New venture Librii is seeking to set up self-sustaining libraries with internet access in poor and isolated communities.



A decade ago, Brewster Kahle, philanthropist and founder of the Internet Archive, created the first digital bookmobile: a complete printing press in the back of a car. With a power source, satellite internet connection, printer and binder, the vehicle and its descendants subsequently printed thousands of public-domain books where they were needed most, such as in rural areas without internet connection, including schools and refugee camps across Africa.

In 2003, it was estimated that less than 1% of Africa's population had access to the internet. Since then, that figure has grown to just 15%. Private companies have been laying high-speed cables along the coasts, but it's slow to make progress inland: even where access is available, it is often low speed and unconnected to the facilities on the ground needed to make the most of it, particularly for education (The vast majority of people in Africa who do access the internet do so via mobile phone).

Now, with an initial funding of $50,000 from Kickstarter, library startup Librii is building its first "eHub" prototype: a shipping container filled with computers, printers and training materials, connected to a simple, low-cost study centre, which will let visitors access information, print books and other materials and, crucially, contribute back to the project and the web at large.

Once the prototype is complete and tested, a partnership with the University of Ghana and Librarians Without Borders is intended to start shipping the embryonic libraries to Africa, following the frontiers of fibreoptic cable as they push into the continent. While Librii is an NGO, the libraries will be fully self-supporting after the first year, seeking local sponsorship and generating their own income. Recognizing that local knowledge, architecture, infrastructure and education are all vital components in the project is what makes Librii's approach an exciting one.

Further details

Ericsson and mobile operator Airtel have partnered to expand the Connect to Learn Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution, now enables 600 students to use ICT through cloud-based technology.

The two institutions, St. Anthony and Maera secondary schools in the Malawi Millennium Village of Mwandama, in Zomba district,  will now be connected to the initiative with students being joined by teachers in benefiting.

Fifty-five laptops, broadband internet access, online educational resources and training are included in the programme.
Matthews Mtumbuka, IT director of Airtel Malawi, said: “An investment in the education of our young people is an investment in our future. We recognize the transformational impact our industry can have on education, and are proud to collaborate with Ericsson on this initiative”.

Connect to Learn is a collaboration between the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Ericsson, and Millennium Promise in a bid to use ICT to deliver high-quality education to students.

Kara Nichols, Executive Director of Connect To Learn, said, “Because of investments and work by our partners, Ericsson and Airtel, the students and teachers are able to benefit from access to global news, information and the latest educational content”.
“They can also collaborate with fellow students and teachers around the world through our School-To-School Connections program, even from their remote locations”.

Further information

University of Computer Studies, Yangon (UCSY), and University of Computer Studies, Mandalay (UCSM) joined forces with Cisco for a channel partner network under the collaborative support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The establishment of the country’s first two Cisco Networking Academies at the UCSY and the UCSM was announced last week, and the programme is being support through Cisco’s long-term partnership with the USAID.

The project is also a part of the Myanmar government’s initiative to work with private and public organizations in the country to build a “Smart and Connected Myanmar”.
Thought the programme, Cisco will be providing training and development to foster the business partnership in Myanmar. Cisco’s authorized channel partners will be trained to help ensure that network equipment is regularly upgraded and software is up-to-date, and protecting the integrity of the network.

The two training centres will provide students with critical information technology and networking skills to design, build, and maintain the infrastructure highway, while increasing the number of job-ready graduates for the country’s ICT sector.

Under the agreement, Cisco will be donating networking equipment for labs and providing 21st century career skills training for up to 15 faculty staff from the two universities to support the programme.

Chris Milligan, USAID/Myanmar Mission Director, said technology is a powerful tool to advance Myanmar’s development while contributing to sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

“This collaboration with Cisco brings innovative technology and education to build on the strengths and capacity of the country. The initiative will provide ICT skills training and increase the number of job-ready graduates for the country’s emerging ICT sector”, he said.

Not only Cisco showed interest in moving into one of the least-connected places like Myanmar, USAID-sponsored delegation also included Google, HP, Intel, and Microsoft.
The USAID technology delegation aimed toward improving technology education as the first step towards commercial engagement.

Further details

Mobile phones can soon be used to help teachers improve English language literacy skills among primary school students in Nigeria. The project is being launched by UNESCO and Nokia, with support from the British Council and the National Teachers’ Institute of Nigeria.

Participating teachers will sign up for a mobile service called “English Teacher”, which sends teachers educational content and messages with pedagogical advice once a day. The messages are organized into thematic modules and include images and exercises. The service runs on the popular Nokia Life+ platform and is one of the first attempts to employ mobile technology to improve tools for primary school teachers.

On May 2 and 3, UNESCO and Nokia hosted a training seminar with teachers from almost 50 different schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria, where the project is being piloted.

”English Teacher” leverages a technology that is already owned and used by a majority of Nigerian educators. Over 90 percent of Nigerians have access to a mobile network, and mobile phones are fast becoming a major gateway to the internet. This means that the service is available to most people, including teachers in difficult areas such as the northern states, where educational needs are most urgent.

“Our aim from the beginning was to develop a service that teachers working in difficult conditions and without a great deal of support could access quickly”, said Steven Vosloo, the project coordinator for UNESCO. “Mobile technology is a promising avenue and, in some instances, the only option in terms of technology”.
“English Teacher” is available to anyone in Nigeria without a subscription fee. It is hosted on the popular Nokia Life+ platform, which offers an extensive menu of content and covers topics as diverse as education, health, agriculture, and entrepreneurship. When teachers sign up for the service they receive daily messages designed to improve and support their instruction.

The content was developed by the British Council and draws on the organization’s 75 years of experience building resources for English language teachers. Thematically-organized and sequential modules, generally broken across one or two week periods, promote strategies to encourage learner independence, cultivate different learning preferences, and prompt educators to reflect on their teaching practice, while providing links to relevant outside resources.  The programme runs for 72 weeks and begins whenever a user signs up for the service.

“We are delighted to partner with UNESCO in launching the ‘English Teacher’ service and provide high-quality professional development services to primary grade English teachers across Nigeria”, said Jawahar Kanjilal, VP and Global Head of Nokia Life. “English teachers using the service will benefit from the rich learning experiences presented in an engaging manner through the Nokia Life+ web app”.

The mobile technology project in Nigeria reflects UNESCO and Nokia’s commitment to enlist technology in the global effort to promote literacy and equitable access to education.

The educational challenges facing Nigeria are daunting.  Some 42 percent, or roughly 10.5 million primary age children, are out-of-school, and those girls and boys who do attend are struggling to learn basic literacy and numeracy. This has resulted in one of the highest adult illiteracy rates in the world.

(Source: UNESCO)

Samsung Electronics, the global electronics giant, has delivered one container, the first of what could be a number of Solar Powered Internet Schools based in containers in the country.

The project is being made possible in association with the Angolan government and other partners.

The Solar Powered Internet School, which is geared to provide access to the Internet and electronic textbooks, will operate on a shift basis and will meet the needs of 200 children a day, according to Thierry Boulanger, IT director for solutions and business to business in Africa at Samsung Electronics.

“This school represents a breakthrough in the delivery of education by helping to break down the technological barriers facing education in Angola”, Boulanger said.
The facility, housed in a ‘40-foot’ shipping container, was delivered by truck to its site, he said.

Samsung said the school, which will be used on a rotational basis by children during the day, operates between 08h00 and 17h00 every day. Boulanger said: “It may be a small beginning, but for the 200 children who will benefit, the school opens the door to huge opportunities. Finding the funding to create hundreds of similar facilities across Africa could, within a comparatively short period, transform education, quality of life and service delivery across Africa”.

Samsung also said the school has the capacity to operate effectively for up to 36 hours without any sunlight at all. “The power generated by the panels each day also means that the school can be used beyond the traditional learning day. After-hours it can operate as an adult education centre or a community centre over weekends”.
Built to withstand harsh African conditions the solar panels powering the school are made from rubber instead of glass, to ensure that they are hardy and durable enough to survive long journeys across the continent, Boulanger concluded.

Further information

In order to promote the interest of girls worldwide to study careers related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the specialized agency in Telecommunications of the UN commemorates every year the International Day of Girls in ICT.

The commemoration held annually on the fourth Thursday in April and this year will be held on 25th of this month by an urgent call to the school principals, teachers and guidance counselors to show to their female students the excellent job prospects that open for them in the ICT sector.



Another objective of the commemoration of this day is that companies are aware of the low participation of women in this area and hire, retain and promote women in charges related to the use of technology.

The UN initiative is born because the worrying global figures which shows the lack of interest of women in developing their careers around the use of technologies. For example, the proportion of women who work as computer science professionals in Europe is extremely small: according to a report by Eurostat, in 2006 only 0.7% of ICT professionals were women and this figure remained unchanged since 2001. In Latin America, the scenario is not different, so if you want to review documents related to this topic, we recommend the articles published in regional site of UNESCO Women, Science and Technology.

Activities to do with your students that day:

- Make field trips to government offices, non-governmental agencies (NGOs), businesses, museums,
science, etc.. These will let girls to have first-hand contact with women leaders who use ICT in their daily work.

- Conduct workshops to raise awareness about the importance of ICT in the daily operation of the world today and show how women can take a leadership role every day.

- Make a presentation in the classroom with pictures and posters  what display the path of women with successful careers in organizations in the ICT sector.

- Develop biographies of famous women, leaders in ICT-related areas. Both girls and boys should conduct research on the Internet that will let them to prepare a list of women and write their biographies. The list should include many local women as well.

- Invite to an ICT industry leader to speak to all students. Ask whose words inspire young women to choose careers in this field study.

- Contact a local college or nearby and invite women teachers in ICT-related subjects to conduct workshops with students, professionals picnics, lectures, etc.

Finally, on the site http://girlsinict.org/ you can check how this day was celebrated last year and get ideas of how celebrate this day with your students.  If you need more information you can contact the team of Girls in ICT in girlsinict@itu.int

(Source: Eduteka and Educacion 360)

The Government of Costa Rica announced the first week of April an initiative to install Internet in all public schools in the country in order to reduce the digital divide and improve educational tools.

Currently 4800 public schools have Internet and this year will reach 100% coverage with the installation of the service in the 151 missing schools, according to a statement from the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), State supplier of electricity and telecommunications services.
Connections, most broadband, are part of a joint project between ICE, the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT), signed last Wednesday.

"We engaged to bridge the digital divide in education" said in the statement the Education Minister Leonardo Garnier, who also highlighted "the importance of this company for the future of education in Costa Rica".

In Costa Rica, a country of 4.5 million people, about 940,000 students began the school last February  in public schools nursery, primary and secondary education.
Costa Rica's investment in education is 7% of gross domestic product and the level of literacy is 97.6%, according to official data. 96% of children attend school, although 2% do not finish primary school, while in the case of high school, 86% of young people are going to school, but the dropout rate is 11%.



(Source: El Carabobeno Newspaper)

With the use of ICT and social networking tools increasing, the International Coordination of the UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) wished to maximize the use of such technology to enhance interaction and knowledge sharing on key issues across the Network. Thus, UNESCO has launched its first ASPnet in Action online collaborative platform dedicated to learning and exchanging about biodiversity.

The purpose of this platform, developed with the support of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, is to facilitate a global exchange of experiences, materials and information on school-based initiatives and to raise awareness among ASPnet members to take concrete actions to actively engage in local and global initiatives to support and promote biodiversity. It is also an opportunity for ASPnet Schools to share activities, projects, resources and multimedia as well as to connect and discuss topics related to biodiversity such as on climate change, culture, health, water, agriculture, food.

ASPnet Schools around the globe are encouraged to take part in this online collaborative platform to enhance networking and communication between students and teachers and to work together to actively engage in local and global initiatives to support and promote biodiversity.



(Source: UNESCO)

Science and technology information has been made available via a stand-alone onsite research kiosk developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines.

The Science and Technology Academic and the research-based Openly Operate the Kiosk Station, dubbed ‘Starbooks’. Those are the first of this kind of research tool in the country, that delivers a collection of digitized science and technology resources in multimedia formats on wide variety of topics.
The system is operating without the internet connection.

One agreement was signed by Tarlac Governor (Victor Yap) and Chief of Finance and Administrative Division (Arlene Centeno), from the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII)—the DOST’s information body— to kick off ‘Starbooks’ debut in Tarlac last month.

The first beneficiaries of the project are Tarlac National High School and Carlos P. Romulo Library.

Up to 143 Starbooks kiosks have been installed in various provinces across the archipelago including schools in Davao and the Cordillera region.
The STII has been conducting a seminar and workshop at the end of Febuary to guide the beneficiary institutions on the appropriate use and function of the Starbooks.

(Source: FutureGov)

A total of 12,500 students from first to sixth grade will benefit from the education program One Laptop Per Child, boosted by the Zamora Terán Foundation through the Ministry of Education, which will make Ciudad Sandino (in Managua) the First Digital Community. This undoubtedly will transform the current educational settings, improving the quality of education for girls and boys.

45 schools from the city will benefit and as part of the process, teachers will train on the use of computers XO.
The educational community, thanked those who will enable the project to convert the municipality of Managua in the first to be fully equipped with computers, and will be a tool to improve the performance of teachers and students.

In this regard, the municipal delegate of Education, Rolando Rivas, said that in April the first deliveries will start in nine schools, where 108 teachers will benefit.
"Teachers are happy to have a new educational tool that will benefit the quality of education and above all will provide instruction to students", said Rivas.
Students will have access to Internet and for helping them, teachers were trained in the use of this technological tool.

Notebook computers bring learning programs, virtual library, language programs, among others. And they are easy to use for students, allowing them to use tools such as Web browser and strengthen teacher content addressed in the classroom in different areas such as Literature, Science or Mathematics.

Also the Foundation Zamora Terán will be responsible for monitoring, maintenance and support to computers, in order of that the educational program will be stable and quality.

 

(Source: Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos - OEI)

Following the Thai government’s second year of the One Tablet Per Child (OTPC) policy to give new lot of 1.7 million tablets to students in 2013, ICT Ministry has recently updated the process and revealed different specification of the tablet models for the coming e-auction.

Off 1.7 million units, the first grade students would receive 850,000 units while the remaining would go to the hands of seventh grade students countrywide. Another 54,000 units of higher specification would also be purchased and provided to teachers, said Group Captain Surapol Navamavadhana, Advisor to the ICT Minister Thailand, and a committee member and Assistant Secretary to the OTPC Policy Commission.

The average price per unit for the tablets of the first graders is THB 2720 (US$ 91.70), while THB 2,920 (US$ 98.44) is the price for the tablets for teachers and the seventh graders, he added.

“Tablets for teachers will come with HDMI slot, stylus pencil, and up to 8-GB SD card slot”, he said. According to Navamavadhana, this year the purchase will be via e-auction with specification being re-announced. “This is different from the last year’s purchase that the MICT identified the specification before giving to the winning factory to produce and supply the entire lot directly”.

The e-auction is expected to be proceed on April 29, and the contract will be signed by May 10. The delivery of the tablets will be within 90 days of the signing date of the contract.

Meanwhile, the survey on the user satisfaction of the OTPC project showed that the first grade students—who were given free tablets for education in 2012— in the North were 100% satisfied, while students from the North East showed 90% satisfaction on the device.



Further details

Ericsson has provided the network infrastructure and services to bring voice and data communications to the Millennium Village Project (MVP) in Koraro located in a remote part of northern Ethiopia. With access to 3G connectivity more than 4,000 students and their teachers at two schools involved in the Connect To Learn initiative will now have access to modern learning and teaching resources through Ericsson's cloud-computing solution. In addition, community health workers in the Millennium Villages will be using mobile phones provided by Sony Mobile and broadband access provided by Ericsson to deliver life-saving health care services directly to households to collect health information for improved monitoring.

Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President and Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson says: "Education is key to ending poverty and ensuring a better life for people. ICT can play a vital role in providing access to quality classroom resources for both teacher and student, and fostering social awareness and global understanding which has become a necessity nowadays in secondary education.

"Many of the residents in this area rely on the community clinic for health care, with otherwise little or no access to the most fundamental aspects of health care. Connecting the health clinic in Koraro is one part of a new joint continent-wide campaign that aims to train, equip and deploy one million community health workers throughout rural sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2015, reaching millions of underserved people", Weidman-Grunewald continues.

The deployment of Ericsson's cloud computing solution in Connect To Learn at Koraro, Masho Secondary School and Megab Secondary School, includes netbooks and wireless terminals that enable both students and teachers to access educational resources on the Internet, along with basic ICT skills training for teachers.
In Koraro, community health workers use the Open MRS (medical record system) and a smartphone-based health-data management system to collect information and report on malaria and other diseases, the number of births, and the incidence of malnutrition and the health status of pregnant women during household visits. Many of these residents would otherwise have little or no access to the most fundamental aspects of health care services.

In all, Ericsson has provided connectivity to Millennium Villages in 11 countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania Uganda and Liberia.

(Source: Ericsson)

Holding his tablet to the camera, David Puttnam (educator and expositor in the forum on mobile learning and policy at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris) reminded the audience that the power to reach out to the world was now at everyone’s fingertips. From his home in Ireland, he was not only able to film his surroundings, but also lecture students in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The future of education is incredibly exciting”, Puttnam told policymakers and education professionals at the UNESCO/ GSMA forum, part of the second UNESCO Mobile Learning Week (18 - 22 February 2013) which focused on achieving Education for All by increasing education access, quality and equality via mobile learning.
The outlook for mobile learning is promising. Mobile devices such as tablets, mobile phones and e-readers are being used by increasing numbers of people, with mobile phone subscriptions globally hitting a record-breaking high of 6 billion in 2012. As the cost of mobile phone ownership declines, mobile devices are being adopted in areas of great poverty, where even schools, books and computers are scarce.

The opportunities presented by mobile learning, particularly for learners who lack access to high quality education, is immense. One example of this, is the UNESCO Mobile Literacy Project in rural Pakistan, which uses mobile phones to complement a traditional face-to-face literacy course for adolescent girls. The project has produced impressive results, with the number of girls receiving an 'A' grade upon completion of the literacy course jumping from 28% to 60% after the introduction of the mobile devices.

Despite the considerable potential however, mobile technology was still not being adequately leveraged for education purposes, Janis Karklins, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information told forum attendees. “We cannot continue to pretend that we live in the pre-digital era, and to do so risks plunging schools into irrelevance. We live in a world where many, if not most young people carry a powerful, easy mobile computer in their pockets”, he said. “The question is not whether schools and school systems will engage with these mobile technologies but when they will and how they will”.
To mark Mobile Learning Week, UNESCO launched a set of Policy Guidelines for Mobile Learning, with Mr Karklins urging participants to join him in exploring how mobile technologies can widen learning opportunities for all. Anne Bouverot, Director-General of the GSMA, said she was confident mobile learning was ready to go to the next phase.
“We believe that we can go to the next level, and we can move to large-scale, government backed, successful, mobile education programs around the world”, Ms Bouverot proclaimed.

(Source: UNESCO)

This is a national government initiative aimed to reduce the social, digital and education gap, and provide equipment, technology resources and pedagogical inclusion of ICT to primary schools.

The proposal provides the distribution of mobile digital classrooms from Digital Primary line: this involves equipment but also the development of a multimedia environment in line with the proposals and level targets.

Access the multimedia environment here and the general introductory handbook in pdf. here.

The system is designed to allow teachers and students to download content from the server, recharge laptops, interact with the whiteboard and work on an intranet (internal network). The environment offers a number of activities with specific pedagogical approaches, content and resources in each of the netbooks and the server. No internet connection is required for appropriation. In the case of having connection, the proposal can be enriched and deepened from the contributions of teachers.
The media environment was developed as considering the potential of technologies to accompany the processes of teaching and learning level. It is proposed as a space where students and teachers can act and interact, build together a collaborative and creative territory itself.

In its first phase, this national program plans to reach with digital classrooms at 200 schools.

With funding from the IDB, through PROMEDU (Support Program Policy on Improving Equity in Education), 1516 mobile digital classrooms will be delivered in 2013 to schools that joined the program in 2010 and which had not received equipment.

Also, this program will provide training for 3800 primary schools covered by the Program, from May 2013, for an average of eight teachers per institution.

(Source: educ.ar)

According to the Ministry of Education of Peru (Minedu), 51% of students in second grade cannot solve mathematics problems at thier grade level chords. To cope with this situation, the Minedu drives strategic alliances with private companies that use the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool to encourage improvements in the quality of education.

Through the portal Peru Educa, a virtual platform of distribution content, educational applications and services has been serving the schools and the education community. This is an innovative space for strengthening students learning and do not left anyone behind.
One of its main allies of Peru Educa is Telefonica Foundation (FundaciónTelefónica), with its portal Educared, a useful and free virtual platform, which in a fun and interactive way, test the knowledge of children in different courses. This space contains a number of own educational resources and external initiatives of professors and specialists from different countries.

Within Educared there are spaces which are designed to supplement mathematics, among which are:
1. - Mathematics for children: space with available games with exercises of comparing natural numbers, using symbols as "greater than", "less than" and "equal to". It also offers dynamic exercises as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with a difficulty levels to practice further.
Link: http://math.cilenia.com

2. - Strengthening Mathematics: is a intended tool for students in fifth and sixth grade. On this website you can find colorful applications for mental calculation, multiply and divide both integers and decimals, fractions, make transformations of different measurements and more. However, children can find many other courses of their interest.


(Source: La Primera News Paper)

The event, which is billed to hold in Lagos on April 25, 2013, is a brainchild of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and was borne out of the need to encourage young girls to delve into the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) profession as a means of contributing their quota to the development of the industry in their local environment and internationally.

This year’s event, with the theme: “Tech Needs Girls to Invent the Future”, has further received the support of the Minister for Communication Technology, Mrs, Omobola Johnson, who noted that her ministry is ready to work in partnership with eBusiness Life to achieve the aims of the event.

In a mail to the organizer, Mrs Johnson said, “congratulations once again and be assured that the Ministry will support this initiative”. The minister had earlier highlighted on the need to encourage young girls to aspire to co-exist with their male counterparts in the field of ICT, noting that the profession also needs the feminine gender in development.

“It is a known fact that girls are more brilliant at very young ages and evidence abound from nursery and primary schools globally to verify this claim. However, as girls reach the ages of menarche, the pressures and pains of becoming a woman slow us down a little. Early marriages and childcare also contribute to the reduction in young women’s academic achievement. Girls must therefore be exposed to ICT education very early in life. So that the culture, orientation and requisite ICT skills would have been acquired”.

She further enjoined that in order to close the digital divide between the female and male gender in terms of education in, ownership of and access to ICTs, girls must pick interest in ICT and related careers as this will not only prepare them for employment, but will also improve their capacity to compete for jobs with fabulous rewards or ability to start their own businesses and be employers from the word go.

As part of this year’s week-long event, activities will include a one-day seminar, facility tours, essay competition, open quiz sessions, mentorship forum, and awards to deserving female ICT professionals, who have made their marks in the industry.

International Girls’ Day is an initiative launched through ITU Resolution 70 with the idea of creating a global environment that will empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in the field of information and communication technologies.

The Union declared the fourth Thursday of April every year as a day of encouragement to girls and young women to consider careers in ICT and society is reminded to support them in their choice.
Pilot projects and campaigns have been launched in a number of countries for more than 20 years, with the aim to change girls’ and young women’s behaviour patterns with regard to their choice of career and to expand their spectrum of career options.

(Source: The Guardian Newspaper Nigeria)

Program organizers launch 'Project 24', which gives districts a customized digital learning plan; a Massive Open Online Course for educators to learn about ed tech; and more.
With an overwhelming 25,000 educators participating in Digital Learning Day on Feb. 6, ed-tech supporters used technology-based projects, lessons, and enthusiasm to mark what they called a perfect time to launch a national digital learning campaign.

“Every day should be Digital Learning Day,” said Karen Cator, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology. “Access to technology has become as important to learning as access to a library, yet teachers remain the critical link between students and the content”. Cator said teachers are setting expectations for multiple “revision cycles” of student productions, made possible with “professional tools for writing, composing music, creating video documentaries, and design”.

“They are learning along with their students and modeling good questioning and internet research strategies, assigning more complex and challenging projects, and facilitating communication and collaboration even across borders”, she said.

“The president and I are convinced that with technology, we have an extraordinary opportunity to expand educational excellence and equity, and personalize the experience for students”, said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who attended Digital Learning Day in Washington, D.C.

Further details

Millions of students benefit from free online courses that offer dozens of institutions.

All shows that 2013 will be the year of the MOOC, or massive open online courses, for its acronym in English. A new way of teaching and learning in higher education content is spreading from the campus of the best universities anywhere in the world.

The phenomenon of MOOC born in the United States in the hands of a few visionaries, such as the artificial intelligence theorist and ex  professor of Stanford, Sebastian Thrun. Although early experiences have several decades, it was not until 2012 that the phenomenon has become massive. During the last 12 months born major technology platforms to which universities have engaged their courses.

"It has emerged everything, since to being top chefs, learn to be more artistic, master in new sports, new tools, new programming languages, other languages and to become better teachers", wrote in their blog the Udacity responsible at the same time of their purposes for the new year. Created by Thrun and two colleagues, also they make clear its objectives in their mission statement: "Our mission is to provide higher education to the world in an accessible, attractive and effective way. We believe that higher education is a basic human right and we intend to empower our students to develop their skills so they can advance their careers". In just one year since its founding, Udacity has enrolled more than 150,000 persons.

At glance Udacity's web gives an idea of what you can learn in a MOOC. There are introductory courses in computer science or physics, artificial intelligence learning intermediate or advanced courses in programming and applied cryptography and robotics.

But more important is the content and philosophy of the MOOC. Like previous learning platforms are online. No matter where you find one, just a decent connection to sign up. But now are massive, in theory you can register as many people as you want. The MOOC are also open, which brings with it its free. It is a fundamental point of the philosophy in which it is based on: democratize and globalize higher education.

Although the phenomenon of individual initiatives came out from great teachers (Thrun and others), universities also have joined to this initiative. The MIT and Harvard University created edX, a massive online courses platform, to which have joined other senior centers as Berkeley College in Georgetown or Wesleley, last December. With the addition of the last two centers, edX also goes a step further in the contents. But if it is to have universities, the broadest platform is Coursera. Also born in 2012 now has more than two million students, making it the largest university in the world.

In the background of the coming revolution there is a change in the educational paradigm.

(Source: El Comercio NewsPaper)

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Communications, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams said she hoped that this initiative will enhance learner education and help make their lives and their community better.

“In our efforts to provide broadband connectivity to unconnected schools, the department has partnered with Vodacom because we believe that well-resourced and equipped learners will perform better and will improve the matric pass rate. Such partnerships are critical if we are to offer quality education to our learners and to schools, particularly those that have previously not been exposed to such learning opportunities.

“We are delighted to be handing over the computers as it is part of our schools connectivity initiative. We are committed to connecting schools nationwide through both public and private partnerships”, said Ndabeni-Abrahams.

Vodacom’s Chief Officer for Corporate Affairs, Maya Makanjee, said the centre was not only expected to improve learner pass rates, but also ensure that learners have had some exposure to ICTs by the time they reach tertiary level.

School Principal Nombuyiselo Boya said she was humbled by the donation.

“Our school had no computers. We are humbled to be recipients of the mobile computer centre specifically for our learners. This will expose our learners to the internet and will also help improve the quality of education we offer our learners”, she said.

(Source: UNPAN)

Lesson personalization, interactivity can improve student engagement and social skills.

Ed-tech advocates are discovering the numerous benefits that mobile devices, including iPads, can have for students. But a growing number of special-education teachers are finding that iPads can have a positive effect on their students with autism in particular.

Students with autism often have trouble communicating and might struggle with transitions, such as changing classes, getting on a school bus, or taking a field trip. A report issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last April indicated that one out of every 88 children is believed to have autism or fall somewhere on the autism spectrum.
Karina Barley, an Australian special-education teacher who runs Project Autism Australia, uses iPads with her students on the autism spectrum. Handheld devices such as the iPad offer students with autism the chance to personalize their learning while moving at their own pace, and the larger screen (when compared to a smart phone) makes it easy for them to manipulate various apps.

“They have fantastic implications”, Barley said. “One of the greatest things about them is that you can use iPads across lots of curriculum areas. I saw significant improvements in my kids within the first term”.

Barley uses iPads to teach math and English/language arts (ELA), and for customized learning programs based on each student’s individual needs. While some of her students with autism traditionally struggle with concentration, Barley said introducing the iPads caused a marked change.

(Source: eSchool News)

'Welcome to the project', so reads the foreword particularly literary lesson taught by Professor Sergio Tejero to 2nd grade students at ESO (Ekialdea institute). Chapter One: desks, whiteboard and laptop ready and connected to condense into 140 characters the passage 'which looks at the condition of the famous knight Don Quixote de La Mancha', as published Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Not surprisingly, the word 'post' in its infinitive tense, it becomes 'Trending Topic' in this computerized classroom.

The technology of this teaching academic method, which has attracted literary passion among his pupils, seeks to promote the reading and the language of Cervantes. "Each student is assigned a chapter to be summarized in a 'tweet', of not more than 140 characters text. Once finished, I correct it and then publish it live @ElQuijoTweet", explains Tejero.

More than 1,200 fans support this initiative. Julen, Irati, Jon, Jokin and other students have appreciated the story of Alonso Quijano.
"At first it seemed difficult, especially for the number of pages in the book -862 -. But now I find it amusing", Irune Valluerca perceived. The heavy old Castilian vocabulary has not been an impediment to their peers Joseba and Iñigo, boasting outstanding language. If you read Don Quixote at home, it could be not so much interesting. But one chapter to another is more entertaining", realize both students, reading lovers in its aspects of "adventure novel".

For their teacher Sergio, who has an experience of 12 years as a radio journalist, the motivation "is key" in teaching. Given the catastrophic connotations raised by the explosive mix of teens and social networks, Tejero commitment to seek "real value" of these tools. And the strict limitation governing on the Twitter text (no more than 140 characters), which is ideal for "summarize teaching" is not a trivial matter in academic development.

"Students who do not how to summarize, do not know how to study" he says. They are unable to absorb a lesson because they fail to understand: "They have difficulty making schemes". But thanks to the social network of the blue bird- dreaded from parent associations and schools directors", the students learn to search keywords and composing sentences". In short: make a good synopsis. "That helps them improve not only in language but in all subjects: science, history, etc".

As "the second most printed book in the world after the Bible", Don Quixote is the "universal classic" that every Castilian speaker should be conceived as "masterpiece" of Spanish literature. "Force them to read is not the solution. My goal is that they understand it, that they know the story, who was Cervantes, why the book is divided into two parts, everything that surrounds the Quixote de Avellaneda, etcetera". Undoubtedly, the method has permeated.

(Source: El Correo Newspaper)

An ambitious election campaign promise realized as a government mega project, Thailand’s One Tablet Per Child Policy (OTPC) is a crucial milestone in the country’s education reform. It has the aim of empowering young students with latest pedagogy and learning experience regardless of location, distance, and socio-economic standing.
A total of THB 3 billion (US$ 96 million) were spent on the world’s largest order—nearly 900,000 tablet PCs for education, from which the government has successfully placed 868,886 in the hands of first grade students countrywide.

“We are the pioneers in ordering a large number of tablets and handing them out to elementary students”, says Gp Capt Navamavadhana, Advisor to the ICT Minister in Thailand.

Navamavadhana was involved in all elements of the OTPC process. He is a committee member and Assistant Secretary to the OTPC Policy Commission, a chairman of Technical Sub-committee purchasing the tablets, and a technical advisor to the Tablet Inspection and Reception Commission.
The OTPC project is collaboration between the Education Ministry (MOE) and ICT Ministry (MICT) in which the former is responsible for the project’s implementation and the later for the purchase of devices, and software integration.

Navamavadhana headed his team’s visit to China to carefully inspect, compare and select appropriate devices. Finally, the MICT decided to spend THB 2460 (US$82) per device, each of which features Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, 1GB RAM, 1.2 GHz single core CPUs, and storage capacity of 8GB. The MICT was given from February until early November this year to complete market research, purchase, software development, and distribution of all the tablets including an additional 55,000 tablets with different specifications for teachers.

Although the purchase was completed and the devices have been securely delivered to students, Navamavadhana cannot sit back and feel relief. For him, this is merely a small step towards reforming the country’s education system.

To further expand the OTPC project to successfully reform Thai education, the government has in mind the idea of giving tablets with different specifications to students from different grades.

Future details

How can mobile technologies advance literacy for all, especially in countries that are “book-poor but mobile-rich”? How can they support teachers’ professional development to improve education quality? And how can they further gender equality in education and increase opportunities for women and girls?

These specific Educations for All-related questions will be addressed during the Second Mobile Learning Week (MLW) which will take place in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 18 to 22 February 2013.  

At the end of 2012 there were an estimated six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world. The unprecedented uptake of mobile phones in particular, in both developed and developing countries open up new possibilities for increasing education access, equity and quality. Mobile learning, a growing field of ICT in education, has the potential to significantly impact the delivery of education.  

MLW 2013 is the UN flagship mobile learning event and will be attended by an international audience of ICT in education specialists, practitioners, policy makers and representatives from relevant NGOs and corporations.  

As with UNESCO’s successful first MLW from 12-16 December 2011, the 2013 edition of MLW will share innovative ways of learning with, and through, mobile technologies, and how they can help achieve the Education for All goals and improve the quality of education.
A two-day symposium, from 18 to 19 February, forms the backbone of the event and features keynote speakers, demonstrations of mobile content and technology, and thematic breakout sessions.  

On 20 February, UNESCO, in partnership with the GSMA, will host an invitation-only meeting of high-level government officials to discuss issues relating to mobile learning and policy. 

A series of webinars will take place on 21 and 22 February. These online events will allow people all over the world to discuss topics related to mobile learning and will be moderated by leading thinkers in the field of ICT in education.  
 As the UN agency tasked with coordinating EFA, UNESCO is committed to investigating how information and communication technology—of which mobile devices are the most widespread—can help further progress towards Education for All.

(Source: UNESCO)

Public libraries in South Africa engage with local communities to preserve indigenous knowledge. This involves teaching them to use ICT tools.

Nowadays, ICTs can help to document and disseminate indigenous knowledge. In South Africa, it is mainly libraries that have accepted the challenge of preserving indigenous knowledge systems. For example, the consortium of eThekwini Municipal Libraries, which serves 89 local public libraries in the Durban area (Durban is the second-largest city of South Africa), started a crowdsourcing experiment to collect local indigenous knowledge.

This Ulwazi programme mainly records Zulu culture, but it has the broader aim of capturing the mix and interaction of different cultures in the Durban area. Examples of indigenous knowledge collected through the Ulwazi programme are traditional celebrations, traditional clothing, Zulu proverbs, traditional folk tales, the use of spiritual herbs and traditional agricultural methods.

The Ulwazi programme has a collaborative online community memory database of local indigenous knowledge. It relies on the community to deliver content and post it on the web. The community assumes ownership of the database, while the library focuses on custodianship of the information resource. Community participation ensures that local knowledge is collected, recorded and preserved, and in the process it therefore shares knowledge, develops people’s skills, creates job opportunities and empowers local communities.

The Ulwazi Community Memory website has been developed in the form of a wiki, an open-source webpage designed to enable contributions and modifications from multiple users. It also runs a blog and other social software applications, such as Facebook and Twitter.

At the moment Ulwazi does not have a process for collecting indigenous knowledge via mobile phones, but this has been under discussion and should be rolled out in the next year or so.

Indigenous knowledge is collected from local communities through community journalists, members of the public who can register an account and submit a story on a more ad-hoc basis, and through direct engagement with local residents often through community groups. Community journalists are actively recruited. They are generally younger people from the communities with some ICT skills, an interest in heritage and culture, and a desire to acquire new skills and gain work experience. The community journalists collect stories through personal interviews, in the form of audio recordings and video interviews.

(Source: ICT Update)

Meograph helps easily create, watch, and share interactive stories. Their first product combines maps, timeline, links, and multimedia to tell stories in context of where and when it happened.

The website is structured into a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface. Viewers get a new form of media that they can watch in two minutes or explore for an hour. Sharing is easy: the two most viral types of media are videos and infographics, Meograph is using both types.

Educators around the world are using this free website to create more interactive lesson materials, to “flip” their classroom—or to have students create their own projects.

Authoring what the site calls “four-dimensional stories” occurs via a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface, and users can share their creations online and via social media when they’re finished.Access to Meograph website here: http://www.meograph.com/educationexamples

(Source: eSchool News)

The Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB) launched an improved version of the Electronic Advance Application System for Post-Secondary Programmes, E-APP on December 3. E-APP was released in February this year to allow students to create and submit a single application for multiple post-secondary programmes.

Through E-APP, candidates appearing for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination or the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) can apply for post-secondary programmes before their examination results are released.

E-APP includes 31 locally-accredited post-secondary institutions that are not covered by the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS), the online portal for students who already have their HKDSE results to apply for admission to bachelor’s and associate degree, and higher diploma programmes in Hong Kong.

The institutions participating in E-APP can make conditional offers to applicants before the release of their HKDSE results. All institutions agreed to operate on the same timeline, enabling students to choose their programme with comprehensive information.

The new and improved version of E-APP allows post-secondary institutions to update the status of the applications through E-APP, allowing students to monitor their progress. The enhancements also bring secondary schools into the system by giving them the ability to view the status of their students’ applications, and thus, provide better career guidance.

Another improvement is the addition of a programme search function to allow students to search for programme information by area of study. Students can also submit requests for change of programme choices to institutions through E-APP. “With these new functions, students can plan their study pathways in accordance with their interests, abilities and career aspirations”, said an EDB spokesperson in a statement.

(Source: FutureGov)

WTSA-12 affirms commitment to an inclusive Information Society

ITU’s membership has adopted a Resolution inviting ITU Member States to refrain from taking any unilateral and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.

Meeting at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) in Dubai, ITU members revised and adopted a Resolution first agreed at 2008’s WTSA in Johannesburg: Resolution 69, Non-discriminatory access and use of Internet resources.

Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “Just days away from the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), the adoption of this Resolution underlines ITU’s commitment to a free and inclusive information society. This should send a strong message to the international community about accusations that ITU’s membership wishes to restrict the freedom of speech. Clearly the opposite is true. It is in this spirit – fostering an Internet whose benefits are open to all – that I would like to head into WCIT-12”.

Noting the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms and that discrimination regarding access to the Internet could greatly affect developing countries; Resolution 69 invites affected ITU Member States to report to ITU, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) on any unilateral and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.

ITU’s work, along with many others, has played a key role in enabling the Internet. Without ITU standards providing the access technologies to homes and businesses and the transport mechanisms to carry information from one side of the world to another the broadband services that we have come to rely on would simply not work.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

SMART Technologies, a leading provider of interactive whiteboards for classroom learning, has recently released a new SMART Notebook app for the iPad. The software allows students to indulge in the SMART experience at school, home or on the go.

SMART reports that their software is already used by over six million teachers and forty million students worldwide. The new SMART Notebook app for the iPad will enable students to access most of the tools usually used on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard – from email and file sharing to word processing and image editing. Students with iPads can therefore work on their assignments with ease and then email their homework directly to their instructor.

“SMART Notebook continues to be the software of choice for teachers looking to add interactivity into their daily lessons”, says Linda Thomas, Vice President, Products, SMART Technologies. With material displayed on a colourful screen and sound, graphics and Internet access, a typical SMART lesson is designed to make teaching and learning easier.

For teachers, the new SMART Notebook app allows for easy lesson planning. SMART have said, “Student material can also be displayed on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard for whole-class learning by wirelessly streaming the iPad content using AirPlay with an Apple TV. By using the SMART Notebook app for iPad, pupils and teachers can stay on track and save time by being able to work with the same material on both interactive displays and iPad at school or at home”.

(Source: eLearning Africa)

Two Secondary Schools to Benefit from 90 Girls' Scholarships, 50 Netbook Computers, and Internet Connectivity

Connect To Learn has been launched in Léona, Senegal with the announcement of 90 multi-year secondary school scholarships for 90 girls and the installation of 50 netbook computers supported by broadband connectivity for two secondary schools in the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) site in Léona. The launch at the Collège d’Enseignement Moyen was attended by MVP staff, students, teachers, parents, administrative authorities, education officials, and representatives of Ericsson and Tigo, two of the organizations supporting the effort.

Connect To Learn implements mobile broadband technology to connect classrooms to a 21st century education by enabling access to vital teaching and learning resources. The computers and connectivity contributed by the program’s technology partners will also allow teachers to improve their skills and knowledge and therefore the quality of secondary education in the schools where they work.

Through funds raised by Connect To Learn from individual and corporate donors, the program has also announced that they will offer multi-year scholarships this year for 90 young women to enroll in these schools. Girls eligible are MVP residents who have achieved academic excellence and whose families are unable to sustainably fund their education at the secondary level.

Connect To Learn is a partnership between the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Ericsson and Millennium Promise. As part of its contributions as chief technology partner for the initiative Ericsson has donated the 50 mobile broadband enabled computers and two video projectors. Tigo, the cell phone service provider that has joined the initiative in Senegal, is providing free Internet service that allows the netbooks to connect to the Internet through Tigo’s mobile phone network.

(Source: Connect To Learn)

Leveraging the power of ICT to help improve the quality of education for students through access to teaching and learning resources has become a useful tool within an increasingly networked society.

Technology improves educational opportunities by enabling personalized study. It also enhances the potential for learning through community-based education and access to educational resources, even in remote rural schools.

Connect To Learn was launched in 2010 as a collaborative effort between the Earth Institute providing advice on development, education, and evaluation; Ericsson as lead technology partner; and Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization.

Building on the expertise of each partner, Connect To Learn identifies strategies to integrate teacher professional development with 21st century ICT-based teaching, tools and practices in classrooms.

Connect To Learn also combines a cloud-based ICT solution developed by Ericsson for schools with the on-the-ground experience of partner NGOs. It aims to remove ICT support tasks from teachers and provides them with technology that is simpler to manage, so teachers can focus on improving the quality of education.

The solution is provided as a service, and is designed for users with little or no IT competence.

Improved access, energy efficiency and reduced costs are possible because users do not have to worry about virus protection, software updates and content-control capabilities for safe Internet browsing, application installation or maintenance. All tasks which are managed in the cloud.

Connect To Learn partners recognize the transformational role that broadband and other ICT solutions can play in scaling up access to quality education through innovative programs such as this one.

(Source: ICT4U)

It can be downloaded from the Internet and enable them to identify the skills that students must develop.

The Peruvian Ministry of Education, as part of the national mobilization for the improvement of education and whose motto is "We all can learn, no one is left behind", has been made available to all teachers in the country, a set of teaching materials that will identify skills that students must develop.

These materials, called "Routes of Learning" can be downloaded from the following link: http://www2.minedu.gob.pe/umc/noticiacompleta_index.php?v_codigo=88, which contents bundles of Communication and Mathematics; Kits self-assessment, and guides.

Fascicles of communication and mathematics skills have to be achieved for children of 5 years old of initial and students of first and second grade. They also contain the respective performance indicators.

On other hand, the self Kits guide the teachers of the second grade to reflect on their teaching methods, assess how much students have learned, and analyze the results.

Finally, the mentioned guidelines propose a designing Guide for educational institutions, goals, strategies and commitments necessary to improve student learning in the areas of communication and mathematics, taking into account the results of the Census for Student 2011.

(Source: MINEDU)

The Chilean website PSU Educarchile, which helps students to prepare the entrance examination to college, was the only Latin American project awarded (September 27) with one of the six WISE Awards 2012, presented annually by the Qatar Foundation for distinguish innovation in education.

PSU Educarchile is a free and interactive online platform which allows students from last years of secondary education prepare to the University Selection Test (PSU), an examination of language, math, science and social science prerequisite to enter the Chilean universities.

While schools prepare their students for this exam, those who can pay in pre-university parallel courses tend to receive better training and achieve higher scores on admission.

The platform - which works with publicly, private and philanthropic funded -is an alternative to these paid centers, because it allows testing using tools including a website with more than 57 000 test questions, exam podcasts with content and messages text to cell phones. It also offers support through Facebook and Twitter.

The site receives 120,000 visits a month across the country. The 60 percent of all users come from public schools, ie, students with not so much economical resources and who has difficulties to pay Preuniversitario or private tutoring.

"This is an innovative solution that aims directly at reducing inequity gaps due to the distance and social vulnerability, or generated by the inability of many students to attend classes for specific situations such as the 2010 earthquake or shots year colleges past, said the director of EducarChile portal.

(Source: SciDev Net)

Learn and assess the global progress in the application of ICTs, as well as identify relevant experiences, based on their innovation and educational impact, were the targets of the seminar "Educational use of Information and Communication Technologies" organized by Fundación Universidades Castilla y León, Santillana and Fundación Telefónica, and hosted by the headquarters of the Department of Education of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, in Valladolid.

Juan José Mateos, Minister of Education of Castilla y León, delivered the opening speech of the seminar, entitled "Situation and Review of the use of ICTs in the Education System of Castilla y León". He was followed by Mariano Jabonero, director of Institutional Relations of Santillana, who offered some data on the use of ICTs worldwide, and Joan Cruz, Director of Fundación Telefónica and “Escuelas Amigas” (Friendly Schools) project, focused on the status of digital implementation in Spain.

Also Mr. Cruz reflected on Fundación Telefónica's commitment to facilitating access to knowledge, improving educational quality, and promoting experimentation in the field of ICTs as the basis for the new education of the 21st century. He also remarked on Fundación Telefónica's “Escuelas Amigas” project, which seeks to strengthen ties and foster cultural exchange between students in Spain and Latin America over the Internet, where students, teachers and Telefónica volunteers - who act as catalysts of the activities - play the leading roles.

The fundamental premise of “Escuelas Amigas” initiative is the use of ICTs in learning processes, as an element that helps to tear down geographical and cultural barriers. As for today (with the 3rd Edition of the project concluded) 13 Latin American countries and Spain and some 280 schools, have taken part in the initiative, benefiting almost 11,000 children with the support of nearly 330 volunteers.

(Source: Fundación Telefónica)

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) initiated a Smart Classroom Project to test the efficiency of tablet PCs with different operating systems in teaching and learning at four pilot schools in the capital.

“This program is aimed at testing the effectiveness of tablet-PCs as learning devices in the classroom”, said Bangkok Deputy Governor Taya Teepsuwan.

The program is as part of the BMA’s strategic plan to enhance ICT management for education. The fourth-grade classes in four different schools across Bangkok are involved in this pilot project. The supplied tablets were equipped with four different operating systems and were given to each of the four schools.

They are Android for the Prachaniwet School, Window 7 for the Rittiyawannalai School, iOS for the Wat Pathumwanaram School, and Window 8 for the Na Luang School. Na Luang School is the first school in the world to pilot the Window 8-based tablets, which is scheduled to be officially released by the last week of October.

Department of Education and the BMA is now hiring King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi to evaluate the four schools’ results after using the tablets to expand the project in the future, according to her. She also said that the evaluation result will come out by the end of this year and the BMA will consider whether to continue the trial or expand the Smart Classroom project.

“Technologies for education are an important thing that we cannot avoid. The challenge is how to apply technologies in education with the most efficiency”, said Taya.

The project is in partnership with Microsoft who donated 43 Window-8-loaded Acer Iconia tablets to Na Luang School. The Window 8 tablets comes with Window 8 apps from the Windows Store, the Microsoft Learning Suite including Microsoft Math and Math Worksheet Generator as well as other edutainment tools like Kodu Game Lab, Microsoft AutoCollage, Window Live Movie Maker, Interactive Classroom and etc.

(Source: FutureGov)

The administrative staff and teachers of AIC Girls Boarding School in Kajiado, Kenya managed to increase the accuracy of the school’s grades and attendance figures and save time in one go, simply by using digital spreadsheets.

“Here, this used to be our school’s administration”, With a wide grin on their faces, four teachers  of AIC Boarding School, show a huge stack of written paper that contain attendance rates and grades of students. “These papers represent about three days of work for us”, says one of the teachers. She then grabs about ten pieces of paper. “And this is the same information, but then created by using Excel. It’s exactly the same, but this only took us half an hour to make”.

Since June 2012, this boarding school for Maasai girls is using four computers for administrative purposes. With the support of IICD and Edukans in the Connect4Change Consortium together with Kenyan partner Dupoto-e-Maa (a Kajiado-based indigenous NGO), all teachers and administrative staff were trained in basic ICT usage and how to use the system, which will help to generate more accurate data about grades and attendance of students.

In the near future, the system will also be used to keep track of payments. Maasai parents are often on the move, but in the beginning of the school year, they come to the school and pay the school fee for their children, which often include boarding fees. Payments records will be kept digitally which makes it easier to see which parents already paid. The system will also help with keeping track of payments in terms, as many parents do not have the full amount at the beginning of the year. If payments are tracked better, this means that the school will increase its income which can then be spent on teaching materials and better facilities for the school.

(Source: IICD)

Primary school teachers and teachers-to-be throughout Ethiopia record their classes on video. They use these videos to evaluate and improve their teaching. Teachers also make use of computers to plan their lessons. “The motivation of my students has increased”.

Teachers of 75 schools throughout Ethiopia and in teacher training colleges are learning how to use computers to plan their lessons more efficiently. Video cameras are used to record their lessons and to evaluate and discuss them with other teachers.

“I learned how to use video in my own classroom to evaluate myself”, says a teacher from Gafat Primary School in North central Ethiopia. “On the latest videos I can see that because of this, my teaching skills have improved. I also learned to use new teaching techniques. In the classroom, my students now do more group work and talk more. I see that their motivation has increased and I already see some improvement in their results”.

This programme is supported by IICD and Edukans in the Connect4Change consortium and by Ethiopian partner Development Expertise Centre Ethiopia.

In most of the 75 schools, the video and basic computer programme is up and running and some schools already use a digitalized lesson plan that allows teachers to better organize their lessons and activities. In ten schools, there are still some issues with getting reliable electricity. This will be solved by using solar panels to run the computers and charge the cameras that the teachers use for their teaching learning processes.

So far 324 primary school teachers, school assisting staff and 91 supervisors and principles are already trained in a more student centered teaching approach. In addition to this, 2014 members of school management teams will receive trainings about leadership, supervision, digital human resource management and they learn how to organize various reports digitally. 

(Source: IICD)

The government of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh has awarded a contract to implement next-generation solutions for teaching and learning in 1471 schools across 12 districts in the state.

The INR 1.57 billion (US $29.62 million) project will provide computer-aided learning solutions to schools across Himachal Pradesh. The schools involved in the project will acquire digital classrooms equipped with interactive white boards and multimedia content.

618 government senior secondary schools, 848 government high schools and five ‘smart schools’ in the state will be involved in this project. In addition, 7500 teachers will receive training on how to understand and use these technology solutions, and how to facilitate ICT education of their students.

Digital learning solutions are making significant inroads into India. The government of the state of Punjab recently announced the development of 795 new computer labs in government schools across the state.

This initiative was launched as part of Phase V and VI of a centrally-sponsored ICT scheme in Punjab. During the first four phases, the government focused on enhancing ICT education in schools through new classes and curriculum, and training teachers in effective use of ICT tools in teaching.

ICT-enabled schools in Punjab have been given access to power generators and broadband internet connections to facilitate implementation of state-wide school management of information systems (MIS) and geographic information systems (GIS), which are under development.

(Source: FutureGov)

International students and professionals from different countries and various areas of expertise gathered in Como Italy for Information and Communication Technology for Development International School (ICT4DEVIS). The international school has evolved into a community dedicated to foster the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve sustainable development.

The first edition of ICT4DEVIS, which took place from 3 – 7 September 2012, was a collaborative effort of Fondazione Rosselli Americas (USA), Università dell’Insubria (Italy), and Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil). ICT4DEVIS aimed to be a bridge between core academic and actual practice in deploying ICT as means for development (ICT4D).

ICT4D implies facilitating developing countries with the necessary ICT system or tool to improve their lives. One of the challenges is different characteristic of developing countries that requires different approach and context in achieving sustainable development. “We want to give the students the ability to understand the context and build a solution well-tailored for that context” said Professor Walter Castelnovo from Università dell’Insubria.

The school addressed the issue through three pillars of technology, socio-cultural, and ICT4D project management. Moreover, students of ICT4DEVIS got the chance to be linked to international organization operating in area of development, such as Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation and Inter-American Development Banks. The on-site lectures of ICT4DEVIS were followed by remote video lectures and assessment completed at the end of September 2012. The second edition of ICT4DEVIS will be held next year in Sao Paolo Brazil.

(Source: Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation)

Further details

Recently two rural schools linked through communication technology as a way to support the primary school leadership programs that were operating within their schools as well as a strategy to enhance the development of leadership skills across the two primary schools.

The students leadership teams of Korumburra and St Arnaud Primary Schools recently linked for the first time through Polycom to share their experiences as student leaders within their school communities and to also explore how they could better support each other in their leadership roles within their schools.

The link up provided a great opportunity for these young people get to know each other, compare notes on the community in which they live, and the role that they undertake in their school community. Within their discussions they covered a range of topics including selection of student leaders; sharing activities and discussions they were involved in; what is expected of student leaders within primary schools; and how they could better be involved in their schools to improve the learning and experiences for students.

A highlight of the first link up was a presentation on leadership skills by the Mayor of Northern Grampians Shire. The Mayor explored a range of key elements that contribute to a successful leader and shared with the two leadership teams the skills, behavior and positive outcomes that you gain as a result of being a leader within an organization. The student leaders quizzed the Mayor on their role and the types of activities they were involved in.

The link up, while only the first time the two schools had facilitated this, was a huge success and there are already plans to support an ongoing link up across the two school student leadership teams. Already there are plans for a link up to introduce the new student leaders within each school when they are elected towards the end of this year.

(Source: CEP)

Over the course of the past decade, the face of society has been transformed. In every aspect of daily life, technology has revolutionized the ways by which individuals communicate with the outside world.

In order to effectively contend with this evolving style, it is vital for educators to incorporate these changes into the classroom. One way of doing so is by the integration of mobile learning and, more specifically, remote teaching. This study attempted to measure the effectiveness of mobile learning and remote teaching in delivering classroom content within the university context, as opposed to traditional lecture-based delivery. Results indicated that mobile-based remote teaching is not only as effective as traditional instruction, but more so, in regard to student understanding of course content.

This study will explore the use of mobile technology in remote teaching, giving professors the ability to teach and instruct students via the mobile device while not in the traditional classroom setting. This study will utilize a quasi-experimental design between separate sections of no less than three classes. Three sections will be taught utilizing extensive remote teaching activities (i.e. sending students out of the classroom to experience different activities and blogging/podcasting about them remotely on their device, conducting “scavenger hunts” using mobile devices for instruction, using HeadsUp to facilitate group work while the professor is not physically present), while the other three sections will be taught identical course materials using traditional face-to-face methods. Measurement will consist of a pre-test/post-test design to compare student comprehension, retention of, and interest in course materials.

Full report
(Source: Abilene Christian University)

During the SSOE Deployment Milestone Celebration on August 24, the Ministry of Education (MOE), in partnership with NCS, announced the completion of the transition phase that would empower over 500,000 students. The devices consisting of desktop computers, notebook computers, and tablet Pcs have been arranged for over 40,000 principals, teachers, and administrative staff who have been educated on the use of the new services and solutions under the programme.

”The Schools Standard ICT Operating Environment (SSOE) programme has enhanced the ICT infrastructure of schools in Singapore, to provide an environment for greater use of ICT in teaching and learning in schools”, said SSOE Programme Director Lim Teck Soon.

“With SSOE, schools can now look forward to faster speed, enhanced security and full on-site support for their computing needs to enhance teaching and learning. A strong focus on users’ needs and the close partnership between MOE and NCS had enabled the entire programme to be implemented successfully. We are confident that SSOE will redefine the pedagogical approach in the education system in Singapore and equip future generations of students to harness the full potential of ICT”, he added.

Launched in June 2010, the SSOE programme has arranged and managed desktops, network and ICT support for all MOE schools in Singapore, enabling both wired and wireless network to improve the school’s network performance and accessibility to education applications. Also, the programme has provided computing devices to all staff and school computing labs to facilitate effective and efficient use of the ICT infrastructure.

For the next phase of the SSOE programme, NCS will manage the operations and provide maintenance support and technology refresh of the desktops and infrastructure, as part of the eight-year contract with the MOE.

(Source: NCS)

Under the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025 launched last week, Malaysia will equip 10,000 national schools nationwide with 4G Internet access and a virtual learning platform.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak unveiled the plan to embed ICT in teaching and learning for teachers, students, and parents through the expansion of 1BestariNet (Wi-Fi) programme to all schools.

Also, the government will increase the number of ICT devices until the ratio of student-to-device reaches 10:1. He added that the ratio can continue to be lowered further subjected to the availability of funds and impact assessment.

Between 1999 and 2010, Malaysian government has invested up to RM6 billion (US$ 1.97 billion) on the initiative ICT for education projects. Most of the funds went for additional computer labs especially to support the PPSMI scheme—the government’s education policy aimed at improving the proficiency in English among pupils at primary and secondary schools.

In the blueprint, the effective use of ICT is required to foster students to learn how to leverage ICT efficiently to scale up quality learning across the country. It will also further strengthen the foundation of ICT-enabled schools as well as introducing proven ICT solutions into the education system.

The government will also pilot a distance-learning and self-paced learning before scaling up nationwide.

Under shift 9 in the same blueprint, a system called School Examination Analysis System (SAPS)—an online system to monitor students’ progress, will be set up at some 500 trust schools as part of encouraging the partnership among parents, community and private sector to monitor learning performance of the students.

The government will also invest in ICT solutions for groups with specific needs such as rural schools, under-enrolled schools, and gifted students to enable cost-efficient access to high-quality teaching and learning resources.

(Source: FutureGov)

ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2012 (OEB) focuses on fostering a bright and inclusive future for lifelong learning in which technology enables learners globally to improve themselves.

During conference sessions they will explore the effects of the multitude of changes in the fields of technology and education, as learners and learning experts are asked to respond to challenges in society today. One of the major consequences of these changes is a need to adapt educational content and practices and capture opportunities using available tools. This need takes centre stage at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN. Technology asks us to innovate rapidly but how can we ensure quality, take advantage of possibilities and implement our ideas and plans sustainably?

Under the theme ‘Reaching beyond tomorrow’, OEB will explore these issues and inform you about the latest research and practices in both education and business. It is:

• The largest international e-learning event for the corporate, education and public service sectors, with over 2000 delegates from 100 countries
• A key networking event where high-level decision makers shaping the industry come together annually
• The place where leading international e-learning manufacturers, suppliers and service providers present their latest products and services

Registration form here: http://www.online-educa.com/cms7/sites/default/files/documents/downloads/registration-form.pdf

(Source: Online Educa)

A new online community that launched on 22 August aims to help schools and districts as they move toward digital education and implement corresponding policy changes.

The U.S. Department of Education, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University, and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) partnered to create the online community of practice.

Epic-ed aims to empower digital transitions at all stages of development, including school leaders who are thinking about moving to ubiquitous computing environments, those who wish to implement ed-tech pilot projects, and those who are ready for full-scale implementation.

“Epic-ed will provide K-12 educators, district leaders, and other community participants with a unique channel to get connected and develop strategies for navigating the digital transition,” said CoSN CEO Keith Krueger. “With increased peer-to-peer interaction and greater connectivity, epic-ed members will have an opportunity to learn from each other, share ideas, and ultimately implement effective plans to help ease the transition and maximize the benefits of technology-enabled learning environments”.

Though one-to-one computing has long been a goal of many districts, ed-tech leaders find they are now faced with a “one-to-many” situation, because many students today own and use more than one wireless mobile device.

“Bring your own device” initiatives—where students use their own devices on a school’s network, and the school often provides a “classroom set” of tools for students who don’t have their own device—also are growing in popularity. These initiatives cut down on tech support and take advantage of the large numbers of students who own high-tech devices and who already are using those devices, such as tablets, laptops, and smart phones, for educational purposes.

Epic-ed will focus on all stakeholders involved in ed-tech programs: school administrators, teachers, chief technology officers, instructional coaches, parents, students, and more.

(Source: eSchool News)

The Ministry of Education announced the creation of postgraduate in Education and New Technologies to train teachers in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which will be delivered from the second half of the year. The initiative aims to help teachers in the use of netbooks delivered by Connect Equality Plan (conectar Igualdad - ICP).

The Federal Government has developed several measures to guarantee the right of quality education for all. One policy that contributes significantly to achieve this goal is the universal access to information and communication technologies (ICT), which finds in the Program Connect Equal the democratizing mechanism from which students and teachers of the Argentine public schools can get their own netbook, as well as teachers and students in teacher training schools.

In this way, arises the need to install a specific public policy of teacher professional development from the State, accompanying the process of democratization of access to technologies involving the Model 1 to 1. The Specialization Teaching of Higher level in Education and ICT, published in the Official Gazette by Resolution No. 856/2012, assumes the educational responsibility of providing a space for training and discussion with academic rigor in order to enrich the institutional practices from the inclusion and use of ICT in the daily work of teachers.

It starts from the premise that it is essential to balance the scope and limitations of ICT, in order to enforce their potential as tools for development of pedagogical approaches, without overstating the impact of technological variables on the teaching and learning.

(Source: educ.ar)
Further details

Thailand’s Electronic Government Agency (EGA) will introduce the ‘Smart Box’, an integrated device that provides connectivity and delivers government services through smart card authentication for remote communities.

The Smart Box will enable remote villagers especially farmers to access real-time agricultural information. The streaming data will be customized to suit interest and benefit of people in particular provinces, areas, and types of cultivation. The information includes weather forecast, and market price for rice, rubber, tapioca and etc.

The EGA is preparing to launch the pilot project of Smart Box in Nakhon Nayok - a chosen province to be the first Smart Province of ICT Ministry.

Apart from providing necessary agricultural information, the Smart Box will be able to read Smart ID Card and provide personal data and social welfare benefits attached to each citizen.

The Smart Box has a similar shape to cable TV box, featuring pre-set Intranet connected to the Government Information Network (GIN), and wi-fi reception. Initially, it will be installed in the community ICT centres, houses of village chiefs or sub-district heads where there is fine connection of internet.

The units of Smart Box will be ready for distribution in the next 3-4 months. The price per unit is between THB 3,000 - 4,000 (US$ 95-126) depending on the specification that the EGA will finalize.

(Source: FutureGov)

Eight thousand primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe will shortly be connected to the Internet as part of a new national eLearning programme, says Nelson Chamisa, the country’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology. “All political parties in the government have agreed that eLearning should be a priority in order to improve our education system”, said Chamisa, adding that the state would be furnishing educational institutions with computers so that all schools go digital by 2014.

The programme comes at a time when the country is overhauling its national ICT policy for the first time in six years. Launched at Chogugudza Primary School in Mashonaland East Province in March this year, the national eLearning programme will initially target schools on the national grid.

The scarcity of electricity in most rural areas was in part responsible for the failure of the first attempt to computerise the nation’s schools a decade ago. The collapse of the economy and the subsequent brain drain of skilled teachers nationwide forever changed the formerly bright face of education in Zimbabwe.  By 2009, reports UNICEF, 94% of rural schools had been closed, and school attendance had dropped from 80% to 20%. UNICEF has been paying the school fees of over four hundred thousand underprivileged primary schoolers through the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), but the agency has recently announced its withdrawal from the programme. The new national eLearning programme will therefore be challenging to implement in remote areas where schools are underfunded.

Jeffreyson Chitando, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Member on Education, Sports and Culture, said the country was keen to see rural areas benefiting from the eLearning programme. “Our committee shall make sure that there is no school that will be excluded in the ongoing national eLearning programme. We understand the benefits of eLearning, and we are going to make sure that no student shall be disadvantaged in accessing modern technologies such as the Internet”, said Chitando.

(Source: eLearning Africa)
Further details

Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand recently became the first university in Thailand and in Southeast Asia to roll out the Google App for Education to facilitate learning, with the collaboration of teachers and university staff. 200 buildings throughout 8.96 million square meters of the KKU area are now connected with wireless internet of 60 access points, allowing students to do online learning and information searching anywhere and anytime, said KKU President Associate Prof Dr Kittichai Triratanasirichai.

“Our mission is to be an international university and be a hub in the northeast for students from overseas. The university has been focusing on IT investment as a vital tool to support education for several years”, he added. With 2,000 subjects are available in the KKU Learning Management System (LMS), students can access to these electronic learning materials via the internet connection, both wired and wireless.

“KKU wants to be an international university and ICT is an important tool to assist us achieve the goal. Studying at KKU, student learning will be facilitated by the ICT infrastructure along with the ICT knowledge that is a must and required skill for graduation students”, said Dr Tiratanasirichai. KKU is located 449 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, with 12,000 staff and hospitals which includes 2,000 teachers and 10,000 staff, and 43,000 students.

“All will be encouraged to use Google Apps in the next three months. Now, around 10,000 users are using Google Apps”, said KKU’s vice president of academic and IT, assistant Prof Denpong Soodphakdee.

He added that KUU’s e-learning system is enabled by the Mooddle system, a free Web-based learning managment system that allows educators to create effective online learning sites. Google Apps will be integrated into the university’s LMS. Apart from e-learning benefit, the students is able to arrange their learning plan such as planning their study time talbe, checking the subjects, and dates of examinations throughout the semester.

KKU cannot only save time, but it can also save the cost of service deployment to the staff. “The cost of IT investment is low but there is more efficiency in performing routine tasks and teaching services. In the future, KKU can provide partial distant-learning for graduation students”, said Soodphakdee.

(Source: FutureGov)

Further details

The ICT in Everyday Learning – Teacher Online Toolkit project is funded by the Australian Government under the Digital Strategy for Teachers and School Leaders and is a component of the Digital Education Revolution program. The project is led by Education Services Australia.

The project aims to change classroom practice by increasing teachers' capacity to incorporate technologies into teaching and learning as they implement the Australian Curriculum. It will assist teachers to access online professional learning with local support to analyse, plan and implement changes to their teaching approaches and to access quality online resources.

The Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association, the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, the History Teachers' Association of Australia, Deakin University and Macquarie University are working with Education Services Australia to develop and deliver the professional learning resources.

The project resources will include examples of how teachers can incorporate technologies into the teaching of English, history, science and mathematics and examples of cross-curriculum perspectives and general capabilities. The resources will also include advice and strategies for using digital content, mobile devices, collaboration tools, game-based technologies and communication tools.

The professional learning resources will be trialled in a range of schools. The resources will be accessible to all teachers on completion of the project in 2012.

(Source: ESA – Australia)
Further details

UCEP Bangladesh is a leading national NGO in Bangladesh which provides opportunities of second chance education to children. Starting in 1972 at the Dhaka University premises with only 60 students, it is now a hub of over 42 thousand working children striving to inculcate marketable skills and provide employment support service through general education and vocational training in close collaboration with industries and employers throughout Bangladesh.

The main objective of UCEP programs is to improve the socio-economic status of the urban poor and support industrial growth by generating skilled manpower. UCEP has global reputation for its unique model of human resource development.

UCEP provides a package service of Integrated General and Vocational Education (IGVE), Technical Education (TE) and Employment Support Services (ESS) along with various aspects of child rights, good governance and social life skills to the working children. UCEP operates 53 Integrated General & Vocational (IGV) Schools and 10 Technical Schools with an enrolment of over 42 thousand distressed working children with equal gender ratio.

In Integrated General and Vocational schools the children are provided education up to grade VIII with the abridged form of National Curriculum along with basics of technical education. After completion of skills training the children are provided employment support by the Employment Support Services (ESS) Component of UCEP.

In Industrial Electrical & Electronic Control Trade, the students are taught the system of Mobile Telecommunication such as area of mobile system, area of communication, power supply system of BTS, elements of power supply, use of auto-voltage regulator, block diagram of grounding system, etc.

UCEP is marching forward to achieve Vision – 2021, the time frame to make the country a Digital Bangladesh, which has been set by our Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

(Source: UCEP)

Further details

The ICT Ministry announced that the Colombians may apply for forgivable loans to the ICETEX, for studies related to software development and applications. The budget is 36 billion Colombian pesos.

From now on, those interested in further studies related to software development and applications have the opportunity to do so in any education program in technical levels, technologist, professional and master's universities, technical and technological institutes accredited to the National Ministry of Education and without worrying about the cost, as the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) made available to forgivable loans with a total budget of 36,000 Colombian million pesos (US$ 20.18 million approximately).

The call to access these credits of the strategy 'Talento Digital' is open from June 14 this year. Those interested can register through the site: www.icetex.gov.co.

Forgivable loans are for students who wish to start classes earlier this year in any program of technical education, technologist, professional and master's in careers related to information technology.

"We need applications made by Colombians for Colombians, providing services that encourage the use of ICT and in turn help to create jobs and reduce poverty", said ICT Minister Diego Molano Vega, at the opening of 'Talento Digital '.

'Talento Digital' is the strategy of the ICT Ministry, which seeks to encourage the training of specialized human capital in the use of information technology, strengthening of Government Online and the development of competitiveness, research, innovation and the international projection .

More information

(Source: MINTIC)

After months of waiting, Thailand’s One Tablet Per Child (OTPC) project came to reality when Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra officialy kicked of the project on Thursday and handed the first tablet to representatives of first grade students.

“The government was proud that this policy finally began, as it was an urgent policy that the government announced to the Parliament,” said the PM during the official launch of the OTPC project at the Government House.

The PM added that teachers should assess how much the students have learned from using the tablet PCs. “Teachers should collect data on the students’ learning development when they have studied using the computers”. Apart from handing the tablets to students, the premier also gave the tablets to educational supervisors, and teachers to mark a start of the project.

Thai government plans to distribute tablets made in China to all first graders in this academic year—which began last month—and extend the distribution to seventh grade students next year.

“This scheme is not only about handing out tablet computers to children. We would like to increase knowledge beyond text booksfor our children. That is our goal,” Shinawatra said, adding that she believed the students could swiftly adjust to the technology. This scheme would benefit pupils in remote areas who lack access to educational and learning materials especially textbooks, she inserted.

The tablets contain all learning necessities for the students required by the Education Ministry, she added. Regarding the concern over inappropriate use of the device, the PM said: “Children would not be able to access improper online content, saying all inappropriate websites will be blocked,” she confirmed.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

The e-Navigator smartphone application and website can search more than 3,000 items in the Joint University Programmes Admissions System, the Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary Programmes and the Qualifications Register.

The e-Navigator provides students with more information on the study opportunities in Hong Kong. It helps to compare different programmes and figure out which ones are most relevant to them.

All information is based on publicised data on official websites, and students can access the sites to view detailed information on individual programmes via hyperlinks. Hyperlinks to various official web pages are created for users who wish to find out more details of individual programmes.

Users can also enter their expected or actual Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination results to search for suitable courses.

The e-Navigator was jointly developed by Education Bureau and Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters (HKACMGM).

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

Prime Minister Najib reveals his plans to make education smart.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Mohammad Najib Tun Razak, says that Malaysia is ‘extremely likely’ to adopt cheap tablet computers such as those developed in India.

He says that the US$ 50 price tag for the mobile internet devices makes adoption much easier.

Najib reveals that the objective is to equip every student with a tablet computer; however at this juncture the government expects 10 students to share one tablet.

The government will make smart education plans to significantly improve smart children’s performance in school. “It is very important to increase the children’s market value from cradle all the way to their employment”, he says.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

A group of primary schools in Kenya’s Pokot and Turkana tribes’ districts is improving its management and education quality by using computers and training teachers and administrators in the use of them. Ultimate goal is to significantly reduce the dropout rate of primary schools students.

In the first year, with the support of IICD and Edukans in the Connect4Change consortium and local partner NCCK Northrift, 4 schools will be targeted: 2 in West Pokot County and 2 in Turkana District. Both these areas are located in the Northern part of the Rift Valley Province. With the support of Edukans, community education facilitators train the School Management Committees on their roles and responsibilities in the management of their schools. These management committees are elected volunteers that have the mandate to approve or dismiss school’s decisions.

To this improved management training, IICD adds a digital component. An ICT officer was hired to support and train the schools and equipment was procured and distributed to the schools over the last few months. Coming June, staff will be trained in the use of basic ICT for  school administration (for instance the use of Excel) and will discuss what should be in the administration system. This will lead to a school administration system where teachers, headmasters and administrators can more easily store school results and monitor dropout rates. It is also easier for teachers and administrators to keep the enrollment lists up to date and to act swiftly if they see that someone is not attending class regularly. They can also see how not attending classes regularly has affected students’ grades.

Another advantage of a digitalised administration system is that it gets easier for School Management Committees in Pokot and Turkana districts to understand how money is spent and how this could be improved. In the future, an online component could also be added so financial and administrative data is also available (in a secure way) if the committee members or school staff are not at school and still would like to access the data. 

Also, the Pokot and Turkana are pastoralist people who are in a constant conflict over land and cattle. About a third of the the children in the IICD-supported schools in the region are orphan or miss at least one parent because of this conflict. There is a lot of distrust between the people, but schools indicate that they are interested in using computers to get closer. A proposed idea was for each school to build their own simple website to promote their school, which can also be used for Turkana and Pokot children to share their ideas and poetry. Though schools are quite far apart, at some point during the implementation phase, schools could also visit each other. Teachers and school management committees may be from different tribes, but their all have the same aim: improving education, and using ICT to do it.

(Source: IICD)
Further details

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry yesterday inked a THB-1.02-billion (US$ 32.8 mil) tablet-computer supply contract with the Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen Scope for the purchase of 400,000 tablets for primary school students.

The first 2,000 devices will be delivered next week and the rest to be arrived within 60 days. The model is specifically produced for Thailand, according to ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap.

Under the contract, Thailand will buy 400,000 devices at THB 2,400 (US$ 81) per unit and a contract for the remaining 530,000 units will be signed later with the same price after the first batch of Scope Tablets passes government quality control standards. The remaining units must be delivered within 90 days from May 10.

“The specs are higher than what was specified in the terms of reference. This model is being produced specifically for this project, not according to the general specs offered in the market,” he said and added that the ministry’s committee would thoroughly check the devices’ specification.

Thailand Post will deliver the devices, which will have software installed, to school nationwide in July.

The devices, Scope’s Scopad SP0712 model, come in four colours- red, blue, silver and gold and features a seven-inch touchscreen, a 1.2 GHz single core CPU, 1 GB RAM, a storage memory unit of 8GB, Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and a GPS navigation system for monitoring and tracking purposes. The devices also come with two-year international standard warrantee.

The purchase is under One Tablet PC Per Child campaign promise, a series of populist policies promoted by the ruling government which pledged to provide the country’s 860,000 first graders with the tablet PC.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading big ideas through a series of conferences and a free video platform, has continued its expansion into education by launching a brand-new TED-Ed website with tools to help teachers use video in the classroom. The new platform allows educators to customize videos with follow-up questions and assignments, TED says—an initiative that could help power the “flipped learning” model.

This is the second phase of TED’s expansion into education, following the launch of a TED-Ed YouTube channel last month with several educational videos. (See “Free video lessons offered by leaders in innovation, thinking”.) With the new TED-Ed platform, “you can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch based on any video from YouTube,” the organization says.

In other words, the site allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student, TED says.

Teachers also can browse TED content based on the subject they teach. Each video on the TED-Ed site is tagged to a curriculum subject and is accompanied by supplementary materials to help teachers and students use or understand the video lesson.

TED-Ed’s commitment to creating “lessons worth sharing” is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas, the organization says.

(Source: eschool News)
Further details

"We and Technology", It is the special event that the National Institute for Research and Training in Telecommunications of the National Engineering University, INICTEL-UNI, held this April 26 as part of the celebrations for the International Telecommunications Day.

60 girls in public educational institutions of San Martin de Porres and Independencia (districts of Lima) will participate in workshops on electronics, robotics and CANSat (Bases to build a small satellite). Also, they visited the UNI-INICTEL facilities, laboratories and attend videoconferences with professional women in the ICT field residing abroad.

The attendees could talk to engineers in telecommunications and experience the site of women in this sector. Through this event they want to promote in Peru the use of Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs on women and girls, as a tool to integrate a gender equality perspective.

This year's theme "Women and girls in ICT" has been chosen by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations agency, to celebrate the "World Day of Telecommunications and Information Society" . Moreover, in this way promotes the 2010 designation of the ITU, in which every fourth Thursday of April an event takes place before the central celebrations of May 17.

(Source: INICTEL - Peru)
Further details

Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development Co won a contract to supply 900,000 tablet computers for first graders in government schools in Thailand under “One Tablet PC Per Child” scheme.

The Cabinet will approve this proposal next week for buying the selection of Scope under the cost of THB 2,482 (US$81) a piece in which the first lots will be distributed to first graders this May to promote a knowledge based and network-connect society.

The Education Ministry also plans to seek approval to purchase higher specification tablets for nearly 700,000 units for Grade 7 students.

Information and Communication Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap said the project committee had chosen “the company that proposed the lowest price of $81, excluding transportation costs”.

The selection of Scope to supply tablets for the project was based not only on price, but also on other criteria, the minister said and added they included tablet specifications, insurance conditions, and delivery time among others.

The other companies in the bid had offered to supply the tablets at higher prices. TCL Cooperation offered $89, Haier Information Technology (Shenzhen) Co offered $105 and Huawei Technologies Co proposed $135.

A government committee set a starting price of 3,100 baht per unit plus 300 baht for uploading e-content. The cost excludes shipping costs to Thailand.

The decision was made after a committee visited the production lines of all four companies in China. Of the 900,000 tablets the government will purchase, 860,000 will be distributed to all of the country’s first-grade students and the rest will be earmarked for teachers and kept as reserve inventory.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

More than 3000 public schools in the Philippines are now enjoying the learning and teaching benefits derived from the “desktop virtualization” technology applied in many e-Classrooms, as part of the Department of Education’s Computerization Programme.

The Computerization programme is an initiative by the Government that aims to have public elementary and secondary schools nationwide use Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching, learning, school management, and governance.

This technology enables one host system to power six computers simultaneously. This is in contrast to an older practice where each desktop is connected to a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

By using desktop virtualization, schools can reduce the number of required CPUs in computer laboratories, thereby also reducing hardware costs by 50 per cent, 75 per cent on support costs, and 90 per cent on energy consumption expenses.

In addition, the said technology has the potential to improve student-to-computer ratios in many schools nationwide thereby also improving IT literacy of many students.

The same technology is also being adopted by many public schools in Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bhutan.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

Thailand decided to buy up to 900,000 tablet computers from China via a government-to-government contract with payment made in cash and produce for its One Tablet per Child scheme.

A memorandum of understanding on the planned procurement was signed by the two countries, said Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Anudith Nakorntha yesterday.

“We are negotiating the price and payment options with China”, he said. He also expected the negotiations to conclude this month.

He added that the negotiation would be based on mutual benefit. “The negotiation will be fair to both sides. China is a big manufacturer. It can offer tablets at a competitive price”.

Nakornthap revealed that the government had already approved a THB 1.9-billion budget (US$ 63.3 million) for the procurement of 560,000 tablets to the Ministry of Education, though the ICT ministry will handle the purchase.

However, he said that more funds would be needed because the Education Ministry plans to distribute the devices to all 860,000 first graders before the start of the upcoming semester in May. With some tablets to be given to children in other grades, the ministry will need up to 900,000 units of them.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

In the department of Chocó, the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, through the Ministry of ICT, delivers mobile classrooms with that seek to promote quality education, fostering development and reducing poverty through the use of ICT tools.

The mobile classrooms are a new concept of Computers for Schools, program from the ICT Ministry, that has given technology to about 7 million children in the public sector educational institutions in Colombia.

"We are promoting inclusion and educational equity throughout Colombia because these technological tools must serve all sectors of our country. The technology gives a child from Quibdó the same opportunities of any other child from another city", said Minister Molano Vega.

With the mobile classrooms, which are transported by all classrooms of educational center benefited, the students from different courses may have access to technology and digital content, which are the main support to improve the quality of education.

This was demonstrated by a recent study of CEDE from the University of Los Andes, which showed that education mediated by ICTs improve academic achievement and encourage students not to leave their classes, among other positive impacts.

The benefited schools from the new mobile classrooms in Chocó are the Educational Institute Antonio Ricaurte, which has over 70 students enrolled, and the Educational Institution Industrial Carrasquilla, where there is nearly 900 children.

"We hope make the best use of this equipments that come to us because these are low-income schools and these tools opens up new opportunities", said the rector of the school Carrasquilla, Lucia Diaz Torres. Meanwhile, the president of the Institution Antonio Ricaurte, Antonio Ledesma said that access to technology makes the children from Chocó citizens of the world.

(Source: MINTIC - Colombia)

Further details

Digital Learning Day is a nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized educational experience. On Digital Learning Day, a majority of states, hundreds of school districts, thousands of teachers, and nearly 2 million students will encourage the innovative use of technology by trying something new, showcasing success, kicking off project-based learning, or focusing on how digital tools can help improve student outcomes.

Digital learning is any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience. Digital learning encompasses a wide spectrum of tools and practices, including using online and formative assessment, increasing focus and quality of teaching resources and time, online content and courses, applications of technology in the classroom and school building, adaptive software for students with special needs, learning platforms, participating in professional communities of practice, providing access to high-level and challenging content and instruction, and many other advancements technology provides to teaching and learning. In particular, blended learning is any time a student learns, at least in part, at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and, at least in part, through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.

On February 1, 2012, the Alliance for Excellent Education hosted an in-depth webcast featuring moderated discussion of video footage of innovation in action looking at leadership, instruction, innovation, every subject area, and effective teaching. 

Then the Alliance hosted a live National Town Hall featuring FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a special joint appearance. The event profiled great teachers that effectively use technology to deliver instruction, and focus on education innovation projects happening across the country.

(Source: Digitallearningday)
Further details

Riau provincial government in central Sumatra has initiated a programme to introduce IT to children across its primary schools. It is an extension of a project already in place in other parts of Indonesia since 2008.

The “KidSmart” project, in collaboration with IBM, aims to teach children essential IT skills through specialized software and custom-designed terminals. In total, 250 primary schools in Indonesia are participating in the programme.

KidSmart also involves training the teachers in using the software and hardware tools, and 300 teachers across Indonesia have been trained so far.

The programme was inaugurated in Riau province at the city of Pekanbaru on the 7th of December, with the Governor of Riau HM Rusli Zainal, Riau Police Chief, Mayor of Pekanbaru Syamsurizal, and President-Director of IBM Indonesia, Suryo Suwignjo, in presence.

“For teachers, mastering the technology is extremely important, so that they can operate it and implement it into their daily lives, and also serve as examples for their students”, said Governor Zainal, as Mayor Syamsurizal inaugurated the cyber-technology training centre for teachers.

The teachers are provided basic knowledge about the internet, word processing, spreadsheets and presentations techniques, and participate in a short workshop on crime prevention.

(Source: FutureGov)
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Colombia is a country very active on the Internet and has grown markedly in connectivity. The ICT Ministry will continue working with determination to close the poverty gap and contribute to development.The Minister of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), Diego Molano Vega presented the balance of 2011 and announced the great challenges of the next year.

 Among the achievements of the ICT Ministry in 2011 are:

- The increase in Internet connections through major infrastructure. In 2009 there were 2.2 million connections, in December 2010, 3.1 million, and this year totaled 4.6 million.

 - Colombia is Latin America's leading connectivity. There are 325 municipalities connected with fiber optics, and the goal is that by 2014 all municipalities are connected.

 - Was awarded the contract to connect 2,800 educational institutions in remote and rural areas, four times faster and half price.

 - Ensured the performance of 1,300 Community Access Centres to the Internet in remote areas of the country.

 - 115,000 Colombian homes, from the strata 1 and 2, were subsidized from 77 municipalities to have access to the Internet. Users pay a maximum fee of 20,000 colombian pesos (aprox. US$ 10.4) per month.

 Computers for Schools:

- Until December 19th, were given 81 830 computers.

- 3564 places have seen a computer for first time, and the opening of 230 libraries and houses of culture.

- 66 400 Portable were purchased.

- Recruitment of universities through competitive bidding, $ 10 billion (they carry the PC, give initial train, install the equipment).

- Acquisition of 7,400 classrooms and 3,000 mobile video beam.

 What comes in 2012?

-  More technology, more progress

- Infrastructure: more competition in cellular telephony.

- New system user protection.

- Will open new job opportunities.

- Digital Experience Points: they reach about 800 municipalities distant, so that people learn to use technology.

- Digital Natives. The goal is to provide computers with Internet connectivity to all public schools in the country, accompanied by an aggressive strategy of training for teachers.

(Source: MINTIC - Colombia)

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With mobile telephone access reaching over five billion of the world’s population, the United Nations educational agency today announced the launch of an initiative to harness the technology and bring mobile phone use into the classroom.

In a statement issued in Paris, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the opening of a global summit and symposium gathering experts from around the world to discuss the impact of the mobile telephone on education and learning.

Dubbed Mobile Learning Week, and organized in partnership with the conglomerate Nokia, the meeting has brought together close to 200 policy-makers, educators, academics and researchers from across the globe in an effort to provide insight on how mobile telephones can support teachers and students alike.

Initiatives promoting mobile learning have already been spearheaded across a wide range of countries – including Mozambique, Pakistan, South Africa, Niger, Kenya, and Mongolia – where policies have already provided access to distance education in far-flung communities and improved literacy among girls and women.

According to recent data, 90 per cent of the world’s population now has access to mobile networks, prompting growing enthusiasm for the potential of mobile devices to improve education access and quality.

(Source: UN News Center)
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ICT ministry awarded tenders to connect more than 6,800 institutions for public education - Colombia

The award of the tender for Connectivity Public Institutions, project led by “Compartel Program”, was awarded to firms Telebucaramanga, Unión Temporal Aprende Digital, Unión Temporal Internet Para Todos, Unión Temporal Colombia Digital, Media Commerce Partners, Unión Temporal Gilat Fontic y BT Latam Colombia S.A., to provide connectivity to a 6852 total rural public schools in the country. The project has an investment by the Ministry of $ 126,298 million.

After reviewing the proposals made by the proponents, the grade was given to institutions which offer connecting more and faster. This fact allowed institutions to increase the number of schools beneficiaries of 6178, corresponding to the target set in the tender, up to 6852 schools with the outcome of the tender.

Thus, the ICT Ministry awarded the contract to firms that offered the best financial offers and connectivity, in addition to the requirements of the specification process.

With this initiative the ICT Ministry is supporting the Ministry of National Education in its efforts to generate new models of education in schools in remote areas with difficult access.

"With this result more than 6,800 rural schools in the country will have access to the Internet twice to four times the speed with which they had previously. Thus, more than 1'130,000 children and young people have the same opportunities to use technology in their schools than those who live in big cities", said Diego Vega Molano, ICT Minister.

Since 2004, the Compartel program advances connectivity projects that have benefited around 18,000 public institutions, most of these schools. With the current tender the connectivity conditions are improved to the beneficiary institutions, most of them located in rural areas of Colombia.

(Source: Mintic – Colombia)
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Technology giants discuss ICT trends across classrooms and why the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) is leading. The complete digitization of curricula and the integration of Microsoft's Kinect technology are but a few emerging trends global technology giants expect to see manifest in Middle East classrooms.

Information and communication technology (ICT) in education was the basis for last week's BETT Middle East exhibition in Abu Dhabi, where Gulf News caught up with officials from Hewlett Packard (HP) and Microsoft to discuss forthcoming trends in education.

"From discussions I've had I think we will see an increase of the digitization of course content with more curricula and books being stored in clouds", said Antoine Barre, vice-president of HP Personal Systems Group for Middle East and Africa. "A second trend I see is ICT will no longer be placed next to or complementary to educational pedagogy but instead emerge within it as the two merge together".

He said course content will develop in a way that will allow for the integration of multimedia technology in order to facilitate student understanding, an example of which could be the ability for students to simulate complete chemistry experiments on their computing devices.

"A third trend I see is increased mobility as students will have their educational data available to them everywhere through any type of device, laptop, tablet or smartphone", he said. "I think this will enable students to be more efficient in how they find answers to whatever questions they have in life … as I think this goes beyond the scope of academic training".

Azza Al Shinnawy, Public Sector Education Lead at Microsoft, said educational institutions in the UAE, whether schools or universities, are indeed expanding their scope of ICT into education. "The [ICT] expansion is happening at various levels depending on the leeway of freedoms, but the wave is coming at different strengths in both the public and private education sectors", she said.

"Students are probably the most ready and exposed as we talk ICT outside education, but they are in the best position to absorb what comes up in the classroom". She added, however, that although some teachers are ready to embrace the ICT wave, more effort still needs to be exerted when it comes to teacher training. "Traditional teaching methods need to converge with 21st century teaching and learning". Both Microsoft and HP are working closely with the Abu Dhabi Education Council with regard to teacher training and other initiatives.

(Source: Gulf News)

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10,000 young people invited to join the global debate at ITU Telecom World 2011 and imagine the innovations that could make a real difference.

ITU is calling on schoolchildren across the world to join a global metaconference at ITU Telecom World 2011 (24-27 October, Geneva, Switzerland) on how technology can be harnessed to solve socio-economic problems and accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.

Students and teachers are encouraged to sign up their schools or classes and send in their ideas, prototypes and innovations in areas where technology could be harnessed to:

• alleviate poverty and hunger

• improve education

• address gender inequality

• make sure everyone has access to health care

• protect our environment

• improve the lives of disabled people

• close the gap between the developed and developing world

Students are asked to consider burning questions such as how can we close the gap between rich and poor? How can we make disabled people’s lives easier? Or how can we improve education for all? Ideas and prototypes will be shown to the more than 5,000 influential delegates expected to attend the event, including Heads of State/Heads of Government, industry CEOs, technology gurus, digital innovators and delegations from students’ home countries.

As well as the chance to influence key ICT decision makers, taking part in the metaconference can provide teachers and students with a valuable real-world context in core curriculum areas such as history, geography and mathematics.

Ideas will also form a key part of the ITU Telecom World 2011 Manifesto for a Connected World, a collaborative vision that will be developed out of the event focused on how connected technologies can make citizens happier, healthier, safer and smarter.

Those unable to attend in person will be able to follow the action as it unfolds from wherever they are in the world via live video streams. They will also be encouraged to network and share ideas beforehand, participate remotely in workshops and feed into key discussions as they take place.

“Children are our future and deserve the opportunity to have their voices heard. We’re delighted that the power of technology will enable children everywhere to join the discussion and share ideas and innovations alongside global leaders”, said Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)
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The district of Los Olivos, in the north of Lima, will become the first "digital city" in Peru, and the second largest of its kind in South America after Curitiba Brazil, with the launch of the first classroom of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

A spokesman for the local mayor told EFE that the ICT classroom, which is located in Peru, in Kawachi School, was opened last week and "marks a new era for Los Olivos district because it is the beginning of its conversion into a digital city ".

The classroom has been implemented with twenty computers and a video projector, all connected to an interactive whiteboard.

For the full implementation of this project, they have 90 km of Optical Fiber, with the aim of connecting to 60,000 homes in Los Olivos with schools, police stations, municipal offices, medical centers and hospitals.

It also provides access to the database of the district, "without interference, high quality and speed in a sort of gigantic Intranet".

The ICT classroom mark the beginning of the installation of 33 points of interconnection, through Fiber Optics, with the database located in a resort town prepared for the technological research, job training and entrepreneurship.

It is planned that the complex will be the centerpiece of the "Telematic District Network ", a large data network capacity with computer servers, similar to financial and telephone companies.

Various institutions in Los Olivos are going to connect to the Network gradually, which will let exchange information and share a number of resources, in addition to providing high quality services to its users", said the spokesman of EFE.

(Source: RPP News)
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Under the guidelines in the document Conpes 3670 from 2010 and the National Development Plan 2010 - 2014, and in the developing of the strategies of "Plan Vive Digital", the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies together with the Ministry of Education, have defined a joint strategy where schools in the country will benefit with connectivity, under different initiatives and with the support of various organizations.

In this regard, as part of the ICT Ministry's commitment to support the connectivity primarily in the education sector, the “Compartel” Program has assumed the responsibility to connect a significant number of institutions and as a result they published the draft of specifications for the Project Internet connectivity of Public Institutions, which seeks to ensure connectivity service in those public institutions that demand for support and have not been connected through other strategies.

This project is set up as a transition until the definition of the new scheme which will host the program “Compartel 2012”, in coordination with other sectors for the development of social telecommunication projects to suit the needs of the country, the new technological developments and the growing coverage of telecommunications networks.

To view the documents that make up the draft specification for the Internet Connectivity Project for Public Institutions, click here.

(Source: MINTIC – Colombia)

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Remote parts of Kenya have trouble attracting professional teachers. Some schools are using computers to compensate for the lack of human instructors. Despite the obstacles digital learning brings with it, the schools are pleased with the results.

Kenya’s digital learning experiment is expanding, with both the government and private sector championing its adoption. Digital learning – academic instruction using a computer – is often considered an advantage when distance is an obstacle to education. Schools in the drought-ravaged North Eastern Province are now deploying computers to cope not with distance, but an acute shortage of teachers.

Schools in northeastern Kenya often have trouble attracting teachers because of the harsh living conditions, poor infrastructure and constant attacks from Ethiopian militia groups. Most schools in the region, which is the least-developed part of Kenya, record dismal academic performances and are estimated to have a paltry literacy rate of 8.5 percent.

Given the lack of teachers, high illiteracy and poverty levels in this region, advocates of digital learning say the computers are filling a crucial educational gap. Take, for instance, Sakaba High School in Mandera West District, which has a teacher shortage. Sakaba’s principal, Shabure Haji, believes digital learning is a boon for his students.

“With computers, students are able to use the Kenya Institute of Education digital content”, said Haji. “Students are therefore able to learn and access vital information even in the absence of a teacher”. The school is currently awaiting the arrival of 11 computers the government is giving it as part of an economic stimulus plan. Until then, Sakaba’s 300 students have to scramble for time on the existing 22 computers.

Thousands of miles away, computers are helping educate the students at Turkana Girls Secondary School, located in the Turkana region which has been severely affected by drought. The principal of Turkana, Sister Florence Nabwire, agrees that computers hold the key to addressing the shortage of teachers.

(Source: AudienceScapes)

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Coinciding with the celebration of Teacher's Day, Telefónica Foundation through its portal “Educared” provides some recommendations for teachers to use Internet tools to make their teaching more didactic and improve the student performance.

It is useful and simple tips that have been transmitted to more than 1,500 teachers from public and private schools nationwide, using the skills developed and with the support of the Ministry of Education.

Using blogs, email, interactive online resources, social networks and discussion forums between students are part of the recommendations offered by this portal, so that teachers do not simply teach within the walls of a classroom.

Create learning experiences: Use visual diagrams, whiteboards, online and video tutorials to prepare homework and upload to YouTube, in order that students can see them anytime, anywhere.

Some specific recommendations for teachers are:

-       Teach using the search engines: Not all Internet content is relevant and safe for students. In that sense it is important that teachers be a guide for students to succeed in a particular research topic through the use of Internet.

-       Apply digital media: It is important that teachers take advantage of the audiovisual production capacity with their students, as young people recorded, edited and uploaded to YouTube everyday life activities.

-       Use social networking: Participate in social settings (Facebook or Twitter,) so education allows the exchange of information and generation of educational projects with other groups who share the same interests.

-       Use e-mail with your students: It is essential that they can learn to communicate by email and recognize the difference between formal and informal language, it will be useful also for their future professional life.

-       Post a blog with the students: In addition to using this resource as a means to disseminate information, it is also possible that the students themselves become authors of a blog.

-    Build your own network of learning: Teachers can identify spaces online or networks that are generated by the exchange of knowledge to train and be constantly updated.

(Source: RPP News)
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Social networks, blogs and discussion forums are some strategies that teachers can take to improve education, within and outside the classroom, suggested experts in digital tools for education.

Telefonica Foundation specialists noted that participation in social networks like Facebook or Twitter, and email use, can help teachers to exchange information with students and parents outside of school hours. "They can also create educational projects with others colleagues who share common interests with these tools", they said on the eve of Teacher's Day to be held on July 6th.

They noted that blogs, more than allow the exchange of information, this could be used to encourage students to become authors of Internet content and improve their writing and spelling. "It is important that teachers adapt their technology resources to enhance the pedagogical needs of teaching and learning process", they said.

Another digital tool that improves learning is the Youtube video platform, where teachers can share audiovisual materials with their students, and who may see them as often as they consider convenient, at anytime, anywhere.

Audiovisual creativity applied to the field of education is very important to encourage research, teamwork, decision making, and the ability to expose, among other skills among students that are increasingly become more familiar with recording and editing videos.

While these tools provide many benefits in education, experts stressed the importance of accompanying students by their teachers in their use, especially in the case of browsers. "Not all browsers are relevant and safe. It is important that teachers be a guide for students to succeed in researching a topic on the Internet", they added.

(Source: Andina News Agency)

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 The Minister Errazuriz said "it will be a real transformation, a connectivity revolution".

With a commitment to have all educational establishments connected to broadband in March 2012, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Pedro Pablo Errazuriz, with his pair of Education, Joaquin Lavin, visited the School República of Paraguay in Recoleta, where they shared with students and where they have seen the areas with some technological advances.
 
The Minister Errazuriz stressed the objective of this initiative: "We want everyone in Chile have these same tools and time to reach the knowledge revolution. This is a true transformation, a connectivity revolution". "I opened the bidding that will allow us to fulfill this presidential commitment. Reaching this year with high-quality broadband to 90% of students in the country and complete 100% by 2012", said Errazuriz.

Minister Lavin said that "for the Ministry of Education this is very important because it means that in March 2012 all schools in Chile will have broadband internet. And when we say all, is all, even some school of the rural or more remote areas with satellite connection”. The Education Minister noted the work that they have being done through links, asserting that "Chile is reaching a level of 10 children per computer. There are 3 and a half million students and 350 thousand computers in schools. In all, notebooks, netbook, and a standard of 10 children per computer for a computer is quite reasonable compared with other countries".

Currently, 5,600 schools have some connection to the Internet but without quality guaranteed, through this program will raise the standards of these schools, also the schools without connectivity, will be connected, and reaching a universe of more than 11,600 establishments.

For the implementation of this project will be used in 2011 about $ 7 billion and a similar public investment figure in 2012, through the Global Telecommunication Development. 
"Additionally, we will have for the first time the online system monitoring and control to ensure full compliance with the quality of broadband service contract, which will connect all schools. So we can ensure that resources invested by the State and the objectives of this initiative are effectively met", concluded the Minister Errazuriz.

(Source: Subtel - Chile)

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This initiative builds on the base that everything depends increasingly on access to information and communication technologies.

Digital inclusion could be inserted in the list of social rights enshrined in the Constitution. The poor Internet access that low-income residents in Brazil have led to members of the Senate to face this reality through a proposed constitutional amendment pending in front of the Committee on Constitution, Citizenship and Justice.

Despite advances in telecommunications networks, in 2008 Brazil ranked 69th position among 193 countries with access to the Internet according the information of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This put Brazil far from countries like Australia, Holland, Sweden and Iceland, where they connect from 70% to 90% of the population world wide web.

While Brazil, with only 17.2% of its population that is inserted into the virtual world, also lost position in relation to neighboring Argentina (17.8%), Uruguay (20.6%) and Chile (28, 9%).

This situation was also supported by the study "Pencil, Eraser & Keyboard ", conducted by the researcher Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz. The survey found that between 10% poorest, only 0.6% had a computer with Internet access, a rate that reached 56.3% among the richest 10%. Deep inequalities are also in the school. It shows, for example, that there is a considerable distance in digital inclusion among public school students (37.3%) and private schools (83.6%).

Senator Rodrigo Rollemberg (PSB-DF), which is who is taking this initiative, argues that this situation could put on risk the future of the country to reduce educational opportunities, social and professional of Brazilian, victims of this digital gap. "The enjoyment of many rights of citizenship, such as information, education, decent work and wages, increasingly dependent on the access to new information and communication technologies. Hence the need for the inclusion of such access as a constitutional right", said Rollemberg.

(Source: Casetel - Venezuela)
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"After the program will be fully materialized, Ecuador will be not the same, because they take into account the sites that are distant from urban centers or that for decades have been isolated, and will be connected each other through Internet", said the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society, Jaime Guerrero Ruiz, by signing the contract for about US$ 13.5 million with the company Telconet.

The signing of the Contract was attended by the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society (Jaime Guerrero Ruiz), the Vice Minister of Telecommunications (Mr. Javier Veliz), the Vice Coordinator of Strategic Sectors (Dr. Rafael Poveda), the General Manager of the company Telconet (Mr. Marion Tomislav Topic Granados), and National Secretary of Science and Technology (Dr. Magdalena Lopez).

The resources of this contract come from the private operator’s contributions to the Development Fund for Telecommunications (FODETEL). "This is all part of an ambitious plan in which we want people, who have never had the opportunity to access services, forming part of what we call the Technological Revolution or the elimination of digital illiteracy": said the Minister Guerrero while the contract was awarded to the company Telconet through a public competition which began on last December, at the website of National Institute of Public Procurement, INCOP.

The aim is to install and provide the Internet access services, provide telephone technical support and training in the use of the service to 947 and 26 public schools in social development agencies in the following provinces: Bolivar (30), Cañar (27), Chimborazo (31), Cotopaxi ( 72), El Oro (93), Emeraldas (16), Guayas (102), Imbabura (45), Loja (100), Los Rios (82), Manabi (103), Morona Santiago (40), Napo (37), Pastaza (12), Pichincha (11), Santa Elena (86), Santo Domingo (11), Zamora Chinchipe (19), Tungurahua (48), Azuay (2), Orellana (5)and Sucumbíos (1), giving a total of 973 places. It is important to mention that all selected sites are rural and parishes, precincts, and marginal urban communities across the country.

This award is in addition to other contracts already in the place that provide the necessary equipment to schools, which include computers, projectors and digital whiteboards, as well as training teachers in the use of these technological tools that allow students to enter the world of knowledge.

Source: Mintel
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By signing the memorandum of understanding between the ICT Ministry, the Government of Tolima, the mayor of Ibague and the University of Tolima, was implemented in this region, the strategy "Digital Tolima", which aims to increase the use and Internet access in this department. The agreement was signed on Sunday, when the ICT Minister, Diego Molano Vega, sponsor of this department in the rainy season, visited several places of Tolima.

This region is the first to realize this type of agreement, during the administration of the Minister Molano Vega, and seeks to bring the information superhighway for more municipalities and generate profits through the use of Internet.

In his speech, the Minister mentioned the importance of ICT literacy and digital delivery of computer equipment in the country through the ICT Ministry's social program, "Computers for Schools". This strategy is intended that 50 percent of the teachers in the country will be certified digitally this year. As for the delivery of equipment for schools, the Minister Molano said, previously they only reused the equipments, whereas now the Ministry also claims that for each computer donated by the ICT Ministry, other public bodies also will provide more equipments to the program.

The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (Beatriz Uribe), and the Governor of Tolima, Oscar Barreto Quiroga and 41 mayors of the municipalities in the department. In what has to do with humanitarian aid and attention to secondary roads affected by the cold wave in the Tolima, the Government announced the delivery of 10 billion dollars to recover them.

According to the Government of Tolima, in this department 1,433 urban and 1,632 rural households were affected by the winter and 1,196 houses are in high risk areas.  The municipalities Ambalema, Amaranth, Flanders, Honda, San Luis, Rioblanco and Ortega are the most affected.

(Source: MINTIC - Colombia)
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Vietnamese Viettel Group won the bid for the concession to provide telecommunications services in C-band, allowing them to be the fourth mobile operator in our country (Perú).

Viettel offered to provide free, for 10 years, access to broadband internet to 4,045 public schools and make further investments of US$ 1.3 million.  The winner must attend the schools, as much as it is possible – at least 1,350 – plus the investment mentioned.

Viettel outbid Americatel (which offered 2,011 schools and US$ 1.3 million) and Winner Systems  (which offered 1,601 schools and US$ 1.3 million). Hits Telecom Holding Company did not participate.

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Enrique Cornejo, estimated that the supply of Viettel Group will make an investment of about US$ 27 million (4,045 schools to serve plus the US$ 1.3 million). On other hand, Cornejo said that in June they will launch the contest for the right to use the band for the 4G technology.

Nguyen Duc Quang, general director of Viettel Group, said he still had no estimate of the number of phones that will be attending. "First we think of the Internet for schools. Maybe in 2012 we start with cell phones. This year we will make the Internet", he said.

Viettel Group will finance its investments in Peru with its own resources, this said its general manager. Jesus Guillen, project manager of "Proinversión"  Telecommunications, said that Viettel has 36 million subscribers in Vietnam. Viettel Group operates in Cambodia, Haiti and recently won a concession in Mozambique.

(Source: El Comercio News paper)
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Government authorized the acquisition of 500,000 new computers and installs the “Canaima” computer assembly factory in Venezuela at the end of the first half of 2011.

This Sunday, the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez Frías, authorized the acquisition of 500,000 new laptops “Canaima” from the Government of Portugal, to begin delivery to students attending classes at the third grade.

The computers will be awarded from next September, said the president "We'll have millions and millions of computers”, said Chavez, commenting that install the “Canaima” computer assembly factory in Venezuela at the end of the first half of 2011.

President Chávez said that they hope to conclude this year and children whom are attending classes at the second grade in public schools will have in their hands their computer to start in September the delivery to the next grade.

He explained that it is not giving computers as a gift, but to equip children to get better tools and to optimize their learning. Touring the schools, Chavez said that 875,000 “Canaima” computers have been already imported and has delivered more than half, while the rest is under system programming.

(Source: CANTV - Venezuela)
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In the Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), like in other countries in the region, we face the social impact produced by information and communication technology. This impact results in differences in the development opportunities of the population, causing a "digital gap" between those with and without access to information and communication technologies.

It is for this reason that the government, in the Bicentennial year, has inaugurated the digital cities, to effectively provide equal opportunities to all its inhabitants to have a fully integrated province.

In this framework, through the "Digital Province Plan Municipality by Municipality" will provide Social Internet services free and safe, providing in a first step, Social WiFi coverage to the main square of the municipality, thus regaining the public space as a place of family gatherings and neighborhood, and a Center for Digital Inclusion. Then, through the inclusion of remote sites are connected other areas of social concern such as schools, health centers, libraries, cultural centers and sports facilities among others.

The Social WiFi will have different navigation options according to the user's age and the purpose of use. These options are:
• Free Navigation with access to all pages
• Site Navigation government (national, provincial and municipal)
• Navigation for children, which only allow the access to educational sites and games. This navigation option will be accompanied by instructions for parents to encourage responsible Internet use.
 
All of these forms will have restricted access to pornography, incitement to violence and discrimination. The illumination of the municipalities will be developed in stages, starting with the less connected localities to the most connected, thus achieving equal opportunities for all inhabitants of the province of Buenos Aires.

In a first stage, inaugurated in late September, there will be the "Digital Foundation" of 4 cities in the center of the province: in the pilot will have the service the main square of the Club Ciudad Bolivar and Bolivar, space that will open the first Centre for Digital Inclusion, the main square of General Alvear, the Cultural Center in San Jose Olavarria and the main square in Tapalqué.

In a second stage, scheduled to open in late December, will be held the "Digital Foundation" of 17 Municipalities, Social WiFi coming to 20 cities where WiFi Social "illuminates" the main square and open a Centre Digital Inclusion is located in an enclosed place chosen by the Municipality.

Finally, a third stage to develop during the course of 2011, once put in technical terms the new provincial network, there will be the "Digital Foundation" of the remaining municipalities, Social WiFi coming with all the municipalities of Buenos Aires Province, providing the service a public space and opened a Center for Digital Inclusion in each of them.

(Source: Province of Buenos Aires)
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The benefited students belongs to rural areas and low income families across the country.Education in Peru is progressing, and does so with the program "One Laptop per Child” (OLPC) that attempt to democratize the use of the internet with the delivery of a computer to poor children.

It is two years since the OLPC started this ambitious project, which has benefited over 871,000 children from 9,864 schools in the country. Now, all of them study hand in hand with the information and communication.

According to the general director of Educational Technology of the Ministry of Education, Oscar Becerra, "the daily use of this important technological tool has made that children significantly improved their reading comprehension and logical-mathematical work".

The results were obtained by the Ministry of Education (Minedu), which implemented tests of motivation and reading comprehension to students of primary schools in rural areas favored with "One Laptop per Child program", which will help more students in the next year.

(Source: Educación en red)

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