BACKGROUND PAPERS FOR THE DELEGATION

	Trip Background and Reports Agenda Trip Blog Delegation Members Background Materials Sponsor Background Information

SCANDINAVIA (SWEDEN, FINLAND AND DENMARK)

Benchmarking Access and Use of ICT in European Schools 2006
A European Commission survey provides a description of broadband internet access and use of ICT in Finland (pages 9-10), Denmark (47-48) and Sweden (pages 17-18).

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/
itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2888

Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources
The report from OECD describes the open educational resources trend in education and its implications.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/25/38851849.pdf

E-learning Nordic 2006
http://www.skolutveckling.se/digitalAssets/
106585_English_eLearning_Nordic_Print.pdf
This is thefirst inter-Nordic study specifically concentrating on the impact of ICT on education and answering the question, “What has been the return on investment from the investment in ICT in the Nordic countries? “

The ICT Impact Report: A review of studies of ICT impact on schools in
Europe 
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/impact_study.htm
Prepared by European Schoolnet, the report summarizes findings concerning the impact of ICT on teaching and learning, identifies barries and includes recommendations for policymakers, educators and researchers.

FINLAND

Towards a Networked Finland
http://www.tietoyhteiskuntaohjelma.fi/tietoyhteiskuntaneuvosto/en_GB/information_society_council/ 
Prepared by The Information Society Council, the report provides an overall picture of the current stage of the information society in Finland, identifies the challenges and outlines actions to deal with these challenges. The section on Education, Research and Product Development starting on pp 67 is of particular interest.

P2P Report for Finland
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/policy/peer_reviews/p2preports_ni_finland.htm 
Supported by the European Commission, the Peer Review report describes and analyzes the ICT policy status in Finland, the peer review methodology and reflections by policymakers from France, Ireland, England and Switzerland who participated in the review.  

Finland - Primary ICT - Natural Connections
http://www.teachers.tv/video/4977
The video shows how academic research has helped one teacher at a Finnish Primary School to improve teaching methods.  

Finnish Digital Content Production and Use
Executive summary from the ICT Cluster Peer Learning Activity
The focus of the ICT Group’s peer learning activity (PLA) to Finland from 25 to 27th January 2006 was Finnish digital content production and use.

Finnish PISA
http://www.pisa2006.helsinki.fi/

Finland has participated in the PISA surveys in 2000, 2003 and 2006.  The website provides results from the first two surveys, suggests explanations and presents features characterizing the Finnish results.

Finland Country Report: Insight EUN
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/country_report.cfm?

The report is an in-depth description of national developments in six core areas of eLearning: Trends in Education and ICT, ICT Policy, ICT Practice, Content and Services, Teacher Education for ICT and Infrastructure. 

SWEDEN

Sweden Country Report: Insight EUN
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/country_report.cfm?
The report is an in-depth description of national developments in six core areas of eLearning: Trends in Education and ICT, ICT Policy, ICT Practice, Content and Services, Teacher Education for ICT and Infrastructure. 

DENMARK

The Danish Educational System
http://www.ciriusonline.dk/Default.aspx?ID=3825
Provides an overview of the system from pre school through higher education.
 

Trends in the Use of Computers in Danish Primary and Lower Secondary Schools
http://us.uvm.dk/folkeskolen/initiativer/fokusomraader/documents/Notatvedr.itifolkeskolen_English.pdf
Prepared by the Ministry of Education, the report details number of computers, location and internet access for students.