DER / DLR Digital educational resources Digital learning resources

1. Educational Repositories: Looking for European SuccessesLeo Højsholt-PoulsenUNI•C The Danish IT Centre for Education and ResearchDenmarkLeo.Hojsholt-Poulsen@uni-c.dk

2. DER / DLRDigital educational resourcesDigital learning resources • MANY titles • FEW users The learning resourceof the 21 Century:

3. “Types of software for learning” (LHP 1997) Standard software Presentations tools Laboratory software Information software Search tools Educational (subject oriented) software Big programs (courseware) Software with books and TV (and vice versa) Totally integrated software: TV/computer My software Virtual learning environments – Learning management systems ?

4. A new digital learning resource should Include content • to help beginners Be open • to allow for new content

5. Digital learning resources – Public vs. Private Most countries: • Learning resources for schools are paid by ‘public’ money – in one way or the other • Numerous national support programmes Public support strategies to digital learning resources • To providers? • To end-users? In some countries the Government provides a free set of digital learning resources, e.g.: • Korea ( - www.edunet4u.net) [1+2] • Hungary ( - sdt.sulinet.hu) [1+2] • Also initiatives in France, Spain and Norway [1] • Austria and Italy [2]

6. Where are the learning resources ? Where are the users ?

7. Repositories of learning resources External bases with collections and materials Teachers, librarians, students etc.: Search, browse, download, upload, feed-back Repository • Repositories are key disseminators of information of available learning resources • In repositories users search or browse for relevant resources (text books, websites, digital learning resources etc.) among the vast supply on the market Producers: Register, update, upload, search, read statistics on usage

8. The EdReNe Network EdReNe is a thematic network co-funded by the European Union, through the eContentplus programme

9. Founding members UNI•C (Denmark) EUN – European Schoolnet (Europe) EENET - European Expert's Network for Education and Technology(Europe) Menon Network (Europe) EDEN - European Distance and E-Learning Network(Europe) FWU - Institut für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (Germany) EAPC - Public Administration School of Catalunya (Spain) TLF - Tiger Leap Foundation (Estonia) UNI-LJ-FMF, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Uni. of Ljubljana (Slovenia) ITC - Centre of IT in Education (Lithuania) MSU - The Swedish National Agency for School Improvement (Sweden) ENIS Austria (Austria) NCTE –National Centre for Technology in Education (Ireland) Kennisnet – Sticting Kennisnet Ict op School (TheNetherlands) Becta - British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (UK) CNDP - Centre National de Documentation Pédagogique (France) Giunti Interactive Labs (Italy) BFU- Brancheforeningen for undervisningsmidler (Denmark) bit media eLearning solutions (Austria) AIE - Associazione Italiana Editori (Italy) EdReNe – thematic network of central actors • EduLearn (Portugal) • sDae - Sociedad Digital De Autores Y Esitores (Spain) • IML - Umeå University Department ofInteractive Media and Learning (Sweden) Associated members • Utdanning.no (Norway) • Utdanningsdirektoratet (Norway) • VETAMIX (Finland) • Lektion.se (Sweden) • Intrallect Ltd  (UK)   • SLO - Netherland’s Institute for Curriculum Development  (TheNetherlands)  • CTIE - Centre suisse des technologies de l'information dans l'enseignement (Switzerland) • APS IT-diensten(TheNetherlands) • TLU-CET - Talinn University (Estonia) • CTE - Centre de technologie de l'éducation (Luxembourg) • Ontwikkelcentrum (TheNetherlands) • LTScotland, Learning and Teaching Scotland (UK) • Encyclopaedia Britannica Education(UK) • DGIDC –Ministry of Education (Portugal)

11. EdReNe • develops practical guidelines and recommendationson educational repositories • will establish a lasting collegial network of European repository nodes and stakeholders. Main outputs: • a comprehensive website (www.edrene.org) withrecommendations, documentation, templates, roadmaps and documents describing issues, state-of-the-art offering solutions • Existing repositories can cut some corners, and new repositories may have a less costly and much less complicated path in life.

12. A basic list of issues sets the agenda • How do you establish a repository of learning resources together with producers and users • Everyday organisation and management of a repository • Optimising number of titles and users • Quality frameworks and criteria • Networking repositories • Functionalities and features of a repository • Pedagogical metadata and links to curriculum • Management of IPR screening and clearance • Role of repositories in the new web environment

13. The EdReNe series of strategic seminars and expert workshops

15. EdReNe • New version of the • State of the Art - Educational repositories in Europe • Looking for trends, evidence of success and impact (quantity and/or quality) • Current status of European educational repositories • Published December 2008

16. Edrene.org

17. SoA - “Huge variety of repositories across Europe” • Catalogues of descriptions (metadata, links) • Catalogues and Containers of content (metadata & data) • Networks of repositories • Digital resources - All types of resources • Free content – Commercial content • For everybody – Membership based (login) • Validated/screened (quality assurance, rights management) • Some facilitate feedback • Target: schools, further/higher ed., homes

18. SoA – obvious trends • Public money in one way or the other • Central or regional initiatives • to encourage teachers’ uptake of innovative materials and learning styles(traditional textbooks are still preferred by a majority of the teachers) • But also examples of successful commercial or user driven repositories • Digital resources • web resource (a collection of web sites) somewhere in cyberspace • Catalogues and containers of content (metadata & data) • For everybody (no membership requested) • Target schools (further/higher ed. separately)

19. Success indicators A successful repository is a platform thatmany use to find learning resources of high quality. Use should be regular and frequent. Quality not quantity Expected Usage pattern

20. Danish national repositories use statistics

21. SoA - some success stories • Education Highway in Austria.By far the biggest educational repository, offering • 36 subject oriented portals • over 800 thematic collections • more than 80.000 titles • Educasources in France. A Digital Educational Resources Metadata Repository containing about 7.000 online references • GOLD database in Italy. About 3.000 users per day

23. EduHi.at – Page views per month

24. www.eduhi.at / www.schule.at • Since February 1994 online • Repository started with a database in 1996 • Subject oriented repositories since 1996/1997First subject: Chemistry • www.schule.at adapted to this concept in 2000 • Today still the most successful portals in Austria

25. Eduhi.at – Why are we successful? • “As our editors are teachers they know what their colleagues need and try to provide this content and links on the subject oriented platforms. The teachers like that they can access relevant content and helpful links.” • “Students like that they find relevant content for presentations and reports, because the work of filtering the content has already been done by teachers.”

26. SoA - some success stories Often user based repositories appear to impact better than traditional top-down approaches • KlasCement in Belgium, an initiative of a non-profit organization. Maintained by five teachers funded by the government, and everything is submitted by teachers • Lektion.se in Sweden, a private initiative founded by teachers. It is the most popular service currently with more than 170.000 users, and is a rapidly expanding base of shared lesson plans

27. No quality control Community based

28. Very successful commercial repository

29. SoA – some general observations • Content is linked to the curriculum • e.g. in France, Ireland, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Austria, Norway and the UK (the now closed Curriculum Online service) New developments • Users meet the repository or a collection of repositories at their local school web portal or in their own virtual learning environment • e.g. Sweden (The Spider), The Netherlands (Edurep), Denmark (Materialeplatformen) • Initiatives combine central repositories with school learning platforms • e.g. England, Scotland, Spain, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and Austrian regions • The National Digital Resource Bank in England will provide a national repository to house content created by schools and local authorities

30. EDUREP value chain and communitiesModel for Succes - 3 tier solution. Specialisation is the key

31. SoA – new players on the pitch • Cultural heritage (educational) repositories have emerged • e.g. Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK • Broadcasting companies have established popular servicesby which schools can subscribe to TV and radio productions • e.g. DR – the Danish public service TV channel, the Finnish National Broadcasting Company (YLE), Dutch TV and RTE in Ireland

32. SoA – Quality (“you may read more at…”) • Quality assurance and rights issues play a big role • Summary of findings from the EdReNe Quality Assurance sessions • Q4R Best Practices • Becta plans: Guidelines for Repository Owners