Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

THE BRITISH COUNCIL ICT FOR ELT INITIATIVE
IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
(2000-01)

Report by
Phil Brabbs
with
Šárka Cánová, Marta Šigutová and Bill Ross
(3 July 2001)

The full text of this report is not available on the Net. But if you would like a copy of the full report, please contact myself, Phil Brabbs, or Malcolm Griffiths and we will send you a copy as an email attachment.

If you would like to see the table of contents, click here.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This document reports on the three major strands of the British Council's ICT for ELT Initiative in the Czech Republic (Sept 2000- June 2001):

The baseline/needs analysis
Basic ICT training for a group BC INSETT teacher trainers
Regional ICT Pilot Project

(Note: A list of the abbreviations used in this report can be found in Appendix 1)

This report is organised as follows. The second part of this Introduction provides an executive summary of the findings and recommendations of this report. Section 2 provides the background to the ICT for ELT Initiative, Section 3 reports on the baseline/needs analysis, Section 4 reports on the ICT training for INSETT teacher trainers and Section 5 gives details of the Regional ICT Pilot Project. Section 6 contains the detailed overall recommendations of the report and Section 7 provides a brief conclusion.

1.2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.2.1 Summary of Findings

The main findings of this report are as follows:

The Czech Government is very keen to improve teachers' ICT skills over the next three years.
Teachers' access to ICT, both at work and at home, is already widespread and set to increase, particularly with help from the Czech Government.
Many teachers seem keen to use ICT in their professional lives and are keen to upgrade their ICT skills, though some at least appear to be afraid of using a computer.
Many teachers, but particularly school teachers, lack basic ICT skills.
There is a clearly identifiable need for ICT training for teachers in the State education sector.
Most schools and universities expect to be instrumental in providing ICT training for teachers.
The Czech Government has a clear commitment to support such training and is making funding available.
It is not totally clear what level of training will be provided, what qualifications training will lead to (though "ECDL Start" appears to be favoured as an initial certificate), who will provide the training and who will accredit it.
Head teachers, in contrast to present BC ELT trainers, seem unclear as to the sort of expertise the BC has to offer in terms of ICT training and particularly ICT for ELT training.
This study has identified a number of trainers within the BC CR's current cadre of ELT trainers who would be willing and interested in becoming ICT trainers.
These trainers are mostly BC-trained and are all highly experienced ELT trainers who already possess good ICT skills in the basic areas.
In order to become successful ICT trainers they would need to develop their skills in other areas of ICT and would probably need some specific training in how to teach teachers ICT for ELT.
It is likely that a number of bodies would be willing to employ these trainers as ICT trainers, particularly Pedagogical Centres and trainers' own institutions.
BC ICT trainers would have a lot to offer in terms of their training skills and experience and their ability to empathise with their trainees since they are all teachers themselves.
BC ICT trainers would be capable of training teachers, and perhaps people from other walks of life, who are not English teachers as almost all are Czech native speakers.
It is not enough for Czech teachers of English to learn basic ICT skills, they need to learn how to apply ICT to ELT. This job can only be done by ELT specialists. BC ICT trainers would be the perfect people for this job, since they are already expert trainers, already have all the necessary ELT skills and could soon obtain the necessary ICT skills.
Moving on to the lessons which can be drawn from the Basic ICT Skills Course for Insett trainers (reported on in Section 4 of this report), this training showed how much could be achieved on a course with a minimum number of contact hours but with supplementary worksheets and egroup support.
The course also provided a good deal of practical information about all aspects of running such courses and gave rise to a number of resources (referred to in Section 4) which should be of use to others providing ICT skills courses both in the Czech Republic and further afield.

1.2.2 Summary of Recommendations

Given the above findings and, in particular, given that:

It is generally agreed that someone with a teaching background will make a more effective ICT trainer than someone from a technical background
It is believed, by the authors of this report, that it is easier and preferable to train a qualified and experienced ELT trainer with good ICT skills to become an ICT trainer than to train a person with good ICT skills who lacks teacher training skills

the main recommendations of this report are that:

The BC CR should use the information contained in this report to invite identified members of the current cadre of BC ELT trainers to apply to become BC ICT trainers.
Appropriate training should then be provided by the BC to further develop these trainers' current ICT skills and ICT training skills.
These BC ICT trainers might provide ICT skills training to a wide variety of target groups, such as BC project partners, and teachers of all subjects from primary to tertiary level.
BC ICT trainers might provide training in ICT skills for ELT for BC project partners and English teachers, again from primary to tertiary levels and AMATE members, perhaps as part of the TRANSKELT project.
BC ICT trainers might provide training for people in other spheres of life.
BC ICT trainers would be paid by Pedagogical Centres, their own institutions, and other bodies.
This training should complement, not compete with, the training envisaged in the SIPVZ document (Conception of the State Information Policy in Education) and have the support of the Ministry of Education.
The BC CR should actively promote international co-operation in the field of ICT training for teachers, eg by:

Exploring any recommendations which arise from the International ICT Trainers Workshop which will take place in Prague (4-10 July)
Promoting the identification and sharing of ICT training best practice, course materials, syllabuses, diagnostic tests etc
Facilitating the sharing of information about appropriate levels of ICT training, relevant qualifications, modes of financing, accreditation issues, etc
Making the present report available to as wide an audience as possible, eg by making it available on the Internet and publicizing its existence amongst potentially interested audiences such as ELTeCS, ELQ-L, IATEFL Computer SIG, LTTECH, BC CR ELT trainers, BC CR project partners, BC CR INSETT trainers who took part in the recent ICT skills training course, Czech teachers' associations, Pedagogical Centres, the Czech Ministry of Education, etc in addition to all appropriate people within the BC CR itself.
Facilitating the investigation of best practice in ICT training for teachers, eg by investigating how different countries have tackled/are tackling the issue of ICT training for teachers and by looking at cases in other countries in which the BC has become involved in ICT training for the public education sector.

Furthermore, given that the need to provide ICT training for teachers and BC project partners is not restricted to the CR and that it is likely that such a need is common to all countries in the ECE Region (and further afield), even if the specific stages countries have reached are slightly different in each case, it is also recommended that:

The BC CR should investigate, together with other BC offices in the region the desirability of setting up a Regional ICT Co-ordinator post to co-ordinate the sort of international co-operation referred to above and put a stop to the "re-invention of the wheel" in each country

Moreover, it is recommended that

The BC CR should provide help to ensure that all present and future BC project partners have adequate ICT skills (eg ECDL level) to prevent poor skills creating a brake on the success of such projects.
If it is felt that if it is in harmony with BC CR aims and objectives, the BC CR should play an instrumental role in providing advice to the Czech Ministry of Education about best practice in the area of helping teachers (and future teachers) to become ICT literate. This advice might include such topics as:

Skill targets
Suitable qualifications
Financing
Accreditation of training
Linking of ICT literacy to career development and promotion
Provision of ICT training courses

Referring now to the Basic ICT Skills Course for Insett trainers, reported on in Section 4 of this study, we recommend that:

The three-pronged approach adopted on this course, combining face-to-face training sessions, worksheets and egroup support, be considered as a useful model for future ICT skills courses.
The practical information obtained about all aspects of running such a course (detailed in Section 4.6.5) should be made available to future course organisers.
The series of worksheets, which were developed as part of this course and would be useful for anyone seeking to improve their basic ICT skills, including teachers, should be made available on an official BC website, and might be made available in Czech.

Note: A more detailed description of these recommendations can be found in Section 6.2 (Specific Recommendations).