Contents

The new priorities for general education reflecting needs of knowledge societies are laid to the basis for the national standards

These Recommendations are aimed at providing a source of information about the state of the art in the informatization of Primary education; another goal is to outline the trends in the field, presenting some ideas useful in the long-term outlook.

ICT in Primary Education. Recommendations. UNESCO, 2000 (in English, French, Russian)

The Recommendations were introducing primary school teacher into the concept of new literacy extending traditional literacy to broader range of activities with all types of information (including graphical literacy, media literacy, logical and algorithmic literacy and using ICT). They were based on the previous 15 years of experimental and practical work as well as on international experience.

From the Introduction

"The ever-increasing speed of technological progress makes our somewhat ambitious goals even more difficult to achieve. We need an even broader perspective in order to plan educational strategies, which rely so heavily on the information and communication technologies of today and tomorrow. The fact that ICT and education are evolving at different tempos is very relevant for our considerations."

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Russian edition

French edition

English edition

Education for All (EFA) is the foremost priority of UNESCO – because it is a fundamental human right and a key to sustainable development and peace within and among countries. Achieving the goals set in Dakar and at the Millennium Development Summit entails a commitment to a triad embracing access, equity and quality in primary and secondary education.

This Handbook is designed for teachers and all educators who are currently working with, or who would like to know more about, information and communication technologies in schools. The technologies involve much more than computers, and so the abbreviation we use for information and communication technologies – ICT – is a plural term to denote the whole range of technologies associated with processing information on the one hand and, on the other, with sending and receiving messages.

ICT in Schools. A Handbook for Teachers of How ICT Can Create New, Open Learning Environments. UNESCO, 2000 (in English, French, Russian)

Annotation

A major theme of this Handbook is how ICT can create new, open learning environments. More than any other previous technology, ICT are providing learners access to vast stores of knowledge beyond the school, as well as with multimedia tools to add to this store of knowledge.

ICT are largely instrumental, too, in shifting the emphasis in learning environments from teacher-centred to learner-centred; where teachers move from being the key source of information and transmitter of knowledge ICT are largely instrumental, too, in shifting the emphasis in learning environments from teacher-centred to learner-centred; where teachers move from being the key source of information and transmitter of knowledge to becoming guides for student learning; and where the role of students changes from one of passively receiving information to being actively involved in their own learning.

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The handbook is targeted to all teachers, school principals and decision-makers who use or are going to use ICT in school. It introduces them into e-pedagogy, its technological and organizational issues, promotes learner-centred pedagogy and encourage collaboration and networking.

Foreword

All governments present at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, April 2000, pledged to achieve a number of essential goals aimed at ensuring Education for All (EFA). I will mention only two of them that are particularly relevant for, and lie at the basis of, the development of this new publication - ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes (Goal 3) and improving all aspects of the quality of education […] so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all (Goal 6).
This new publication, initiated by the Division of Higher Education, entitled "ICT in Schools: A Handbook for Teachers or How ICT Can Create New, Open Learning Environments", should be seen as complementary to the ones already published by the Division in the 2002-2003 biennium devoted to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teacher education. The present handbook is principally designed for teachers and teacher educators who are currently working with, or would like to know more about, ICT in schools.

A major theme in the book concerns how ICT can create new, open learning environments and their instrumental role in shifting the emphasis from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred environment; where teachers move from being the key source of information and transmitter of knowledge to becoming a collaborator and co-learner; and where the role of students changes from one of passively receiving information to being actively involved in their own learning.
Evidence over the past years has clearly indicated that efforts to ensure equal access to educational opportunities and quality education for all must be accompanied by wide-ranging education reforms. Such reforms are not likely to succeed without addressing the new roles played by teachers in preparing students for an emerging knowledge-based and technology-driven society. Teachers must have access to adequate training and ongoing professional development and support and be motivated to use new teaching and learning methods and techniques.

Information and communication technologies must be harnessed to support EFA goals at an affordable cost. They have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more efficient education services. This potential will not be realized unless these technologies serve rather than drive the implementation of education strategies. To be effective, especially in developing countries, ICT should be combined with more traditional technologies such as books and radios and be more extensively applied to the training of teachers.

Education must reflect the diversity of needs, expectations, interests and cultural contexts. This poses particular challenges under conditions of globalization given its strong tendency towards uniformity. The challenge is to define the best use of ICT for improving the quality of teaching and learning, sharing knowledge and information, introducing a higher degree of flexibility in response to societal needs, lowering the cost of education and improving internal and external efficiencies of the education system. I sincerely hope that this new publication will be both informative and useful for a wide range of users who all believe in, and pursue, a common goal - Quality Education for All.

John Daniel

UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education

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Educational Standards for Russian General Education 2004

These were the first standards for general education in Russia, ICT were positioned there as a tool integrated into the curriculum at all levels and across disciplines, but standards written for other disciplines at this moment did not refer to ICT.

This is the section of standards devoted to ICT. It emphasize crosscurricular using ICT and technological skills.

Computer Science (Informatics) and ICT: Basic General Education Standard.

Computer Science (Informatics) and Information Technologies. Sample Basic General Educational Curriculum. Moscow, 2004.

This an example of program of Science studies in 5–6 grades (11–12 y.o.) recommended by the Ministry along with the Standards 2004. It was implemented on experimental basis.

The computer science course (informatics) for primary school enables to learn important fragments of computer science maths basics in a visual graphic and physical form, to develop general thinking and communicative abilities, to gain information and technology skills in computer work, to form general learning skills. The course is planned for 4 (or 2) year teaching. The materials of each year course consist of an exercise-book and a project book. Computer environment includes as well a full teacher support materials.

The course was developed in full compliance with the new Education Standard for primary school. it provides an opportunity to master the basic meta-subject concepts in graphic and physical form, to learn the basics of information culture, including ICT skills when working with the computer component of the course. The course also allows the students to form the majority of universal educational activities laid down in the new educational Standard, in particular, many communicative and regulatory skills.

Informatics 1: acquaintance with the rules of the game, permissible actions and the main objects of the course, the first acquaintance with chains and bags.

Informatics 2: study of chains, bags, tables and the application of these objects to the solution of practical and applied problems.

Informatics 4: mathematical games, use of trees to solve various problems and a generalization of all the material studied.

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Informatics 3: work with trees and programming the simplest performer.

Informatica (Computer Science) 3. Text-book (A. Semenov, T. Rudchenko)

Informatica (Computer Science). On-line environment for teacher and students INTernet-classes

Informatics 1–4 and 3–4.
The Principles of Building and Course Programmes
for Primary School (Alexei Semenov, Tatiana Rudchenko)

See also "Mathematics and Informatics" course

Lesson in Informatics, Moscow school 169, 2009 (Prof. Gladkii)

National Recommendations for Equipment for General Education, 2007–2008

These Recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation mainstream the use of technologies and give teachers guidance both for their own work and for application to the authorities on the extension of the existing technological base.

The Recommendations include elements of material and informational environment of the educational process; it encompasses all subjects and aspects of the educational process and defines the general guidelines for creating an optimal educational environment. They are supposed to be used for equipping and certification of educational institutions (including preschool) and the development of new types of equipment.
The strategy for the Recommendations is to guide the process of equipping educational institutions in parallel with the development of the ICT-competence of teachers and their planning of activities with the competent use of ICT.

For the educational process at this stage, the requirement is to provide with ICT equipment those teachers, whose ICT competence has been vetted and their planning of the ICT use has been approved. In addition to this, the initial conditions for teachers' ICT competence formation in each school are created. The minimum level of ICT equipment is required to acquaint teachers with ICT and initiate a pedagogical experiment to effectively use ICT.

One of the requirements – to provide ICT equipment for the work to all teachers and students who are ready to use it. Several elements of the school ICT equipment, particularly mobile versions (mobile computer, mobile "scanner" that converts any board into interactive one), video camera, etc. can be promptly allocated for the lesson, when they need to be used.

The Recommendations include digital educational resources for each subject: information resources used in the educational process; tools for student and teacher, means of organizing the educational process.
The list provides maximum opportunities for laboratory work. In natural sciences, the empowerment of traditional laboratory is provided, inter alia, by the use of digital measuring instruments, data processors, and ICT equipment for sound and image recording.

National Recommendations for Equipment for General Education 2007–2008

Federal Educational Standard for Russian Primary School, 2009

This standard emphasize ICT-competence of learners among crosscuricular outcomes of the primary school studies, outlines learning activities most of them applying ICT, formulates the information environment and ICT-competence of teachers as required conditions.