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Japan grants US$13 million for Enhancing Literacy in Afghanistan

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digitalLEARNING Network
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Japan's aid package will be delivered through UNESCO for enhancing literacy within the framework of the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) which was launched by the Director-General of UNESCO in 2005 as a global framework to support the developing countries to promote literacy towards the realization of Education for All (EFA). < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

LIFE is officially adopted in Afghanistan as a national literacy framework which offers a platform for all the literacy players to plan and implement their respective activities in a harmonized manner to collectively achieve the National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) literacy goals.  So called 'LIFE programme' funded by the Japanese Government will provide actual literacy learning to the 600,000 illiterate youth and adults especially women in selected 18 provinces in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is one of these countries that face virtually the most serious and difficult illiteracy problems.  In order to tackle the enormous literacy challenges, to date LIFE has already put in place in the county by organizing the LIFE coordination working group with the initiative of Literacy Department of the Ministry of Education and UNESCO.

Japan has been a long-standing supporter of UNESCO's work with the Government of Afghanistan, notably in the areas of education and culture. Since 2001, Japan has contributed a total of US$ 3.2 million for Safeguarding Bamiyan Cultural Heritage Site and a total of US$ 500 thousand for 'LAND Afghan literacy project' to UNESCO in Afghanistan, in support to these activities.

For further information contact:
Jawid Ahmad “Musawer”
UNESCO, Kabul, Public Information Officer
Cell: +93 799 340 831
Email: jawid.musawer@undp.org

Three levels of terror risk for colleges in the UK

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

All colleges are going to have to assess what risk they face from violent extremism and terrorism, according to guidance issued by the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (Dius). However, universities, which were recently issued with similar guidance, are not required to carry out risk assessments. This is not because universities are in a stronger position to resist the government. It is because ministers reckon that universities have already conducted such assessments, according to a spokesman for Dius.

The document has been jointly prepared with the Association of Colleges. Its authors have been careful to place the emphasis as much on 'promoting community cohesion' as preventing extremism. The guidance for universities superseded an earlier version published in November 2006.

The FE document is the first aimed at colleges. That is why is has been launched as a consultation document. The consultation closes in mid-May. According to the guidance document, the assessment process will let a college determine which of three states of risk it is in at any time: level one – a 'universal' state, in which the risk is minimal but where colleges would provide activities 'which positively embrace community cohesion ideals;' level two – an 'at risk' state, where a college identifies specific risks and should take action to avoid them becoming incidents; and level three – an 'incident management' state, in which an incident is occurring. This would include, for instance, the arrest of a student under terrorism legislation.

The HE guidance document stated that universities would be expected to consult with staff before implementing it. The University and College Union was anxious for this condition to be included in the FE guidance.

American astronaut talks to students

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digitalLEARNING Network
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Linteris will give two public presentations Monday, February 25, at Ridgway Schools Conder Hall. The first multi-media slide show will be prepared primarily for elementary grade students, while the second is for middle school and high school students. Both presentations will include question and answer sessions with Linteris. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Ridgway School Board President Howard Butcher helped arrange Linteris' appearance in Ridgway. Butcher emphasized that the presentations are for all students in Ridgway and Ouray, and are open to the public. “We were looking for a motivational speaker who could make math and science exciting,” said Butcher. “Who better to accomplish this than an astronaut?”

Linteris has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University, a master's degree in mechanical design from Stanford University, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from Princeton. He is currently on the research staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and an instructor at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

A specialist in combustion, Linteris has broad experience in energy and environmental research, with more than 100 scientific publications. He has lectured nationally and internationally on his research, and received numerous awards and honors, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House. Working for NASA, Linteris has served as a payload specialist astronaut on two space shuttle missions and has spent 20 days in orbit around earth.

Both school boards have been invited to a joint meeting on March 4 at the Ouray School library, where the discussion topic would be 21st Century Skills, a unified, collective vision for 21st century learning that can be used to strengthen education.

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The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) is a nationwide organization that brings together the business community, education leaders and policymakers to define a vision in education that will ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education, and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

Education blog awards announced!

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Now into their fourth year, the 2007 Edublog awards were more ambitious than ever. There were more than 500 nominations in 14 categories, including new additions such as “best educational use of a virtual world”. Appropriately, there was also a change in venue. The text-based chatroom used for last year's ceremony was out, and in its place attendees, or rather their avatars, gathered on the Island of Jokaydia in the virtual world of Second Life. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Josephine Fraser, a UK-based educational technologist who helped organise the awards, says the changes reflect changes in educational blogging and in teachers' internet use. “There's been a huge amount of research going on in Second Life, looking at the educational potential of virtual worlds, and our new category and use of Second Life reflect this.”

The virtual world category winner went to Suffern middle school in Second Life, a project to document the development of a virtual presence in Teen Second Life by 8th grade students (13- to 14-year-olds) from the US. Another important addition this year was a social networking category reflecting teachers' response to the rise in popularity of sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

“Anyone working at compulsory level knows that most of their students meet up with their friends in the evenings over at Bebo, MySpace, RuneQuest or one of the other sites that allow you to connect with friends online,” says Fraser. “So obviously they are looking to explore how to make sure their students can use these sites safely, and to explore the educational opportunities they offer.”

The award for best educational use of a social networking service went to Classroom 2.0, a social network for educators interested in using new web technologies.

Steve Hargadon, a US-based educational technology consultant who set up the site, says he was delighted to win the award because it recognises the value of social networking in education. He sees it as “the combination of different web 2.0 tools to help build a community. While Facebook and MySpace are often the scary examples of social networking, there is great value in the technology for education.”

Audio and video-based nominations multiplied this year. “So many people are working in this field now – producing podcasts, posting videos to YouTube – these things are easy to do and are commonplace,” says Fraser.

The SmartBoard Lessons Podcast, designed to share ideas on the use of interactive whiteboards, won the best educational use of audio category. Joan Badger and Ben Hazzard, the podcast's Canadian hosts, say they were honoured to receive the award, “especially since it is voted on by our peers within the educational technology community”.

As well as giving recognition to the broad range of work that educators are doing (often unpaid and unsupported), the awards leave an important legacy by producing a resource that everyone can use “whether they're new to the idea of using forms of social software in education, or old hands,” says Fraser.

Winner of this year's best new blog was US-based maths teacher Dan Meyer who began blogging to share classroom ideas with his peers. “My four years' teaching have been marked by a lot of failure and, only recently, some success,” he says. “By writing about successful classroom management, lesson design and general practice, I hope others will find success sooner.”

For next year's awards, organiser Josephine Fraser says she will be seeking funding “to encourage more entries from all over the world”.

Edubloggers: Roll of honour

  • Best educational use of a virtual world
    Suffern middle school in Second Life: rampoislands.blogspot.com

  • Best educational use of a social networking service
    Classroom 2.0:     www.classroom20.com

  • Best educational wiki
    Welker's Wikinomics: welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com

CII seeks e-Publishing courses in India

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged State Governments and education institutions to offer courses in e-Publishing in order to promote e-Publishing in India. While addressing a conference on Publishing BPO services, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, CII-Tamil Nadu State Council, stated that courses, which are covering aspects like langauge grammar, software, art, semantic analysis and lexical analysis could help aspirants enter the e-Publishing industry.

According to report from research firm Valuenotes, the Indian e-Publishing industry will grow at 35 per cent year to year to be worth $1.46 billion by 2010. Currently, the size of the industry is estimated at over over $500 million and employs about 30,000 people, most of who work out of South India. In this result, the Indian companies are planning to offer value chain from the low end data entry and typesetting work to the high-end copy editing, content development and media services.

One-in-three teachers struggle with technology

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

A third of teachers struggle to use the technology schools are equipped with and want more support and training according to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), U.K. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

NFER's first Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey (TVOS), which was completed by about 1,000 teachers, including heads and newly qualified classroom teachers, shows widespread use of information technology in schools: 80% said it had made a difference to the way they teach.

But a 'sizeable minority' (33%) felt they lacked the necessary skills to exploit the technology available to them and needed more support and information to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in lessons, NFER found.

However, NFER said when compared to research conducted in 2004, the findings suggest that teacher competence in using ICT has improved overall.

Two thirds (67%) said they had the ICT skills to exploit the technology available to them and 62% said ICT helps to raise pupil attainment.

Teachers also said ICT leadership in schools could be improved. Just 27% of respondents felt that the leadership of ICT pedagogy in their school was inspirational and only 44% said that their school is innovative in its use of ICT.

NFER's Maria Charles said: “The first TVOS survey has given us a valuable insight into the views of teachers. We hope to be able to continue addressing current issues within teaching in further surveys.”

UK university dropout rate steady at 22%

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

An

Glasgow City Council link with private sector to create ‘hubs’

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Following a new contract signed by the city council, community hubs will be created as part of a new limited liability partnership (LLP) that Glasgow City Council has launched with a private firm to deliver its information and communication technology (ICT) and property services.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

The ten-year contract, worth

First-grade classroom keeps change

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The first-grade classroom at Sabal Palm Elementary School, in Jacksonville, Florida has come up with an innovative way to inculcate skill in math in students, using just a a cart filled with colorful pencils. Sheehan opened a classroom store to build student interest and make the learning process more appealing.

The writing implements are the featured 'sale' items in class teacher Eileen Sheehan's classroom 'store' and her students are eager to 'buy' a pencil. Sheehan, who has seventeen years of teaching experience observes that teaching students about coins by using worksheets was not effective. “Worksheets didn't go well,” according to her. “The pictures of the money didn't look like money. They weren't easily identifiable. And kids can't manipulate the pictures of money on a worksheet or actually buy something.”

Sheehan says challenging students to use certain groupings of coins to buy items from the classroom store is a playful and engaging way for them to meet state first-grade curriculum standards for learning coin values and equivalencies. It also focuses students on real-world situations that require them to apply the math skills they developed earlier in the school year.

“With the store, kids are counting by fives and tens, and then combining with ones,” explains Sheehan. “You can see them thinking, 'I need more' or 'I need less.' It helps them with addition and subtraction, and it makes them good problem solvers, too, because they see there are different ways to do it.”

World Bank: Middle East countries need to overhaul education systems

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

A new report from the World Bank shows that the education system needs overhaul in countries in the Middle East and North Africa, so that they can meet with the demands of an increasingly competitive world.

The report entitled 'The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa' provides a comprehensive economic analysis of the impact of education investments on the region. The report notes that 40 years of education investment has closed the gender gap at the primary school level and resulted in nearly universal education. The report states that education system must be changed to deliver new skills and expertise necessary to excel in a more competitive environment. It means that students in the region requires more soft skills, problem solving capacity, communications, knowledge of foreign language. According to Michal Rutkowski, Sector Director for Human Development in the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa region, countries in the region are not enjoying the same returns on education investment at the higher-education level as some fast-growing middle-income countries in Asia, like Malaysia and the Republic of Korea.

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