Hungarian Innovative Schools

The Hungarian Ministry of Education and the Sulinet Program Office launched a call related to the European Network of Innovative Schools (ENIS) for the Hungarian schools in March 2003. The 30 winner schools became members of the international network. One of the main aspects of selecting the schools was that the group of the winners had to be heterogeneous (according to the innovative character, location, the ICT-level of the teachers, number of computers, etc.).

400 schools from 19 countries are already members of the ENIS. Their main goal is to inspire the use of ICT tools in education and to create an innovative and valuable educational system. Many advantages originate from the membership. The Innovative Schools participate in several national and international projects, test modern technologies and pedagogical tools. They have the opportunity to attend different trainings and conferences, and to play a part in the development of international ICT methodology.

The Hungarian Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Informatics and Communications offered 10 million Ft (40.000 Euros) for each school to support the development of the educational tools. Originally the schools were supposed to get a complete packet compiled in advance, but they had totally differing demands, so finally the founders settled to let them decide what they would like to get.

In addition to the above mentioned sum of money the Sulinet Program Office bought the Q@School multimedia-based platform for the Innovative Schools, which helps learning EFL (English as a foreign language). They also got an EcoLog weather-station and an EcoLog XL environmental protection packet from Sulinet.

Projects for the Innovative Schools

ITCOLE – The ITCOLE project was one of the VALNET subprojects coordinated by the Finnish Ministry of Education. Besides the Hungarian Innovative Schools Danish, Finnish and Dutch schools participated in it. The main task of the schools was to test the FLE3 platform, and to develop new methodologies for collaborative learning. In each country ten schools took part in the project. The central topic was water, all the tasks were connected to this element of nature. The students presented their work at the closing conference, organized by the Sulinet Program Office. (The ITCOLE project was coordinated by the European Schoolnet)

SCALE – 10 Innovative Schools took part in the SCALE project (EU IST 5^th Frame Programme). The students had to test different computer-based and on-line pedagogical tools during the project. The main goal was to test web-based tools, which improve the users‘ debating skills. http://www.euroscale.net

ThinkQuest – This project is an international educational web-page developer competition coordinated by the Oracle Help Us Help Foundation. The Sulinet Program Office organized a Hungarian round to support the schools in the process of preparation for the international competition. The winners come in for valuable prizes (students, who are placed high in the international round win a trip to San Francisco).

CELEBRATE – From 11 countries 22 partners develop digital learning materials (LOs) within the framework of CELEBRATE, coordinated by the European Schoolnet. In Hungary 20 schools are members of the CELEBRATE community, who have access to every LO, without reference to the country, in which the learning materials have been developed.

Testing of the SDT (Sulinet Digital Knowledge Base) – Students and teachers of the Innovative Schools are going to test the brand new Hungarian Learning Content Management System called SDT and also planty of new digital learning materials from May.

Q@Scool – The goal of the project is to test an English multimedia-based platform to learn English. This software might be more widely available after testing.

Exil-Club – In the first round 2-3 schools from five countries are going to be part of. Their task is to analyze to what extent the different minorities integrate into the society and and they have to find out about the factors that influence this process.

Natural scientific project – The goal of the project is to develop methods and technologies, which are well adaptable in science education. All the 30 Innovative Schools are going to participate in the project, using the EcoLog weather-station and an EcoLog XL environmental protection packet. During the project the schools are going to communicate with each other through the Fle3 platform.

The Innovative Schools Subportal informs the inquirers about these projects and about the activities of the Innovative Schools.

SCALE
http://www.euroscale.net

VALNET
http://www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/about/content.cfm?lang=en&ov=4829

Thinquest
http://www.thinkquest.org/