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Interactive web-based forum on policy issues in the area of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in education
ESP/OSF Slovakia has launched a new website focused on policy issues in the area of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in education.
ICT has dramatic implications for teaching and learning; it presents new opportunities for pedagogy and self learning, requires relatively sophisticated technical expertise
and involves significant financial considerations at micro and macro levels. These features create complex policy questions relating to the
use of ICT in education. The Open Policy Forum is a premier resource for educators and education planners. The site presents experience from across
the world to inform local, regional and national policy makers in their developing policy to incorporate and support the use of ICT in education.
The website is available at www.openpolicyforum.net. There are forums
for discussion under many important topics such as infrastructure, cost effectiveness, training, content, impact and evaluation, all concerning policy on ICT in
education, as well as views on these issues posted by experts from countries around the world.
The forum is open for anyone interested after registering on the website.
The project is carried out by OSF Slovakia and supported by the Education Support Program (ESP) at the Open Society Institute Budapest.
Launch of the book Learning to Change in Sarajevo
In our previous issue, we announced the publication of the book Learning to Change: the Experience of Transforming Education in South-East Europe
(edited by Terrice Bassler) in South Slavic languages. It includes a collection of first-person narratives by specialists in education from 11
countries and territories of South-East Europe, which chronicle the profound effect on schooling of armed conflicts and post-communist transition.
It also includes basic data on education and chronologies of education reform by country from 1989 to the present.
The official launch of the book in South Slavic languages will be on October 20, 2006 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more
information, please contact: dzenana@soros.org.ba.
Regional Workshop on Enhancing Professional Development of Education Practitioners and Teaching/Learning Practices
The South-East European Educational Cooperation Network (SEE-ECN) with support from UNESCO and OSI Education Support Program will host the event on
November 17-18, 2006 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The workshop is a follow-up to a project that seeks to contribute to the professional advancement of practicing teachers in SEE countries and to the
readiness for cooperation in education aiming at strengthening further cross-border cooperation. At the beginning of 2005 SEE-ECN established 11
country-teams of experts. Working through the network of SEE-ECN country nodes, these teams implemented a survey to gather crucial information
about pre- and in-service teacher education and training and the state of the art in those areas in particular countries of the region. One of the
main goals of the project is to establish better linkages between teacher academies and schools - the institutions where teacher education, training and practice
take place. Country reports on each of the 11 countries surveyed have been published, as well as a regional overview that summarizes the reports, assesses the
situation and needs in SEE, and offers suggestions for the relevant EU and national bodies. The regional overview and the individual country reports are available to the
wider educational public through the website.
Main aims of the seminar:
- to familiarize the participants with the state of affairs and policies of enhancing pre-service and in-service teacher education, employing the findings and recommendations of
the project, "Enhancing Professional Development of Education Practitioners and Teaching/Learning Practices in SEE Countries"
- to particularly stress the role of teacher training in achieving greater tolerance and mutual understanding, conflict resolution, multicultural education, education for peace;
- to encourage participating teachers to develop their own scheme of career development and professional enhancement, by emphasizing the relation between
quality in-service teacher training and quality work in their schools.
Participants will be practicing teachers (pre-school, elementary school, secondary school, teacher in vocational school etc.) with at least 5 years of experience
at their present level. Organizers expect approximately 40 teachers, with 2 or 3 per country (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo,
Montenegro, Moldova, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania). At least one teacher from each country will be a representative of a UNESCO ASP school.
More information is available at www.see-educoop.net/portal/tesee.htm or cesp@pef.uni-lj.si
OSI & UNESCO to hold transparency and ethics seminar in Montenegro
OSI's Education Support Program, in cooperation with UNESCO's International Institute of Education Planning, will organize a seminar, "Transparency, Ethics, and Anti-corruption Measures
in Education" on October 22-25, 2006 in Podgorica, Montenegro.
The seminar's three chief aims are: information and awareness-building regarding issues of corruption in education; initial exposure to methodologies of anti-corruption
measures; and initiation of policy dialogue regarding anti-corruption in education. The seminar is designed to pave the way for future activities (research, studies, projects, capacity building, etc.).
The seminar will be organized around the topics of ethics and corruption in education;
methodology for measuring corruption (survey approaches, including tracking and perception surveys); finance and good governance
in education; and education against corruption.
Lectures will be combined with "show and tell" sessions by country teams. Education practitioners from around Southeast Europe are expected to attend.
Workshop on Curriculum Development in Croatia
Incorporating European strategic goals and aligning the Croatian education system to current European developments demand from Croatia a deeper intervention into
that system, especially into curricula - the basis for future changes. Currently, reforming curricula in secondary schools (grades 9 to 12) is a priority for the Ministry
of Education in Croatia. As part of this effort, the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) organized a training seminar, "Developing the
National Curriculum for Secondary Education (Gymnasium) in Croatia: Theory and Practice" for its staff and key stakeholders in education to support capacity building.
The event took place on September 27-29 in Zagreb.
The training was the third in a series of similar events, following on sessions held in 2003 and 2005. The goals of the training were:
- To train the CERD team for curriculum development, enabling them to transfer the knowledge gained into teacher education graduate and postgraduate studies at
the Croatian universities and to in-service teachers;
- To enhance teachers' competencies in the curriculum area, better preparing them to transfer their knowledge to students of teacher education programs;
- To strengthen curriculum competencies of the consultants from the Institute for School Development to improve their work in curriculum development and
its implementation in schools as well as in in-service teacher training.
The event was co-financed by OSI Education Support Program (ESP) and CERD. The trainer was Alexandru Crisan, international curriculum consultant and
Executive President of Center Education 2000+, Bucharest, Romania.
For more information, please contact: Branislava Baranovic baranov@idi.hr
International Colloquium, “Mother Tongue Education in a Multicultural World: Case Studies and Networking for Change”
This colloquium was organized by Center Education 2000+, a Romanian think tank working in the domain of education policy, consultancy and services. The center is a
member of the Soros Open Network (Romania) and the Network of Education Policy Centers of the Open Society Institute (OSI). The event took place in Sinaia, Romania
on June 22-25, 2006 with the aim to relaunch the public and expert debate in the region on educational policies with a focus on mother tongue education (MTE).
Discussions were focused on compulsory education (grades 1 to 10) and secondary education (grades 11-12).
The international colloquium on MTE involved 40 prominent experts from Central, East, and Southeast Europe. They were representatives of education ministries and
policy-making institutions, curriculum development centers, NGOs active in this area, and researchers and practitioners in MTE curriculum and implementation in Europe.
Keynote speakers were outstanding international experts in MTE and related education policy-makers from the Council of Europe, University of Oslo, University
of Amsterdam, University of Bucharest, and University of Cluj (Romania).
The project was co-funded by the Open Society Foundation (Romania) through the East-East Program "Partnership Beyond Borders," the Education Support Program (ESP) of
OSI (Budapest) and Center Education 2000+.
For more information about the event please contact: acrisan@cedu.ro
or visit www.cedu.ro
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