Trip Report #1: Government Demand/Resource for Education Technology/ICT

	US Delegation to Europe, 2002: Internet Technology and Schools Agenda Working Groups Delegation Members London Briefing Materials Paris Briefing Materials Brussels Briefing Materials Bonn Briefing Materials Sponsor Background Information US Education System Review Trip Report #1: Government Demand/Resource for Education Technology/ICT Trip Report #2: Assessing ICT’s Educational Impact Trip Report #3: Standards & Accessibility - SIF, SCORM, IMS, GEM, etc. Trip Report #4: As a Member of the European Delegation of CoSN Trip Photos

Task Force Members: Anita Givens, Kathy Hurley, Keith Krueger, Nula O’Connor, Doug Simon, Larry Snowhite

Task Force Chairs: Anita Givens and Keith Krueger

Observations regarding Education Technology Policy

U.S.
National governments around world have played significant roles in stimulating education technology, or Information Communications Technology (ICT) into schools. Examples of how the U.S. has manifested this leadership role include:

• Enactment of the Erate as part of efforts to deregulate the telecommunications industry in the mid-nineties. This effort now provides $2.25 billion annually to U.S. schools and libraries for telecommunications, Internet and internal connections costs;
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Defense and the National Science Foundations efforts in the 1970s-1980s to build open communications networks which ultimately became the commodity Internet, as well as building a high speed network for higher education (Internet2);
  
  
• Passage of the No Child Left Behind Act which places significant emphasis on accountability and achievement for all of education, including efforts to use technology in schools;
  
  
• Related new requirements in NCLB Act that all products sold to schools with federal funds must be “scientifically-based”;
  
  
• New requirements by the USDOE that 25% of all federal education technology funds must be spent on professional development;
  
  
• Increased roles for states in administering education technology formula and competitive technology funds.
  
  

Key Observations from our trip to Europe:

United Kingdom
The country which probably is most similar to the U.S. in terms of education technology is the UK. Similar to the Clinton Administration, the Blair Administration has made ICT in schools a center piece of their domestic policy. Launched in 1998 and continuing through 2004, the National Grid for Learning is a £1.8 billion effort and all new funding. Similar to the U.S., the focus has been on:

1. Infrastructure -- area where most funds have been expended to date;
2. Content – about 15% of funds to date, but two major new efforts are now being launched (see below);
3. Teacher Practice (which we would call professional development). This £230 mil. UK effort (£180 mil just in Britain)

The National Grid (as in the U.S.) was a fundamental change from the “hero model” where teachers as champions were the main drivers in ICT. For the first time the National Government was providing significant resources in a coordinated fashion.

UK official reported to us on the tremendous progress reached since the launching of the National Grid in the area of computer ratios and connectivity. Today the UK is at 1 computer per 9.7 kids. The goal by 2004 is to move to 1 computer per 8 primary school students and 1 computer per 4 secondary students. Likewise, the UK is proud to have achieved 99% connectivity (up from 6% when the initiative began) and 23% are broadband connections in schools (defined as 2 megabits or better). Interestingly, no where in Europe were statistics given on the basis of classroom connectivity. The U.S. appears to be slightly ahead of the W. European countries we visited in terms of computers to student ratios and the amount of classroom connectivity, probably as a result of our Erate, Net Day-like activities and local/state efforts.

ICT content is receiving increased attention in the UK because of two important initiatives. The Depart for Education & Skills has just launched a new £50 mil. Effort called Curriculum Online (www.curriculumonline.gov.uk). The purpose of this effort is to simulate the private sector market for content by giving individual teachers credits to buy off-the-shelf technology products. Teachers will get credits valued at approximate £50-500. The program distributed £30 mil. in September 2003, and another £20 mil. will be distributed in spring 2003. It will be interesting to see the economic impact of this program on the private content market, as well as the functional impact on school networks in the UK (e.g. – impact on technical support of school networks when many applications need to be supported). The other major public content initiative in the UK is a forthcoming effort by the BBC around digital content. Final details have not yet been released however our group was given a sneak preview. According to publicly available information, this will likely be a £150 mil. effort over five years to build digital content for schools. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this initiative is the “tier-ing” strategy that gives increased functionality as schools have increased bandwidth.

Finally, the UK efforts in Teacher Practice (Professional Development) have been an ambitious national effort funded by the National Lottery. 99% of teachers signed up for this training. Interestingly, no monies were spent on headmasters/administrators to help build leadership understanding and support for ICT in schools. A new effort is being launched by BeCTA, the British education technology trade group, to start a college program for headmasters and provide technology curriculum for them.

It should also be mentioned that the UK has an active nonprofit sector which is playing a leadership role on ICT, particularly the British Council. Projects like Montage (www.montage.world.co.uk -- multi-language/multi-national curriculum project), Connecting the Futures (a post-911 response using ICT), and various exchanges between ICT teachers/administrators, are playing important roles.

France
France Based on our meetings, it appears that ICT in France is currently in a “transitory phase”. Most likely this stems from being a fairly highly centralized education system and a new Chirac-lead government was elected just a few months ago. Most initiatives were described quite tentatively. In general, education was presented as a shared responsibility of state and local authorities. The bulk of the education budget is for teacher salaries with state funding in 2001 targeted for equipment and primary school connectivity.

We did learn about a very exciting tablet project which Vivendi is promoting in schools in France this year. However, it was unclear if the French Ministry of Education will at this time scale up the project. In addition, Vivendi is going through a major sale of assets, so it is unclear what is the future of this effort.

European-wide efforts
One of the most impressive aspects of cross-Europe initiatives is the European Schoolnet (EUN -- www.eun.org). Twenty five ministries of education, as well as support from the European Commission and other funders, have created a wealth of resources for European schools relating to ICT. These services include:

• Internet Portal Services, e.g. -- eSchoolnet (for teachers -- www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_eschoolnet.html) and School Managers Center (Administrators -- www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/index_smc.cfm)
  
  
• ICT Leadership Projects
  
  
  • European Network of Innovative Schools (ENIS -- www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/enis2/entry_page.cfm?id_area=18)
    
    
  • myEuropa is a network grouping more than 1,400 schools helping pupils' become aware of what it means to be a young citizen in Europe (www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_myeurope.cfm)
    
    
  • Celebrate: Providing schools with an online content database that includes multimedia assets for learning –learning objects-- LOs -- www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/About_eschoolnet/content.cfm?lang=en&ov=16171)
    
    
  • Comenius: Helping transnational school projects, designed to share European experience relating to schools with large numbers of pupils from different cultures and linguistic or ethnic backgrounds (www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/index_comenius.cfm)
    
    
  • European Treasury Browser: The project is building a Web educational resource Metadata Networking infrastructure for schools in Europe. (www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/etb/entry_page.cfm?id_area=14)
    
    
• Architecture & Interoperability efforts, including a €7 mil. effort on defining Learning Objects
  
  
• Policy Comparisons (e.g., the soon-to-be-launched Insight database which provides national ICT profiles)
  
  
• Special Events
  
  
  • eSchola (an exchange of best ICT practices -- www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_eschola2002.cfm)
    
    
  • eLearning Awards (honoring excellence in ICT -- www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/About_eschoolnet/content.cfm?lang=en&ov=14427)
    
    

The European Commission is preparing a new “eLearning Action Plan” which will guide investments over the coming four years. This is the 2nd phase of this research and application of research initiative (europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning/doc_en.html)

The EC’s Directorate General Information Society (the agency most similar to the NSF) described their focus on key issues such as:

• Promoting broadband
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ensuring securing of networks
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Reducing SPAM -- Europe is taking a more regulatory approach to the problem of SPAM than the U.S.
  
  
• Promoting Interoperability
  
  
• Supporting overall eLearning Research
  
  

Germany
In many ways, Germany mirrors some fundamental aspects of U.S. education. Key decisions around education, including ICT, are the primary responsibility of the Lenders (the German states). The German Ministry of Education, like our US Department of Education, plays a generally supportive role rather than a lead decision-making role (vs. stronger centralized governments, such as France).

One key way the German government supported ICT over the past years was by convincing Deutsch Telekom, the German telecommunications giant, to create the Shulen ans Netz (the German national school network). Schulen ans Netz provides one free Internet connection to every German school. This is a €30 million effort which is fully funded by Deutsch Telekom. This effort was announced as DT was being denationalized from being a government agency to a private sector company. This is an interesting comparison to the U.S. Erate effort which was also created due to deregulation and competition in the private sector.

Some of the other key ways that the German federal government is pushing ICT are:

• Emphasizing the importance of Media Literacy
• Focusing on research on the Total Cost of Ownership of ICT
• Targeting programs to encourage girls and women to get online

Interestingly, the Schulen ans Netz, and apparently most of central and northern Europe, do not filter Internet access. They do have major initiatives around media literacy and other Internet safety awareness campaigns.