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Study report "Virtual Learning Platforms in Europe: What can we learn from experience in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Spain?" has now been released.With the proliferation of ICT equipment and the pedagogical approaches underpinning it, the concept of virtual learning platforms has emerged in several educational systems. This study, entrusted by the Caisse des dépôts to European Schoolnet, offers an analysis of policies and initiatives in the field of virtual learning platforms in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Spain (Andalusia and Catalonia). The first part of this study report provides a summary of each national situation according to a common structure that addresses key features of existing platforms, the services they offer, the status of their deployment, their modes of deployment and governance, their uses and the success factors determining their wider deployment. The second part of the report compares these three national situations in terms of these aspects

AMSTERDAM - 17th April, 2012 - Parents are keeping tabs on their teens by accessing their Facebook accounts without their consent, AVG Technologies latest Digital Diaries study reveals. Digital Coming of Age, the fifth instalment of AVG's Digital Diaries study, features responses to AVG's questions to 4,400 parents with 14-17 year olds in 11 countries.

The digital-earth.eu project examines the use of geographic media in schools and teacher education. Geo-media is the visualisation of information from different media sources and is concerned with digital content and its processing based on place, position and location. Many geographic media are widely used for navigation and routing purposes. Cartographic communication has never been so easy to implement, therefore 21st century school education needs to include geo-media into daily work. Innovative approaches to teaching and learning are needed to study environments from local to global scale. The digital-earth.eu network links innovative centres around Europe where geo-media use is well developed. Products, resources, experiences and ideas are shared between the centres and opened to the public wherever possible. A digital-earth.eu infrastructure is under development. The European Centre and an accredited network of national and regional Centres of Excellence are developing an online catalogue of materials, courses, publications, links and good practice scenarios, and are publishing a series of core publications. 

In order to investigate how social computing applications can be used in organised learning settings to enhance learning activities and promote innovation and inclusion in Education and Training, an exploratory study employing a triangulation of different

This report shows that two actions are at the heart of the drive to make MST studies and professions more popular option for young learners: the development of effective and attractive MST curricula and teaching methods, and improved teacher education and professional development. Some countries (the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Israel, Switzerland, and Italy), have implemented national strategies and others have set up dedicated national, regional, or local centres (Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland). These centres aim to improve the quality of MST teaching, and sometimes more particularly, to increase science and technology's popularity (also achieved through campaigns and competitions). This holistic approach usually includes all MST subjects, covers the lifelong learning span and involves the government, educational sector and industry. Public-private partnerships are an important feature of these all-encompassing approaches, aimed at developing a sustainable scientific culture which is deep-rooted in society. Other common approaches are to establish networks of teachers and teacher trainers, as well as other relevant stakeholders, and to implement curricular reform and initiatives favouring inquiry-based learning (e.g. cross-disciplinary, thematic or project work). In some countries, extra time, funding and smaller student groups enable more handson MST activities in laboratories and outdoors.

Science Education in Europe: National Policies, Practices and Research Date of publication: 16 November 2011 The study examines the organisation of science teaching in Europe and provides an overview of existing policies and strategies that aim at improving and fostering science teaching and learning today.

"The Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills (ATC21S) is a research project that proposes ways of assessing 21st-century skills and encourages teaching and adopting those skills in the classroom."

Results of recent studies about Web 2.0 teaching and learning in Europe show that existing pilot projects at schools are often driven by single, motivated teachers in grass-root approaches and that apart from support by the school basic knowledge, motivation and inspiration of teachers are necessary for realization of Web 2.0-related innovation. The te@ch.us project sets up a web-based learning community for teachers who are novices in Web 2.0 and connects them to experts and experienced teachers for exchange of concepts, experiences and learning materials.

The INSPIRE project aimed to develop and experiment new teaching methods in the field of math, science and technology (MST). The purpose is to challenge the lack of interest of students to start scientific studies and more widely to extend the supply of scientific specialists and to develop a scientific culture in European countries