ICT co-ordinator on Arion study visit

Albert Vella, an ICT co-ordinator within the Department of Technology in Education, recently was on an Arion study visit entitled "Information Commu-nication Technology".

Educational decision-makers from Slovakia, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Cyprus and Germany also took part in the visit which was organised in London, between November 3 and 7.

Arion is one of the action programmes within Socrates II, the European programme for Education. The purpose of Arion visits is to allow specialists and decision-makers in education to obtain first-hand experience about the educational structures of other member states and disseminate the knowledge gained and good practices in their own countries.

The main objectives of this study visit were: ensuring access to ICT for everyone; quality hardware and software in schools; use of ICT in various subjects; use of ICT in non-formal education and qualitative assessment of ICT in education. Delegates visited a number of schools to assess how and if these objectives were being reached. The visits included primary schools, secondary schools and City Learning Centres.

During the visit Mr Vella had the opportunity to highlight the achievements in ICT within the Maltese educational system to other delegates and schools, especially with regard to ICT skills assessment using the ECDL benchmark. Mr Vella has also established links with the hosting organisation and other participants for further sharing of ideas.

The European Union Programmes Unit (EUPU), the local Socrates Co-ordinating Committee, and the Education Division have given Mr Vella the required support which made it possible for him to attend this study visit.