News from the ePICT project

November 23-24 EPICT Italy hosted the EPICT Forum in Rome. At the meeting were representatives from a number of EPICT organizations around the world: Australia, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sri Lanka, the UK, as well as representatives from the Italian Ministry of Education.
We discussed a number of issues such as the future direction of EPICT, ways of strengthening our international collaboration, and the work of the International Editorial Board.

In Austria the Ministry of Education together with a number of institutions educating teachers has just finished piloting the EPICT concept.

And with success, judging from the evaluations and personal reports from both EPICT facilitators and course participants. If you understand German, you can find a lot of interesting reports concerning EPICT in Austria at the following address: e-LISA Academy Newsletter

EPICT is now on YouTube! Watch this video from PH Burgenland on EPICT in Austria: EPICT on YouTube

In Ireland EPICT is currently being piloted in two schools in Dublin

EPICT has been introduced in Sri Lanka as the International Pedagogical ICT license, thus IPICT.

It is part of a large-scale attempt of the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka to improve the educational system and to bring the skills of Sri Lankan students up-to-date with the integration of ICT in teaching and learning.

In Australia, AISWA, Australian Independent Schools Western Australia, has trained the first group of facilitators and have started piloting the concept in 16 schools in WA.

Online Educa 2006

EPICT was present at the Online Educa 2006 with a well-sought stall.

The stand was manned by Balazs Pethö, ELTE Hungary, Ulla Gjørling, UNI-C Denmark and Margaret Wallace, Experteese UK.

	Giovanni Adorni, EPICT Italy during the EPICT management group meeting
Leo Højsholt-Poulsen, EPICT Denmark and Balazs Pethö, EPICT Hungary
	Margaret Wallace, EPICT UK

EPICT has included a new optional module - optional 13 - on Digital stories to the pool.

Austria

On October 4, Andrea Karpati will present EPICT to the Austrian Ministry of Education in a meeting in Vienna.

Hungary

The first national facilitators course is on with 15 participant.

A second facilitator course with 12 participants is being organised.

Teachers can now apply for EU-funded ICT in education courses in spring 2007 - and Hungarian EPICT course providers are getting ready:-)

Italy

Italy is hosting its annual facilitator update course on September 29, 2006.

Iceland

See link, pictures and short report from the First Facilitator Certification in Reykjavik here.

Latest update from Italy

The recent launch has resulted in a total of 156 participants. Two classes in Veneto region, two in Liguria region and one in Rome.

Four European institutions, UNI•C, Lambrakis Foundation (LF), DIST – University of Genoa (DIST) and Eötvös Lorand University’s Centre for Multimedia and Educational Technology, Faculty of Science (MULTIPED), have founded the consortium The EPICT Group to exploit and market the teachers’ professional development programme EPICT – the European Pedagogical Licence worldwide.

The EPICT Management Group governs the consortium, and the EPICT Editorial Board provides the quality assurance and update of the EPICT products.

Dr. Nikitas Kastis from Lambrakis Foundation is the current chaiman of the EPICT Management Group.

The EPICT secretariat

The consortium’s Secretariat at UNI•C in Denmark coordinates all EPICT activities based on consultancies from the four partners.
The EPICT secretariat serves as a business node and knowledge centre for the implementation of the EPICT model and creating national nodes in additional countries.

The EPICT secretariat thus serves as a one-stop-shop for:
• Information about the EPICT product
• Agreements with additional countries about the adoption of EPICT
• Consultancy services for new clients
• Dissemination and promotion activities in all relevant occasions and contexts
• Quality control and further development of the EPICT product

The EPICT brand
EPICT has registered the domains www.epict.eu,  www.epict.org and www.epict.com, and the trademark EPICT in Denmark.
EPICT has applied for a Community Trademark (EPICT – European Pedagogical ICT Licence) from the European agency, Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs).

The EPICT Group Agreement deals with IPR and copyright related issues. The agreement describes issues like rights management and rights distribution among partners within the project, after the project, upon withdrawal of a partner and after termination of the Group. It also deals with the economical issues of EPICT client royalties and the distribution of these.

Online Educa 2005

EPICT partners will be available for discussions during Online Educa.

Andrea Karpati and Ulla Gjørling will present EPICT at the COL55 session, Friday, December 2, 11.45 - 13.30.

EPICT UK

The EPICT Group has signed a contract with Glasgow-based Experteese about provision of EPICT courses in the UK.

For further information about EPICT UK and Experteese please visit http://www.epict.info.

Facilitator certification in the UK will take place from January 23 - January 26, 2006 in Glasgow.

Facilitator certification Cameroon and Uganda

Pictures and short reports are now available from the menu Facilitator certification here and there.

EPICT Ethiopia

EPICT partners will conduct a facilitator certification seminar in Addis Abeba from December 12 - December 16, 2005.

Facilitator certification, Budapest, June 2005

A four-day facilitator certification seminar was conducted in Budapest during the final week of July for 24 Hungarian first facilitators all of which are heavily involved in the localisation of EPICT course material.

The seminar was hosted by EPICT partner ELTE. Instructors were Frank Bach Jensen and Ulla Gjørling, from EPICT partner UNI-C.

EPICT at international conferences, July 2005

EPICT has been presented at three major international conferences during July 2005: IFIP World Conference on Computers in Education, ISATT 05 and IESTA 05. Please visit Presentations and papers

Uganda - June 2005

Uganda now has 14 facilitators certified. They were trained by Frank Bach Jensen, UNI-C in late May. Some of these facilitators will participate in the editorial group, who will perform the localisation of EPICT material to fit the educational context in Uganda. Pilot testing of the material is expected to begin in July 2005 with two classes.

Implementation and pilot in Uganda is realized in collaboration with PcShop Denmark.

Cameroon

The first 27 pilots have completed their course and have received their African Pedagogical ICT Licence.

FEBRUARY 2005

Pilot tests

• In November 2004 100 teachers from the Italian Veneto region began their pilot test of the Italian version of the EPICT course
  
• In December 2004 81 teachers from the Greek Athens and Ioannina regions began their pilot test of the Greek version.
  
• In December 2004 36 teachers at St. Patrick’s School in Launceston Tasmania began a pilot test of a Tasmanian version of EPICT course. In Tasmania the course is called AUSIPICT.
  
• The second Cameroonian course will begin in February 2005 with 25 participants.
  
• In February 2005 all Italian pilots have completed the three compulsory modules and begin working with the optional modules.

Landings

The 37 pilots in Cameroon are expected to “land” in February 2005. The pilot test is the first with a French language version of the EPICT course. Facilitators report that the pilot testers have been very enthusiastic and hard-working. They have enjoyed additional ICT-skills upgrading and have spent more time face-to-face than foreseen in the course concept because teachers generally do not have a computer at home. Thus they have used the workshop facilities catered for them by the ITUL project (ICT in Developing countries), which has established a training centre in Douale with computers, internet access, training material and support personnel.

March 2005

We have received a status report from the Cameroonian pilot test. The report can be found here.