A USB key for new teachers

Six thousand keys will be produced during the first year of the project (2006-2007) in three subject areas: History and Geography, Physical & Chemical Sciences and Basic & Applied Sciences, and Life and Earth Sciences, and for primary teaching in several départements on an experimental basis.

The resources accessible with this key – available on-line, for download or accessible directly on the key itself – are examples of the diversity of the current offering in each of these subject areas and in primary teaching. They were selected in close collaboration with the Inspection Générale, the French government department responsible for monitoring educational establishments and part of the National Education department. This initial collection of available resources should not, obviously, be considered as an exhaustive list.
In terms of the examples of uses presented, these are, first and foremost, incentives to use information and communication technologies in classrooms, and not prescribed formats.

The steering committee (Committee members, PDF 14 KB) has guided the project, from its origins to the distribution of the keys, including the choice of subjects involved in this initial operation, the status of the teachers who will be provided with the keys, the editorial options – architecture and selection of content – and the dissemination and assessment methods.

The ICTE advisors to chief administrative officers manage the logistics of the operation at an education authority level. Their services are called upon to resolve problems involving the dissemination of the key, implementation support, and operation follow-up.

Primary and secondary education inspectors are responsible for monitoring and evaluating the impact of this action on the educational community.

What does the key contain?

Each key has a capacity of two gigabytes and provides access via a PC or Macintosh to:

• institutional links;
• teaching resources;
• examples of uses;
• a personal space;
• - a toolbox.

The Institutional Links component brings together the school programmes of the subject concerned and information sites provided by the Ministry for National Education, Higher Education and Research (national and education authority sites) and public establishments.

The Teaching Resources section provides access to digital resources and educational software as well as encyclopaedic and reference works. A subject-specific entry point provides users with direct access to a resource that can help them enhance the teaching of a specific point of the programme.

The Examples of Uses entry point offers, in the form of sheets or films, ways of using ICTs in the classroom.

The Personal Space enables users to store their own data.

Lastly, the Toolbox contains all of the tools necessary for the correct functioning of the resources and software.

The benefits of the key A mobile tool with a very high storage capacity (2 GB). Structured and immediately operational user access. Free access throughout the year to numerous resources for which a charge would usually be made.