BMWF SCASE - Technical and Social Challenges related to Collaborative E-Learning in Central and South Eastern European Countries

One of the key issues in establishing and promoting Information and Knowledge Society in the south East Europe countries (SEE) is the question of Information and Communication Technolgoy (ICT) literacy among the citizens of these countries. As current research studies show the level of that literacy in these countres is still very low and unsatisfactory. The aim of this project is to towrk out an RTD roadmap towards a network-based educational platform as a concrete means to achieve more general goals: The platform shall be accessible to a wide basis of citizens of the Western Balkan regardless of their age, gender, prior ICT knowledge, literacy level, nationality, of social status. Such an educational platform would serve as media and content delivery platform for educational content on ICT. However, the educational purpose can be only seen as a kick-off for a wider social, networking, and community purpose. As experiences from other developing countries show network educational platforms that included community aspects attracted a larger number of users, initiated discussion and collaboration, caused network effect, and in turn resulted in improved increase in ICT literacy.