Introduction
The effective use of e-learning is now common within all education and training environments within Europe. One exception, mainly due to security issues, is secure learning environments in prisons. The LICOS project attempts to highlight the positive potential of e-learning within prisons using a secure flexible network that can be tailored, not only to the requirements of individual countries, but the requirements of individual prisons.
- The basic concepts of LICOS as agreed by partners at the outset of the project were to:
learn from those European countries which already were successful in developing and deploying innovative e-learning systems in their prisons on a daily routine basis instead of inventing the ‘e-learning wheel’;
- generate a transferable e-learning system, considering pedagogical, organisational, political and technical approaches as well as strong security requirements in the various European countries;
- promote the idea of co-operating in the field of correctional services, to realise an example of good practice in modern prison training;
- develop a European e-learning framework and organisational infrastructure for penitentiary institutions;
- give recommendations to the other EU countries and the Commission considering the future of media-supported prison education in Europe.
