Can we create a Virtual School?

[John Simkin]

As you know the European Union Virtual School is to close.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3118

Members of the History Department saw this coming and managed to obtain a 2.1 Comenius Project for the next three years. I see no reason why all the old subject departments of the VS do not follow our example and get funding from Comenius.

We could all then link up together and establish a real Virtual School (in reality the VS was only a Virtual Staffroom).

So far only David Richardson has expressed his interest in this idea. Is anyone else interested in joining one of these Comenius Projects. If you post your interest in this thread (or you can contact me by email) I will try to help you organize your bid.

Here is the details of the Comenius 2.1 Project:

http://www2.britishcouncil.org/socrates-sf...g-resources.htm

Is your institution interested in working with other European partners to develop innovative training activities and materials for school educational staff? Comenius 2.1 offers funding for such projects.

What is involved?

Working in collaboration with at least three eligible partner institutions across at least three participating countries, Comenius 2.1 projects aim to improve the training of staff in the school education sector and to develop strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. The exchange of information and good practice from a range of institutions across Europe is a key component of Comenius

2.1 projects. Each project should result in an identifiable outcome, which meets the training needs of a defined group of educational staff; taking into account the realities of each participating country.

Outcomes from projects may include:

curriculum

courses

teaching methodologies

teaching strategies

good practice guides

materials and products

Comenius 2.1 projects are designed to promote the professional development of all types of school education staff including trainee teachers. Projects specifically for initial teacher training are also encouraged, and institutions can apply for trainee teacher mobility grants.

Project themes and content:

Projects may be supported for up to three consecutive years. Projects must focus on at least one of the following related themes:

raising the European dimension in school education

intercultural education

education of children of Gypsies, Travellers, occupational travellers and migrant workers, or children at risk of exclusion or discontinuity in education

integrating pupils with special educational needs

the teaching of modern foreign languages.

Is your institution eligible?

The types of institutions involved in the partnership vary but can include, training organisations, schools, colleges, universities, education authorities. One of the institutions involved in the project partnership must act as co-ordinator and will take responsibility for submitting the application, ensuring the smooth running of the project and most importantly take financial responsibility.

How to apply for funding

Grants are awarded on the basis of matched funding. Grants are a maximum of 75 percent of the eligible costs, but in many cases will be lower, and average €20,000 to €100,000 per year of the project. Eligible costs include: personnel; material development; consultancy; essential hardware; travel and subsistence for project meetings.

Application forms should be submitted to the European Commission, with copies to all National Agencies of countries involved, by March 1 2004. Project applications will be assessed and selected by the European Commission, assisted by a panel of independent experts based on criteria set out in the guidelines for applicants.

[Graham Davies]

John writes:

So far only David Richardson has expressed his interest in this idea. Is anyone else interested in joining one of these Comenius Projects. If you post your interest in this thread (or you can contact me by email) I will try to help you organize your bid.

In principle I am interested in the idea, but as I am no longer attached to an educational institution I am not in a position to play a major role. Submitting and managing a Comenius project is something I would never undertake without institutional support - having had a lot of experience in the past! I don't mind putting in the odd day as an independent consultant, however - at standard EC-approved rates. I'm already playing such a role, as an evaluator, in the Ling@net Europa 2 project: http://www.linguanet-europa.org/y2/

As I have indicated elsewhere, the outcomes of the ICT4LT project, which was funded under Lingua A (and would now come under Comenius 2.1), are already on the Web and could be built upon: http://www.ict4lt.org

[John Simkin]

In principle I am interested in the idea, but as I am no longer attached to an educational institution I am not in a position to play a major role. Submitting and managing a Comenius project is something I would never undertake without institutional support - having had a lot of experience in the past! I don't mind putting in the odd day as an independent consultant, however - at standard EC-approved rates.

One of the nice things about Comenius 2.1 is that commercial companies are able to become one of the partners. For example, Spartacus Educational is part of E-HELP.

[Graham Davies]

John Simkin writes:

One of the nice things about Comenius 2.1 is that commercial companies are able to become one of the partners.

I would NEVER get involved in an EC-funded project as a member of a commercial company. The EC is very good at driving SMEs into bankruptcy - or at the very least creating cash-flow problems for them. The EC is well known for delaying payments for unacceptable periods. I waited 6 months just to get the costs of a flight (full-fare - 350 pounds) to Brussels reimbursed on one occasion. On another occasion I recall an SME waiting 18 months for the final payment for work done on an EC-funded project. There are many reports of SMEs pulling out of projects during their 2nd or 3rd years because they simply could not afford to continue to be participants. While educational institutions can weather delays in receiving payments, SMEs cannot wait very long for payments to be made. Even larger companies - such as the airlines who were partners in one EC-funded project in which I was invloved - will pull out at the drop of a hat when money gets tight.

[John D. Dieter]

Education caused mankind to evolve. He taught language, history, and trades to his children, and made the next generation "smarter" than the previous generation. Education has evolved into what we have today: schools. I say to you, that Schools and teachers shall soon be obsolete, replaced completely by an information technology I call the "Weighted Scales Indexing System".

Brief overview:

This is an indexing system with many scales. The scale values are set by "experts" who vote in a forum similar to educationforum. Data is categorized in the same manner. Imagine the sum of all human knowledge reduced to memes and indexed and rated by the experts. One becomes an expert in a particular field - by taking tests on line and by peer review and acceptance. The better your knowledge, the higher "weight" your votes have.

Here is an example. Imagine a scale for truth - with one end of the scale being fact - and the other end fiction. If it is appropriate to apply the "truth" scale to a meme http://cscs.umich.edu/%7Ecrshalizi/formerl...d/memetics.html then the forum would address and debate challenges to the truth value. Even the system by which individual thoughts are strained out of their containing book, lecture, etc... into memes would be controlled by the experts.

Given this system: One would become an expert, not by paying money and attending classes, but by simply participating in the system.

This shift from a static (when you attend a University you get a snapshot of knowledge at a particular point in time) to a dynamic knowledge base not only does away with Universities (all traditional schools for that matter) but also does away with all Governments.

Think about it. This is the next logical step in the evolution of mankind.. Universities and Governments will resist. But resisting progress is futile!

[Graham Davies]

John wrote:

But resisting progress is futile!

Ogden Nash wrote:

Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.