A meeting of the PIC group took place 13 March 2003 in Bern and was organised by the CTIE- Suisse Centre for ICT in education, Alan McCluskey. In the framwork of national updates members reported shortly on the following issues: 

1. New strategic projects, innovative services and policy innovation in the country;
2. Links between the ministry of education, agencies or board of educations and schools in the country concerning organization, tasks and the financial flow for ICT in schools.

Switzerland: (Alan McCluskey, CTIE)
1.The-Pilotage-CH has been finally accepted http://www.e-pilotage-ch.org. Furthermore a training of trainers programme is underway (F3MITIC). Selection process among different cantons is taking place at the moment.

Germany (Kerstin Ciba, Schulen ans Netz)
1. Schulen ans Netz (SaN) aims at integrating new media into everyday teaching. At this aim SaN runs several projects:
- Lehrer Online (Teachers online, www.lehrer-online.de): a topical online service for new media and education, providing amongst other items practical examples of teaching with new media
- Lo-net (www.lo-net.de) is the virtual communication and collaboration platform of Lehrer Online.
- Primolo (www.primolo.de) is a homepage generator especially developed for primary schools.
- LizzyNet (www.lizzynet.de) is an online magazine and a community for girls and young women from 12 up. It aims to make girls and young women users and shapers of the internet,
- LeaNet (www.leanet.de) is a topical online service and a community especially for female teachers, teacher trainees and teacher students.
- IT works (http://itworks.schulen-ans-netz.de) advices schools and school authorities to build sustainable and affordable network solutions.

2. Educational legislation and administration of the education system are primarily the responsibility of the Länder. The Ministries of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science in the Länder are the highest authorities responsible for education, science and culture. Their scope of responsibilities generally includes schools.
Public schools are, for the most part, state/local authority schools maintained jointly by the Land and a local authority. The cost of the teaching staff is borne by the Land and other staff or material costs are borne by the local authority. This is the case as well for ICT equipment. But ICT equipment is as well provided by corporate sponsors.
Nevertheless, under the Basic Law, certain responsibilities in the educational sector are allocated to the Federation. Within the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF) is primarily responsible for the Federation's areas of responsibility. The use of ICT in education is supported by the Länder as well as by the Federation. Initiatives of the Länder are e-nitiative (North Rhine Westphalia) and n21 (Lower Saxony). At the same time the BMBF funds Schulen ans Netz as a national initiative. Schulen ans Netz is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation according to German law (eingetragener Verein). It is jointly funded by BMBF and Deutsche Telekom and provides to schools and teachers services in the fields of teacher training, ITC infrastructure and content.

France (Odile de Chalendar, Ministry of Education)
1.
- Electronic knowledge database (ex ENEE) is now experimented;
-VLE follow up;
-Support policy experimentations.

Norway (Petter Korseth, the Norwegian Board of Education)
1. The Multimedia Database:
The Ministry of Education and Research has published a Plan for Digital Learning Resources 2001 - 2003. In following up this plan, The Norwegian Board of Education has developed a database for multimedia content. This resource was launched in February 2003 and contains images, sounds, animations, videos and other software. Copyright issues have been settled so that the content can be freely used in non-commercial educational activities.

The purpose of this database is to offer free access to good-quality digital resources which have been developed on local or national basis. Content has been delivered by schools, colleges, universities and other partners. Users of The Multimedia Database have access to a large and varied selection of resources which can be taken out and used, manipulated, developed and presented in projects or school work. The resources can be used in preparing for and carrying out different kinds of learning activities, project work, school papers, websites etc. The database has a simple interface, making it easy to use. In addition to the multimedia content, the database also provides news, ideas and suggestions on how to use the resources for learning.

At least 2300 objects will be available by the summer of 2003, as follows:
·1850 photographs/illustrations/drawings
·460 effect sounds/nature sounds/pieces of music
·65 animations
http://mmb.ls.no

2. The Ministry of Education and Research (http://odin.dep.no/ufd/) has the overall responsibility for administering the educational system and for implementing national educational policy. The Norwegian Board of Education (http://www.ls.no) is a national resource centre for the education sector, and has responsibilities within development, assessment and information. Areas of activity comprise national curricula, educational resources and support functions, ICT in education, development work, research and documentation, reporting and final examinations. It is a national institution with partners throughout Norway and with significant international assignments.

In each of Norway's 18 counties, the County Governor represents the central government at regional level, contributing to the implementation of national education policies in schools at all levels. The County Governor ensures that appropriate schooling is provided for young people in compliance with regulations, and also ensures the provision of adequate adult education facilities. The County Governor's Offices play an important role in dissemination and follow-up of ICT in primary and secondary education.

Municipalities and counties are responsible for the running and administration of primary and lower secondary schools, and the counties for the upper secondary schools. Legislation and the national curricula regulations comprise a framework that must be respected, but within these, municipalities, schools and teachers can influence educational material as well as methods of work. The individual school is run by a headteacher in cooperation with various councils and committees. The major portion of the funds for school education comes from central government grants. Colleges and universities are the responsibility of central government.