Developmental goals

The main aim of the project has been to develop the use of process based assessment through which the students, supported by teacher educators, negotiate individual learning goals within a wider framework of didactical course goals. This process is intended to support students in documenting, reflecting upon and evaluating their own learning processes. Thereby this process based model aims to develop the students' skills of critical reflection on their learning, promote their responsibility for self development and to prepare them for "life long learning".

In revising the programme of teacher education at Umeå University, the Faculty Board has allocated 3 ECTS for ICT in the first compulsory course, Allmänt utbildningsområde (AU1) or General Education, that was launched in the fall 2007. This was undertaken in order to implement digital working methods such as portfolios, wikis and blogs which can be used throughout the students’ education. This approach has been supported in course plans and in the planning guide for the entire Allmänt utbildningsområde course which describes the overall aims and has constituted a basis for management support for this project.

The Faculty Board at Karlstads University decided that all teachers and teacher students at campus and at the Net University should use the same Learning Management System (LMS) “samma lärplattform” [It's Learning] from the autumn semester 2007. All information concerning the programmes is announced there. In addition there have been several ongoing projects with the iam of strengthening and developing the communication between the teachers at university, the students and the mentors at the VFU-schools. The development projects are all managed within the Net University.

The Faculty of Educational Sciences at Linköping University developed a three-year project to enhance and strengthen ICT use in the teacher training programmes at Linköping and Norrköping campuses (2006-08). This has been supported by the faculty board, both as a strategic decision, and through financing of the project. The project has six main components: revision of course plans and course content; the use of an LMS as a vehicle for pedagogical change; pilot pedagogical development projects; in-service training for teacher educators; promoting praxis (praktiknära) based research and co-operation with teacher educators at other institutions of higher education. Of these, the use of an LMS to enhance "overall" practical ICT readiness, and pilot pedagogical development projects -- inspired by the ITiS methodology -- have been the two most resource intensive.