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9Arie Keijzer
ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN DUTCH AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
Preface
This report is made to provide an impression of the development in Dutch Agricultural Education, and the role that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) had in this development. After a brief outlook on the history of Agricultural Education, more emphasis is put on the new developments.
Nowadays it is unthinkable to have education without a strong influence of ICT, and in the next part of this report the place and function of this ICT-tools will be described and discussed.
Introduction
In The Netherlands, a high-developed Agriculture is available. This Agricultural sector is important for economy and export of the country. In total a value of 47 thousand million Euro a year is produced by this specific sector5. This was 20% of the total export value in 2003. Besides the primary production, the processing of this primary production and also the export of specialist knowledge about the Agricultural sector is an important issue.
The Ministry of Agriculture has recognized the importance of good, efficient, modern and high quality Agricultural Education. It is of utmost importance to maintain and to improve the position of Agriculture in The Netherlands.
In order to realize this, the Ministry has stimulated the modernization of the curriculum, and has organized the improvement of quality for the
5 Facts and Figures of the Dutch Agri-Sector 2004/2005
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sector as a whole. In fact, the Agricultural Sector is a strong stakeholder in modernization of Agricultural Education, and the Ministry listens carefully for their advice.
One of the innovative items of the past years was the introduction
and implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the curricula of the different levels of education. At first the Ministry stimulated several small ICT projects. This policy was named: «Let thousand flowers bloom». It was not the
intention to order strict regula-
tions, but to stimulate professional and enthusiastic staffmembers/teachers to try-out small-sized projects, and receive small subsidies to do so. These subsidies were provided as well in money (for computers and software), as in providing available time for staff members!
Later on, the Ministry developed a specific policy, after listening
intensively to the field of the Sector and the different levels of Agricultural
Education. For the Ministry it was very important that an ongoing line was developed and maintained from the first levels until the graduated students of University. By organizing it this way, they wanted to guarantee that the investments would be long lasting and effective.
Structure of Education
During the last 50 years Agricultural Education in the Netherlands has developed severely. At first the system consists mainly in small, local vocational agricultural schools, founded by farmer’s organizations, aimed to educate future farmers during the quiet wintertime. Besides there was a highly valued Agricultural University6, where researchers were trained thoroughly and teachers prepared for their all round job in education. In the sixties of the previous century the government initiated a new development in education. Secondary education was divided in two streams:
• a stream for general education, eventually leading into University;
6 Now: Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
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• a second stream, aimed on vocational education and preparing on a job.
This development was legislated in the so-called «Mammoth Law», and in the years that followed, several adaptations were proposed and accepted, to improve this system.
Figure 1. Dutch Education System
Agricultural education was part of the second stream of vocational education. After primary education, pupils could start the pre-vocational school on the age of 12 and it took 4 years to complete. This pre-vocational school trained the future farmers and agricultural workers. The government realized that for a thorough training of agricultural workers, this was not sufficient and graduates were too young to have a proper job. Therefore they initiated a Vocational training of 3 or 4 years. This vocational school was the core training for preparing the farmers and agricultural workers in the Netherlands. The abbreviation of this type of schools in the Netherlands is MBO. The diagram on next page shows its place.
In order to supply the sector with middle managers and managers on a professional basis, another level of school was instituted, the Universities for Professional Education (later recognized as Bachelor level). The last part in this chain of education was and is the Agricultural University (WUR) on Master level; where scientific research is taking place, and where leading managers and employers are educated. In the next diagram is visualized how this system is organized.
Nowadays the Agricultural Universities for Professional Education7 (HBO) and the Agricultural University in Wageningen (WO) are officially considered to be the same level, but we have to realize that the graduates of the University in Wageningen obtain the Masters degree, and the graduates of the Universities for Professional Education the Bachelor degree, which makes a difference in practise.
Besides this Education System, the Ministry of Agriculture has put a lot of effort in constructing and maintaining a «Knowledge Chain» between Research, Education, Extension-work and Agricultural Businesses. This chain has proven to be very important in the communication between the stakeholders in Agriculture. Translating the results of research by means of education and extension to the primary production, and in opposite direction: collecting the questions and difficulties from practise and bringing them in under the attention of the researchers to find the answers and solutions.
This chain is considered one of the most important entities in the development of Agriculture in The Netherlands.
Qualification Structure
In order to make the workers in Agriculture more and more competent for their jobs, the Ministry of Agriculture initiated a Qualification Structure.
This Qualification Structure contains all the competences that workers in Agriculture need to fulfil their jobs in an excellent way. Different functions and different jobs need different competences, therefore a thorough research has been fulfilled to identify all these competences, and to create a curriculum that meets all the requirements. Four different levels are identified:
7 There are 6 Agricultural Universities for Professional Education in The Netherlands.
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• Level 1: the assistant professional worker
(1 year course)
• Level 2: beginning professional worker
(2 years course)
• Level 3: independent professional worker
(3 years course)
• Level 4: Managing an agricultural company
(4 years course)
The purpose of this system was an optimal preparation of the workers, farmers, managers and assistants in all different parts of Agriculture. This should be done on the best level the students can cope with, and to guarantee a high percentage of certificated graduates, and skilled workers in the Agricultural sector.
Within these levels many specialized professional situations are distinguished. Some examples: managing a dairy farm (Level 4); growing potatoes (Level 3); maintaining tractors and equipment (Level 3); milking the cows (Level 2).
So these competences are not defined on a level of subjects (like: economics, biology, mathematics), which the student has to study at school, but on a larger collection of knowledge, skills and experiences, required to meet all the needs of a job. A balanced composition of competences, needed to successfully fulfil a job at the desired level!
The necessary knowledge and competences are evaluated and researched on a regular basis by an independent Institute under supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture.
While the graduates of the Vocational schools find their jobs in primary production as well in the periphery of Agriculture, the graduates of the Universities of Professional Education, and the graduates from the Wageningen Agricultural University (WUR) find there jobs in management of the larger agricultural companies, periphery, extension work, consultancy, teaching, training, international jobs, etc.
Scientific research is mainly performed by the graduates of Wageningen Agricultural University, but applied research also can be found at the Universities for Professional Education.
Future policy
The future of this Agricultural Education System can be characterized by the following expressions:
a. Learning should be more independent from educational systems, and more adjusted to meet the individual needs of the learner;
b. Learning should not stop at the graduation of a pupil or a student. It should go on Live-long;
c. Learners should be able to execute and proceed their learning processes, without depending on time and place;
d. Learning should be just in time, and just enough.
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videoconferenced "real time" dasscs asynchronous learning "any time, any p3yt;cM
Figure 2. Time and place independent
The Government wants to support the Agricultural sector with good, qualified and adequate educational institutes, on every level that is necessary.
This should be done to guarantee that the sector can rely on well educated workers, and that the good name of Agricultural Knowledge in the Netherlands, and the good quality of Agricultural export products will be without any doubt!
Therefore we need a well-developed flexible knowledge-system with international accepted quality standards. One of them is the Bologna agreement, ratified by the Dutch government.
Advanced Technology
In order to support this sophisticated system the Ministry of Agriculture has innovated and supported several projects on basis of «Information and Communication Technology». This support was proven in policy and available budgets. In these projects the Ministry has emphasized that Educational Institutes had to work together to make sure that educational processes based on this technology would not stop after finishing one Institute, but that it will proceed, and even work better, in a next Institute of the «educational chain». Again: the investment should be long lasting and efficient!
Working in Projects
The Ministry invited and encouraged Educational Institutes to formulate projects with clear objectives and aims; a fixed timeframe, and a clearly described budget.
Project planning is the keyword for successfully working on ICT!
After approving this Project plans by the Ministry, the School that was in charge of the project received the first part of the budget.
After an approved intermediate report, the school received the second part of the budget, and so on. The Ministry was checking progress constantly!
On the end the School has to give proof of the products being made in the project, and a sound report of a bookkeeping instituted has to be send to the Ministry.
All products of all projects will be available for all institutes, because they are made with governmental money. They are public property!
The Ministry of Agriculture dedicates a budget for these ICT projects on a yearly basis.
Kind of projects
The first projects were formulated as small projects, with small budgets for teachers and other enthusiastic employees of the schools, who want to improve their lessons. These small projects were mentioned under the saying: «Let thousand flowers bloom». So many teachers should have a chance to experiment and to be motivated to use ICT for their own lessons, without being bothered by strict regulations.
Secondly the larger scale projects were developed, for which also the Ministry developed an educational policy. This policy should be taken account of during development and execution of the larger projects.
By doing so the Ministry tried to guarantee that the investment would be successful, and used for all schools, and not only by the school, which was in charge of the specific project.
General demands
Because of the starting points mention above, there are some issues to take care of:
All systems should be web based, so all staff members and students can have access to the systems.
Information and knowledge used in these ICT projects demands a Qualification Structure, with well-defined competences for every job or role in the sector. This Qualification Structure will be supplied by the «Aequor» organisation on their website.
Knowledge about all kind of production systems should be available and maintained on highly reliable web based knowledge systems, with extended search and notification features.
All students and staff of Agricultural Institutes have authorized access unto the right level. They are well trained and motivated to use these systems.
High quality helpdesk systems and personnel will be available for staff and students.
Available programs
During the past years of projects a set of programs have proved to be a worthwhile features for all kind of educational systems. Several Projects have been started and successfully succeeded to implement the programmes and to make them widely used. Nowadays education is relying on them; they are part of the learning system! These programmes show very clear why we talk about Information and Communication Technology and not only about IT. It is obvious that Communication more and more becomes an essential issue for the use of computers and Internet in Education.
In the next table a listing of these programs is provided, and after a short description the use of these programmes is explained.
Nr. Program- Name Description Use of the program
1. KS2000+ www.aequor.nl Qualification Structure of competences. Maintained and supported by Aequor on their website. This website contains a complete set of competences for different jobs and functions in the Agricultural Sector, which can be used by all parties to construct educational material. Especially for creating assessments and tests, this information is essential!
2. Livelink A web-based document storing system, build as a knowledge tree. Sophisticated features for notification, workflows, Livelink is a web-based knowledge system, which is based on a professional database. Big international companies also heavily rely on this web-based knowledge system. In this program many different features can be programmed to make it even more suitable for schools. All students and staff members are
Nr. Program- Name Description Use of the program
www.groenken nisnet.nl/ discussion platforms and development of special tools. allowed to have an account on this system. Several educational institutes are developing new features on basis of this program.
3. Blackboard hao.blackboar d.nl A web-based Learning Environment, which supports Courses for students and staff members. Specially dedicated for online learning. Blackboard is a well-developed system and is very simple to use for everybody. It is completely web based, as well for the students as for the teachers. Teachers can support their students from any place where they have Internet access. Students can work on their courses from any place as well, individually as well in groups. Blackboard is the Backbone of our supporting systems for education!
4. Blackboard LCMS hao.blackboar d.nl A learning content management systems (LCMS), made as building block on Blackboard. This building block supports the teachers in maintaining their Courses in a more efficient way. Besides, this program also gives an opportunity to construct a Digital Portfolio for students.
б. Question Mark Perception www.question mark.co.uk/ Electronic Questionnaire system With this system Electronic questionnaires can be offered to students and pupils, to test their knowledge on several subjects. The system is well secured, so that high quality tests can be taken, from which the results can be used for official exams. The Ministry supports the maintaining group, so they can create widely used tests, on basis of the competences described in the Qualification Structure.
6. Digital Portfolio System www.eportaro. com Several programmes are available A Digital Portfolio System supports the learner in storing proof of all obtained competences. The student is the owner of the Portfolio, and takes care of it. The Teacher and the School approve and validate the products, which are stored in the Digital Portfolio system by the student.
7. Vubis www.samhao. nl Digital Library System All catalogue of all Agricultural Universities are stored in this web-based Library supporting system. Every student and staff member has an account on this system. Students can search on the Website for books on special subjects, and reserve the book in the Library. When the book is locally available they can borrow it right away. When it is available in one of the other Universities, they can borrow it one day later. A search machine is available and an increasing number of publications is offered full text digitally.
8. Image Web- Storing place for In the past years a large collection of photo
Nr. Program- Name Description Use of the program
site www.heideman n.nl/upload/ Images slides has been made on all kind of Agricultural subjects. Many of these slides were produced with financial support of the Ministry. A great deal of these slides have been digitalized and are available now on this website for all students and teachers to use for their work and lessons.
9. Streaming Video Storing place for Video Streaming Video is a new way to support learning, time and place independently with high quality videos about all kind of agricultural subjects. Right now more and more movies are digitalized and made available for educational purposes.
10. B&E www.stoas.nl Student registration system and study progress registration B&E is a back-office system in which all official information about students is stored. Information is stored in a high quality Oracle database. The database is accessible by Internet by authorized personnel. The Government uses this information also for the financial/budget information about the institutes. In the same database all information about study progress of students is stored.
12. 1-2-USE www. 1 -2-use.nl/ Web-based publication system for student information and study progress. The web-access of 1-2-USE gives students authorized access to personal information stored in the B&E database. Besides that, the student has direct access to all information about his or her personal study progress. By means of this website, the student also has the possibility to register for exams. The website is secured on basis of a Username password combination.
12. Rooster www.gepro.nl/ Creating schedules for lectures and assessments In a modern and flexible Education environment, good and efficient use has to be made of all facilities: classrooms and of course the staff members. A good week-schedule has to be made in order to provide as well students and staff member the best possibilities to fulfil their tasks during the week..
13. Groupwise Mailing and scheduling system, as part of Novell Netware Groupwise Mail and scheduling system makes it very useful to have efficient communication between staff members and students, supporting their need in education. The Agenda system makes it possible to make appointments with staff members and helps the planning of educational activities.
14. Several small tools Databases and catalogues of programmes are available for educational purposes. MS-Office programmes like: MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Access. Mind map, and several special dedicated programmes to support students in studying language, mathematics, biology, economics, bookkeeping etc. etc.
Conclusions
In the years that these projects on Information and Communication Technology have been executed, ICT has been imbedded more and more in the Educational methods and system.
On many places ICT has proven to be essential to meet with requirements of modern education. Teachers and students rely on it for their own work and education related communication.
Especially the flexibility of learning has improved, and in a pedagogical approach where students are working more and more on their individual working places, still quality can be maintained and even improved.
Creativity of students has been stimulated greatly. Students grow to be independent learners who work time and place independent and create their personal educational demands.
Part time students have the disadvantage that they are a bit older, and because of that have more difficulty in using ICT, but on the end they realize the effectiveness of ICT for their personal purposes.
Management has realized that the implementation of ICT does not decreased the necessary budgets of the institute, because maintaining equipment, expertise level and communication requires a great part of the budget. Never think that you can save money by using computers in education.
Recently the Staff and Management of Stoas University discussed their objectives for implementing ICT in the curriculum. The result was that in the future they consider it to be important that personal contact between students and teachers will remain. So it is not the intention that all contact between students and staff will be executed by means of computer-connections. The ideal will be a well-balanced mix of theoretical and practical lessons, well supported by ICT. This mix is called «Blended Learning».
After the previous years of implementing ICT in Education we realize that we still have to work hard to make it even more effective for the objectives of education, but the image is getting more and more clear. Staff and Management are convinced of the necessity and students make clear that they use it anyway.
The end of this process is not visible yet, but the road of development is becoming clearer every year!
