 2001 to 2003.
• In some cases, data unavailable for 2003 was
  projected from the previous two years.
• The eEurope Report compiles data from sources in
  each country and, though research methodology
  guidelines were outlined, differences in
  methodologies exist.
• Consequently, data for Romania is inconsistent
  and maybe optimistic.
• Generally, however, the data presented reflects
  realistic trends in IT development for Romania.

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Household PC Use in Romania Slightly Below Average
8-9
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Costs of PCs in Romania Are Prohibitive
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Internet Use On the Rise in Romania
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Public Internet Access in Romania Also Increasing
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Secondary Schools Have Significantly More PC
Availability
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An Alternative Statistic to Household PC and
Internet Use
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Primary Schools Tend to Have Fewer Computers
Compared to Secondary Schools
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Raise Interest through Increased Access and Skills

• The study also reports some of the key obstacles
  to computer and Internet use.
• Interestingly, for Romania the most inhibiting
  factor to Internet use is a lack of skills
• 45 of respondents say they do not know how to
  use a computer.
• The eEurope report concludes, The large number
  of people that do not use the Internet are
  typically not aware of its benefits, and should
  not be forgotten.
• These forgotten masses in Romania are likely to
  be older, e.g., over the age of 30 and/or
• Living in rural or remote areas

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Lack of Skills Inhibits PC and Internet Use in
Romania
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IT in Education

• Two Approaches to Bridge Building
• 1. Ministry of Education and Research
• 2. Constanta County

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Ministry of Education and Research IT and
Education

• SEI National IT in Education Initiative

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The Government Approach SEI National
Computer-based Education

• In 2001 the Romanian Government approved a
  proposal to launch a project dedicated to the
  implementation of an ICT based education system.
• The project, known as SEI, ran in three phases
• Phase One introduced AEL to 120 high schools. AEL
  is an e-learning platform based on an dynamic
  interactive ORACLE database.
• Phase Two essentially expanded Phase One, upping
  the number of learning platforms to 1,100 schools
  and the number of available lessons increased
  from approximately 100 to 230.
• Phase Three scheduled to conclude August 2004,
  intends to provide AEL platforms to all high
  schools in Romania and a national ICT based
  examination system complete with a portal
  exclusively dedicated to education.
• Total project cost, 200 million.

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Strengths and Weakness of SEI

• The SEI project is ambitious and offers very
  cutting edge quality solutions to IT in
  education.
• The learning platforms are dynamic and
  interactive spanning many subject areas.
• It is a flexible tool intended to accommodate a
  range of learning styles and student abilities.
• The project substantially increased high school
  students access to IT as previously discussed.
• However, in practice SEI isnt the best solution
  for Romania given the overall IT landscape.
• There are two essential weaknesses to the SEI
  project
• The ORACLE based platform
• Expensive
• Extremely demanding on server and network
  bandwidth and well trained IT personnel
• Teachers are unable to complete lessons because
  the server times out or crashes student
  workstations
• Teacher training and future use of e-learning
• Under SEI 14,000 teachers have received training,
  however, teachers have expressed frustration over
  the performance of the learning platform and
  indicated they would be unlikely to use it.
• Consequently, there are now potentially 14,000
  teachers who, having little prior experience
  using IT in education, are likely to make a
  generalization error about IT in education, i.e.,
  assume all e-learning is frustrating and not
  worth the effort.

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Constanta County IT in Education

• Developmental Approach

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ISJ Constanta Foundations for IT in Education

• Beginning in 1991, the schools of Constanta
  county have sought to raise the standard of
  education by integrating Information Technology
  into the classroom.
• Infrastructure was a primary focus in the
  development of IT in the county schools and
  currently there are
• 40-100 computers in each high school
• 10-30 computers in each primary school
• 2-3 computers in every school from rural areas (1
  computer / 100 students) Rural Development
  Project
• Internet access
• CATV, dedicated lines high schools
• Dial-up secondary schools
• An equally important focus has been the
  development of human resources for ICT in
  education.
• ICT tools for faculty to enhance their learning
  and applications of IT in the classroom
• Developing partnerships between educational
  institutions and local communities

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Connecting Educational Institutions with Local
Communities

• Community Training for students and adults
• ISJ - CISCO Regional Academy
• ISJ - ECDL Evaluation Center

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Community Training for Students and Adults

• Cisco Networking Academy

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CISCO Networking Academy Program Overview

• Curriculum
• Cisco Certified Network Associated Certified
  Cisco Networking Associate 4 modules
• IT Essentials 2 modules sponsored by HP
• Java sponsored by SUN Microsystems
• Unix sponsored by SUN Microsystems
• Educational Benefits
• Professional network administrators in high
  schools and community
• Low cost UNIX-like alternatives for Windows
  Operating Systems
• ICT adult education opportunities that enhance
  and expand employability

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CISCO Networking Academy Program Structure

• ISJ Regional Academy
• 192 Local Academies (over 800 Students )
• Secondary School Cumpana (rural)
• Giovanni Bosco Foundation
• This year Constanta was awarded Regional Academy
  of the Year 2004.
• Partnership with the Chamber of Commerce Constanta

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Community Training for Students and Adults

• European Computer Drivers License (ECDL)

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European Computer Driving License - ECDL

• Instruction
• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Evaluation
• Educational Benefits
• Training and certification for educators
• Increased revenues for the county school system

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IT in Education and Rural Community Development

• ICT4U telecenter
• Pilot Project for Rural (Rural School source for
  European Information and Training)
  www.cjre.isjcta.ro

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IT in Education and Rural Community Development

• Romanian Information Communications Technology
  Initiative (RITI)

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RITI-Access Telecenters Project

• Rural and remote communities in Romania have
  largely been excluded from technological equity
  and access.
• Due mainly to infrastructure and some of the
  barriers to computer access discussed above.
• USAID and the Academy for Educational Development
  (AED) through the RITI-Access project have been
  working to redress this inequity through the
  development of telecenters.

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Telecenters Increasing Interest in IT through
Access

• Telecenters are essentially small scale public IT
  access points that
• Promote access to ICT-based services for small
  communities
• Extend the access of public services such as
  education, health and social services, and
  business development
• Facilitate knowledge sharing
• Provide information of general interest to local
  communities including government information,
  cultural events, grassroots activism

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RITI-Access Telecenters to Date

• 4 telecenters, introduced in October 2003, are
  operating throughout the Moldova region in remote
  villages Frecatei (Braila), Balasesti (Galati),
  Iana (Vaslui), and Ribricea (Braila).
• A success story.
• Since opening they have served over 3,500 people
  with their information and communication needs.

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RITI Acess Extends to Constanta County ICT4U

• Essentially ICT4U is a non-profit Internet café
  and training center that
• Promotes a culture of learning, knowledge and
  information through IT in a games-free, smoke
  free environment.
• Goal to increase access to ICT in 3 communities
  of Constanta County (1 urban and 2 rural) by both
  creating and serving a need for IT resources.
• Service expectations after one year
• 100 people trained (training and certification
  Cisco and ECDL)
• 1000 people Internet access
• Total project cost 50,000
• Co-Financed by USAID RITI Access and in kind/in
  cash contributions from local and county
  government.

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All Access Information and Coffee

• Specifically, ICT4U in Constanta and its two
  rural Netpoints in Cumpana and Valu lui Traian
  seek to integrate existing information services
  while adding value to them.

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IT in Education and Rural Community Development

• Pilot Project for Rural (Rural School source for
  European Information and Training)
  www.cjre.isjcta.ro

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Rural School Europe Club

• Activities
• Europa Clubs European information center in
  schools
• Informational pack for education and local
  communities
• Information materials publishing
• Training for teachers to develop European
  projects Socrates, Leonardo, Youth

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Rural School Europe Club

• Financed by PHARE 25500 euro
• Goal increase the visibility of European Union
  in the rural area of Constanta County using
  educational communities
• Target group 30 teachers in 10 rural schools
• Beneficiaries 2200 (students, teachers and
  members from the local communities

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Rural School Europe Club

• 10 Europe Club in 10 schools
• Internet access 4 ISDN, 6 PSTN
• Collaborative web platform
• http//www.cjre.isjcta.ro
• Forum
• Chat
• Database (activities, news, project)
• Albums

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Strengths and Weaknesses in Constanta

• Strengths
• Increased motivation of working in teams (project
  ownership)
• Partnerships and cooperative relationships
  between schools (co-financing, benefit for local
  communities)
• Facilitates fine tuning of project implementation
  (feedback)
• Increases the potential for sustainable
  development (organization and finance)
• Multiplication effects (activities, outputs) from
  pilot schools to resource schools
• Weaknesses
• High costs associated with ECDL and CISCO
  training
• Sometimeslack of support from authorities (MoER,
  Inspectorate, local)
• Lack of legislation

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IT in Education Resources

• US and European Web Projects and Resources

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European Schoolnet

• Internet services in European education
• Coordinates the integration of ICT across EU and
  its Accession Candidate Countries in order to
• Share activities, ideas, knowledge and
  information
• Partner with educators on collaborative projects

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European Schoolnet projects

• Virtual school
• MyEurope
• Comenius Space
• Spring Day in Europe
• Green Week 2004
• ENIS
• Celebrate
• ZOOM
• ETB
• Valnet
• ERNIS
• .Safe

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iEARN International Education and Resource
Network

• iEARN - world's largest non-profit global network
  for education
• Internet for collaborative educational projects
  across the world
• 15,000 schools in 100 countries
• Projects designed to fit a range of curricula,
  classrooms, and interests.

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iEARN and Professional Development for Educators

• Professional Development
• Teachers' Guide to International Collaboration on
  the Internet, created by iEARN-USA.
• Connecting Cultures A Teacher's Guide to a
  Global Classroom
• iEARN Handbook

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Marco Polo

• Highest quality standard based Internet content
  and professional training for K-12 teachers and
  students.
• Teachers resources
• Professional development
• State network
• Powerful search engine

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Web projects and IT in Education Resources

• ECDL- http//www.ecdl.org or http//www.ecdl.ro
• Cisco Networking Academy http//cisco.netacad.ne
  t/public
• European Schoolnet http//www.eun.org
• IEARN International Education and Resources
  Network http//www.iearn.org
• Marco Polo http//www.marcopolo-education.org
• Romanian Ministry of Education National Computer
  Based Education http//portal.edu.ro
• 29-31 October 2004 Conferenta Nationala di
  Invatamant Virtual http//www.fmi.unibuc.ro/index_
  ro.html

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Spring Day in Europe

• Spring Day 2003 http//futurum.eun.org
• Spring Day 2004 Enlargement http//futurum2004.e
  un.org
• Over 1000 schools from Romania