Learn Buddhist philosophy and practice online
Gone are the days when the attendance at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives used to overflow up to the corridors, with students sitting, standing or squatting on the floor to the stairs. Now, Buddhist philosophy and practice can be learnt online. The library offers two, hour-long classes, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in which highly qualified lamas teach courses focused on Indian and Tibetan texts or on specific topics of Buddhist
philosophy and practice, with instant English translation. The site also Students with Visual Impairment Global Campaign was also launched.
e-Learning toolkits to improve transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services in Asia.
The toolkits – Citizen Report Card (CRC) and Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) techniques – were designed and developed by the Public Affairs Centre of Bangalore, India, and the Australian Continuous Improvement Group in Melbourne, Australia, with technical and grant support from ADB and the Tokyobased ADBI. The e-Learning toolkits will enable users to develop basic skills using self-paced learning modules to understand the
conceptual, technical, managerial, and features an archive of previous recordings, along with books published by the library. Now, in addition to about 100 foreigners here who regularly attend the daily two classes on Buddhist philosophy and practice, hundreds more can join online.
e-Science project by Chinese Academy of Sciences
e-Science project, a large-scale computer project for data sharing is under plan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The e-Science project aims to tackle the problem of poor data sharing in the scientific community. The target is to make sharing their data easier for researchers at its 90 institutes. The project’s funding has not yet been finalised, but could be up to 500 million yuan (USD62.5 million). The e- Science platform will be freely accessible to scientists outside the academy, as well as the public.
Visually impaired students to access ICT in Malaysia
The Malaysia government will allocate RM3 million to help visually impaired students, mainly to provide access to Information Communication and Technology (ICT) facilities. The RM3 million is for the ICT development of blind students in all schools. There are 823 blind students studying in normal schools nationwide. The Education for All operational details of CRC methodology and CIB techniques.
Master plan to develop Vietnam’s digital content industry
The Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) of Vietnam revealed a master plan at the Vietnam Information and Communication Technology Outlook 2006, to develop Vietnam’s Digital Content Industry (DCI) targets, to earn USD400 million revenues in 2010 and uphold an average annual growth rate of 50 percent. DCI is a design, production, publishing, storage, distribution and publication industry of digital content products and related services like information lookup, digital entertainment, online healthcare and online learning. According to the Director General the MPT’s Department of Information Technology Industry, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vietnam is having 10,000 DCI experts and the number will triple by 2010. At present, Vietnam is
developing six DCI fields, such as e- Education, online games, Internet content development, mobile network services, digital film and e-Learning.
Chinese website to teach Chinese language
Eyeing at the growing interest of people to learn Chinese as a foreign language, China launched a website offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of the language abroad. The Ministry of Education of China says that more than 30 million people are now learning Chinese as a foreign language and more than 2,500 universities in 100 countries offer Chinese courses. The site (www.linese.com) includes audiovisual presentations, interactive exercises and advice for teachers of Mandarin Chinese, with photographs and descriptions of cultural icons. The website is only in Chinese and English, but versions in Japanese and Korean are being developed.
U-Learning in Palm of Hand
Makers of the video-on-the-go players are expanding partnerships with educational content providers as they consider it critical to survive in the ever-intensifying battle with other mobile gadgets such as mobile phone, compact PC and personal digital assistant (PDA). Such a move is in ine with the South Korean government’s ubiquitous learning (ulearning) plan. Digital Cube, leading PMP seller in South Korea, which has a 65-percent share of the market started providing high-quality broadcasting of EBS TV’s college entrance test preparation programs. The PMP users can download the video files of the elearning classes via Internet free of charge. It is the first time for the TV lectures to be transformed to other platforms at high picture quality. The offering of the EBS package is likely o be a big attraction for potential PMP buyers. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources
97 public high schools in Phillipines
to get computers Some 97 public high schools in Region 7 in Phillipines will be beneficiaries of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) PCs for Public Schools Project (PCPS). Under the PCPS Phase 3 Project, around 1,200 public secondary schools nationwide will receive 12,000 computers. Each beneficiary school in the region will receive 10 computers, including peripherals and local area network connections. Bohol will receive 27 units, Cebu will have 43, Oriental Negros will get 22 while Siquijor will get five units. With DTI’s PCPS 3 pro-ject, more schools will get ICT upgrade, “empowering” more students and teachers. 32,240 computers were given to 2,228 public high schools nationwide under the first two phases of the project. Development is basing the college entrance test on the EBS lectures and the TV company insists about 80 percent of last year’s test came from the EBS-covered contents. Before the introduction of the EBS lectures, there were various educational contents available on PMP, such as language courses bought from offline content providers. Meanwhile, the ministry of Education and human Resources Development has launched its ulearning project by designating 18
elementary, middle and high schools in April for its pilot project.
