IT firms collaborate on ICT centre in Belfast

23-02-2006

by Charlie Taylor

A number of leading technology firms are teaming up to establish a new centre of excellence for ICT research in Belfast.

Called the European Education Research and Innovation Centre (EERIC), the centre is being set-up to investigate how new and emerging technologies can be applied to education.

H-P is investing EUR1 million in the EERIC while Cisco is donating networking equipment. In addition, Intel is to provide wireless and mobile computing technologies for the centre, while Microsoft is opening a Schools Technology Innovation Centre (STIC).

STIC is an interactive demonstration facility which allows educators to evaluate new technologies, learn about the latest in innovative practices and understand how technology can create a more effective learning environment.

"The purpose of the EERIC is twofold," said Clifford Harris, director for Education & Health Care business for HP EMEA. "It will be a centre of excellence where we and our partners can conduct research into how best to use ICT to deliver course content and to develop methods and practices that support life-long learning. It will also allow us to showcase what we are doing in Northern Ireland to governments from around the world who want to learn how best to make use of technology in education."

The EERIC will provide a forum to evaluate the lessons learned from the Classroom 2000 (C2K) initiative, a 10-year government programme aimed at delivering high quality, sustainable ICT services to all schools, teachers and pupils in Northern Ireland. The C2K programme involves 900 primary and 250 post primary schools throughout the province and serves some 350,0000 students and teachers. It comprises between 60,000 and 70,000 PCs distributed across Northern Ireland.

The EERIC is also aiming to help in the development of new teaching and learning methods which exploit technology to the maximum benefit.

One such development, which was showcased at the opening of the new centre on Thursday, was HP's Active Print technology, which allows hyperlinks to be printed on physical objects such as posters to provide a link to web services. These hyperlinks take the form of visual tags or 2D barcodes. The codes are read by cameraphones so the physical world can be connected to the internet and any object can be a reference to online information or services.