BUSINESS
E-learning is paying off, Intel exec says
22-10-2004
by
An executive from Intel has said that investments in e-learning are beginning to bear fruit, citing figures which show that Intel's Skoool.ie Web site is busiest in the evening.
The Skoool.ie Web portal was set up by Intel, the Irish Times and Allied Irish Bank to provide additional academic resources to Irish schoolchildren. Not only is the Web site busiest outside of school hours, but weekend traffic on the site is comparable to traffic during the week.
"The proportion of Web site users accessing rich media content is now 40 percent, up from 20 percent in 2003," said Jim Kelly, strategic programme manager at Intel, who was speaking at TIF's Telecommunications for Education conference in University College Dublin's O'Reilly Hall on Thursday. "We believe that this increase is as a result of the increasing availability of broadband."
Kelly said that skoool.ie was only one of Intel's educational initiatives and that it also supported more than 100 computer clubs worldwide, which made high specification PCs available to students who might not otherwise have such access. It also sponsors the Intel Initiative in Education, which organises teacher training programmes and community initiatives to bridge the technology gap in society.
Kelly said that education is the only activity that Intel sponsors and that the company believed that education was a key factor in the creation of a knowledge-based society.
Microsoft, the company that develops the operating system most commonly used on Intel's computer processors, also believes that its e-learning initiatives are starting to reach critical mass. The latest version of Encarta, a digital encyclopaedia which is published by the Seattle-based software giant, includes the curriculum and teaching resources required for five of the subjects certified in Ireland's junior and leaving certificate exams. The company has also launched Children's Encarta, which is aimed at younger readers than those using the standard edition of Encarta.
Joe Macri, the head of Microsoft Ireland, also said that Microsoft's Innovative Teachers portal provided study plans, teaching resources and on-line forums for teachers worldwide.
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