In late January when the Ministry of Education invited representatives of all upper secondary schools nationwide to a conference on ”The Virtual Upper Secondary”, the faculties of the upper secondary schools were listening with glee to the visions presented by the task group behind the concept of ”The Virtual Upper Secondary”. For what the task group envisioned as a Brave New IT-World to come in the future, is already part of the present on the upper secondary schools of North Jutland thanks to the ”Pedagogical Application of IT Technology at Grammar-School Level” project under the Digital North Denmark.
- In this county we have a gained a lead of two or three years, and we have now come to the fun part – using it in practice, states Egon Jensen, headmaster of Brønderslev Gymnasium.

The project launched on September 1, 2001, consists of a common part and 19 subprojects. All the upper secondary schools of North Jutland along with the Ranum HF-Center and the Aalborg Studenterkursus are participating in the project, which is the largest project under the Digital North Denmark umbrella with its total budget of DKK 66,713,337 .

- We have made good progress with the shared part. Equipment has been handed to all upper secondary school teachers – almost all teachers have decided for laptop computers. Now we are training the faculty members in using FirstClass, which is the conference system selected. Progress of the project varies a lot from school to school – but faculty members are definitely required to be capable of using FirstClass for the individual subprojects to be inititiated, explains Christian Larsen who is in charge of the project.

He is temporarily transferred from the Aalborg Studenterkursus to Brønderslev Gymnasium, which is hosting the project base and secretariat. Here Egon Jensen, the headmaster, is at least as involved in the project as the project manager.
- Learning to use FirstClass is not really a problem. The real challenge is finding out how to make pedagogical use of the conference system, Egon Jensen points out:
- Now we need to prepare the launch of some of the minor subprojects after the Summer Holidays. Some of the teachers have come far in their work on a more virtual upper secondary school, others are just about to look into the potentials.

Teaching across...
The server of each upper secondary school is linked to a shared server located at the County Administration. Via this server subject related projects can be completed across the upper secondary schools – after the summer holidays, for example, two upper secondary classes in Brønderslev and Aalborg respectively could be working on the same geography projekt. The meeting location for the two classes would be the virtual classroom created in FirstClass by their teachers.
- This opens for completely new potentials of collaborating in new relations. On a long term basis, some of the subprojects might also be be spread outside of North Denmark to cover the entire country ', explains Christian Larsen:

Many still ponder

However, not all upper secondary teachers in North Denmark are that thrilled and just plunging into FirstClass. Some teachers are still hesitant to involve IT in teaching their subjects. One of the reasons could be that the benefits of IT are not that obvious.
- Of the 780 teachers of the upper secondary schools of North Denmark around 70 teachers are involved in the individual subprojects. Many of those are working with really interesting projects – and FirstClass offers an excellent potential to share the experience. However, presentation is also a priority, and here teachers still need to learn, agree Christian Larsen and Egon Jensen.
The project has just published its own web site with general project information. The individual subprojects are also expected to frequently contribute to the web site in order to update present and future students, parents and others with an interest. With the web site just being launched, only a few have made their contribution so far. Christian Larsen is now going to to push to have all projects presented on the web site.

A Virtual Upper Secondary School with Hours Around the Clock

Here and now you need to walk into the faculty lounges in the upper secondary schools of North Denmark to see physical evidence that the ”Pedagogical Application of IT Technology at Grammar-School Level” project is up and running: Where the teachers were previously shuffling books and papers, nearly all teachers are now working with each their laptop computer. But from next school year the students will really ripe the benefits of the project – that is when the training of the teachers will materialise in actual projects for the students, – and involving the students.
To the students this project has not meant computers for free galore. For almost all secondary schools of North Jutland have already posed a great number of pc's at the disposal of the students, and around two thirds of the students have access to a pc in their homes. With a so-called FirstClass Client they will also be able to work in the virtual classroom from their homes. Or on their study tour or their field trip. Or...