1. 1 The Repository of the Portuguese Ministry of Education: current situation and looking ahead

2. 2 Present situation Catalogue of digital educational resources (DER) at the online Resource Centre of the MoE; Some local repositories maintained by Competence Centres, Teacher Training Centres, Universities, etc.; Many of these DERs were created in the framework of teacher training courses and workshops. Competence Centres are local structures, comprising Universities, Schools of Education, associations of Teacher Training Centres, which train and support schools and teachers in the use of ICT. They also undertake research and help define national policies.

3. 3 A few examples (a) MoE Catalogue of different learning resources - not just digital –, maintained by the Resource Centre of the DGIDC. Present situation

4. 4 A few examples (b) Eduteca Maintained by a Competence Centre, it contains, among others, WebQuests, Online Treasure Hunts, Quizzes, … Present situation

5. 5 A few examples (c) R21 Maintained by a Competence Centre, it is the largest repository of, among others, resources for the use of interactive whiteboards. Present situation

6. 6 Technological Plan for Education Objectives: Technological update of all Basic and Secondary schools; Promotion of the integration and widespread use of ICT in teaching, learning and school administration. Technology Axes ContentsTraining Schools Portal Content Repository E-learning platform

7. 7 DER - National Strategy defined around four axes: Creation Evaluation and Certification Deployment/Organisation Educational Use/Curriculum Integration. Preliminary study for development of portal has been finished; Actual implementation will start in November. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository National Strategy

8. 8 The repository will hold information about commercial and non-commercial DERs as well as non-commercial DERs themselves; Users will be able to customise their repository; Statistics will include the identification of popular functions, user surveys and the characterisation of user types (registered users); The system is intended to be user-friendly; It revolves around a strong notion of user community, but it is too soon to know what the response will be. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository Some specifications

9. 9 An evaluation and certification system has been designed and implemented (prototype); It is aimed mainly at certifying commercial products but will also address non-commercial resources; This system includes support to users of educational digital resources; 3rd phase of training of DER evaluators is underway: a total of 120+ evaluators covering all school subjects and areas; This evaluation system will be ported to the Schools Portal. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository CERTRED

10. 10 1st-tier evaluation – commercial products The publisher applies for certification and the product is analysed by two independent evaluators; If both evaluations are positive, its publisher can append a quality label to it. The evaluator will write a report which will be pubicly available in the system. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository Three-tier system

11. 11 1st-tier evaluation – commercial products The publisher can ask for a reappreciation in case his/her product wasn’t certified; In this case, the analysis will be done by a consultant, a University teacher who is an expert both in the subject matter and in ICT. He will have access to the previous evaluations. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository Three-tier System

12. 12 2nd-tier evaluation – non-commercial priority resources This is used for non-commercial products which at any one time, the MoE considers a priority. Some examples: priority curriculum areas (PAL, Maths, Science); resouces for 1st cycle of Basic Education (Magellan laptops) or for Interactive Whiteboards; The same evaluation system is used in a mitigated form: just one evaluator who also writes a final report on the DER. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository Three-tier System

13. 13 3rd-tier evaluation – teacher-made resources Resources are input by users; There will be some sort of validation before the resource is publicly available. This validation will include the introduction of metadata. Community-centred evaluation (a star-system); Users will be able to tag resources andleave their comments on them. Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository Three-tier System

14. 14 The Directorate-General for Innovation and Curriculum Development, through its Educational Resource and Technology Team is: Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository a partner of the ASPECT project; developing 120 digital resources for PAL in the framework of this project; now a member of the EdReNe; a partner of the European Learning Resource Exchange network; Adopting widely used standards; Partnerships

15. 15 Schools Portal – Digital Educational Resource Repository aware of the importance of Creative Commons licensing options; currently assessing the need to/interest in adopt/ing the Common Cartridge standard; aware of the huge challenges facing the creation of a national-level DER repository; happy to join those who are treading/have trodden this same path. Decisions and hopes The Directorate-General for Innovation and Curriculum Development, through its Educational Resource and Technology Team is: