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13.06.2008	The bit Group wins the 2008 Constantinus award
	At this year’s Constantinus Gala held at the Innsbruck Seegrube, the bit Group was represented by bit media e-Learning solution GmbH, which was awarded the 2008 Constantinus in the category „Personnel & Training“ for the establishment of the International Entrepreneurs’ Skills Certificate and the internationalisation of The Entrepreneurs’ Skills Certificate. In the last two years, as well, the bit Group won in the category „International“ and last year it also won the State prize in Consulting. Stephan Sticher (owner of the bit Group) couldn’t be happier. „For our customers, this is further proof of our exceptional performance. And for our employees, it provides additional motivation to continue developing future-oriented, visionary projects. When a project is put under the microscope by a independent jury of experts and found to be praiseworthy, this is all the more reason to be proud.“, said Sticher. The Entrepreneurs’ Skills Certificate, initiated by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, is designed to promote and certify students’ knowledge of the economy. bit media is responsible for the modern electronic presentation and transfer of the contents. In more than 120 schools throughout Austria, nearly 10,000 module exams have been taken so far and that trend is increasing fast. In 2006 the Entrepreneurs’ Skills Certificate, based on the Austrian model, was also successfully introduced in Germany. Preparations are already well underway to introduce it in France, Ireland, The Czech Republic and Russia. Pilot projects have already started in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Poland and Kosovo. At the beginning of 2008, a large-scale project was started to implement this internationally recognised certificate in Ethiopia as proof of economic competence. The contents were adapted to national conditions, but the methods used remained unchanged. Entrepreneurship Education is a central strategy within the entire European Union that aims to promote the general economic understanding of young people and the image of entrepreneurship throughout Europe. In particular, it’s goal is to raise the rate of company founders. The contents have been adapted to the international education market in cooperation with local educational and business institutions.
18.04.2008	Establishment of IT-colleges in Kurdistan
	The Ministry of Education of the Kurdish regional government assigned bit media with the establishment of IT colleges in three cities in Kurdistan. The project contains general consulting, development of curricula, development and delivery of learning material and teacher education. It was started in March 2006 and is still ongoing. In the following article we decided to summarize impressions of our experts’ perspectives. How have this project, your company or other continuing projects developed over the past year? Communication: The language of instruction, English, is a foreign language for the participating teachers. However, in spite of some obstacles at the beginning, a clear improvement of language skills over the course of the project can be discerned. This may also be due to the fact that the teaching personnel being trained are quite young at between 22 and 27 years of age. Since nearly all of the English teachers are not native speakers and, as a result of the political situation, have never been to an English speaking country, they have mostly absorbed their skills through distance learning courses or TV. Their level of English is therefore all the more astonishing. One should also not lose sight of the fact that we are also in a country that does not have a unified national language. Kurdish varies considerably in the many different regions, both in pronunciation, as well as in how it is written. This means that the Kurds themselves have difficulties to communicate with each other in their own country. Arabic is also not generally spoken, as it is in other Arabic countries. The primary foreign languages here are Iranian (Sorany) and Turkish. Equipment: Here, particularly positive trends can be seen. The training rooms in Sulemania, for example, have been equipped with 64-bit computers and LCD monitors and therefore can certainly be compared with systems in the West. Of course, the equipment of the respective institute very much depends on the available budget. Due to the chaos of war in the past 20-25 years, many persons of "nearly adult" age are visiting primary schools, which means that there can be great age differences in classes. Most of the budget is invested in new buildings. University cities, such as Sulaimania and Erbil, certainly have better options available. This can also be said of the hardware. All of the schools have been very well equipped, with the exception of Duhok where, however, things are also moving along, since the existing buildings will be too small for the next school year. WLAN is standard everywhere, even if the connection is extremely slow (max. 25 kb/s). Our task here is primarily to create a consciousness for maintenance, since the climatic conditions and poor energy supply, although improving, still cause many devices to malfunction. UPS is pure luxury here and the "Made in China" devices do not last very long. Electricity: Electricity from the public grid is only assured for 5-8 hours per day. Generators are necessary for the remaining time. It is only due to the great flexibility of the trainers that it is possible under these adverse conditions to assure a practical transfer of knowledge. Unfortunately, there is still no consistent supply of electricity during normal office hours. This means that all schools are dependent on electricity from generators and it can happen that they run out of fuel. It is truly admirable how the teachers and students deal with this situation. In this case, theoretical EDP is taught using a book and whiteboard. For server based solutions on a network however, this is still a big problem. Environment: Teachers and learners are subject to extreme temperatures of 45° - 50° in summer. It is a clear sign of the victory of mind over body that teaching and learning still take place under these conditions. Of course people and machines still suffer under these temperatures and the ability to concentrate sinks rapidly. In addition, the general number of work hours is a maximum of 4. This means that to add on 6 hours of bit training after the lessons, the level of motivation must be extremely high. Family ties are very important in Kurdistan, so it is not uncommon for teachers to miss a lesson due to family obligations (above all women). Furthermore, women in particular have hardly any time to do work for the school at home. When all of these factors are taken into consideration and understanding for them is shown, the human and structural developments since the 1st Project 2006 have been enormous. It is absolutely remarkable to see the enthusiasm and commitment with which these new ideas have been accepted and implemented step by step against all cultural standards of behaviour.
17.04.2008	bit media with The President of Austria Dr. Heinz Fischer and th
	On the invitation of The President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer, the bit group was the only private training provider in the Austrian Business Delegation. It was represented by bit media GM Manfred Brandner and authorised representative DI Klaus Kersten on a state visit to Ethiopia and Mali. The purpose of the visit was to present Austrian products and Austrian added-value in the form of education exports to African regions. This makes sense considering "the high economic growth and democratic-like structures" in many countries. The bit group has been active with projects for several years in parts of Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya). Two years ago, it was the first e-Learning provider in Europe to provide e-learning software in Ethiopia for use with the $100 laptop in the numerous schools of the Karl Heinz Böhm Foundation. e-Learning in Ethiopia - the bit group develops software for the $100 laptop The bit group is the first e-learning provider in Europe to receive one of the new $100 laptops in order to test its ability to run its proven eJunior learning software. Using this programme, children learn how to use computers on their own in a game-like fashion. The project, in which the German Society for Technical Cooperation is a significant participant, has provided a decisive contribution to the modernisation of the Ethiopian educational system. << We are enthusiastic about this global education project and at the same time proud to be developing appropriate learning software for this laptop >>, says Klaus Kersten, authorised representative of the bit group and responsible for international development. The goal of the bit group is now to adapt their high-quality learning software for use with the laptop and to the needs of the Ethiopian children << We translate the individual learning sequences into Amharic, the official language of the country and we invite native speakers from Ethiopia to speak the audio sequences >>, says Manfred Brandner concerning the project. After the technical adaptation of eJunior to the Linux operating system and the monitor size of the OLPC notebook, the software has already been successfully installed. The bit group will finish further modifications to the learning contents by late summer. In 2007, bit media became the official distributor for the US corporation Microsoft in Europe, The Middle East and Africa. Together with the products it has developed on its own, bit media has therefore become one of the largest eLearning providers on this side of the Atlantic.
04.07.2007	The bit group receives the ÖKOPROFIT Award
	July 4, 2007 – After several intensive weeks of preparation and conversion work, the conclusion of a basis program, participation in trainings, as well as the creation of an environmental concept and initial implementation steps, the bit group was able to receive the ÖKOPROFIT® Certificate from the Mayor of Graz Siegfried Nagl in the auditorium of the Karl Franzens University in Graz. ÖKOPROFIT® is a Win-Win-Model – the connection of economic profit and ecological advantage. As a business operation, we are able to reduce consumption of resources (such as water, energy, raw materials etc.) through the application of innovative technologies (Cleaner Production - Approach) and thereby cut down on waste and emissions. This results primarily in cost savings and the associated economic strengthening of the company. At the same time ÖKOPROFIT® makes a positive contribution, through its preventative approach to environmental protection, to the environmental situation in our city and region. „ As a holistic oriented company that works towards economic as well as ecological and social success, we pursue clear environomental policies and are also committed to the principles of Diversity Management and Gender Mainstreaming. The careful and environmentally sensitive use of all resources is for us, a simple matter of fact. (excerpt) “
03.07.2007	bit media has been awarded three Comenius-EduMedia-Awards 2007
	The Comenius Awards are issued by the GPI to promote IKT-based media that display outstanding quality of design, contents and teaching methodology throughout all of the countries of Europe. On June 8, 2007, probably the most important German and European awards for educational multimedia products were awarded. Bit media lived up to its reputation as the expert in the field of e-Learning and received the coveted Comenius-Seal-of-Approval for a total of three learning programmes. In the past two years, bit media has received eleven awards for its products and projects and has won various rankings as well. The prize winners were: ► ECDL 4 Plus The multimedia learning program for the European Computer Driving License. ► eJunior eJunior enables young computer users between 8 and 12 to playfully acquire and test their computer-know-how using Windows and Office. ► The Entrepreneur‘s Skills Certificate - Module A The Entrepreneur‘s Skills Certificate is a legally recognized training certificate consisting of four modules that are designed to prepare students for their future in the work world and its demands. It is targeted particularly towards fundamental concepts of management and economics. Four the twelfth time, all of the biggest names in the software and training industry were invited to the nation’s capital by the Gesellschaft für Pädagogik und Information (GPI) (Pedagogy and Information Association).

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