In the last few months I was busy gathering information about Free Software in education. My list of bookmarks grew longer and longer since there are a million interesting pages out there.

Collecting, and just collecting will not produce any results. Thus, I declare this introductory phase as over and will review what I have so far.

One interesting page I found was Eurodice, which is supposed to provide some “detailed descriptions of how European education systems are organised and how they function and comparative studies covering various aspects of education systems”, which sounds very promising to me.

I  read a study there named “Key Data on Information and Communication Technology in Schools in Europe” from 2004. The data it is based on is even older, but I thought it is worth looking at anyhow.

And indeed, it contains a few points that are still valid, I suppose. Here are some:

Although it’s obvious, I think it’s a useful finding to remember:

In the initial stage, computer facilities are intended mainly for administrative and teaching staff. After that, they are made available to pupils.

This staff might need to be convinced first!

Families generally make it easy for children aged 9 or 10 to access the home computer. This applies to all countries surveyed, irrespective of the level of home computerisation. The great majority of children in this age-group use computers (excluding consoles and portable equipment) to play games. The percentage of those who say they search for information and write is high however in several countries (Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and the United Kingdom).

I would like to know why this is so different in these countries. It seems to me that they do something right that others don’t.

… although infrequent use is also reported by countries with a high level of computerisation (French Community of Belgium, Germany and France), in which the majority of 15-year-old pupils say they never or almost never use computers at school.

I would like to know why they don’t use the computer as much as in other countries, even though the resources are available. I don’t think that this is a bad sign, because I don’t think the computer is the best device to teach. But if it’s being used, it should be used with Free Software.

If you have any hints that could lead to answers to my questions, please drop me a note or leave a comment!