Netform: building up a virtual teaching community

An educational environment produced in the framework of the research project called NETFORM is presented. It is tailored to the needs of teachers who still have a limited practical experience in the use of ICT in the classroom. A team of expert teachers (trainers), have drawn on their personal experience to produce a number of "learning itineraries" based on the use of ICT. Newly trained teachers (trainees) can adopt these itineraries as "reusable teaching plans": they can follow the itineraries in their school practice in different ways, either reproducing what other teachers have already done or looking at the plans as best practice examples, guidelines or simply ideas. A specific database has been designed in accordance with the structure of the teaching plans. This database is now available online: a number of teaching plans can be viewed, new plans can be added, comments and hints by the users are welcome and can be easily integrated in the plans. Strong online interaction between experts and newly trained teachers is foreseen and is part of the research project itself: that's the main reason why the NETFORM community can be considered as a "virtual teaching community", focused on the use of ICT in Education.