Saturday, March 15, 2008

European Virtual Schools

With all of the talk about virtual schools in the U.S., I started to wonder about virtual schools in other countries. The European Journal of Open, Distance, and E-Learning published an overview of Online and Virtual Schooling in Europe.

Some of the European examples from this article include:

Examples of current and recent projects include:

  • Netd@ys Europe: An initiative promoting the use of new media (multimedia, Internet, videoconference or new audio-visual facilities) in the area of education and culture culminating in a showcase of online and offline events. Recent developments have focused on the quality and educational content of associated ventures and promotion of partnerships between educational and cultural organisations
  • myEurope: A safe web-based project designed to raise children's awareness of European issues, via innovative class activities and school projects
  • Celebrate - a project based on what electronic content may look like in the future. The project includes the provision of an online database that will include learning objects for education
  • Xplora - a gateway for science education for teachers, students, scientists, and others, containing activities, resources, tools and community links
  • Spring Day in Europe - project in which schools learn about EU developments and incorporate them into the curriculum. It emphasises cooperation, communication, and the sharing of ideas between teachers and schools across Europe.
Russell, Glen, (2005) Online and virtual schooling in europe. European Journal of Open, Distance, and E-Learning. Retrieved March 16, 2008, from http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Glenn_Russell.htm.

3 comments:

JeanneW said...

Hi Wendy!
First let me say that your blog looks terrific. I spent a few minutes exploring your links. Thanks for improving my background knowledge of distance education.

I found the focus of several European sites interesting as they focus on politics and cultural awareness. I wonder if many American distance education programs for children stress such topics.

I hadn't thought much about distance education in other countries. I think it's relatively new here (at least in my circles), and we forget that others are developing similar formats with local twists.

I look forward to exploring the European sites. Thanks!
JW

JeanneW said...

Hi Wendy!
First let me say that your blog looks terrific. I spent a few minutes exploring your links. Thanks for improving my background knowledge of distance education.

I found the focus of several European sites interesting as they focus on politics and cultural awareness. I wonder if many American distance education programs for children stress such topics.

I hadn't thought much about distance education in other countries. I think it's relatively new here (at least in my circles), and some of us easily forget that others are developing similar formats with local twists.

I look forward to exploring the European sites. Thanks!
JW

Mark said...

I am not sure, but it seems like online and distance education started to be accepted earlier in Europe than it did in the U.S. If that is true, I wonder why. Thanks for sharing that article. I tend to focus on the U.S. context so it's refreshing to learn about online learning in other countries.