European eLeaning Forum for Education (ELFE)

There is a lot of experience regarding the use of e-Learing in tertiary education, but very little regarding the primary and secondary education. In the latter ones, due to the age of the students, it is very important to discuss how the social learning environment can be dealt with in connection with eLearning methods. In this context, the aim of the project is to create a European eLearning Forum for Education that will allow us to achieve a better understanding of the strengths and the weaknesses of using ICT in those two stages of education. Trough peer reviewing of previous experiences of eLearning pilot projects carried out in five different European countries (Denmark, UK, Germany, Norway and Portugal), the European eLearning Forum will be a Special Interest Group (Network of collaboration) that will allow us to: ?analyse and share good experiences and identify good practices in different countries implementing eLearning methods in their education systems;?study the possibilities to transfer these good practices to other European countries and the way this transfer could be done, and?create a wide debate on how the European eLearning Policy should be - from a pedagogical point of view - taking intoconsideration the social effects and the political approcah to deal with in future education plans.The main target group is Teachers and Teachers? unions. They will exchange the experiences of eLearning pilot projects in Europe from a pedagogical point of view. Students in Europe will indirectly benefit from the project, as far as best examples and practices for their education will be identified. There are 4 researchers in the field that will directly participate in ELFE (3+evaluator). They will identify good experiences and explain them to a big audience in the Conferences. Other researchers will be invited. Policy makers. The results of this project will be relevant to policy makers (educations sector). They will have to be aware of the changes that ITC imply in education (their pros and cons) and take the results of the project as a reference for the change of indicators at the time of evaluating education policies? benchmarks. Society in general. ELFE also intends to give a social and pedagogical input to the European eLearning Policy. By a combination of teachers? unions and pedagogical experts, ELFE aims at highlighting the importance of the content in education (in spite of the use of new technologies). Education is one of the main pillars of society.  Pedagogical and didactic approaches will be conretely determined by the Steering Committee in the beginning of the project. Nevertheless, there are some concepts that will be analysed: eLearning in remote areas; eLearning blended face to face education. Some questions to be answered will be: How can the existence of virtual lessons influence the learning process? What are the pedagogical and social costs? What would be the indicators to evaluate European education policies?Is there an ideal regarding the number of subjects to be tought by eLearning methods? How can eLearning  influence the normal shcedules at schools? What kind of new training is necessary for teachers? What physical requirements are needed in schools to implement eLeanring systems?, etc.The project is lead by:Applicant and co-ordinating institution: European Trade Union Committee for Education ? ETUCE.The partners/steering Committee Group: Total 9 persons: ?Teachers? Trade Unions: 5 persons. Teachers or Trade Union members with relevant experience in the eLearning field (one per organisation)?Uttdanningsforbundet (Norway); as representatives of schools with e-learning experiences in remote areas.?GL, Gymnasieskolernes Laererforening (Denmark), the National Union of General Upper Secondary Schools? Teachers; as representatives of schools working with virtual education, blended face to face learning, training a broad scope of new competencies using IT.?NUT, National Union of Teachers (England); as representative of teachers with a long tradition using eLearning.?GEW, Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft Niederrhein-Westfalen (Germany), Trade Union for education and science at Niederrhein-Westfalen; as representative of schools implementing ICT in education in Niederrhein-Westfalen.?FNE, Federaçao Nacional dos Sindicatos da Educaçao, National Federation of Education Trade Unions (Portugal); as representative of schools implementing eLearning in Portugal.?Experts? Group: 3 persons?Dr. Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen, Ph.D. Aalborg University; Researcher on eLearning?Gunilla Hedeskog, SE, researcher on education?Ulf Fredriksson, EI