There seems to be a lot of talk about EPICT on Twitter and the various ICT discussion lists at the moment. Everyone seems to be talking about it so I thought I had better have a browse on the web to see if I could enlighten myself.
Right, so EPICT stands for European Pedagogical ICT licence, which is a European-wide scheme that Ireland are now looking at. It appears to be led by a Séamus McGuinness who is the head of Prim-Ed so, there must be some sort of entrepeneurialism from this venture. From the web site, the EPICT licence allows teachers to do online training to gain European recognition for pedagogical ICT use. It also seems that rather than it being a programme for individuals, groups of teachers are supposed to take part.
The course contains several modules, 4 of which are compulsory and then you get a choice of a load of others. The compulsory ones are:
- Locating and Incorporating Online Resources
- Word Processing and the Writing Process
- Communication and Collaboration on the Internet
- ICT and School Innovation
Optional modules include web development, spreadsheets, digital images, desktop publishing and databases. All in all, the course looks like it does mean “pedagogical” and not simply teaching ICT skills to teachers.
According to Robert O’Leary from Sacred Heart Senior National School, who piloted the programme, it was a very positive experience. It would be interesting to see other teachers’ opinions on the course, especially those who have done it in other countries some years ago and how it benefited their staff.
If you want to read more, visit:
- http://www.epictireland.org – the official EPICT Ireland site
- http://www.sandyroadtc.ie – A pilot project offering EPICT
- http://www.cesi.ie – Join the CESI List to read what practitioners are saying
Thanks Simon
I think the EPICT movement is a great idea, and finally helps address the issue of an ICT training syllabus for educators, that is not just “re-purposed” training programmes from the corporate world.
That said, I’m not sure if I understand what you are inferring when you say in your article “It appears to be led by a Séamus McGuinness who is the head of Prim-Ed so, there must be some sort of entrepeneurialism from this venture.”
Surely it is only by the backing of private enterprise and training organisations that such programmes ever gain gravitas? For example, with the wideranging provision of ECDL throughout the last 2 decades or with industry endorsed accreditations as such as those from Microsoft and CompTIA, which have worldwide credibility.
I think this is particularly relevant following today’s announcement that FETAC cannot even guarantee the certification of FAS run courses! I’m a strong advocator, as you know, in the partnership between public and private training provision, which delivers the most up-to-date, relevant courses with the reassurance (hopefully) of public regulation and administration.
In fairness to Mr. McGuinness and Prim-Ed, I think Prim-Ed have been at the forefront of promoting the introduction in Interactive Whiteboards in Ireland and can certainly be credited with helping their rapid uptake throughout the country in recent years, a welcome result despite the “entrepeneurialism” motivations necessary for such organisation to even exist.
I would be interested to hear of any teacher’s experience of the EPICT programme and comments or opinions on the syllabus.
Hi Thomas
Thanks for the comments. Sorry if there is some confusion over the phrase but I meant nothing negative by it. I simply meant that it was being done by a business rather than it being government-led. Hope all is good with you, S