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In 1998
the rate of newly connected schools started to
grow rapidly. Paralelly the Ministry of Education
started their own project, which within 1-2 years
should create an Internet connected computer
class in each of the Polish 2500 counties.
Another governmental project to connect all
gymnasiums has been launched in 1999. In this
situation Stefan Batory
Foundation took a right decision
that its role as a sponsor of introducing the
Internet to Polish schools has been successfully
completed and consequently stopped further
funding of the "Internet for Schools"
Programme. As a result of this decision in the
beginning of 1999 the "Internet for
Schools" Programme have been split into its
merithoric and technical part.
The
merithoric part of the IdS Programme is continued
by the Department
"Internet for Schools" within the
University Center for Technology Transfer. This
Department organizes methodical conferences and
seminars, all non-standard (eg. Distance
Learning) teacher trainings, youth vacation camps
and contests as well as continues the logistical
and financial support for the international
school cooperation projects.
In frame
of the "Science Festival" a Web contest
"Science in Internet" for secondary
school students has been organized. Students were
asked to create educational sites devoted to
either "human genetics" or
"astrophysics topics" topics.
The
winners of another youth Web contest "50th
anniversary of the Human Right Act" has
taken part in the "EuroKids"
camp in Vienna.
In
several events like "Rural Forum of
Educational Initiatives", the teachers
methodical seminar at Polish -
Japanese Institute of Information Technologies as well as
during the "Citizens
of Internet" conference a series of
lectures devoted to international youth telematic
projects and distance learning courses have been
given.
In
cooperation with the Central and Eastern
European Networking Association (CEENet) a Network
Technology Workshop for 90 students from 25
countries have been organized in august 1999 in
Budapest. One of the tracks of this workshop was
devoted to educational technology and distance
learning. Another workshop in
Tbilisi has been devoted to the
development of the scientific and educational
networks in Caucasus region. Department IdS
maintains close links with similar organizations
in other European countries, eg. with Tiger Leap in Estonia and "Schulen ans
Netz" in Germany.
Department
"Internet for Schools" in collaboration
with European
Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) organized "The 22nd
CERN School of Computing", a two weeks
workshop with 45 students, 40 computers and
satellite link in the middle of the Masurian
Forest. A substantial part of the workshop has
been Web-casted.
Under
the umbrella of the Department "Internet for
Schools" several youth telematic projects
are realized. IdS gives the the organizatorial
and financial support as well as the free Web
space.
Being a
National Partner IdS each year helps in the local
organization of the ThinkQuest, a world-wide Web contest. Contest rules
are translated to Polish, information materials
are distributed to the interested schools and the
workshops for teachers and students are held 2-3
times a year. This contest is very popular among
Polish schools and Polish students were several
times among the winners. The ThinkQuest contest
resulted in the creation of the world biggest
repository of educationally valuable Web sites.
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Department "Internet for
Schools" |
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