Meeting with Lilla Vos andcolleagues at the Danish Education Ministry.
Nikkoli provided an overview of the Danish education system that can be viewed at www.uvm.dk
Schooling is compulsory up to Year 9,with options for more specialised choice available in the final three years of school. In Denmark responsibility for Education resides with the local Municipal authorities with the National Government having no direct management of the K-12 schooling. The principles of local control are entrenched in the 'People's School Act.'

Over 98% of Danish children attend a pre-school. There is a strong tradition of offering a differentiated curriculum around principles of Core and Option. Instruction in English language commences at grade 4 with formal LOTE courses commencing at year 7. The introduction of ICT into danish Schools is founded around the general principles of 'Assessment for Learning.'Whilst there are differentiated options across the final years of school,Grammar School,Technical or Business, a choice of either option does not diminish a students choice for further,Tertiary,studies.

Introducing ICT.

Lilla has been involved in strategy and implementation since 1990.Whilst there is no direct National Government control in schools the National strategy has been driven by a program to directly fund ICT in all schools. At the centre of the strategy is a philosophythat promotes ICT as a vehicle for enhancing quality education. In 1995 there was the roll-out of cable to all educational institutions. Whilst the roll-out was nationally funded it stopped at the door of the institution.It was the responsibility of Local authorities for the development of the LAN.Critical to the implementation of the National strategy was the training of teachers. Teachers were given a one day formal induction but the real powerful energy was invested in the development of localised collaborative networks supported by a program on online to support increased capability. The national government did not make this training compulsory but considerable pressure was placed upon schools from local authorities eager to gain government support for the provision of access and hardware in schools. From a national perspective ICT innovation was seen as a force to promote and develop a more collaborative culture in schools. From the beginning ICT has been promoted as providing personal learning tools to enhance the move toward personalised learning.

Within the strategy the formal engagement with personal computers is targetted at grade 3 and above. Whilst there has been some concerns about access to inappropriate content the approach has been to educate the students toward discernment,where the best filtering software is identified as being in the 'head of the user.'

ICT is now a mandatory element in all subject areas and is embedded across the curriculum.Whilist there are no specifications around implementation and usage schools are encouraged to chane 25% of curriculum delivery to blended forms of distance learning across the final 3 years of schooling [ie age 16-19 yrs.] Existing forms of learning and assesment are developing to include elements of ICT into their completion and the move has extended to cover formal examinations where students are allowed to use Prsonal computers in the completion of their final exams. In both the Technical and commercial strands students are allowed to complete e-projects. In 2000 95% of students utilized personal computers in completing their final examinations. In three areas,Danish,Maths,andBusiness there has been the development of Digital examinations presented and completed on CD rom with a plan to expand this to other areas.From 2009 the planis to make the use of personal computers compulsory for all final examinations. The strategy has been to embed the use of ICT into the classroom.Implementation is closely monitered and new technologies are only included when it is clear that the technology improves the classroom learning environment. By making ICT an integral part of the final exams there is a belief that this will impact upon the culture driven by student performance ,and a culture that strongly influences teacher behaviour.By formalising the use of ICT in formal assessment there is a belief that ultimately this will hasten and support the use of ICT in the classroom