e-Taalim

Blinded by science

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:30:13 +0000

There’s a dangerous assumption that using more technology in education will automatically raise students’ motivation to learn. If we replace the books, notepads and pencils with iPads and laptops students will somehow become more enthusiastic and committed to their studies. It’s a bit like the encyclopedia salesmen of old who claimed that by buying their fine 12 volume set you would ensure your children a rosy future.

A short post by Bill Ferriter, Are Kids REALLY Motivated by Technology? includes this excellent slide that makes a point worth remembering. Technology is already taken for granted by today’s pupils and students so just using the net in education isn’t going to motivate them much. The real motivator is how we use the tools to create meaningful learning experiences.

I’ve read several articles about how the introduction of one laptop per child in various countries has not significantly improved test results. The simple introduction of shiny new devices won’t change anything unless matched by a major rethink of teaching and attitudes to learning. If we continue to teach traditionally then the technology will change nothing. Similarly, even if we change the way we teach and use the technology creatively, if we continue to assess learning according to traditional criteria we won’t get any useful results either. The teaching, learning, use of technology and the criteria for assessment all have to change for results to be significant.

Source: acreelman.blogspot

mLearning: effective or disruptive?

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:30:58 +0000

Mobile technologies, which play an increasingly important role in Africa’s education systems, are set to stimulate debate at this year’s eLearning Africa conference in Cotonou, Benin, from May 23rd to 25th. Through a range of interactive expert-led sessions, participants at eLearning Africa 2012, the Continent’s leading conference on ICT for development, education and training, will explore the challenges, opportunities and success stories of mLearning.
Advocates of mLearning see it as a growing, popular, pervasive and effective tool for learners and teachers, citing the benefits it brings to education as well as to Africa’s agricultural practices, healthcare systems and professional development. But are we underestimating the disruption that mobile technologies cause to formal educational systems in Africa?
Critics of mLearning argue that the use of mobile technologies distracts learners and undermines the traditional classroom setting thereby threatening to make teachers redundant. Furthermore the prevalence of mobile phones among African learners is inconsistent, limiting the effectiveness of mLearning strategies. Is the integration of mLearning being approached in a sustainable way, and what are its long-term implications for education systems in Africa and across the world?
eLearning experts from Africa and beyond will present their experiences of and perspectives on mLearning in diverse sessions such as “Success Stories of Mobile Learning Apps”, “Mobile Devices for Food Security, Improved Agricultural Practice and Community Empowerment”, “Managing Conflicting Stakeholder Perspectives on Mobile Learning: A Role Play Session” and “Interactivity Paradigm Shifts to Mobile Learning”.
The annual eLearning Africa debate will offer all participants the opportunity to voice their views on mLearning and hear those of other eLearning professionals, including ICT4D practitioner Wayan Vota, a well-known blogger and Senior Director at Inveneo, and Cheryl Douglas, Programme Director, Teaching Biology Project of the Africa Genome Education Institute, South Africa.
According to Rebecca Stromeyer, founder of eLearning Africa and Executive Director of the international events and media company ICWE, “Whilst it is certainly not new, the use of mLearning has never been so widespread. eLearning Africa unites educational and ICT professionals from across all sectors in Africa and throughout the world, creating a unique platform for reviewing the latest issues in technology-enhanced education and training. This year’s eLearning Africa conference will therefore be the first of its kind to tackle the issue of mLearning from such a wide range of perspectives and within the context of other approaches to technology-enhanced education.”
Indeed, mLearning is just one of 14 aspects of technology-enhanced education which will be explored in detail under the overall theme of eLearning and Sustainability at eLearning Africa 2012, the largest gathering of high-level policy makers, decision makers and practitioners from education, business and government. This year’s conference will feature 12 pre-conference workshops, up to 60 sessions and over 300 speakers from Africa and beyond. For more information, please visit http://www.elearning-africa.com/programme_programme.php.

Source: elearning-africa

Wanted: skills for jobs

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:50:33 +0000

Job losses, youth unemployment, a changing labour market, social exclusion and poverty have put Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) firmly on the map. But now that TVET is on the agenda of governments worldwide, can it be matched with the resources and policies to ensure that it benefits all?
This and other key questions will drive discussions at a major congress which UNESCO and its partners are convening from 13-16 May 2012 in Shanghai, China, on the theme of “Transforming TVET: Building Skills for Work and Life”. Forty ministers and high-level officials from 118 countries will be participating, along with the Education minister and other government representatives from China.

The key objectives of the congress are to explore ways to meet the new challenges facing TVET systems; to address the contributions of TVET to development; to identify innovative ways to facilitate the transition from school to work; to chart strategic directions for transforming TVET at all levels and to identify opportunities for international cooperation. The congress is expected to produce a framework for actions for the future of TVET.

UNESCO is co-organizing the Congress with the International Labour Organisation; The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; The World Bank and The World Health Organization. Participants include government ministries (Education and Training, Labour, Finance and Health); the private sector; unions and employees’ organizations and youth. Regional partners include the European Training Foundation; The Asian Development Bank; The African Development Bank and The Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

UNESCO is the only UN agency whose mandate covers the development of the whole education sector. The Organization thus promotes TVET and skills development for the world of work within a broader framework of lifelong learning.

Source: UNESCO

Helping migrant children find their feet

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:00:20 +0000

Source: euronews

Italy : 2012 International PhD Scholarship at University of Rome “La Sapienza”

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:58:02 +0000

University of Rome “La Sapienza” offer International Doctoral Scholarship for non Italian citizens, Italy 2012

Study Subject(s):Courses offered by the University
Course Level:PhD
Scholarship Provider: University of Rome “La Sapienza”
Scholarship can be taken at: Italy

Eligibility:Applications are opened to candidates who
-Are not Italian citizens
-Are not residents of Italy
-Have obtained an academic qualification abroad by a non-Italian institution which satisfies the entrance requirements for admission to the Doctoral Programme, i.e., a degree equivalent to the Italian diploma di laurea/laurea specialistica/laurea magistrale, or expect to obtain it before 31 July 2012. The equivalence of each qualification to the relevant Italian degree will be ascertained (for the sole purpose of this competition) by the Academic Board of the Schools

Scholarship Open for International Students: Yes

Scholarship Description: The University of Rome “La Sapienza” offers 19 three year full-time postgraduate PhD positions with fellowship for attaining the degree of “Dottore di Ricerca” (PhD) in the Doctoral Schools listed in appendix. Each fellowship amounts to € 19.800,00 per year; this amount includes national insurance contributions (INPS) that fellowship recipients are required to pay (9,24% for 2012/2013). The fellowship doesn’t cover the annual entrance fee and doesn’t increase for research periods spent abroad. The PhD Programme lasts three years and may be extended to a fourth year (without grant), subject to approval by the School authorities. At the end of the first and second year of attendance, students have to be evaluated as proficient according to the rules of the Schools.

How to Apply: By electronically

Scholarship Application Deadline: 15 May 2012

source: scholarship

Africa: High Level Meeting on Education and Technology

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:17:50 +0000

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Donald Kaberuka, the former British Prime Minister Rt. Hon Gordon Brown, and renowned computer scientist, and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, Sir Tim Berners-Lee will convene a high level meeting on Education and Technology entitled “Connecting Africa” at the 22nd World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa on 10 May, 2012. The purpose of this meeting is to explore ways in which modern technology can improve access and quality of education in Africa and how to scale up the most successful programmes. Ministers of education from more than 17 countries are invited as well as representatives of technology companies attending the WEF.

The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on10 May from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. at the Hilton hotel and will take the shape of a roundtable discussion. The key issues to be discussed are using technology to improve the access and quality of education, particularly primary and secondary levels, partnering with the public and private spheres for real political commitment and results, and creating programmes to address and measure improvements in the quality of education for participating African countries.

This meeting will be immediately followed by a lunch hosted at the African Union and a further meeting from 3:00-5:30 p.m. to continue the morning’s discussion as well as to consult on the African Development Bank’s new Human Capital Development Strategy.

The meeting follows the 1st Africa Forum on Science Technology and Innovation and will also contribute to the implementation of the Nairobi Declaration, which was signed by governments at the Forum

source: afdb.org

Agenda highlights of the ICT INDABA to be held in South Africa

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:45:53 +0000

International models on how to boost the development of the ICT sector in Africa are set to come under the spotlight during the inaugural four-day ICT INDABA that will be held from 4th to 7th in June at the Cape Town Convention Centre.
The event is aimed at formulating an African Agenda to promote ICT as a primary tool to spur social and economic development throughout the continent. It is organised by the Department of Communications and endorsed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations’ leading information and technology agency with 193 member states and 700 associates. It is envisaged that it will be held annually for the next five years.
The ICT INDABA 2012 has identified six critical sectors in driving the ICT as a tool for development: Education; Health; Infrastructure; Agri Business; Trade and Extractive Industries.
Hundreds of international delegates from Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America, business people leading ICT companies and government representatives are some of the participants at the ICT INDABA. And African Union Regulators from more than 50 countries on the continent have also been invited.
The ICT INDABA will take place under themes “Connecting Africa to Development with ICTs” and Bridging the Digital Divide. Among other topics, it will look at “Digital Africa: A Vision for the Future and Preparing Skills and Create Jobs that will enable the Emergence of the Knowledge Economy.”
One of the keynote speakers will be Mr Houlin Zhao, the ITU’s Deputy Secretary General, who will present a paper “The Powerful Dynamic Role of ICTs in Socio-economic Development.”
Under the theme of Digital Africa – A Vision for Africa, a session is to be devoted to on “Developing Smart Cities in the African Context.” Mr Vijay Tharumartnam of Multi Development Corporation will speak on the Malaysian Silicon Valley Experience. There will also be presentations on Bangalore, Indian’s Silicon Valley, Mexico’s Guadalajara and Egypt.
Four speakers from Rwanda, China, India, and Cuba will present papers on the development models under the theme of “Sourcing, Building and Retaining the necessary Skills Force for a robust ICT Industry.”
Miche Bezy, the associate director of Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda, will focus on a case study on “How Rwanda is currently training a globally competitive ICT skills base.”
Dr Jun Xia, of School of Economics and Management at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, will speak about the Chinese Model of “Advancing Rural Development through ICTs.”
The Indian Model will look at how to conceptualise and run “eSkills Development Programme in Developing countries” while the Cuban Model will share experiences for “Producing Industry-ready Graduates.”
One of the highlights of the first day is a session on Crystal Ball Exercise with Technology Gurus that will feature eight international experts from several countries. They will discuss a number of strategies including “How technology will shape Africa and the world within the next 15-20 years and “What should African entrepreneurs focus to capitalize on coming opportunities.”
The speakers on this topic include Andile Ngcaba, the chairman of Dimension Data; Shig Okaya, the Director of Japan Science and Agency; Alfred Watkins, the Executive Chairman of Global \Innovation Summit (Silicon Valley) Sam Mensah, the Africa Director of Intel Capital and Zaki Khoury, the Regional Head of Microsoft Middle East and Africa.
Some of the sessions will focus on “Critical policies that must be accelerated to advance Africa’s Knowledge-based Economy; “Connected Brilliance: Broadband Connectivity for access to content and faster communications” and “Developing Clusters to drive local ICT Industry development”.
Another key session will focus on “Using the Africa Infrastructure Development Corridor as a basis for integrated ICT Initiatives”. Participants will include speakers from the World Bank and African Development Bank.
A Ministerial Forum involving African ministers will reflect on some of the key components of the ICT Indaba including innovations across Africa, the challenges and opportunities facing the continent. Other discussion points will include:
• International Connectivity: Development, challenges and constraints
• Funding and investment in Broadband: A platform for the growth of the Information Society and Knowledge economy in Africa
• Building productive capacity to become Information Society and Knowledge Economy in Africa
• Africa Infrastructure for Telecommunications, Broadcasting for the Internet keeping regional traffic regional, and
• Building on Regional Development Initiatives: Connect Africa
Communications Minister Ms. Dina Pule said the ICT INDABA sought to ensure the ICT sector played its role as primary enablers of economic growth and job creation, not only in South but throughout the continent.
“I take pleasure in inviting our compatriots across the Diaspora, to our country, to partner with us, the ICT Industry, labour, and civil society as we enter a bold partnership that seeks to shape the development of the continent.
By hosting the ICT Indaba 2012, the South African government was sending out a bold word to the world that Africa was ready to be the next boom market for ICT services. Africa was a minefield of opportunities for communication services providers because it has a population estimated at one billion people. But many of them do not have access to affordable communications services, she said.

Source: Presse Release

Around the World with Portugal’s eEscola Project and Magellan Initiative

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:52:00 +0000

When people think of projects around the world to blanket schools with low cost laptops, initiatives associated with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project often spring first to mind. On a country level, it is the example of Uruguay that is probably most drawing attention from around the world from people interested in learning about how exactly a country can go about providing computing resources to all of its students, and what might happen as a result. Indeed, Uruguay is increasingly a ‘must visit’ stop for education officials from countries planning for massive investments in technology use in their education systems for the first time, as well as from more ‘advanced’ countries who have not moved forward as quickly as has in attempting to utilize ICTs to transform the way educational activities are delivered and empower students and communities in new ways. (Just last month, the World Bank sponsored delegations from Armenia and Russia to visit the Plan Ceibal headquarters in Uruguay and learn firsthand about the Uruguayan experience from those who have been leading it.) There is another country whose experience is less well known around the world than Uruguay’s, but which is every bit as interesting, but in many different ways: that of Portugal.

In many ways, Portugal offers some potentially useful models and lessons for less developed countries seeking to quickly ‘computerize’ their education systems. While part of the European Union, its per capita GDP is, according to recent data from the IMF, currently slightly lower than that of Barbados, and only a generation or so ago it perhaps had more in common (from an economic development perspective) with a number of emerging middle income countries than it did with more affluent EU member states like Germany or France. In other words: Portugal is no longer a ‘developing country’ — but it wasn’t so long ago that it was. This makes it perhaps a more relevant potential model for many emerging economies seeking to quickly introduce ICTs in education at scale than places (like the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the UK and South Korea) which have been traditional ‘ports of call’ for ministries of education seeking practical insights and know-how about what to do (and what not to do), and what the related impact might be.
Next week the World Bank will host an event in DC open to the public meant to showcase how Portugal provided every student with a laptop, connectivity, and free educational content – and what has happened as a result. (For more information about this event, which will take place in the late afternoon on Thursday 10 May, please see the related event web page. The event is free, but space is limited, and an RSVP is required.) Over the past decade, Portugal has rolled out an ambitious, far-reaching set of related initiatives to:
[-] invest in a comprehensive program for educational ‘transformation’ to help improve education through the widespread introduction of new technologies, low-cost laptops, broadband connectivity, educational content, and related training and support
[-] create a local, sustainable economic model to fuel local job creation in local IT industries and expand international trade opportunities
[-] explore new sorts of public-private partnerships to help lower the costs of acquiring and sustaining new technologies across broad segments of Portuguese society
The potential for the introduction of a variety of new technologies to help improve education has been long recognized, but the history of such investments around the world has been decidedly mixed. Few countries have moved as quickly — and comprehensively — as Portugal in its efforts to provide all students with laptops, connectivity, and free educational content as part of a larger initiative to help fuel economic development and transform society.
So what has actually happened in Portugal? Perhaps the most immediately visible effort over the past half decade or so has resulted in about a million and a half little ‘Magellan’ laptops being distributed to students. While the hardware inevitably tends to get the most attention in press reports about educational technology initiatives (and to anticipate the inevitable question: in this case, it is a re-skinned Intel Classmate — sort of like what has been used in Georgia), perhaps even more notable has been the broadband connectivity and free educational content that has been rolled out in parallel (with related training and technical support part of the package as well).
A follow-up blog post (with lots of links to more information) will go into greater detail about the actual mechanics of what has happened (and is happening) in Portugal, informed by new information that will be released at next week’s event, and in a World Bank-sponsoredcase study that is under development.
—
The first question that is asked by the sorts of folks who work at the World Bank when they hear about initiatives like what has been rolled out in Portugal (and in places like Uruguay and Peru) is: What is the impact of this sort of thing, and how should we be measuring it? Many leading voices that have emerged from the Portuguese experience point to an OECD study (PISA 2009 Results: Students On Line. Digital Technologies and Performance) that showed remarkable progress by Portuguese students in a number of areas during the period in which the massive roll out of laptops, connectivity, educational content and related training occurred. I am reflexively skeptical of claims to equate large (and fast) positive improvements in learning outcomes of various sorts to the introduction of new technologies (correlation is not causation, after all), especially given how complicated the whole activity of ‘education’ is and how delayed the impacts can often be. This is not to say that such claims are not to be believed, just that they are worth additional rigorous scholarly attention, I think, before we can credibly draw any hard conclusions in this regard. (Flipping things around: It is perhaps notable that Portugal did not — at least judging by the OECD study — see a notable drop in student achievement during the time that computers were introduced in a massive way in schools; given the related disruptions that usually accompany such activities, this is a phenomenon that has marked some other educational technology initiatives in other places.)
It is a mistake, I think, to judge the success or failure of what has been happening in Portugal based on what has been happening in the classroom alone. (This — or better stated, the impact of the use of technology on student learning, behavior, attitudes and ambitions, inside and outside of the classroom — is my primary interest in such things, but there are lots of other legitimate impacts that one can seek to investigate and measure.)
When speaking with many colleagues who work in education, I often find that the potential impact of educational technology initiatives on larger economic development activities is downplayed (or even, in some cases, dismissed). The ‘dirty little secret’ of large scale educational technology initiatives in many places is that they can sometimes be more about the development of a local tech industry as they are about what actually happens in the classroom. About two years or so ago, I started to notice that, when traveling around the world to participate in events and meetings related to educational technology issues, I was regularly bumping into representatives from Portuguese firms marketing their goods and services, especially representatives from the industry consortium that was at the heart of the public-private partnership that Portugal has used as an implementation mechanism for the various initiatives laid out in its national technological plan for education [warning: link is to a very large PDF file]. This was rather new to me — I have worked on educational technology issues for about 15 years around the world, but had never before run into a Portuguese company. Now I run into them frequently, and take the opportunity to pepper them with questions about the Portuguese experience, and how they are finding this compares and contrasts with what they are learning in other places as they ‘go abroad’.
In speaking with many countries who have grand plans to quickly introduce lots of new information and communication technologies for the first time in their education systems, one of the first questions that is usually asked (after the inevitable “which gadget should we buy?”) is:How are we going to pay for all of this? In Portugal, government used proceeds from the auction of wireless spectrum to help fund things, and strategically engaged with the local private sector to help share costs and spread risk. The scale of the public-private partnership in Portugal in this area is rather unique, I think – I know of no comparable activity in another country against which to benchmark Portuguese experience. Exploring just how this partnership worked in Portugal (and where or how it didn’t, or hasn’t) from a practical perspective is one of the objectives of an upcoming World Bank case study, and something that will be featured at next week’s eEscola event at the World Bank in DC.
—
One of the remarkable features of what happened in Uruguay is that Plan Ceibal continued with little/no interruption when the government changed. In some other countries, ambitious educational technology projects are all but abandoned when the party or coalition in power leaves office — this is especially true when announcement about ‘shiny new computers for kids’ were as much about making political promises as about doing something fundamentally useful for students, teachers and schools. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Portugal. In many quarters, the ambitious recent educational initiatives there were closely identified with a previous government (have a look at the comments section in response to this blog post to get a sense of some of the related passion and rhetoric), but it is notable that the project itself has largely continued (so far) despite the change in power. Most of what has been written for international audiences in languages other than Portuguese about the Portuguese experience occurred when various initiatives were originally announced. To date there has not been much written for international audiences about what has actually happened since these announcements, but this is now beginning to change.
It is not only countries like Portugal and Uruguay (and South Korea – another country that the World Bank monitors quite closely) that will be interesting to watch going forward. New, high profile large educational technology initiatives in places as diverse as Argentina and Thailandand Turkey are starting to draw international attention as well. Whatever the future may hold for such programs, the time is ripe to pay attention to learning from them right now. Lots of other countries appear on the verge of embarking on similar types of large scale efforts to ‘transform’ their education systems with the help of large investments in educational technologies, and the few examples we have of how to do this in practice — and, perhaps just as importantly, how not not to do it — offer great potential to inform the way related grand ambitions expressed in high profile speeches and presentations translate into concrete realities on the ground.

Source: ictdev

Africa Banking Forum

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:15:51 +0000

Africa Banking Forum 2012 that will be held on 17-18 May, in Morocco will Be a key player in the African banking sector.

The 4th edition of Africa Banking Forum provides experts and top financial managers with the ideal platform to debate the great challenges ahead of the banking sector in the region. It aims to provide a thorough analysis of the current financial situation and discuss options and solutions for a sustainable development.

Africa Banking Forum is a three days conference that includes workshops and training sessions hosted by a large panel of finance experts from renowned international institutions, key senior advisors and government representatives. This event will bring together more than 200 delegates representing nearly 20 countries.

This edition will mainly focus on the IS as a catalysts for improving bank performance. This theme is strategic and technical as it will allow the 200 participants from North, Central and West Africa to better define the issues relating to IS and to get a comprehensive overview of their evolution as well as their impact on the African banking industry.

For more details, please contact :+212 5 22 36 95 15 or by mail hmoutawakkil@sp.ma

You can also visit the following website for updated information www.i-conferences.org/abf

Source: Presse Release

Agriculture: sowing the seeds of the future

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:46:24 +0000

Source: euronews