School Libraries As Multimedia centres

In the initial stages, the project will work to integrate new technology and new media into the educational process at each site. This will require the training of teaching staff and educational managers to raise awareness and to promote change. Multimedia and information and communications technologies permit the introduction of new modes of open learning and these will be exploited in the teacher INSET programme.

Transferring experience is the key area for the SLAM project and the use of new communications technology is essential to this. Whether the partner is experienced with new media, or is just beginning to investigate its use within the teaching and learning situation, experience at all levels will be shared enhancing the development of learning programmes for all. Within the first year, the growing experience of teachers at each partner site will be led towards the development of multi-national learning programmes. Over the following two years, the ODL methods will involve students, cascading open learning experience from teacher and managers to the real target group, the classroom students.

The project is intended to enable and facilitate open and distance learning within four dissimilar learning resource centres across the European Community. The project will use open and distance learning to share ideas, experiences and pedagogical methodologies amongst partners. The project will create beacon sites of excellence within each partner country allowing centres to disseminate the growing experiences of a multi-national approach to library development.

The project expects to develop a European approach to the use and provision of multimedia resource centres in schools and colleges.