At the forefront of Europe's ICT development

The eEurope Benchmark Reportconfirms Denmark ranks high in almost all ICT indicators, from the big percentage of workers having computer training to the school connectivity: there are more than 20 PCs connected to the Internet per 100 pupils in the schools of Denmark, the EU highest level together with Luxembourg.

This brief article propose a quick glance on some interesting danish initiatives among the several projects and programmes running in the scandinavian country.

KVIS is the acronym for the Danish Government programme to develop special education. Its main objective is to improve the inclusiveness in the school, ensuring all pupils receive a qualitative offer as close to their home and public school as possible.

Through the KVIS programme, collaborative and innovative networks between the schools are being formed. The KVIS programme offers a number of IT supported courses for collaborative teacher groups. In this context, elearning is one of the main tools actively promoted among teachers and schools, and several projects are being launched.

The Danish Association of Flexible Learning -FLUID- gathers a network of producers, suppliers and users of flexible learning. FLUID organises meetings and conferences and supports research and development projects in the field. Regional activities in Denmark include seminars and visits to member companies for information exchange. Presentations from Danish and overseas speakers are organised on a nation-wide basis and "FLUID on Tour" is an annual coach tour of the country, visiting selected companies and institutions working with flexible education.

Opentess is a project aiming to stop the increasing exclusion of pupils from the ordinary education. Opentess aims to promote a compulsory education of a more inclusive nature, where the school concentrates on adapting the teaching to the individual pupil, and ICT is a good tool to promote a development like that. As a result, Opentess is building a network of European school bodies that will develop, describe, implement and assess methods for pedagogical reorganisation and collaboration based on an overall approach to the integration of ICT.

SocraTESS aims to train teachers through elearning tools. Bringing together partners from 11 countries, SocraTESS focused on the development of innovative methods and materials for teaching pupils with special education needs. This objective includes the implementation of a cooperative model between educational institutions in Europe with regard to the development of ODL-based teaching material, including the development of a model of how qualifications achieved with the help of ODL can be evaluated.