Article archive

On 25th January Flemish teachers participating in the first round of Citizen E activities gathered in the Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven in Gent. After a short introduction of the project and its main partners they received information on the virtual platform LDU with which they will work during the project. At the end of the meeting the group already did a short brainstorm on the kind of mini-projects they could organise in their school. For more information on the project, go and have a look at the project web site.

The SchoolCast consortium led by ATiT had a successful Pilot Qualification Review in Dublin on 14th January with ESA when the lab version of the SchoolCast Schools Content Delivery System was successfully demonstrated. SchoolCast will now be trialed for a 14 week period with a schools network in Ireland over both satellite and terrestrial networks. Also see schoolcast.atit.ie

An audience of Irish secondary school teachers gathered in Mayo Education Centre to assist the workshop “Digital Video in the Classroom” given by ATiT. Starting with a short theoretical overview teachers got practical advise and exercises on how to create and publish materials themselves. ATiT also provided them with ready-to-use lesson templates to integrate video in their daily teaching. If you are interested, have a look at the workshop programme and contact us for more information.

A website specifically designed for children is now available on line on the European Space Agency Web Portal. The site gives you a choice between six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch).

The address of the children's website is http://kids.esa.int. The site can also be reached via the ESA Web Portal at: http://www.esa.int. It will be updated regularly with topical articles and new games and activities.

Dr. Michelle Selinger, Executive Adviser Education for Cisco Systems, Europe, Middle East and Africa, has edited the publication "Connected Schools" which demonstrates how governments across the world have realised the need to focus resources on the evolution of their educational systems, and have used new technology and the Internet to drive change. "Connected Schools" contains ground breaking ideas from visionaries including government ministers such as David Miliband (England), Fran

The 10th edition of Online Educa Berlin, which took place from 1-3 December 2004, was a success: over 1700 registered participants from over 66 different countries representing all continents visited the conference. ATiT is responsible for putting together the programme of the conference.

ATiT is coordinating a new Minerva project, Citizen E. Together with four teacher in-service training centres in Ireland, Italy, Poland and Belgium ATiT will train local teachers in using simple ICT tools to develop teaching materials and activities on the topic of European Citizenship. The project started off on 4 and 5 November with a Kick-Off Meeting in Leuven, Belgium.

From 26th to 28th October ATiT participated in Glasgow to the first VideoAktiv project meeting. VideoAktiv is a European project recently approved by the European Commission under the Minerva programme which aims at familiarising teaching staff in higher education with digital video and audio, and in particular with streaming media.

ATiT has now concluded its evaluation report on how satellites can be used to connect Higher and Further Education Institutions and individuals. Some areas in England, Scotland and Wales are at present underserved by traditional telecommunication means. From Mid 2002 until May 2004, 17 institutions and individuals based in these remote areas used two-way satellite terminals to connect to the Internet, and to the Janet and Campus networks. This evaluation report highlights the importance of the right match between user requirements and the offered service. Read the full report...

In his most recent book, FREE CULTURE, Lawrence Lessig, one of the founders of Creative Commons, elaborates on his vision on how the big media use technology (and nowadays especially the Internet) and the law to lock down culture and creativity. In his two previous books, CODE and THE FUTURE OF IDEAS, Lessig describes what remains of the original promises of the Internet. In FREE CULTURE, he widens his focus to consider the diminishment of the larger public domain of ideas. Is our freedom