SUPPORTING INVESTMENT IN ELEARNING ACROSS EUROPE: THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK CONTRIBUTION

摘要

Implementation and development of ICT is a key target in recent educational development, in the labour market, and in everyday life, bringing new challenges. The development of the eLearning sector in the EU offers new opportunities and potential both in the corporate sector (training part) and in the formal educational sector (education part). International Data Corp. (IDC) has recently presented forecasts estimating that the eLearning market for corporate will grow to around EUR 4.5 billion by 2004, a growth of 96% p.a.; we do not have comparable forecasts for schooling but would anticipate similar growth levels. The main challenges and opportunities of eLearning for the EU are: 1. the need to rethink the purpose and architecture of our educational infrastructures (certification policies, integration into the existing curricula...), 2. the provision of adequate infrastructure, hardware; 3. the provision of multimedia software content (taking into consideration new issues like the rate of obsolescence); 4. the appropriate training of teachers who could feel un-prepared to use technology in classroom (since eLearning will never replace the classroom), especially when facing pupils growing in an environment of new information and communication technologies which could lead to a gap between the teachers' capacities and the pupils, 5. the equal access and provision of eLearning across regions and individuals, bearing in mind as well the complexities of operating in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural area.