Global Scientia
Estonia, ICT, Education and Artificial Realties
Global Scientia’s Gillian McNicoll
ESTONIA, ICT, EDUCATION AND ARTIFICIAL REALTIES
“New information and communication technologies have the potential to trigger the next Industrial Revolution… Estonia is an example where a combination of responsible free enterprise, E-governance, international partnerships and eco-friendly policies can put you in the fast lane of development” Toomas Hendrik Ilves President of Estonia In recent years Estonia has been stepping up its research capabilities and enterprises. Not only is Estonia a force to be reckoned with within Europe, but the nation is well-known internationally. Many International students now attend its universities, including the Tallin University. Here they are dedicating more and more time to research and initiatives, with collaboration with other countries and research centres. The three different research focus areas at Tallin University are Biosciences and Environment, Culture and Society (including Education) and Natural Sciences & Technology. Healthcare research is being enriched and broadened across the fields of study with an emphasis on promoting health and rehabilitation. To keep in line with the Estonia’s own ICT polices and the European digital agenda the 108
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Tallin Uni’s Centre of Excellence have highlighted 9 subjects for research. Estonia has set its sights on international renown and recognition. Estonia has its ears wide open to the current voices calling for innovation and development and its eyes firmly looking to the future. There are many recent and ongoing research projects including the following: Learning Layers Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters, E-learning systems with distributed architecture, their interoperability and models of application a research project funded by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research from 2008-2013; PSST: Personal and Shared Strategies for Teachers in Web 2.0, which is being funded by Erasmus from 2011-2014 and the Intelleo: Intelligent Learning in Extended Organisation, funded by FP7 ICT programme from 20092012. PSST: Personal and Shared Strategies for Teachers in Web 2.0, funded by Erasmus Research into digital literacy is going on around the world and Estonia has been involved in this particular programme since
2011. Here 2.0 tools for E-learning are being developed for higher education teacher training purposes. Three international summer schools are integral to this project. The summer schools are a vehicle for the sharing of the participant’s current 2.0 systems and for an international discussion panel to review. In addition the schools are recorded and findings compiled to share with a wider field outwith the workshops. It is anticipated that the results will enable planning of the implementation of energetic and interactive 2.0 e-learning in educational facilities and schools. IntelLEO Vision Intelligent Learning in Extended Organisation This research was about creating useful one click informal learning environments. Supportive technologies that can support learning were within the remit of Intelligent Learning Extended Organisations (IntelLEO). IntelLEO looked at how the learning environment can be upgraded and developed in the best way possible. Services were to collaborate together in order to manage knowledge building activities within a welcoming and coordinated approach. Whether a company,