THE SIF ASSOCIATION GOES INTERNATIONAL
SIFA signs ground–breaking agreements with leading educational technology agencies in Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom.
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May 03, 2006—The Schools Interoperability Framework Association’s (SIFA) Board of Directors is proud to announce cooperation agreements with Becta in the United Kingdom, European Schoolnet in Europe and education.au limited in Australia. Collectively, SIFA and these three organizations will work together to lead the technical development of a world–class specification and certification program to enable data interoperability for education. These lead international agencies will work with SIFA in their countries to convene education stakeholders, identify their collective data needs and develop solutions for data interoperability—from the school to the government level.
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These agreements will help the Association reach its international goals, including increasing international involvement in the development, localization and adoption of the SIF Specification, Certification Program and Data Model and creating local–national SIF pilot projects for the leveraging of technology investments. These goals will be accomplished through the development of “global conversations” about data interoperability issues through various Association activities.
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“Becta is committed to establishing a supplier–independent and open interoperability architecture to create the opportunity for improved interoperability and more effective use of data in schools” said Dr Stephen Lucey, Becta’s Executive Director for Educational Technology. “Working with SIFA and other international organisations gives us the opportunity to learn from experience gained elsewhere in the world, and ensures that we are able to use that experience to support us in the strategic development and delivery of the Government’s e–strategy for schools and the learning and skill sectors.
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Internationally as in the United States, education is facing the same critical challenges in deploying technology due to the pressing problem of interoperability. Today, education software applications available for schools are either closed systems or systems that allow customer access only through proprietary interfaces and data formats. To a user, that lack of interoperability means:
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Applications and their data are isolated from one another
Redundant data entry is common
Disconnected applications increase support costs
Data reporting is costly and inefficient
Data is inaccessible to decision makers
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These agreements will give current and future SIFA members access to leaders in educational technology utilization and policy development across the globe—as well as expanding market opportunities and providing access to best practices examples from international learning initiatives. “education.au limited focuses on information technology in the education sector and is a long–time proponent of interoperability standards, ” says Gerry White, CEO of education.au limited. “The agency recognises SIFA as a leading specification for data interoperability between schools based software applications. We are particularly pleased to join with SIFA and its partners in the internationalization–localisation of the specification and its promotion on a global scale.”
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“These agreements benefit SIFA members by providing pilot opportunities and international exposure,” says Dr. Larry Fruth, Executive Director of SIFA. “While there has been considerable activity in the international space on e–Learning Standards and learning object utilization, limited resources have been focused on the kind of administrative–student information management transfer activities that are at the heart of current U.S. SIFA activities. As the SIF Specification evolves to provide greater support to the teaching and learning process we have a great amount to learn from these partner’s successful activities. Collectively we need to leverage each other’s work–––without re–inventing the wheel in data interoperability issues—and provide real solutions for stakeholders across the globe.”
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About the Partners
| SIFA
SIFA is a unique, non–profit collaboration composed of over 300 schools, districts, states, the U.S. Department of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively define the rules and regulations for educational software data interoperability. The SIF Specification enables diverse applications to interact and share data efficiently, reliably, and securely regardless of the platform hosting those applications. SIFA has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach.
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| European Schoolnet
(EUN) is an international partnership of more than 26 European Ministries of Education developing learning for schools, teachers and pupils across Europe. EUN’s mission is to foster technical innovation, and interoperability through common standards to enable closer collaboration between European educational systems and improve efficiency and cost–effectiveness. EUN provides insight into educational use of ICT (information and communications technology) in Europe for policy–makers and education professionals.
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| Becta
is the UK Government’s lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e–strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Becta provides strategic leadership in the innovative and effective use of ICT to enable the transformation of learning, teaching and educational organizations for the benefit of every learner.
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| education.au limited
is a national non–profit agency owned by Australia’s education and training Ministers and funded by the Commonwealth and all State and Territory governments. education.au limited is a leader in providing innovative learning technologies for the benefit of Australian education and training–learning communities. Through the use of collaborative and consultative processes, education.au limited builds and maintains national online information services and products that meet the needs of the entire Australian education and training sector.
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For More Information, contact Alison Pruitt, 202–789–4460
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For more information, please contact:
Edustructures LLC
Sandra Richards, 1.877.790.1261 Extension 438
news@edustructures.com
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