quality
Digital Agenda: "Best children's online content" competition winners
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda has presented awards to the creators of the best online content, intelligent games, interactive online magazines or websites aimed at under 12 year olds. The Commission, together with Safer Internet Centres from 14 countries, received 780 projects in response to the "Best children's online content" competition, designed to encourage the creation of quality content and to highlight the existing potential for kids online.
This first competition was open to young people and adults, NGOs, public and commercial organisations. Three winners in each of the two categories (young people and adults) received the awards. Winners came from Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and Poland.
While children go online younger and younger every year, only one in three 9-12 year olds feels that there are enough good things for them online, according to a recent EUKidsOnline survey (IP/10/1368). The awards were presented in Brussels during a ceremony at the Digital Agenda Assembly. The Commission is committed to helping parents and their children keep safe online as part of the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200).
Neelie Kroes, said: “I am pleased to see that many teenagers seized the challenge to create suitable content for their younger peers. I hope more adults and businesses will ensure that their content makes the Internet a richer and more welcoming place for children."
Later this year, the Commission will launch a new initiative to help make the Internet a safer place, while empowering youngsters to learn their rights and responsibilities online and make the most of new technologies whilst respecting themselves and others. The Commission will also continue to stimulate growth and visibility of good quality content online for children, promoting language and cultural diversity and helping parents and teachers to gain confidence in the benefits of new technologies for children.
Winners in the "Youth" category
1st prize - www.palkan.de – is a "pupils' magazine“ online portal which focuses on learning, communication among peers and information about current events. It has been created by pupils of the 5th and 6th grade of the Bruno-H.-Bürgel-Schule secondary school in Germany.
2nd prize - www.habbolive.nl – is a site dedicated to the virtual world Habbo Hotel. Habbolive gives the Habbo-fan all the latest information about what is going on in Habbo and offers games for children. Habbo was created by Wim Borgerdijn (14), Kimberly Nijzink (15) and Mark Bruil (15) from The Netherlands.
3rd prize - www.superpilot.cba.pl - is a site that addresses issues of general safety and online safety and provides general educational aids and resources. It was created by Aleksandra Anna Klimczak (16) and Wojciech Wiesław Froń (16) from Poland.
Winners in the "Adult" category
1st prize - www.hetklokhuis.nl – is a fun and educational site with many possibilities to create content, for example via the SketchMaker and GameMaker. It was created by Hetklokhuis, the Dutch educational television program for children.
2nd prize - www.kinderzeitmaschine.de – is a website on the history of humankind, created by Sabine Gruler, Kirsten Wagner and Bianca Bonacci, a private initiative from Germany.
3rd prize - www.ketnet.be – is a website which aims to enable children to be creative, for example to draw or make quizzes. It was created by the Flemish children’s TV-channel Ketnet.
Background information
The best content online competition was launched in October 2010. Between November 2010 and April 2011 the competition ran at national level in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.
The winners of the national competitions were nominated to compete for the European Award. A European jury, led by Professor Sonia Livingstone from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and coordinator of the EUKidsOnline project, selected the winners of the European Awards.
For more information:
Nominees for the European Award for Best Children's Online Content
More information on the EUKidsOnline survey:
More information on the selection and award criteria of the competition:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/events/competition/index_en.htm
Producing and providing online content for children and young people- an inventory
Safer Internet Programme:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm
Digital Agenda website:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm
Neelie Kroes' website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/
Follow Neelie Kroes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/neeliekroeseu
Digital Literacy: the core of an international study
The IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) will examine the outcomes of student computer and information literacy (CIL) education across countries. Computer and information literacy refers to an individual’s ability to use computers to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace, and in the community.
The assessment of CIL will be authentic and computer-based. It will incorporate multiple-choice and constructed response items based on realistic stimulus material; software simulations of generic applications so that students are required to complete an action in response to an instruction; and authentic tasks that require students to modify and create information products using “live” computer software applications.
The student questionnaire will gather information about computer use in and out of school, attitudes to technology, self-reported computer proficiency, and background characteristics. Teacher and school questionnaires will ask about computer use, computing resources, and relevant policies and practices. A number of items will link to SITES 2006. The national context survey will collect systemic data on education policies and practices for developing computer and information literacy, expertise of teachers, and digital technology resources in schools.
Target Population
The main population to be surveyed will include all students enrolled in the grade that represents eight years of schooling, counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1, provided that the mean age at the time of testing is at least 13.5 years. For most countries the target grade would be Grade 8. In addition, the assessment will be offered (using a modified set of assessment modules) as an option for Grade 4.
Participating Educational Systems
Educational systems considering participation in ICILS: Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Israel, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (Catalonia), Thailand, United States.
Schedule
ICILS was inaugurated at the National Research Coordinators meeting in Amsterdam, June 21–25, 2010. The project aims to elaborate the assessment framework in 2010 and finalize it in 2011, develop and pilot survey instruments over 2011, conduct a field trial in the first half of 2012, and collect data at the beginning of 2013 (Northern Hemisphere) and at the end of 2013 (Southern Hemisphere), with reporting in November 2014.
CONCEDE User-Generated Conference
What is it about?
- Sharing experience on user-generated content (UGC) in higher education
- Improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning by enhancing the quality of user-generated content
- The CONCEDE Quality Framework
- The CONCEDE Quality Label
- Discussion policy recommendations to further boost quality and quantity of UGC
European Qualifications Framework (EQF) portal
The EQF portal provides the results of the national process for relating national qualifications levels to the levels of the EQF. In "Compare Qualifications Frameworks" page, it is possible to compare how national qualifications levels of countries that have already finalised their referencing process are been linked to the EQF.
New online tool on quality assurance in vocational education and training
A new online tool offers national and regional policy makers guidance on how to approach quality assurance in vocational education and training. The aim is to make vocational education and training more attractive across Europe by ensuring that courses respond to the needs of the labour market and today's high quality standards.
The new online tool provides guidance on how to build and monitor a quality assurance system in vocational training. It is based on examples of different approaches from EU countries.
For those Member States that are building their system on a series of interdependent ‘building blocks’ the website gives clarity on what has already been achieved and what more could be done.
The tool has been developed by quality assurance experts from 33 European countries participating in the EQAVET network.
Making vocational training more attractive
More than half of all students in Europe choose to follow vocational training, which provides them with a qualification that enables them to easily get a job later. While in some EU countries vocational education and training are educational choices with a high standing, in others they suffer from the image of being dead-end paths or linked to low quality training.
Across the European Union policy-makers and education providers agree that it is important to offer high-quality vocational education and training so as to make this option attractive for students and parents. Since the middle of the 1990s expert groups have been working on joint European guidelines on quality assurance in vocational education and training.
A shared understanding across Europe of the significance of quality and quality assurance for qualifications and education and training systems in general will create mutual trust and recognition and make it easier for Europeans to move between countries.
Improving quality assurance
In 2009 the European Parliament and the Council backed the creation of a European quality assurance framework for vocational education and training (EQAVET). Under this voluntary scheme Member States have pledged to improve national quality assurance systems where appropriate, making best use of the European framework.
EQAVET is backed by a network of experts and one of the first results of this co-operation is the new online guidance tool.
To know more
- EU Quality assurance in vocational education and training: online tool
- More information on quality assurance in vocational education and training
Self-Evaluation of Quality in Technology-enhanced Learning
SEVAQ+ aims to engage in wide-reaching dissemination and exploitation of the results of a Leonardo da Vinci pilot project: the SEVAQ tool and concept for the Self-Evaluation of Quality in eLearning.
Technology-enhanced learning is developing in diverse forms in Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Educational Training (VET) across Europe, reflecting the complex interrelation between cultures and education. As Ehlers states in the SEVAQ handbook: “…overarching approaches and strategies are needed in order to develop quality in a holistic way, taking into account organisational contexts and stakeholders in a participatory way.”
The original SEVAQ project merged two widely recognised evaluation and quality approaches – the Kirkpatrick and European Foundation for Quality Management models - to produce a dynamic, multilingual tool for the generation of learner-centred self-evaluation questionnaires.SEVAQ has great potential to support quality assurance in technology-enhanced learning, pinpointing areas for improvement, tracking evolution and enabling benchmarking. Yet market research clearly shows the need for a 360° evaluation, identifying widespread recognition and certification as critical success factors for the extensive take-up of SEVAQ.
To achieve this, 3 of the original members have joined forces with 2 new partners and 2 solidly implanted European networks, EDEN and EFQUEL. The tool and concept will be extended to new stakeholder groups and localised in 3 additional languages (DE, IT and PL) with a focus on interculturality.SEVAQ+ aims to reach a critical mass of 5000 users in HE and VET, mobilising partner and associate networks to disseminate results through a judicious mix of events, publications and social networking, involving stakeholders and experts in the dual evaluation cycle of extensive user feedback and online Delphi consensus to carry SEVAQ+ through to certification, and contributing to policy via a widely-circulated white paper.
Launch of SEVAQ+ v2.0
Feedback gathered between June 2010 and January 2011, from nearly 2000 users around Europe, has resulted in key improvements to ensure SEVAQ+ best meets the needs of managers, teachers, trainers and learners in both HE and VET. The result is SEVAQ+ v2.0, launched in April 2011.
New features and improvements include:
- A brand new, user-friendly interface;
- The streamlined ‘designer’ area for quicker and simpler questionnaire administration;
- More options for questionnaire designers, including:
- distributing a single questionnaire in several languages,
- defining comments as obligatory or optional,
- automated functions for communicating with questionnaire respondents
See for yourself http://www.sevaq-plus.preau.ccip.fr/
Forthcoming SEVAQ+ events
In the coming months, SEVAQ+ will be running a series of public webinars, finalising the validation process with a group of international eLearning and quality experts and holding an expert workshop at the EDEN 2011 Annual Conference in Dublin, Ireland. For details of these events and more, please visit the SEVAQ+ website http://www.sevaq.eu
Extracted from SEVAQ+
Launch of SEVAQ+ v2.0
SEVAQ+ aims to engage in wide-reaching dissemination and exploitation of the results of a Leonardo da Vinci pilot project (2005-2007): the SEVAQ tool and concept for the Self-Evaluation of Quality in eLearning.
Feedback gathered between June 2010 and January 2011, from nearly 2000 users around Europe, has resulted in key improvements to ensure SEVAQ+ best meets the needs of managers, teachers, trainers and learners in both HE and VET. The result is SEVAQ+ v2.0, launched in April 2011.
New features and improvements include:
- A brand new, user-friendly interface;
- The streamlined ‘designer’ area for quicker and simpler questionnaire administration;
- More options for questionnaire designers, including:
- distributing a single questionnaire in several languages,
- defining comments as obligatory or optional,
- automated functions for communicating with questionnaire respondents
See for yourself http://www.sevaq-plus.preau.ccip.fr/
Modele i narzędzia oceny środowisk kształcenia wspieranych przez technologie w szkolnictwie wyższym
W związku z oceną środowisk kształcenia wspieranego przez technologię, która ma być środkiem do zapewnienia ich jakości, powstało kilka projektów i inicjatyw europejskich. Jednak mechanizmy określania parametrów jakości zmieniają się w różnych kontekstach. Jeżeli ocena ma służyć jako narzędzie zarządzania, powinna dążyć do określenia specyficznych kryteriów i wskaźników, które umożliwią znalezienie odpowiedzi na pytania w konkretnie określonych kontekstach. W naszej pracy, opierającej się na literaturze specjalistycznej, przedstawiamy podstawowe wskazówki do opracowania stałej oceny środowisk kształcenia wspieranych przez technologie (jako narzędzia zarządzania). Podkreślamy w tym artykule znaczenie skontekstualizowanej i stałej oceny i przedstawiamy modele, metody i narzędzia gromadzenia danych, które pozwolą instytucjom na opracowanie odpowiednio skontekstualizowanego procesu oceny.