E-consulting of Small and Medium Agribusiness Enterprises: The case of eEurope Godigital application into the Peloponnese Region

This study describes the design and development of a web-based electronic training system aiming at business operations of small and medium-sized agribusiness enterprises (SMAEs). The proposed system will meet current and future needs of SMAEs for timely, accurate, and customised training removing the barriers of geographical solitude and economies of scale. The objectives of this system are: (a) to offer training and consultancy to SMAEs on how to use information and communication technologies as business tools in order to improve their operations and gain competitive advantage (b) to provide education material customised to the special needs of each SMAE, (c) to provide on-line training, advice and consultancy using special-trained operators, and (d) to provide on-line training, advice and consultancy by skilled operators who have been trained to offer those services. ETS will be an Internet-based system. The system will operate as a third-party trusted intermediate between SMAEs, consultants, and content providers. The system design will be extended to cover the needs of the programme "Training support for Go-Digital Project" funded by Greek Ministry of Development which aims to offer training and support in the usage of Internet services to 50.000 SMEs

Satellite-enabled interactive education: scenarios and systems architectures

There are specific sectors of the economy that can benefit from satellite-based tele-education. Areas, such as maritime and agriculture, share common needs for both broadband connectivity at remote geographical areas that cannot otherwise be covered, and for innovative content for tele-education purposes. Furthermore, each area has special requirements with regard to the type of content to be delivered. In this paper we propose a set of architectural designs and case scenarios that will realise such interactive end-to-end education systems based on satellite communications. Services requirements in this setting are also identified and discussed

Satellite-based delivery of educational content to geographically isolated communities: A service based approach

Enabling learning for members of geographically isolated communities presents benefits in terms of promoting regional development and cost savings for governments and companies. However, notwithstanding recent advances in e-Learning, from both technological and pedagogical perspectives, there are very few, if any, recognised methodologies for user-led design of satellite-based e-learning infrastructures. In this paper, we present a methodology for designing a satellite and wireless based network infrastructure and learning services to support distance learning for such isolated communities. This methodology entails (a) the involvement of community members in the development of targeted learning services from an early stage, and (b) a service-oriented approach to learning solution deployment. Results show, that, while the technological premises of distance learning can be accommodated by hybrid satellite/wireless infrastructures,this has to be complemented with (a) high-quality audio–visual educational material, and (b) the opportunity for community members to interact with other community members either as groups (common-room oriented scenarios) or individuals (home-based scenarios), thus providing an impetus for learner engagement in both formal and informal activities

Projekt CALIBRATE Izmenjava in sodelovalna uporaba

One of the main issues that the European Union supports through the IST Programme is the exchange and collaborative use of learning resources. CALIBRATE (Calibrating eLearning in Schools) brings together eight European countries to carry out a multi-level project designed to support the collaborative use and exchange of learning resources in schools. Its main aim is to provide a brokerage system among national repositories of educational materials. This paper reports on the main goals of this project, which include developing an open-source technical architecture to support content exchange/collaboration between ministries of education and other owners of educational repositories, to develop a teaching toolbox that supports the collaborative use of learning resources, research and testing new approaches that can improve semantic interoperability related to the discovery and evaluation of learning resources. One relatively important issue developed through the project concerns the guidelines with which the metadata resources in the repositories should be equipped.We will report on two major guidelines the resources in CALIBRATE should follow. A number of practical examples of preliminary versions of tools will also be outlined.Izmenjava in sodelovalna uporaba učnih vsebin sta eni temeljnih vodil, ki ju podpira Evropska Unija skozi programe IST. Projekt CALIBRATE (Calibrating eLearning in Schools) povezuje osem evropvskih držav v večnivojskem projektu, katerega na- črt je podpreti sodelovalno uporabo in izmenjavo učnih gradiv v šolah.Njegov glavni cilj je pripraviti izmenjevalni sistem med nacionalnimi skladišči izobraževalnih gradiv. Članek poroča o glavnih ciljih projekta, med katerimi so razvoj odprtokodne arhitekture, ki bo podpriala izmenjavo/sodelovanje med ministrstvi za šolstvo in drugimi lastniki skladišč izobraževalnih gradiv, razvoj učne orodjarne, ki bo podpirala sodelovalno uporabo učnih gradiv, raziskave in preizkupanje novih postopkov na področ ju odkrivanja in ocenjevanja učnih vsebin. Eden od pomembnih rezultatov doseženih med projektom so smernice o tem, katere metapodatke naj imajo gradiva v skladiščih. Poročali bomo o dveh glavnih smernicah, ki naj jim gradiva v projektu CALIBRATE sledijo. Predstavili bomo tudi nekaj razvojnih različic orodij

ALT-SURF seminar: ePortfolios and Digital Repositories, 22 and 23 April 2004, Edinburgh UK

ALT (Association for Learning Technology) and SURF (collaborative organisation for IT innovation in Dutch HE) have similar goals and started working together in 1999. In 2001 they signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bring together learning technologists from the UK and the Netherlands in a variety of exchange activities. Sharing experiences and views internationally between peers proved to be an excellent way to learn new things, find inspiration to meet joint challenges and engage in healthy reflection. ALT and SURF organised mutual study visits (50 Dutch learning technologists visited universities in the UK in 2002 and 40 UK colleagues visited Dutch institutes in 2003), joint conferences and seminars, and a expert study trip to Australia (8 UK and 8 Dutch experts visited 14 institutes in 2002). SURF and ALT reported on these in presentations and publications. A new activity is the joint working seminar, where a specific theme can be discussed by experts in the field with the purpose of describing in a so-called ‘briefing paper’ the current state of affairs, the underlying beliefs, hopes and desired situation, and possible ‘next steps’ in joint conceptualisation and/or developing activities. In the process of composing the briefing papers differences between the countries will surface, e.g. organisational, cultural or political. The themes are therefore not isolated topics but seen as developments within a context. The first joint ALT-SURF working seminar took place in April 2004 in Edinburgh, immediately following an ALT spring conference, and addressed two related topics: e-(or Digital) Portfolios and Digital Repositories. The aim was to establish working relationships between experts in both countries through discussion and collaborative writing of briefing papers aimed at experts, researchers, managers and policy makers. The objectives of the working seminar were threefold: • describe the basic belief that leads to so much energy being put into these concepts • outline current thinking in ePortfolios and Digital repositories as a common reference point for deeper understanding • devise a roadmap to meet required conditions to further develop ePortfolios and Digital Repository concepts and use. This report is the result of that seminar, namely a briefing paper on ePortfolios and another on Digital Repositories. In the papers the potential and ultimate goal of using ePortfolios and Digital Repositories for learning and teaching is outlined; the current state of achievements is described, and thirdly the briefing paper concludes with desired next steps to reach the ultimate goals, what conditions need to be in place, what activities need to be set in motion. The papers highlight any apparent differences in approaches between UK and Netherlands as well as opportunities for future collaboration. SURF and ALT will use the conclusions and suggestions as input for joint future development and networking activities

Annual Report #2

Share.TEC has undertaken to build an advanced user-focused system that aggregates metadata describing TE-related digital resources located Europe-wide. The system aims to offer personalized, culturally-sensitive brokerage for the retrieval of relevant digital content and to nurture a more Europe-wide perspective among those working in and with the TE community. As well as generally pursuing its objectives as set out in the Description of Work throughout Year 2, the consortium also targeted its efforts on a series of realignment actions. These were specifically devised as a suitable response to the findings of the First Intermediate Review (EC evaluation) and the project\u27s internal Year 1 Evaluation Report. The most important of the realignment actions regarded greater end-user involvement to ensure acceptance of project results (especially portal & services); significant enhancement of the system from prototype to pilot, ensuring it is capable of meeting user needs; steps to set up a network of user communities; measures to ensure a suitable balance between quantity and quality of items available in the portal. The actions taken in each of these cases are reported in Sections 5 and 7, while a detailed report listing each evaluation finding and the corresponding actions is contained in Deliverable D1.6

A Study of Users Expectations for Metadata Repositories of Educational Resources

This paper presents the role of contemporary digital libraries with educational resources in Europe. The importance of enriching digital resources with complete, descriptive and accurate metadata is discussed as well as how these metadata are supported within an European project – Share.TEC. The paper presents the results of a workshop with members of the project target group. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire and provide feedback about specific issues related to the metadata of digital resources for teacher education community. The results of the workshop are discussed and analysed. They were used for future improvements of the Share.TEC system.This work is supported by EC project Share.TEC - SHAring Digital REsources in the Teaching Education Community, eContentPlus programme (ECP 2007 EDU 427015); http://www.sharetecproject.eu/

SHARE.TEC: a terminological approach to Teacher Education

This contribution falls at the intersection between the fields of terminology and the sharing of information in a multicultural context, with particular reference to the field of Teacher Education (TE). The Share.TEC project aims to develop services to support the sharing and reuse of digital resources among European TE practitioners; it addresses a number of problems related to multicultural differences, such as the organization of the various national education systems, or differences in TE approaches and practices. To help users draw inspiration from and possibly reuse diverse digital resources, Share.TEC addresses the reality of pluralism in TE terminology and the coexistence of diverse TE organizational systems and settings across Europe

Supporting the Reuse of Open Educational Resources through Open Standards

Glahn, C., Kalz, M., Gruber, M., & Specht, M. (2010). Supporting the Reuse of Open Educational Resources through Open Standards. In T. Hirashima, A. F. Mohd Ayub, L. F. Kwok, S. L. Wong, S. C. Kong, & F. Y. Yu (Eds.), Workshop Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Computers in Education: ICCE2010 (pp. 308-315). November, 29 - December, 3, 2010, Putrajaya, Malaysia: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.In this paper we analyse open standards for supporting the reuse of OER in different knowledge domains based on a generic architecture for content federation and higher-order services. Plenty OER are available at different institutions. We face the problem that the mere availability of these resources does not directly lead to their reuse. To increase the accessibility we integrated existing resource repositories to allow educational practitioners to discover appropriate resources. On top of this content federation we build higher order services to allow re-authoring and sharing of resources. Open standards play an important role in this process for developing high-level services for lowering the thresholds for the creation, distribution and reuse of OER in higher education.This paper has been partly sponsored by the GRAPPLE project (www.grapple-project.org) that is funded by the European Union within the Framework Programme 7 and the following European Projects funded in the eContentPlus Programme: MACE (ECP-2005-EDU-038098, portal.mace-orject.org), OpenScout (grant ECP-2008-EDU-428016, cf. www.openscout.net), and Share.TEC (ECP-2007-EDU-427015/Share.TEC, www.share-tec.eu)