Education is an essential vehicle for economic and community development and for individual self-fulfilment. In a networked information economy, the need for people to replenish their skills throughout their working life and on a regular basis is paramount. New technologies themselves create change, and also have the potential to bring learning opportunities directly, flexibly and at a lower cost into the home, workplace and community.
Educational applications and services developed in several European cities as part of InfoCities have concentrated on interactive ICT applications for students at school; adult learners, including those who are socially excluded; and teachers and employees working in local councils and authorities.
These Infocities applications brought together into a Framework for Education ( FrEd ) fall broadly into two categories:
- information and training services, and
- the creation of online and computer-assisted
learning programmes
Benefits of these Services
Education: supporting continuous learning, training and development for educational professionals, and keeping them up-to-date with developments in remote and computer enhanced learning.
Quality of life: providing school students and adult learners with easier and faster access to education and useful sources of knowledge for individual and community use.
Employment: creating new jobs and opportunities in the growing multimedia and netmedia sectors. In addition, the use of online learning creates opportunities for learning support workers, who facilitate learning and the use of ICT but do not need the long training required for a fully qualified teacher. This new source of service sector employment may provide career development for disadvantaged adults.
European Benefits:
- Eliminating barriers to education is a crucial step towards eliminating social exclusion. The capacity building part of the programme for local residents focuses on developing ICT and multimedia skills in local communities so that local groups and communities can develop their own network-based services and communicate directly with similar groups and residents in other European states and regions.
- Exchanging and transferring expertise on a cross-national basis between educational professionals
- Creating an educational system, which is accessible to users/citizens across Europe from any country or region.
- Contribution to the competitiveness of the European economy
