Denmark from POERUP

Overview

Denmark, in full the Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark), is a country in the Scandinavia region of northern Europe. Its capital is Copenhagen, it is 43,098 km² or 16,639² sq mi wide with a population of 5,564,000 people), who we call the Danish or the Danes. The official language is Danish, which is close to Swedish and Norwegian with which Denmark has strong cultural and historical ties.

Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Denmark's Constitution originated in the chieftain rule of the Viking Age, it was Absolute Monarchy, followed by Enlightened Absolutism 1660-1848. In 1848, the new King Frederik VII abolished Absolutism and the following year a free Constitution was codified.

Source: Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs > Denmark - an Overview

Relevant Documents:

• Wikipedia's page on Denmark's Constitution
• Danish Constitution (EN - PDF), 1999
• Denmark.dk > Denmark: an Overview

Denmark has a state-level government and local governments in 98 municipalities. Denmark has been a member of the European Union (EU) (formerly European Economic Community) since 1973, although has not joined the Eurozone (the zone of countries which use the Euro). Denmark is a founding member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

According to official statistics from January 2011**, 80.4% of the population of Denmark are members of the Lutheran state church, the Danish National Church (Den Danske Folkekirke), also known as the Church of Denmark. According to article 6 of the Constitution, the Royal family must belong to this Church.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Denmark.

Regions and municipalities

Denmark consists of 443 islands. In 2007 the country created the division of five regions and a total of 98 municipalities, which mostly have a population of at least 20,000 people. This division was a part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform to replace the country's traditional thirteen counties (amter). At the same time, smaller municipalities (kommuner) were merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 270 to 98. The most important area of responsibility for the new regions is the national health service.

The five Regions of Denmark (in descending order of population) are:

1. Hovedstaden / the Capital Region of Denmark
2. Midtjylland / Region Central Jutland
3. Syddanmark / Region South Denmark
4. Sjælland / Region Zealand
5. Nordjylland / Region North Jutland

The Faroe Islands and Greenland/Grønland are autonomous provinces of Denmark with home rule, but are not members of the European Union (EU).

Education in Denmark

For a general description of education in Denmark see Education:Denmark .

Se also http://enic-naric.net/index.aspx?c=Denmark

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Denmark.

FLUID

FLUID, the Danish network of producers, suppliers and users of flexible education has about 60 member institutions with focus on e-learning.

In 2003, Søren Nipper wrote an reflective article on e-learning in Denmark: Online Learning in Denmark: A Personal Account.

Quality procedures

ACE Denmark

ACE Denmark (Akkrediteringsinstitutionen) is responsible for the accreditation of higher education programmes.

EVA

Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA)(Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut) is an independent institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, responsible for part of the educational quality assurance system in Denmark.

Internet in Denmark

National IT and Telecom Agency

The National IT and Telecom Agency published Key figures on Information society Denmark (EN) from 2005 onwards including Key Figures on the Danish Information Society 2007 (EN - PDF - 74 pages, 2007) which tells us that in 2006, about 83 per cent of the population had access to the Internet from home. The Key figures report also shows a graphic of the private use of the Internet for courses and education was 19% as a maximum. (1)

Danish Internet Forum

Danish Internet Forum is responsible for the Danish part of the Internet, meaning the part where domain names end in .dk.

Some information is also available in the Wikipedia article: Internet in Denmark.

Copyright law in Denmark from POERUP

The World Intellectual Property Organization's page on Denmark refers to the Consolidated Act on Copyright.

OER Initiatives in Denmark

National OER initiatives

A comprehensive and recommendable report on OER in Denmark is written by Harling in 2010. (2)

EMU

www.emu.dk is the main public portal for educational content in Denmark. It is provided by UNI∙C which is an agency that delivers a veriety of ICT related services to the Danish Ministry of Education. The site provides several portals with OER content including:

• SkoDa (Access to educational databases)
• Materialeplatformen (Catalogue of Danish learning resources)
• skrivOpgave (Writing assignments)
• Lexin (Dictionaries)
• Udviklingslandene (Projects about developing countries)
• Webetik (Webetchics)
• Tilgængelighed (Accessibility)
• e-museum (Online museum resources)
• Natur og miljø (Environmental issues)
• Bæredygtig udvikling (Sustainable development)
• Træneren (The trainer)
• E-læringsmoduler (E-learning modules)
• Brug it (ICT in education)

Materialeplatformen is a national repository for all Danish learning resources which provides a single access-point for teachers, students and content producers. The repository includes summaries of all educational resources including professional multimedia clips, publications, and inspirational material from teachers.

e-museum is an online museum initiative supported by the Danish Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture which includes pedagogical presentations of the digital content of museums and science centres. The web-site allows students and the general public to visit museums located far from home. The goal of the initiative was to increase accessibility to online exhibitions and develop educational content specifically targeting the educational system.

Danish Public Broadcasting

The Danish Public Broadcasting (DR) provides a portal for academic lectures called “The Academi for the Danes”. The portal aims at communicating research based knowledge to the public.

Danish Healthcare Services

Sundhed.dk is the official portal for the public Danish Healthcare Services which includes comprehensive information about helth, diseases, medicine etc for patients and healthcare professionals.

DuDa

DuDa is a comprehensive site with links to educational resources for school children, parents and teachers. It is a private initiative run by the Jensen family since 2002. According to the information in Danish, the portal included 10.000 links and had 5.000.000 page views in 2010.

Resources for mathematics

Matematikonline is a portal with links to online games for mathematics. Matlex is a mathematical encyclopedia for the secondary school level provided by Randers HF & VUC. Matematikbanken is a collection of mathematical resources for lower secondary school provided by five teachers from Bjergsnæs Efterskole.

Institutional OER initiatives

The University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen provides a portal with links to educational resources for primary schools and secondary schools.

Aarhus University

Aarhus University has an open podcast archive with videopresentations of lectures in various subjects.

Arhus University also provides danmarkshistorien.dk which is a comprehensive and varied online resource of the Danish history.

References

1. ReVica/VISCED page for Denmark (http://virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Denmark)

2. Harlung, A. 2010. Open Educational Resources in Denmark. Status Report 2010.

Reports

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