Acer-EUN’s Educational Netbook Pilot Acer

Ten Turkish school heads accompanied with another staff member from their schools attended the launch event on March 23, 2010 in Ankara. The event, where the Acer-European Schoolnet educational netbook pilot was kicked-off in Turkish schools, took place in the premises of the Ministry of National Education, General Directorate of Educational Technologies.

It was atteneded by the Turkish National coordinators, by Deputy General Director of Educational Technologist Dr. Turan Şişman (middle), Head of Strategy Development, Planning and Coordination Ö. Faruk TURHAL (2nd from the left), by project manager Riina Vuorikari from European Schoolnet (middle) and Acer representative (Federico Carozzi, right). The second person from the right is school principal Abdulhamit Karatas from Karacaören İlköğretim Okulu school. The Turkish schools will receive their netbooks and notebooks during the weeks to come and use them in the pre-pilot until the end of the school year.

The photo courtesy of Burhan TAŞDELEN.

Our pilot was part of an international conference on "1:1 computing in education" organised by OECD, Worldbank and Interamerican Development Bank in Vienna last month.

In my presentation I talked how we plan to support teachers in our Acer-European Schoolnet educational netbook pilot. At the end, I also presented a forthcoming Insight report called " Netbooks on the rise: European overview of national laptop&netbook initiatives in schools"

The slides are viewable below:

"The theme of the second panel session was teacher and student support. Speakers on the panel included: Alicia Banuelos, of San Luis Digital, Argentina, Francesc Colomé, of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, José Vittor Pedroso, of the Ministry of Education, Portugal, and Riina Vuorikari, of the European Schoolnet in Brussels."

Speakers focused on different types of support provided to teachers and students but also to parents for the effective use of 1:1 devices. Ms. Vuorikari presented a new pilot project currently being implemented in six European countries examining the support of teachers in the use of netbooks through pedagogical scenarios. The discussion that followed focused on the different types of support available to teachers and students and its effectiveness. Providing classroom support was viewed by the panel as being essential and very effective. The existence of social networks allowing for more informal collaboration among teachers was also considered invaluable. Mr. Colomé also voiced the view that support to teachers needs to be tailored to their level of skills and competencies, if the support is too easy or too difficult it is unlikely to be effective. Although the presentations and discussion of this session were quite rich, it was noted towards the end that little attention was paid to student support.

You can also download a video of the session.

On March 5 2010 our pilot organised a workshop at "Go digITal", the eSkills Week closing event in Brussels. The workshop title was "Netbooks in Schools: European national initiatives and Acer-European Schoolnet’s netbook pilot".

The Abstract: One-to-one (1:1) computing in education refers to the current trend where low-cost computer devices, ranging from mobiles and handhelds to laptops or netbooks, have gained ground in the educational context. The workshop will provide a review of European laptop and netbook initiatives in schools. Second, the workshop presents a major educational netbook pilot provided by Acer and European Schoolnet. See www.netbooks.eun.org for more information.

Welcome and introduction 
Riina Vuorikari, European Schoolnet
 
European laptop and netbooks initiatives in schools (preview of Insight Report, 2010)
Anja Balanskat & Valentina Garoia – European Schoolnet
 
Acer-European Schoolnet educational netbook pilot
Caroline Kearney – European Schoolnet
 
Acer EMEA education pilot project presentation 
Federico Carozzi Acer EMEA, Italy

 

The French pilot was the first one to be launched and the first who has received their netbooks. Today I heard that the first school distributed the netbooks to pupils with the presence of all their parents!

"Lundi 1 mars, un collège a distribué les portables avec la présence de TOUS les parents et les élèves montrent un intérêt et une satisfaction qui fait plaisir à voir ... disent les enseignants"

Here is a picture of the French pilot teachers at the launch event in Nancy, France. The power point presentations available here.