Mart Laanpere has been involved with integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into education since 1989. He served as a consultant for Georgia's Deer Leap strategy from 2004-2008. The Deer Leap strategy aimed to provide computers and internet access to schools but faced challenges with infrastructure, teacher training, and developing digital resources. While progress was made in some areas like purchasing computers, goals were only partially accomplished in other areas such as internet connectivity, curriculum support, and teacher training.

1. Deer Leap: a view from Estonia
Mart Laanpere
head of the Centre for Educational Technology, Tallinn University

2. My connection to ICT in schools
• 1989: teacher of mathematics & informatics (first computers, computer club)
• 1992: school principal (Finnish exchange, Internet connection)
• 1994: informatics curriculum committee (ICT as a cross-curricular theme)
• 1997: MSc in educational technology (B.Collis), university lecturer (ed.tech).
• 2000: Tiger Leap monitoring study, national educational portal
• 2002: national ICT tests for grade 9, DigiDidactics courses for teachers, IVA
• 2004: consultant for Deer Leap

3. 2004: the starting point
• My first impressions: electricity problems, miserable school facilities, year of
changes - lots of uncertainty, new hope, warm hospitality, openness
• Situation mapping: only few computers, most of them old, used only for
teaching programming skills, no licensed software, almost no localized
software, impossible to get a good Internet connection, teachers not trained
on using ICT, non-functional institutions (SITU), BUT: enthusiastic and
dedicated staff in the Ministry, some enthusiastic teachers and school
principals, good preparation work done by some NGO-s (eRiders, i*EARN),
high-level political support, no rush for quick “political turnover”
• Main challenges: access to computers and Internet, sustainable development
of ICT infrastructure, involving municipalities, integration with other reforms
in education, ICT competencies and attitudes of teachers, digital learning
resources, virtual learning environment, information systems

4. Deer Leap Strategy 2005-2008: evaluation
• Computer purchases (tenders, brands, Linux): well accomplished
• Internet connection (tenders, service): partly accomplished
• Teacher training: partly accomplished
• Projects, competitions, grants: well accomplished
• Learning resources, ICT in curriculum: partly excellent accomplishment
• Educational portal, e-services for schools: partly accomplished
• Conferences, PR: accomplished
• Monitoring: about to be accomplished

5. Monitoring study 2008
• Clustered systemic sample of 167 schools (out of 667 school which received
computers 2006-2007), 3 questionnaires (principals, ICT managers, teachers),
methodology and instruments were similar to Tiger in Focus survey (2000)
• 20% of the schools in the sample are lacking Internet connection, majority is
satisfied with new computers, missing peripherals (printers, dataprojectors)
• Attitude shift: computers are not mainly for informatics lessons, ICT can be
used for triggering pedagogical innovation and school improvement
• Main problems: slow or missing Internet connection, insufficient curriculum
support for using ICT in other subjects, not enough digital educational
resources, insufficient training opportunities for teachers
• Report will be finalized before the end of the year

6. Comparing with Estonia
• Rapid start (Estonian schools started slowly since 1992, new national
curriculum in 1996 introduced ICT as a cross-curricular theme)
• Computer purchases and Internet connectivity are more centralized (good)
• Project-based learning and development of digital learning resources (LeMill)
has involved significant number of teachers in both countries
• Slow start of systemic teacher training programme is similar to Estonia (we
launched Computers in School course in 2001, 4 years after the start of TL)
• Involvement of local municipalities was more successful in Estonia, ICT
managers were hired in both countries (faster in Georgia)
• In both countries, one of the main success factors has been the systemic
management of ICT integration (foundation is not merely technology provider)