Perspectives of Integration of ICT into Education in the Czech Republic

1
Perspectives of Integration of ICT into Education
in the Czech Republic

• Tomá Pitner, PhD
• Masaryk university in Brno
• Faculty of Informatics
• e-mail tomp_at_fi.muni.cz

2
What is the Government Information Policy in
Education (GIPE)?

• GIPE is a strategic document on penetration of
  Informatics into Education
• Elaborated under the auspices of Ministry of
  Education and Ministry of Culture and accepted by
  the Czech Government in spring this year
• Important component of the general Government
  Information Policy
• The main target support the transition of the
  Czech educational system to the Information
  Society - Society of Knowledge)

3
Why we need a Government Information Policy in
Education?

• Information Society demands a new approach to
  education - aimed to information processing
  rather the memorizing plain or
  encyclopedia-like knowledge.
• Information processing is nowadays closely
  related to the use of modern Information and
  Communication Technology
• The wide availability, mastering and usage of ICT
  become a crucial part of the education system in
  developed countries.
• What GIPE does
• defines directions of transition to the massive
  and appropriate usage of ICT in Education at all
  levels

4
What are the Target Groups of GIPE?

• Teachers (primarily at basic and secondary
  schools) of all subjects (not limited to
  informatics/ICT)
• investments to teachers have generally a strong
  multiplicative effect
• almost all are government employees, government
  wants to support their further growth
• teachers are an important target group also in
  terms of their number - experience from life-long
  education of teachers can be reproduced for other
  groups - for citizens
• Students of these schools
• ICT Coordinators
• Librarians, ...

5
Goals of GIPE More Detailed

• Infrastructure
• at least one (more) multimedia-capable PC to each
  schools
• Internet connection (24 hours/day, speed gt 64
  kbps)
• later more computers (8 to each school)
• ICT Coordinators
• Information Literacy for Teachers
• basic approx. equivalent to ECDL (slightly lower
  is acceptable)
• higher ICT Application in Education (of other
  Subjects)
• Information Literacy for Librarians and Employees
  of Info-Centers
• Grant Programs

6
Coordination Center for Implementation of GIPE

• Founded by Ministerial Directive on Sep 12, 2000
• The Government stressed the attempt to invest in
  the following five years
• CZK 7.6 B from State Budget CZK 5.5 B from
  National Property Fund
• Headquarter of the Center Main Coordinator,
  Secretary, Communication Manager and Three
  Projects Managers
• For this year CZK 8 M

7
Coordination Center for Implementation of GIPE

• Three Projects
• Training of ICT CoordinatorsTraining of Teachers
• Support for Acquisition of Information Sources
  Support for Software Tools for Teaching
  InformaticsSupport for Software Tools for
  Teaching Other Subjects Support for Introduction
  of Software Tools and Information Sources to the
  Teaching Process
• Support for Ensuring the IP-connectivity
  (internal/external) Tender for Hardware
  Equipment
• Pilot Project 100 Schools in Northern Moravia

8
Grant Programs for Information Literacy

• Multimedia Tools and Programs
• Introduction of ICT to Teaching
• Information Sources for Learning
• Further Education for Teachers and Librarians
• Information Literacy for Citizens
• Information Literacy for Teachers, Training
  Network, Certification of Trainers
• Internet Connectivity and Multimedia PCs
• Hardware Equipment

9
Council for Information Literacy at the Ministry
for Education (MMT)

• Elaborate the Program in detail
• Formulate Criteria for Tenders
• Formulate Criteria for Program Evaluation
• Projects Evaluation
• Database of Projects
• Themes for Further Programs...

10
Want More Information?

• GIPE in fulltext (MMT) http//www.msmt.cz/pdf/kes
  tazeni/SIPveVZ.doc
• Working Group for GIPE at MMT
  http//www.msmt.cz/cp1250/ig/index.asp
• Paper on GIPE at the RUFIS 2000 Conference
  http//www.vutbr.cz/konference/rufis2000/sbornik/1
  4-ludek.pdf (in Czech)
• E-zine Ceská kola (Czech School)
  http//www.ceskaskola.cz (papers, discussions in
  Czech/Slovak)