Abstract: Language promotes the most suitable way for expressing ideas, habits and values. For a multinational educational project (Comenius 2.1.) with a widespread European target group, it is very important to provide the online educational resources (courses, virtual instruments, etc.) through the project website, in several languages: English (as a worldwide spoken language) and partners' languages. This paper briefly presents three methods to create multi-language web sites and proposes a new architecture – the hybrid method architecture. In addition an example of a multi-language web site implementation is illustrated.

Abstract: Although the e-mail is the most used technology for remote collaboration, the team work within multinational projects involves collaborative activities that only the e-mail cannot support. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the activity amount that a multinational team has on a collaborative platform used to support the team work. The paper presents two examples of collaborative platforms usage for communication and for collaborative work within European educational projects.

Abstract: Traditional learning process involves a series of costs related to the resources used and assumes certain restrictions to the lessons because of the way they are planed and deployed. Technological development has allowed the removal of certain restrictions, but it has also led to additional consequences, inexistent in traditional learning. This paper presents an analysis, in terms of costs and resources, which is needed in the implementation and operation of the systems that provide environments for collaborative learning, by highlighting some designed elements that can lead to reduced costs. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract: Nowadays, the presence of ICT in education became a common fact and its importance cannot be overlooked. Starting from connecting people and resources, ICT was implemented in teaching and learning on a large scale, offering a real added-value to the educational process. One of the most common implementations in education is strongly referred to the use of World Wide Web. In many applications, it is explored through its navigating functions or exploited as an information resource, but it has an important potential to be used even as a tutor. Specific web-tools, gathered under an environment called e-Space, – were created during the three years Socrates-Comenius 2.1 European project “VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education”, which supported the pedagogical use of virtual experiments, as a new technology in the common Science teaching and learning process. The paper presents the instruments included in the e-Space and emphasizes also on its particular aspects, organized and developed as a web resource, useful for Science teachers. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract: The paper emphasizes the principal steps developed for setting up of a web educational video-clips exhibition, composed by 50 representative video-experiments related to the implementation of the virtual experiments in Sciences education, as this was done in the frame of the Socrates-Comenius 2.1. European project: “VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education”. The Exhibition represents a web interface that contains the best virtual experiments produced by the in-service teachers who finalized the Virtual Instrumentation in Science Education training modules, carried out as a main output of the mentioned project. Beside the educational video-clips, other 9 on-line / remote simulating laboratories (produced by the project partnership) allow teachers and students to work directly inside the experiment. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The paper emphasizes on the educational features of the video-clips that promote virtual experiments, having in view the representation of real experiments as video demonstrations (for Chemistry and Physics lessons) and the possibility for investigating students' mathematical thinking (for Mathematics lessons). The presented experiences are illustrated as part of the results of the Socrates-Comenius 2.1 European project 128989-CP-1-2006-1-RO-COMENIUS-C21: “VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education”, coordinated by Valahia University Targoviste, focusing on a web Exhibition which consists of 50 video-clips that present important pedagogical aspects related to the use of virtual experiments in education. The produced video-clips target to the opening of new themes and reflection topics on how to increase the educational valences of virtual experiments and how to involve the video-clips, as multimedia products, in the teaching practice. This represents a feasible option for increasing the quality of the actual teaching methods for Sciences and Engineering Education.

Abstract: Nowadays, the videoconference represents a spread technology in the distant training processes but experienced also in the traditional ones, mostly in the frame of national and international projects. Taking into consideration the last type of actions, the paper emphasizes on the main aspects carried out for organizing a Meeting with European Science teachers, under the umbrella of a videoconference, as a distinct dissemination activity, planned in the frame of the three years Socrates-Comenius 2.1 European project “VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education” – code 128989-CP-1-2006-1-RO-COMENIUS-C21. The project partnership consists of 9 institutions, coordinated by Valahia University Targoviste, Romania. The paper offers an image on the videoconference organization and feedback collected from the participants. There were taken into consideration and discussed aspects like: technical and organizational criteria, content of the videoconference, communication and feedback criteria, strong and weak points met during the videoconference session. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Guest Editor.

Abstract: Since Internet became in the last years the biggest source of information, the book concept has been dramatically redefined, especially in terms of separating of its content and the related support. Practically, when using the electronic media, a book could take a different look – the electronic book (e-book). Due to their widely spread in the last period, the e-books are one of the most effective ways to support distance learning (e-learning), as they can be read by thousands of readers. Due to the fact that the teachers have limited time for participating to the face-to-face training programmes, the e-books became an important tool for promoting different training courses organized in the frame of various projects. It was also the case of the three years Socrates-Comenius 2.1 European project “FISTE – A Future Way for In-Service Teacher Training across Europe” – code 118766-CP-1-2004-1-RO-COMENIUS-C21, when the partnership organized the on-line courses entitled “Integrated ICT in Traditional Training” and “ECSUT: Educational Challenges & Solutions in Using ICT” [1]. The best practices and experiences of the teachers who achieved the on-line courses were collected and help the partnership to design a web-guideline entitled “Best Practices Guideline for Educational Use of ICT Tools” as a final output of the project. The content of the European course and the web-guideline have been produced as an e-book format by using Desktop Author software application. In this sense, the paper aims to present the most important features proposed by Desktop Author software during the design process of the mentioned e-books, together with the main facets presented by the related e-volumes. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Guest Editor.

Abstract: Since the beginning of the 21(st) Century, massive changes took place in the field of education. New teaching and learning methods based on using modern ICT tools – like virtual experiments, educational video-clips or other multimedia products – have been implemented in the educational process. The paper presents an analysis of the impact produced by the implementation of new virtual experiments designed by 146 teachers who participated to a 40 hours training modules “ Virtual Instrumentation in Science Education” organized in the frame of Socrates-Comenius 2.1. European project “ VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education”. Different aspects and interpretation related to the challenges and difficulties encountered during the implementation process are also included. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.