Sikkim Manipal University Directorate of Distance Education launches

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December 20, 2009

Sikkim Manipal University Directorate of Distance Education (SMU-DDE) today announced the launch of Vidyadeep, a nationwide scholarship program for 1500 meritorious and deserving students of SMU-DE programs across India. Out of these 1500 scholarships, 500 scholarships will be offered to students from the North East alone. This scholarship is a 'first of its kind pioneering initiative' in the field of distance education in the country. At the 2^nd National Learning Centre Convention at Mysore on 14^th December 2009, in the presence of representatives from more than 400 learning centres of SMU-DDE in India, Brand Ambassador for Manipal Education, Anil Kumble, and Brig. (Retd.) Dr. S.S. Pabla, Vice Chancellor, Sikkim Manipal University, launched 'Vidyadeep'. Appreciating Manipal Group's dedication and commitment towards education and healthcare, Anil Kumble applauded the efforts of SMU-DDE in making quality higher education accessible to students and aspirants from the hinterland of India. He said, “Vidyadeep is a laudable initiative to help deserving students realize their educational dreams. I am sure this is a milestone in itself. SMU-DDE is revolutionizing distance education in India providing access and equity to all its students.”

The scholarship programme is in the form of upto 100% tuition fee waiver for students currently in the 1^st to 5^th semester for the streams of IT, Management, Journalism & Mass Communication, Fashion, Hospitality & Tourism, Allied Health, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics.

Eligibility criteria include:

Low family income
Qualifying exam marks

Saudi Arabia turning to IT

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 20, 2009

According to the Arab League Educational, cultural and scientific organisation's report digital illiteracy in the Arab World is at 29.7%, compared to 19% global average. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been encouraging the citizens to participate in digital proficiency accreditation programs to enhance their IT competency and help improve the region's IT capabilities. 'Digital illiteracy,' defined as the inability to use digital technology, communications tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information, is recognised globally as a major hurdle to social and national development. A new strategy needs to be developed to involve more schools and government agencies to adopt ICDL certification program in their IT Literacy campaigns.

ICDL Saudi Arabia has started entering into a series of agreements with private sector organisations and governmental departments such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Defence and Aviation to make ICDL certification an essential requirement among their staff. The dialogue is also on with the local universities to include the ICDL in their curricula. “Information and communications technology (ICT) is essential to business productivity and sustainable national development, which is why we are greatly concerned about the level of illiteracy in this domain across the Arab World.

As the region's strongest economy, KSA has taken the lead to address this issue and transform itself into a digital society. Our two-pronged approach to promoting ICT literacy has been specifically developed to complement government efforts and establish Saudi Arabia as a global ICT hub,” said Dr Sulaiman Al-Dhalaan, Consultant, ICDL Saudi Arabia. KSA's expenditure in ICT has reached a total of about US$733 million between 2009 and 2011. But country's expanding ICT infrastructure will require more digital proficiency from citizens, starting with the youth. In its effort to bring more and more ICT, ICDL Saudi Arabia has successfully convinced some of the KSA's top universities such as King Saud University; Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University, the first university for girls in Saudi Arabia; Taibah University; Al Baha University and the University of Tabuk to adopt the ICDL program as a mandatory or equivalent course for freshers.

Around 20,000 university students across the country are currently enrolled in the ICDL program as a result of ICDL Saudi Arabia's efforts. The ECDL/ICDL program is the world's largest vendor-neutral end-user computer skills certification, endorsed by education ministries, universities and government organisations in more than 168 countries and available in over 40 languages, including Arabic. It recently marked its 9 millionth enrollment, with ICDL Saudi Arabia emerging as one of its key contributors in the Middle East. During the ECDL Foundation's Annual Global Forum held in October 2009 in Athens, Greece, ICDL Saudi Arabia won the 'Programme Implementation within an Organisation' award for participating with major Saudi universities to integrate ICDL certification into their academic programs.

Rapid induction of technology in education

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 17, 2009

Online exams and e-assessment are rapidly growing popular in the education system of the country according to a recent research by ValueNotes. Various instances of successful attempts to employ technology in the education sector have come in the recent past. After conducting the Gujarat common entrance test online in 2009 September, The Gujarat Technological University received the India Digital Learning Award of the year. The Delhi university and The University of Pune have also successfully conducted online exams this year. E-Learning has become an important feature of the government's plans to increase access to education. Education sector has off late occupied the centrestage in terms of change in policy, structure, entry of private players and foreign universities expressing interest in entering the Indian market.

Very little efforts so far have been made in the direction of making the education system student friendly. The traditional system of conducting exams is an extremely lengthy process which starts with preparing question papers, printing, sending the question paper to various centres- evaluating and eventually declaring results in which the process continues for months. Other problems encountered include lack of transparency, repeated costs of printing, lengthy re-evaluation process, security issues and inefficiency in the management of time.

A survey measures fewer Indians applying for studies in US

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 17, 2009

The number of Indian and South Korean students applying for the fall admission to US graduate programmes have fallen, while Indian IT cos logged in most H-1Bs applications from China and the Middle East have surged, according to a survey released by the Council of Graduate Schools Tuesday. The council, which represents more than 500 higher-education institutions in the US and Canada, said foreigners' applications for 2009 graduate-school admissions rose 4% from the year before. That compares with increases of 6% in 2008, 9 % in 2007 and 12 % in 2006. Foreigners' applications to doctoral programmes rose five percent, but declined 17 % for master's degrees. The council survey of US institutions, which fielded more than 400,000 applications in all, showed growth of applications from China along with the Middle East and Turkey, up 16 % and 20 % from 2008, respectively. But applications from India and South Korea fell nine percent and seven percent, respectively, the survey noted, describing it as a 'potentially troubling sign.'

These declines follow decreases in first-time enrollment of students from these two countries in fall 2008; first-time enrollment fell 2% for students from India and 4% for students from South Korea. Given the relatively large decline in applications for students from these two countries in this year's survey, it seems likely that first-time enrollment of students from India and South Korea will decline again in fall 2009. If the trend persists, it will mean a subtle but significant change on US campuses, which have come to rely on foreign students to fill their seats, particularly in such departments as science and technology, it said. 'The global economy is really impacting students' ability to come to the United States,' said council president Debra W. Stewart. International graduate applications dropped 4% between 2008 and 2009 at the institutions outside the largest 100. This pattern held true for applications from prospective students from China and India, and held true for prospective students applying to programmes in all broad fields except for business.

Government to assist universities in Africa technologically

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 17, 2009

Ministry of education in Ghana is commited to providing all possible technical and financial support to the universities in Africa by assisting them to collaborate and share facilities such as laboratories, instruments and libraries. The government is studying a programme to provide schools and universities more access to personal computers, internet and support the development of research and educational networks. Dr. Joseph Annan, Deputy Minister of Education in- charge of Tertiary Education has said “We encourage the universities to also take the initiative and begin to connect to each other to accelerate the emergence of network clusters that would join to create the National Research and Education Network (NREN)”. University authorities in Africa need to be efficient in the use of bandwidth irrespective of the amount involved to generate enough savings for the various institutions. More efficient networks and better use of core resources will be achieved through bandwidth management according to the minister.

“Therefore, a workshop that prepares the professionals with knowledge of system tools required to build and manage these emerging networks is an opportunity,” he added. The African Network Operators Group (AFNOG) Workshop on Network Technology aims to offer advanced training to people who are in the process of developing and enhancing an Internet-connected network with regional and international connectivity. The target audience includes senior and mid-level technical staff of commercial internet service providers, academic networks, government networks or non-governmental organisations networks. This workshop builds on the experience of previous AFNOG workshops held since 2000 in 10 different African countries, and also the Internet Society's International Network for Education Transformation (INET) workshops, held annually from 1993 to 200

Sun Microsystems and Pearson offer College Students Technology Training, Gateway to professional certification

Corporate Updates

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 17, 2009

Sun Microsystems, Inc. has joined hands with Pearson, a global leader in education, education technology and services, to develop the Sun Academic Advantage. This offering includes course materials and online courses on Java technology, Open Solaris and Open Source technologies for students of all levels. The Sun Academic Advantage will enable enables instructors to add Sun-endorsed courseware into their curriculum and give students an enhanced classroom experience using the latest Sun technologies. The Sun Academic Advantage content and online courses along with Sun certifications will provide a gateway for students to gain an advantage in today's competitive workplace by becoming Sun-certified IT professionals. Computer science and information technology programs designed by Sun Academic Advantage will align with disciplines such as software development, enterprise architecture, system administration and IT management. The Sun Academic Advantage leverages Sun's expertise in emerging technologies and combines Pearson's wealth of resources, proven instructional design and excellence in content development.

The Java platform has already attracted more than 6.5 million software developers to date and is integral to the intranet applications and other e-business solutions at the foundation of corporate computing. It has a presence in a wide range of devices, computers and networks. Open Solaris is an open source project created by Sun in 2005 to build a developer community around the Solaris Operating System (OS). Courseware includes stand-alone special topic supplements, lab manuals, certification maps and practice tests. Sun Academic Advantage also includes customizable 12-week e-Learning courses, located within a tailored web portal. Each course is developed with specific learning outcomes, an instructor guide, additional resources and works within any learning management system (LMS). “Pearson's exclusive partnership with Sun is likely to enhance an academic institution's ability to keep curricula current with the latest technology,” said Chris Shenk, vice president at Pearson Learning Solutions. Sun Academic Advantage program will play a critical role in providing industry-recognized training that will successfully prepare students for professionally and financially rewarding careers.

There are technologies created by Sun that have defined and redefined the course of computing. “Sun has created technologies that have defined–and often redefined–the course of computing, and we are excited about the opportunity to work with Pearson,” said Karie Willyerd, CLO, Sun Learning Services. “Sun's Open Source technologies make these skills widely applicable and provide businesses with cost-effective solutions that deliver faster results.” Pearson provides complete online courses in disciplines such as business, general education, allied health, criminal justice, paralegal, education, and information security, plus a full suite of custom media options. Pearson's courseware services and library offerings are powered by best practices in instructional design and crafted by a team of course writers, subject matter experts and technologists. These Pearson best practices coupled with the pedagogically sound Sun Academic Advantage ensures alignment with today's workforce development initiatives of retraining America's workforce and producing a qualified labor pool.

Gearing Up Internet Literacy Access for Students (GILAS) project in the Philippines

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 16, 2009

The Gearing Up Internet Literacy Access for Students or the GILAS project aims to connect all public secondary schools in the country to the Internet in five years.

The Department of Education (DepEd) in Philippines in collaboration with various leaders in the business, government, and socio-civic community has adopted and is fully supporting the GILAS project. GILAS is a multi-sectoral initiative which aims to provide Internet access for students and basic Internet literacy programmes in all the 5,443 public secondary schools in the Philippines in the next 5 years. Its mission is led by a consortium of private corporations and civic organizations, in coordination with the DepEd. The components of project include project orientation, briefings, resource mobilisation, sustainability trainings, ICT survey and validation, and other validated activities. The officials of the Department of Education are expected to help beef up the Department's participation by directing their respective school administrators and school community to support the project. Principals and others in charge of taking ownership of the schools are encouraged to actively involve themselves in the GILAS orientation, local partnership development and resource mobilisation, ICT survey and validation, launching of the project and sustainable use of ICT facilities. Primarily, senior high school students in the public schools are expected to benefit from the project.

Environmental law course to be offered by IGNOU

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 14, 2009

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) would start a course on environmental law from July 2010. Its a post-graduate diploma course in Environmental law run by IGNOU in association with World Wide Fund. “Real development will happen only if the environment is sustained. I hope that the new programme will present the right perspective of development to the students.” said V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, the IGNOU vice chancellor. IGNOU will also be launching programmes in conservation of species and biodiversity and offering these programmes to universities in near future.

According to Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO of WWF-India, the course in environmental law will spread awareness about enviro-legal matters to the wider public. The programme would fill in the gap in knowledge about the repurcussions of climate change and dwindling number of species.The CEL is already offering an online diploma in environment law and has so far trained 500 students.The collaboration with IGNOU is expected to increase the reach of the programme to a wider section of society, according to Pillai

‘Tablet classroom’ in Wellington School, New Zealand

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 12, 2009

Wellington School in New Zealand launches first 'tablet classroom'.

Using technology to make learning more exciting and innovative is the focus of this project. 'A $50 million a year action plan' represents an annual investment of more than $50 million in ICT for schools and sets out goals and activities to support e-learning for the next four years. It has been launched by Education Minister Steve Maharey, on a visit to New Zealand's first Tablet Classroom. This 'tablet classroom' begins classes at Brooklyn School in Wellington today. The trial involves students completing classwork and homework on small, hand-held computers called 'tablets'. The plan is aimed at ensuring teachers continue to have access to the latest tools so they can foster learning in the most exciting environment, as stated by Steve Maharey. New initiatives being funded under the plan include expanding the Virtual Learning Network, access to the Learning Federation, providing remote schools with satellite broadband at a subsidised rate. Students will use a stylus to write and draw on their tablets, these also include foldaway keyboards. Students will do at least 80 per cent of their work on tablets.

National workshop in Luanda on ICTs for upgrading teachers

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 12, 2009

A national workshop in Luanda on the importance of ICTs in the upgrading of teachers is being held by the Education Ministry of Angola during July 24-28, for the implementation of the distance learning system.

The seminar is mainly specialised on the preparing of conditions for the continuous upgrading of secondary school teachers. Provinces like Hu

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