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: 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: The success of a multinational partnership depends on many factors. Probably the most important factor is represented be the adequate collaboration between the partners. The activities developed by the project partnership involve usually group decisions. Although the e-mail is the most used technology for distance collaboration, the team work within a multinational project involves collaborative activities and the decisions associated to it that only the e-mail cannot support. This paper presents several collaborative task examples and decision scenarios which are specific to many European funded multinational educational projects. The analysis of these scenarios shapes a list of features specific to different collaborative technologies that should be combined and provided into an integrated system in order to facilitate the collaborative activities developed in the frame of multinational projects.

Abstract: The advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) provide significant opportunities to improve teaching and learning. The use of ICT in science education offers even more advantages due to the attractive premises to simulate and interactively explore and test experiments which would be too expensive or too dangerous in real settings (for example in nuclear physics). The aim of this paper is to contribute to the research field of technology based learning by presenting several findings obtained during a multinational educational project (Comenius) regarding the use of computer in classroom, in science education, in Romania, Spain, Poland, Greece and Finland. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.