Suchergebnisse

In the last thirty years we witnessed to a number of relevant innovations and changes. Some of them belong to the information technology domain and parts of them were the reason why the IT domain became the ICT domain. In order to better understand problems and issues related to education and learning it is useful to outline some of the most relevant achievements and milestones in the technological domain. If we focus on the European approach to the spread of information technology termed in the '90ies "Information Society" we can find initiatives such as i2015 the EU policy framework for the information society and media for the 1 next decade and, at global level, the WSIS+10 a ten years activity aimed to draw the guidelines for an harmonious and fruitful development of the information society. It promotes the positive contribution that information and communication technologies can make to the economy, society and personal quality of life. Everyone experienced in "ICT based innovation" knows that "It is not only a matter of technology". Of course technology advances are one of the potential actors as in the case of the diffusion of personal computing or easy access to digital networking. Anyway different parameters are actively influencing e-Services success or failure: cultural aspects, organisational issues, bureaucracy and workflow, infrastructure and technology in general, user's habits, literacy, capacity, market models, interaction design or merely mind-set! Before looking in detail how all these aspects are impacting on education and learning let's take into account some additional relevant aspects.

I consider evidence on differences in access to education and in learning achievement within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The situation inherited from the communist period is first summarized: there were some significant disparities with, for example, family background having a strong association with tertiary enrolments, as in Western countries. Analysis of the transition period focuses on differences in access and achievement associated with household income and geographic location. Disparities are not the same across the region; in some countries, such as Russia, there are clear grounds for serious concern, but it is unlikely that any country has cause for complacency.

Since comparative educationists and education systems experts are expected to advise governments and departments of education regarding the transformation of education in their countries and also because they have an intrinsic scholarly interest in political transformation and its effects on the education system, an investigation was launched into recent experiences in this regard concerning one pivotal aspect of education systems, namely education control. The transformations undergone since the early 1990s by Serbia, Croatia and South Africa were examined, particularly with respect to how the respective authorities transformed the control of education in their systems. The study yielded a number of insights that could be fruitfully applied in similar situations in future.