the final work is to be done on Grundtvig1Preproposal, ordering alongside the Questions in the form!

ERDE pages were supposed to be completely transferred to http://www.openleader.com

I cannot find this page there - http://www.openleader.com/index.php/ERDE/Grundtvig1PreproposalEssentials does not exist!!

Information Coaching – R I C

DRAFT for GRUNDTVIG I Pre-Prepoposal

Übersicht Information Coaching – R I C    DRAFT for GRUNDTVIG I Pre-Prepoposal    1. Introduction    2. RIC Education    Three Pillars Model Content - Tools - Structure    3.Partners    Germany:    Hungary:    UK:    Austria:    Poland:    Lithuania:    4. Tools needed and to be supported by the EU

1. Introduction

Information and its availability is a crucial factor for the quality of living and working environments in the information age. Regional Information Coaching is a means to balance the lack of specialised institutions for information handling and retrieval in rural areas.

It can be best compared to running a multipurpose community library, where the community helps its members and visitors to find access to everything they need. Such institutions exist in many forms today, for example as Telecottages or CommunityMediaCenters?, and we think their importance will dramatically increase in the years to come.

The assumption is that we need a new professional education to be applicable in current and future access and learning places, one that is based on a very general outlook on a wide scope of information sources and contents balanced with a sound understanding of real information needs and the relation between information and its impact in the local community.

Information coaching means not only to support learners - it also means: to foster the spirit of sharing and cooperation in a community and to foster the hunger for learning.

2. RIC Education

We try to start from the assumption that regional governments that want to invest in their future get real benefits from investing in education that they also are able to coordinate with regional needs. This educational profession shifts into four directions which are taken up by RIC.

Learner-centeredness is the first essential of RIC. The guideline for the educational process is the practical problem that the learner brings. The coach is basically connector to resources and specialised in the nature of global informational resources which can be helpful in the solution of a local problem. This is the core of the profession and competence: knowledge of the Internet and the way it can be used for learning and communicating is the prime requirement.

The second essential of Regional Information Coaching is its public service nature - that this learning activity at least at the startup level is not requiring fees or honoraria; it should be publicly funded to support the emergence of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activities of all kinds, especially social entrepreneurs. For example, somebody who wants to start a business in renewable energy could use the Regional Information Coaching to look for local ways to produce photovoltaics or for methods of composting biomass.

The third essential of Regional Information Coaching is that even if the boundaries in which regional solutions can be found are flexible, RIC is definitely a regional activity. RIC could function on the level of a village, like a librarian, but it also could function in the context of a region. While it is favorable that RIC has a physical location and center, the support can also happen over distances within a region bridged by telecommunication or even physical travel. It is not neccesary for a farmer in a remote mountain location to travel physically to the Regional Information Centre to receive advices on how to navigate the internet on the search for useful information. Still the location of a centre has a very important symbolic value; information is not "placeless", it serves as glue and fuel to make the region work better. It gets more and more complex, it is the self-reflection of the physical circumstance and indicates what is missing and what is needed, what is available and what could be done.

The fourth essential of RIC is that it builds on a culture of co-operation and free content. RICs are people who mediate the creation of workgroups and learngroups between regions, to empower and facilitate their local learners. The more open content available, the more orderered and structured by thorough investigation, the easier the work of the Regional Information Coach. In fact RICs are also part of a network of their own, while they are facilitating networking.

It is important to give some consideration to the target groups that RICs serve. Maybe it should be stated explicitely in the preproposal that the very existence of RICs makes it possible for groups that are otherwise excluded from the net to benefit from it. So one of the goals of RIC could be for example to work also with the rural poor, make it possible for them to participate in the Information society. The meaning but also the success of the preproposal will be augmented if there can be explicit mentioning of target groups that can hardly be reached and supported any other way. MargareteAulehla in discussion with FranzNahrada

Three Pillars Model Content - Tools - Structure

A content:

∑ - needs and solutions

∑ - relation between problem and information

∑ - providing help to access information

B tools

∑ -sources and tools of accessing information

∑ -many different ways to find

C Structure

∑ -managing the sustainability of RIC *-law, management

Requirements for RICs

∑ -should live in this village

∑ -should have an office there

∑ -should create local learning

∑ -should document local knowledge

∑ -should know the Englisch language

∑ -should train and motivate people so that they are able to look for information by themselves

∑ -should be informed about the regional specifications

Training of RICs Training should be provided in modules which form a kind of portfolio.

Benefits RIC could provide:

∑ - free learning material available – RIC makes them accessable

∑ - open content (open source)

∑ - network of information

∑ - network of specialists and exchange

∑ - cooperations und synergies

∑ - self study the trend of the 21st century

∑ - sustainability

∑ - "the flying classroom”

∑ - trainings, workshops

∑ - new life for all institutions

∑ - participate in global knowledge

∑ business incubators on local level

3.Partners

Germany:

- Association for digital opportunities - Bremen, Berlin - Jutta Croll

- The city of Coburg - Karin Engelhardt

- Johannisches Sozialwerk e.V. – Berlin, Friedensstadt: Alexander Romahn

- ELPA Group – Berlin, Friedensstadt: Prof. Dr. Arsène Verny

Hungary:

- University of Sopron and the telehouses

UK:

- BECTA - British Educucation Communications Technology Agency (idea)

- Ruralnet

- University of Teeside Community Practice

- NIACE - Adult Education Learningcenters (idea)

- Community Development Fundation (idea)

- Massmitec/David Wortley (promotor)

Austria:

- Bildungs- und Heimatwerk NÖ

- Lower Austria to the Internet

- Culture/Business centre of Kirchbach

- Bildungshaus St. Arbogast

- GIVE Research Lab on Global Villages

Poland:

- MIK Dom Tanca

- RIC Rural Development Foundation - Fundacja Rozwoju WS

- Malecovo Gimnazjum

Lithuania:

- Varena Institute for vocational training

- Andrius Kulikauskas and the Minciu sodas network

4. Tools needed and to be supported by the EU

4.1. Data Base

The need to build a working data base about regional access points. Our partner SDC is specialised in building such data bases.

4.2. Website

Purpose of the website

∑ documentation for the broad audience

∑ Promotion of RIC to mayors, local communities, councils, firms (like a brochure)

∑ possibilty of providing and downloading documents about RIC Material needed for creating the website

∑ - pictures of the partners involved in RIC

∑ - description of the partner´s objectives

∑ - list of the partner´s activities in connection with RIC

∑ - material of the partner´s activities (agendas of workshops, presentations, lectures, reports on workshops, ....)

4.3. Networking

All the above mentioned partners need time and opportunities to meet for preparing the contents and the working plans for each partnering country. The aim is to create a living network of RIC with a head quarter (the educational centre) and lots of subsidiaries in the local/rural areas.

4.4. Educational Centre

The Centre should offer enough space and technical equipment for adult learning groups up to 15 People. The partnering organisation Johannisches Sozialwerk e.V. offers a former military site 40 km from Berlin for reconstruction as part of the RIC project.

maybe a wandering headquarter ??? (FranzN)

4.5. Tentative actions (days of open learning) (austria)

4.6. Field studies (RIC volunteerships) (lithuania)

4.7. E-learning modules (hungary)

4.8. Virtual Classroom and Web Conference Facility' (United Kingdom)

The RIC Virtual Classroom should be a laboratory for collaborative meetings, learning and social events. One of the main failures of innovative projects is there is insufficient sharing of best practices. The RIC Virtual Classroom would support a program of trans-national learning and collaboration events accessed through a standard web browser.