Sulinet

SDT - a possible answer for the educational challenges of our days

In the period of the accelerated technological development traditional methods of knowledge transfer can not serve the demands of the labour market anymore. Acquisition of skills and abilities got into the centre of interest. Knowledge could be diverse and it can change quickly, therefore life long learning has become very important. Life long learning is composed of different basic competencies. Skill of reading, writing and basic lexical knowledge is still essential. Foreign language knowledge and ability to use information and communication technologies make this complete. The Ministry of Education represents the programs aiming to develop the life long learning skills in the Middle Distance Development Plan of the Public Education. The formation of life long learning skills expects the establishment of new physical and mental infrastructure; therefore the Sulinet Program Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Education decided to create the Sulinet Digital Knowledge Base.

Content development

SDT is a digital curriculum database and a content management tool LOs cover the curriculum of grades 7-12 according to knowledge areas Goal: to create a complete curriculum database covering the curriculum of grades 1-12 SDT is a Learning Content Management System consisting of different reusable elements (pictures, texts, sound- and video files) Subjects of History and Geography are available right now - 15.224 LOs and learning assets Other eight subjects are going to be available by the end of 2004, that means about 200.000 LOs and learning assets The internal storage of data and the publishing happens aligned with international standards (SCORM, IMS, LOM, Dublin Core) towards the enhancement of independence from the content-suppliers and the portability of the content The multiple classifications, technical and content meta information related to the assets and LO's support the maintenance of the substance Book publishers and teachers are also involved in the process, and the development takes place also in form of voluntary work. SDT portal

Available via the Education Portal of Sulinet Program Office - http://sdt.sulinet.hu Its use for non profit goals is free of charge for everyone Examples, animations, demonstration films, supplementary databases, background information, lecture drafts, methodological assistance It has collaborative functions - forum (open and closed), chat Search function (simple and advanced), browser LOs are provided with detailed metadata - it makes searching easier Editorial function: users have the right to edit the LOs and to create new ones, which might get into the SDT after professional verification Test phase of the portal started on 1 September 2004 Teacher training

Intends to develop teachers' ICT and methodological skills Based on a survey on teachers' skills and awareness level Shift in teaching content: informatics as a profession supporting the creation of digital culture Ten modules - teachers might choose modules they would like to take according to their existing skills Subjects: Studies on operation informatics Studies on informatics with supplementary multimedia-based educational auxiliary materials (multimedia-based tools and softwares) CBT/WBT methodological studies Constructive, collaborative and cooperative pedagogy (through articles and presentations) We want to teach teachers as they are expected to teach! Our mission

We pledged ourselves to develop the Sulinet Digital Knowledge Base with the aim to support the acquisition of the life long learning's minimum competencies. One of the tools is the basic information database, which builds model about the information acquisition and the knowledge building of the labour market environment better than the traditional books with linear structure delivering complete knowledge.