Virtual Teacher In-Service Training (KenGuru)
Finland , 2005 to 2007
Compendium: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Background
The KenGuru project includes a large package of online material on pedagogical use of ICT available from 2007 onwards. Resources are targeted on teachers wishing to use ICT in education. The main contents are:
- ICT Literacy (skills to use ICT as a tool in the learning and teaching process).
- Media Literacy and Internet Safety.
- Skills to acquire and create knowledge.
- Learning-process-based planning of teaching with ICT with 20 good cases.
The motivation of the initiative
Almost all teachers have basic technical skills. 50-60% of teachers have participated in training aimed at improving pedagogical ICT skills, thus indicating that teachers want to improve their ICT skills for pedagogical use.
Participants
Schools, administration, research institutions, ICT companies.
Aims and targets
Objectives of the initiative
To provide online resources for teacher in-service training on pedagogical use of ICT.
Target group
Teachers (at all levels), adult learners.
Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and/or pedagogical)
The pedagogical method and aim is to teach teachers a new e-learning method that involves conducting the online learning process via learning tasks. The material itself is based on the same scheme, while it gives an overview of the content mentioned above.
Strategy and actions
Level of implementation
National and local (and individual).
Implementation
In order to ensure implementation of the service it was promoted at several teacher events and in in-service training, and peer-to-peer recommendation was used. Moreover, the resources were designed from the start to be easy to use.
Monitoring and evaluation
Funding/Cost effectiveness
Budget
€200 000.
Sustainability/Transferability
Outcomes/impacts
Achievements
Specific results
Currently about 20 000 visitors/month, which is more than initially expected.
Success factors
Lessons learnt
There seems to be a larger demand for this kind of service for teachers than hitherto anticipated. Due to unexpectedly large demand, in the near future the service needs to be translated into other languages.

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