Council Resolution of 13 July 2001 on e-Learning
Date: 2001-07-13
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Internet, continuing education, information technology, multimedia, teaching curriculum, vocational training

20.7.2001

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 204/3

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 13 July 2001

on e-Learning

(2001/C 204/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Bearing in mind:

(7) The Commission’s

communication

(cid:145)e-Learning:
designing tomorrow’s education(cid:146) of 24 May 2000 which
sets out objectives in the light of the Lisbon conclusions
and as a complement to the Commissions comprehensive
(cid:145)e-Europe action plan(cid:146).

on

(1) The conclusions of the European Council in Lisbon of 23
and 24 March 2000 which set
the strategic goal of
creating a competitive, dynamic and knowledge-based
economy as well as
specific targets with regard to
information and communications technology (ICT) and
education, as well as the conclusions of the Stockholm
European Council of 23 and 24 March 2001 which reaf-
firmed that
improving basic skills, particularly IT and
digital skills is a top priority for the Union.

(8) The Commission’s communication entitled (cid:145)e-Learning
action plan (cid:151) designing tomorrow’s education(cid:146) of 28
March 2001 which defines common activity areas and
specific measures with regard to using new multimedia
technologies and the internet to improve the quality of
learning and which covers infrastructure, training, high-
quality multimedia services and content and dialogue and
cooperation at all levels,

(2) The report from the Council (Education) to the Stockholm
European Council on the concrete future objectives of
education and training systems which underlines,
inter
alia,
the
for
importance of developing
knowledge society and achieving the targets set by the
Lisbon European Council to ensure access to ICTs for
everyone.

skills

the

(3) The request at the Stockholm European Council for a new
report
in 2002,
containing a detailed work programme on the follow-up
of the objectives of education and training systems.

spring European Council

the

for

(4) The important commitment to the use of ICT in education
and training already present in the Socrates and Leonardo
Programmes
existing Community
as other
instruments.

as well

(5) The guidelines for Member States’ employment policies for
2001 (1) which stress that in connection with developing
skills for the new labour market in the context of lifelong
learning, Member States will aim at developing e-Learning
for all citizens.

(6) The Council

resolution of 6 May 1996 relating to
educational multimedia
of
education and training and the Council conclusions of
22 September 1997 on education,
information and
communication technology and teacher training for the
future (2).

software

in the

fields

(1) Council Decision 2001/63/EC of 19 January 2001 (OJ L 22,

24.1.2001, p. 18).

(2) OJ C 303, 4.10.1997, p. 5.

(9) INVITES the Member States:

(i) to continue their efforts concerning the effective
integration of
ICT in education and training
systems, as an important part of the adaptation of
the education and training systems requested by the
Lisbon European Council Conclusions and by the
Report on concrete future objectives of education
systems;

realisation of

(ii) to capitalise on the potential of Internet, multimedia
and virtual learning environments for a better and
lifelong learning as a basic
faster
educational principle and for providing access to
educational and training opportunities for all,
in
particular for those who have access problems for
social, economic, geographical or other reasons;

(iii) to promote the necessary provision of ICT learning
opportunities within education and training systems
by accelerating integration of ICT and revision of
school
in all
relevant subject areas without losing sight of the
long-term objectives
approach
and the
required by educational systems;

education curricula

and higher

critical

(iv) to continue their efforts in the initial and in-service
training of teachers and trainers in the pedagogical
use of ICT, given the need to develop the digital
culture as one essential element
in the teacher’s
basic skills and to motivate teachers and trainers
to make the best pedagogical use of ICT in their
own teaching;

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Official Journal of the European Communities

20.7.2001

(v) to encourage those responsible for educational and
training establishments as well as local, regional and
national decision-makers and other relevant stake-
holders to acquire the necessary understanding of
the potential offered by ICT for enhancing new
ways of
learning and pedagogical development in
order to integrate and manage ICT effectively;

(vi) to accelerate the provision of equipment and of a
quality infrastructure for education and training,
taking into account
technical progress: hardware,
software and Internet access within educational
and training establishments, and relevant human
resources for ensuring help, support and main-
tenance services;

(vii) to encourage the development of high-quality digital
teaching and learning materials to ensure quality of
online offers; to provide appropriate support mech-
anisms to facilitate the choice of quality products for
teachers and managers of educational and training
establishments;

(viii) to take advantage of the opportunities that digiti-
sation and documentary standardisation offer for
facilitating access and increasing the educational
and pedagogical use of public cultural resources,
such as libraries, museums and archives;

integrates the use of

(ix) to support the development and adaptation of inno-
tech-
vative pedagogy that
nology within broader cross-curriculum approaches;
to foster new approaches, based on a more extensive
use of innovative pedagogical methods and software
and the use of new devices and experiences in order
to stimulate learners’ knowledge and motivation and
so foster, as a part of
teaching, critical attitudes
among learners to content on the Internet and
other media;

(x) to exploit the communication potential of ICT to
foster European awareness, exchanges, and colla-
boration at all eductation and training levels, and
especially in schools; to consider the possibility of
integrating these European experiences in curricula,
and to support and strengthen physical and virtual
education,
an important part of
mobility
developing
competencies
required to live and work in a multilingual and
multicultural society;

new skills

and

the

as

(xi) to support and stimulate virtual meeting places for
cooperation
information,
exchange
experience and good practice, which will take into
account new pedagogic approaches and new forms

and

of

cooperation between learners,

and between
of
trainers and to stimulate European
teachers or
levels in the field of educational
networking at all
multimedia,
Internet,
ICT-mediated collaboration and learning, and other
uses of ICT in education and training;

educational

use

of

(xii) to capitalise and build on the experiences gained in
the framework of initiatives such as the European
School-net
and European Network of Teacher
Education Policies (ENTEP);

(xiii) to foster the European dimension of

in higher

joint devel-
ICT-mediated and ICT-complemented
opment of
curricula
education, by encouraging
further common approaches in higher education
certification models and quality assurance (following
the
provide
incentives to establishments, faculties or departments
achieving innovative and pedagogically sound work
at European level, in this area;

Sorbonne/Bologna

process);

to

(xiv) to enhance research in e-Learning, in particular on
how to improve learning performance through ICT,
pedagogical development, implications of ICT-based
teaching and learning and to stimulate international
cooperation in this regard;

(xv) to promote partnership between the public and
private sectors as a contribution to the development
of e-Learning in order to encourage exchange of
experiences,
the dialogue on future requirements
for multimedia learning materials; and technology
transfer;

(xvi) to monitor and analyse the process of integration
and use of ICT in teaching, training and learning,
to provide
existing quantitative and qualitative
information, and to develop improved observation
and
share
experiences and to exchange good practices with a
view to contributing to the follow-up to the Report
on the concrete future objectives of education and
training systems;

evaluation methods,

order

to

in

(10) INVITES the Commission:

(i) to pay particular attention in its implementation of
the e-Learning Action Plan, to the work related to
the key priorities expressed in the Report on the
concrete future objective of education and training
systems such as exchange of good practice and
experiences between Member
including
experiences from other countries;

States,

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(ii) to continue supporting existing European portals
and to encourage the development of other portals
to facilitate access to educational content and to
promote collaboration and exchange of experiences
in the area of e-Learning and pedagogical devel-
opment, especially with a view to:

(cid:151) supporting transnational virtual meeting places,

(cid:151) stimulating European networking at all levels and
in this context establish and provide networks
for the benefit of teacher training,

(cid:151) supporting directories of existing quality Internet

resources.

in this

context,

software

(iii) to implement support actions at European level, in
particular to share experience and information about
products and services in the field of multimedia
educational
to
and,
propose methods for assistance and advice in the
selection of qualitative and pedagogical multimedia
the establishment of cross-border links
resources;
of
between
producers,
education and
to
promote quality in products and services and
and
better
demand; to support information and communication
actions and European-wide debate in all the above
matters;

and managers
in order

correspondence

between

training

systems

supply

users

learners’ styles, cultures
growing differentiation of
and languages, and to foster,
in cooperation with
Member States, virtual mobility and transnational
virtual campus projects, especially in the field of
languages, science and technology, art and culture;

(vi) to

on

studies

strategic

undertake

innovative
approaches
in education, on the pedagogical
aspects of new technologies, on the strengths and
weaknesses of the European educational multimedia
sector, and on the potential of cultural institutions
and science centres as new learning environments;

in the

research,

framework of Community
(vii) to intensify,
programmes,
and
experimentation
evaluation on pedagogical, socioeconomic and tech-
nological
new ICT-mediated
approaches, and on their adaptation to users’
needs;
this
to actively disseminate the results of
research with a view to facilitating its transfer to
the
to
and
professional publishers and providers;

dimensions

education

training

systems

and

of

resources,

the development of European multi-
(viii) to support
educational
and
lingual
services,
taking into account, when necessary,
education and training-related aspects of intellectual
property rights and the use of new distribution
methods, and the development and promotion of
internationally aspected standards and open source
software;

platforms

(iv) to examine together with Member States whether
the (cid:145)eSchola, a week for e-Learning in Europe(cid:146),
could develop into an on-going activity that
includes an annual high-profile event;

(v) to support the testing of new learning environments
and approaches in order to take into account the

(ix) to report to the Council on the results of the above-
mentioned activities no later than December 2002,
in order to facilitate an overall evaluation of their
results and decisions on further actions. An interim
report shall also be presented to the Council
in
November 2001.