March 4 2005, Nicosia Conference Center
Over the last 10 years the spread of the Internet and new information society has brought about unprecedented access to information and recourses. It has transformed the way people communicate, the way industries operate, the way governments interact with their citizens and significantly the way and the methods of people learn and work.
For people to acquire these skills Cypriot education and training programmes must be able to meet the challenges ahead. e-Education will open the door to digital inclusion by responding to the major challenges of the 21st century: to promote the e-Europe initiative and especially the lifelong learning, encourage universal access to global education and help people, particularly youth, acquire the qualifications and skills they need to realise the benefits of the knowledge society.
As the understanding of the role of IT for enhancing learning processes increases, e-learning is starting to show real benefits. There are new opportunities for learner interaction – both face to face and at a distance – by combining traditional education with innovative educational pathways. This ‘blended’ flexible approach to the provision of e-learning must be complemented by a similar flexibility in content and services.
There seem to be obvious advantages for Cypriot SMEs to use e-learning, as they cannot afford the costs and time involved in sending staff to off-site/abroad training. However, further effort is required to allow small companies to understand, shape and use e-learning tools and methods according to their own requirements. In addition, corporate e-learning solutions often require significant investment in infrastructure, content and services, and are therefore only cost effective when there is a sufficiently large number of learners. Therefore new approaches are required to help SMEs achieve the critical mass necessary for cost-effective e-learning solutions.
Public administration organisations must speculate as to how constraints such as the legal framework, accreditation and policy measures can be reformed to accommodate e-learning/e-training transactions and at the same time exploit the opportunity of providing better service to their citizens. Public figures such as parliament members and ministers must be exposed to the potential growth of this business sector. They have to understand the opportunities in designing tomorrow’s digital education that will allow the economy of the country to depart from dependency on a single volume source of income such as travel and tourism, which are so fragile these days.
The symposium provided an opportunity to exchange information about the research, development and use (experience, advantages and disadvantages) of e-Education, life long learning and e-Training in Europe and Cyprus.
Jointly organized by IT Consult GmbH, Germany, and GammaTech Ltd., Cyprus (Marinos Ioannides, gammat@cytanet.com.cy).