InfoSource Learning and CyberLearning partner to help
increase digital literacy globally InfoSource Learning, the United States based developer and solution provider in the education, corporate, and government training markets announced a strategic partnership with CyberLearning, a non-profit project of the National Education Foundation, aimed at providing effective and affordable digital  education, globally. Two CyberLearning  rojects that are set to launch this year will help increase digital literacy in India and in Mauritius, the island nation, between  India and Africa in the Indian Ocean. InfoSource supports these projects  by supplying its award-winning Digital Literacy courseware library  and Learning Management System for this effort. CyberLearning will utilise InfoSource’s Digital Literacy online  courseware, CD ROMs, and books to train at least one person in every village.

Hewitt Associates for curricula changes in Indian educational institutions
Hewitt Associates, a global consulting firm for the outsourcing industry, will provide a road map to the State Governments in India for creating  educational institutions that would match the requirement of the industry.  The company will propose changes in  the curriculum of educational institutes, for which it is in talks with 10 State Governments, including  Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Sikkim amongst others. It will also analyse   the hallenges that individual States face in the context of human resources for the BPO sector. At present, it is focusing on making  college level graduates more employable.
Microsoft in partnership in  Gujarat
Microsoft India and the Government of Gujarat have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at providing University students and  faculty in the state easier access to Information Technology.  This agreement will allow students in  Gujarat develop skills on nextgeneration Microsoft tools and technologies, including .NET, thereby  improving their career prospects. Under the partnership, Microsoft will  provide training to students in the  pre-final or final year of the Bachelor  of Engineering (Computer Science and IT stream) and MCA programs, leveraging the BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space  Applicatons and Geoinformatics) SATCOM (satellite  ommunications)  facility. The faculty in these institutions will also, thereby, get  an  opportunity to collaborate with experts from across the world, besides  getting access to Microsoft s premium technology events. 

VTU ties-up with Liqwid
Krystal for online learning E-learning solutions provider Liqwid Krystal and Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), announced a collaboration, to offer gyanX, an online learning platform for employable  skills to all students of VTU. According to the agreement, Liqwid  Krystal will provide IT and soft skills to the students through a select  catalog of online courseware, books and other content. Empowering students to learn interactively is one  of the visible elements of this learning platform. PRODUCTS HP encourages e-learning with tailor-made notebooks

HP has provided Al Mawakeb with over 320 HP Compaq nc6320 notebooks with the latest Intel Duo Core that have tailor-made features helping to optimise the utility of the notebooks and enhancing the use of multimedia technologies in the learning process, improving the  student skills on the subject matter. The new notebooks are also supported by a wireless network through HP servers to allow a stable and reliable solution to provide a full IT infrastructure for the students. The notebooks are designed for durability and performance fitted with an antiscratch, spill proof keyboard and  come with HP Mobile HDD protection and biometric fingerprint sensors to  protect the student’s information. 

Oracle integrates two educational programmes
Enterprise software company, Oracle has announced it will combine its two information technology education  programmes – the Oracle Academy  and the Oracle Academic Initiative – to offer a comprehensive course called  the Oracle Academy. The new programme would benefit  educators and students by giving them broader choice and increased  flexibility in curricula and educational offerings.  

Wireless Internet set to launch
in remote Viet Na Viet Nam’s first-ever trial WiMAX  (Wo ld Interoperability      icrowave Access) equipment will be  fully installed in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai to bring wireless Internet to previously offline areas soon. Users will include schools, health care  centres, the Post Office, an internet  cafe, a farm family, a hotel, a business project, and selected Lao Cai public and commune service locations.  WiMAX is a new advanced wireless  broadband technology that can provide high quality wireless broadband Internet to rural areas in radii between 2 to 10 kilometres per base station. The pilot project is  being implemented by Intel in cooperation with the Viet Nam  Datacommunications company (VDC), the US Agency for International  Development (USAID) and the Lao Cai People’s Committee leadership. 

Regional centre helps develop
distance education in Viet Nam The Regional Open Learning Centre under the Organisation of Southeast Asian Ministers for Education is willing to provide professional expertise, consultancy and personnel training to Viet Nam for developing its distance education system.  Since 2003, the centre had implemented many programmes to  assist the Ha Noi Open University. These programmes focused on personnel training, providing  curriculums and school materials, and  applying information technology in distance education. In recent years, Viet Nam has invested in developing  open and distance  ducation. The  Government assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to implement  a US$100 million project on distance education with the participation of the Ha Noi Open University. The  university, with around 300 officials  and lecturers, had so far trained around 45,000 students in different majors through distance education.  ‘Internet-ready Access Centres’ in schools in Malaysia Internet-ready Access Centres costing more than RM70mil in total are being set up in 1,500 schools around Malaysia.  Access Centres would be  similar in concept to cybercafes, although its  usage would focus on learning and to  allow students to work on their

Bringing impact to rural education in Malaysia
The Education Ministry in Malaysia being aware of the education divide between the schools in the rural areas and towns is now embarking on high  impact projects to bridge the divide. The ministry is giving priority to improve  ducation outside  towns under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) in a comprehensive manner from preschool to higher education.  Under the 9MP, the ministry is hoping to supply higher voltage generator cap ble   of supplying 30-35KVa and also the solar power equipment and set up mini dam   to ensure the implementation of ICT initiatives. Plan is also to assist in implementing the  pre-school education in rural areas by setting up 2,400 preschool classes  complete with computer facilities that could benefit 61,000 children in the 5-6  years age group. Apart from that, the ministry would also enhance the rehabilitation classes in rural areas with the setting up of 5,000 classes to enhance the 3M capabilities, namely read, write and count. The ministry is also  idening the vocational subjects in 480 schools in the rural areas to help  the students who are not keen in the academic subjects. Through the high impact projects, the number of students who need rehabilitation that can be reduced from 7.7 percent to less than 5 percent and the need for the Tuition Voucher Scheme (SBT) can be reduced from 100 percent to 80 percent after the 9MP. The dropout rates in rural schools could be reduced from 1.2 percent to less than 1.0 percent at the primary level and from 16.7 percent to less than 1.0 percent at the secondary level. assignments. It is different from the existing computer labs, which are  used to teach certain subjects.Under the first phase, 1,500 schools would be provided with 15,000  personal computers and 1,500 printers as well as the necessary  furniture and infrastructure. Another 12,900 computers would be  provided to 1,290 schools next year. With the Access Centres, the ratio of  computers to students in schools would be decreased allowing students to be more exposed to  information and communication  technologies (ICT). To date 84 primary and secondary schools in  the rural areas of Sabah and Johor have been equipped with Access Centres. Free info-enrichment in Bengali  Wikipedia The project for Bangla  nline based  ncyclopaedia has taken off recently. But its entries have been expanding with almost binary pace.  Bengali Wikipedia  in March 2006 to 0,000 as of now. 20/  5 active voluntary editors areinvolved in editing Bengali Wikipedia on a regular basis. About 220-250  million Bangla speaking people are supposed to read Bangla encyclopaedia  more than English. Info bank of the seventh largest language is poor in many ways. So there is an actual expectation of Bangla info bank. Non-formal schooling boosts access to basic education in Nepal  Children who were out of school in 15  districts of Nepal now have the opportunity to learn how to read and  write, thanks to the     ICEF-supported Out-of-School Programme (OSP).  Designed to provide basic education through a non-formal approach, the  new strategy has helped approximately 15,700 children complete a 10-month course.

The  After BPO, it is the turn of ESO now For thousands of teachers here,
tuitions have become   dollar spinner, thanks to the growing demand for online tutorials from USA,  K and Europe. According to an online tutorial site, nearly 100,000 teachers  from India and Pakistan were expected to set up their own Internet businesses  during September-October, the time when the new academic session begins in  merica, to teach students there.  Though the main demand is from USA, newer markets of Netherlands and Europe too are fast opening up for Indian teachers.  Low cost of tuitions and  very good teaching skills of Indian teachers is what attracts American students and parents to them. The online tutorial interaction uses both voice and data. Exercises are done on electronic otebooks, which are available at both ends. A number of online sites have come up where teachers can register, stating their expertise in a particular subject. The sites sub-contract work from SES (Supplemental Education Services) in the US. Schools unable to improve student performance are falling back on tuitions for help. There are over 75 such tuition centres across the US. Called SES providers, they charge students up to $40 an hour to take classes. Wire the work to India over broadband links and it can be done for half the cost. programme’s main aim is to fulfill children’s rights to basic education, especially for girls and low-caste children. In 2005, nearly 40 per cent of  OSP graduates – more than half of them girls – made the successful  transition into primary schools. Singapore institutes to take in  more Indian students Singapore Education is looking at hosting an international student population of 1,50,000 by 2015, up  from the current level of 70,000-plus. India is one of its key source markets along with Indonesia, Vietnam,  Malaysia and China. The number of  Indian students pursuing their  education in Singapore has seen a 21% growth in 2005 over 2004.  Students from India tend to go in for their MBAs as well as courses in engineering, IT, sciences and  business. There’s also an emerging interest in hospitality and design.   Japan Agency gives computers to 12 high schools in Philippines  The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Sultan Kudarat Provincial Office, a lead agency   asked by the Philippines vernment  in promoting Information Communication Technology (ICT), had secured  a grant from the Japan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) under the  Non-Project Grant Assistance Program. The grant shall fund  projects for the promotion of ICT in the  province. The program also aimed to make ICT access available to all  students of selected public high schools in the province under the project “Personal Computers for Public Schools” Project – Phase 3 (PCPS -3).  New Web 2.0 Chinese distance  learning site launched Onsales Global Services Inc. launched  China-8.com, a distance learning website that is based on emerging  Web 2 technologies. The site uses Asynchronous JavaScript and XML  (Ajax) to deliver a new way for students of Chinese and China enthusiasts vising China for travel or  business to study Chinese,  communicate, and share their knowledge of Mandarin and of China. China-8.com aims to cater to the  Chinese learning and community needs of the estimated 30 million people currently studying Chinese around the world with tools that encourage the learning process not hinder it. China-8.com’s lessons are based on the Hanyu Shuiping Koushi  (HSK) curriculum – China’s international Chinese proficiency test currently being promoted by  Confucius Institutes around the world, but with a difference. China-  8.com tracks students’ progress, giving them a snapshot of how they   are progressing with the language.  

The development of Internet and Network enables people to access and get information easier and faster. There are a lot of devices provided for manipulating information, such as desktop, laptop, Pocket PC, and mobile phone. Each device plays a different role depending on individual  needs. Mobile phone is a personalised device, which can be  easily used anywhere to communicate with others, but cannot handle a high  speed and large size of data, while laptop with a bigger size and high  performance, can apply for a high speed and high quality content.  Learning, the process of transferring information from one to others has a long history. E-learning is a type of distance learning where learning  content and data are sent through the Internet. With the combination  between learning and device, one can say we come closer to achieve learning anywhere and anytime.  Adaptive e-learning tries to analyse system to match with individual  needs. It collects learner history, behaviour, etc to construct learner  model and make the system automatically adapt to support user’s need. There is, however, another  approach that does not concentrate  on learner model. It tries to realise the important issue based on digital divide. In Thailand, there is very big  gap between students in urban and rural in accessing Internet, and computer performance. Based on these infrastructures, one issue  becomes important which is how to develop and analyse the appropriate 

Adaptive learning is considered as a learner-centered model. There are a lot of approaches that try to adapt the system based on  earner history, behavior, activity and so on. However, very few researches concentrate on different environment, for example, speed of Internet, and connecting devices. The article mainly considers on the adaptive system based on the environment of each learner. The research designs the system to automatically detect the environment for each learner and transfer the suitable content for his/her environment. It introduces a process on choosing type and format of data for e-Learning system according to the environment. 

content for each learner’s environment, which ultimately forms the “adaptive environment model”. A system has been designed in this research to  utomatically detect the environment for each learner and  transfer the suitable content for his/ her environment. A process has been  introduced on choosing type and format of data for e-Learning system  according to the student’s environment.  

System Architecture
n order to automatically detect the  environment for each learner and transfer the suitable content for their environments, it is necessary to design the  rchitecture by considering both client and server  side. In the client side, an appropriate LMS will be installed and executed  based on device. There are two main  modules, which are necessary to exist in LMS, Information Requesting Module and Information Executing  Module. Information Requesting Module will receive a request for information from a user and send to server.  nformation  Executing Module will apply the information received from server and execute  it to  user. It is  normally a  part of  LMS. In the  server side, there are three main modules,  Environment Detecting  Module, Infor-mation Selecting Module and Information  Transferring Module. Environment Detecting Module detects  environment for each user. Based on  the  nvironment information, Information  Selecting Module will analyse and select the most appropriate content in the server which matched  with the needs of user. Finally the  content will be transferred to client in Information  ransferring Module.  The article concentrates mainly on Adaptive Environment Module, which is the module that assists the server to send the appropriate information based on the environment.  Adaptive Environment Module  The process on detecting environment is explained here. The server starts with  detecting connec-tion speed. The speed is  detected by calculating average time  per a prepared data. A  data  is  sent  and  the  starting  time and finishing time for calculating  speed connection is  chec-ked there by. This method will enable the server to detect the  speed based on the average size of content. After that, server detects the user’s opera-ting system  and web browser. Finally, it detects the supported file types. The existing  command is applied in PHP for  detecting operating system, web browser and supported file types.  The server classify content into three groups, text-only, picture-and-text,  and full-multimedia. The server detects user environment and match with the three types of content based  on environment information. The server applies the following criteria  for selecting content. 1) Regarding the  onnection speed,  Internet connection could be in many ways such as dial-up  modem, broadband, Wi-Fi, satellite and cell phone via GPRS  and EDGE etc. Range of the connection speed is wide. The  rate is up to connection type ranged from   6Kbit/s-maximum  speed of dial-up modem connection to 160-Gbit/s highest     eed broadband. If a server detects low connection speed,  below 60   bit/second, text-only will be assigned for the users. If a  server detects medium connection speed, at 61-200  Kbits/second, picture-and-text will be assigned for the users. If a  server detects high connection speed, more than 200 Kbits / second, full-multimedia connect will be assigned for the users.   2) Regarding  the device, if a server detects mobile phone device,  picture-and-text will be assigned for the users. Otherwise, fullmultimedia  connect will be  assigned for the users.  3) Regarding the web browser, Mozilla and Firefox cannot fully   support JavaScript, some tags type, such as DHTML, while Internet explore can support this. Moreover the supported plug-in  for each web browser is  ifferent.  After the server knows the environment, the server selects  appropriate learning content from  information stored in an XML file. In  XML file, learning contents are represented in tag format. Each part of  the content refer to three learning  bject for each user group. The system choose  ppropriate learning  object according to the detected learning environment and then send  the learning object to the user.  

Countries have interpreted nonformal education in various ways. For some, it meant every educational programme provided by the Ministry of Education apart  rom the schools and colleges, while others defined nonformal  education as  chooling like programmes provided by nongovernmental  agencies. Various other countries have interpreted it as educational and training activities of different Ministries like Women’s Affairs, Health, Labour and Employment, Youth and Sports and Culture etc. Others again included within non-formal education, individualised learning programmes  for different and specific learning groups. Some took it to mean every  educational activity apart from schools and colleges, including radio and television programmes, the print media. In fact, it is very close to what some people define as ‘experiential learning’; and with the boons of information and communication technologies, now it is very close to total lifetime learning. Practices – varied in nature andscope In countries like Bangladesh and  ndia, which still have to go a longway to ensure basic education for all children, the natural choice has been to adopt innovative methods, in most cases through ICTs to reach out-ofschool youth and adults. Both these  countries have chosen to illustrate the ICT innovations through initiatives of non-government organiations. On the other hand, countries like Malaysia, which has made tremendous progress in recent years in terms of providing basic education for all, has chosen to focus on extending the benefits of information  technology through continuing education programmes.

Lifelong or continuing education through nonformal  means is becoming increasingly important in mobilising  human resources in Malaysia, especially the youth. Approximately 1.2 million Malaysians   currently have little or no access to ICTs. As one  among the many fighters of the cause,  Worldview Foundation conceived of the sm@sy (short for Smart Masyarakat meaning Smart  Community) project in 1999 as a  means of bringing  nformation technology to rural Malaysia, as a  powerful tool for communities to  develop the new skill sets and knowledge they need to sustain  themselves. sm@sy developed multimedia content in two languages,  Malay and English, dealing with a  wide range of topics specific to the residents of Kampung Raja Musa,  which helped the residents, both  computer illiterate and the illiterates as well to navigate offline and for free  and to become a smart community.  Penang e-learning community, ICT  LitPro are some of the other such attempts made in the direction of  making Malaysian communities smart with learning just in time.  Non-formal educational programmes in  Philippines  are conducted by both public and private sector  organizations. Within the government, the  rimary agency is  the Department of Education, Culture and Sports. The Bureau of Non formal  Education runs a livelihood skills  project in collaboration with SEAMEO-INNOTECH (South East  Asian Ministers of Education-  Regional Centre for Educational  Innovation and Technology), which is called the  evelopment of a Learning  system for the Improvement of Life. This   ommunity based education  intervention seeks to improve the quality of life and develop skills  needed locally within the community. In a rapidly changing country  scenario, colleges and universities  cater to such community demands and respond to their education  requirements through a distance education movement. The University  of Philippines has established the UPOU (University of Philippines Open University), an institutional arm  that  mbodies the philosophy of open learning. The UPOU operates within  the system of a conventional  university and remains linked to the academic programmes of the UP.  UPOU reaches out through the distance and open learning modes to people who are not able to participate  in classroom style education. The draft ICT Master Plan for 2005-  2008 of Office of the Non-Formal  Education  ommission (ONFEC) in Thailand      focuses on areas like facilitating lifelong learning   f Thai  people through ICT, improving the quality of ICT services both for  administration and for lifelong  learning, providing ICT  nfrastructures for local learning  centers and ICT personnel development.   FEC aims to develop various electronic learning materials,  improve the quality of distance  education, set up a courseware center, promote e-learning, develop e-books and set up e-libraries. Center for  Education Technology (CET) under ONFEC runs Educational Television  Station (ETV); similarly some distance  education and e-learning programmes  are also provided at this level. The responsibility that the Department of  Non-Formal Education has  undertaken is to organise non-formal  education programmes for adults who have missed the opportunity for formal schooling or have dropped out. The programmes offered are Literacy Campaign project, functional literacy  courses, Hill Areas education, and continuing education. In an  innovative new experiment to bring ICTs to rural Thai villagers, the  Population and Community

Development Association (PDA) of Thailand has established a Community Based Integrated Rural Development (CBIRD) Centre for  factory workers and students working or living in the neighbourhood. Field  staff of the CBIRD Centre use the Internet connections provided by the  project to research farmers’ problems and print out solutions for discussion  with the farmers during their field  visits. Furthermore, two schools nearby have established their own  computer labs using grants partly received due to training schools’ teachers had undertaken at the  Lighthouse Project on ICTs and the Internet. In Indonesia  , the UNITeS (United  Nations Information Technology   Services) supported by UNESCO has   integrating local Radio with the    Internet through Multipurpose   Community Telecentres has    converged local radio and informatics  via community telecentres in rural    areas. The project focuses on strengthening civic education, dialog    and transparency aimed at rooting asound democratic basis and good    governance in rural Indonesian communities. Through dailyinteractive radio programmes theinformation available on the Internetis explored and visualised to alllisteners and the methods ofaccessing civic and other informationis illustrated. Combing this activitywith a community-radio/Internet cafe   where individual studies can be   carried out with guidance offered by   trained staff, the access to ICT   services is strongly improved.   Even though     India  has made major strides over recent decades,   script in computers and also to train   rural youths in computer applications.   A project ASHA -2005 was launched   with the intention of reaching the   most backward villages of Nagrota   Surian block and help the villagers by   imparting education and training in   health, social welfare and   environment.   The world of     corporate  too encourages such attempts of   restoring knowledge economy    through innovations of ICTs by creating educational programmes   which primarily focus on building   educational infrastructure, mentoring,   school dropout prevention, reading and literacy, scholarships, businesseducation partnerships and other local needs. Microsoft is working to bring the benefits of technology and education to one quarter of a billion people by2010 through its Unlimited Potentialprogramme that works with nonprofitsaround the world. It has teamed with  the Beijing Xicheng District Library toassist rural migrant workers, working with the Hong Kong Federation ofYouth Groups (HKFYG) to launch“Cyber SPOTS” to provide computerskills training to underprivileged youth, implementing the programme in   four Indian states: Punjab, MadhyaPradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryanato deliver ICT skills training  curriculum for women and girls. It also   works with someother countries like  Korea, Sri Lanka and Philippines.Others like Coca-Cola and Intel tooare seen quite active in taking the goal forward. By 2005, Coca-Cola hadincreasing by six-fold the number of children enrolled in primary schooling, probably a larger number of older youth received little or no schooling at all. India seeks to improve the basic skills, literacy and entry vocational skills of out-of-school youth and young adults in poor communities in several India states through non-formal programmes like Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI). BFI includes three components development of ICT-based software tools to improve basic education, literacy, and entry level vocational education for teacher training; creation of community learning and technology centres (CLTCs) for social and economic information resources(e.g. health, agriculture, HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.) and lifelong learning; and implementation of advanced ICTsupported services to disadvantaged regions.The programme of rural awareness started by a non-government social organisation, the Science Awareness Trust (SAT), is also a huge success in the remote villages of Nagrota Surian block in Kangra district of Himachal.The organisation planned to educatethe illiterate adults by using Devnagri Information and communication technology (ICT) is now so pervasive, and so powerful, that major changes in learning simply must follow. The effective employment of new technology in education requires a rethink about methods, one that particularly applies in the context of the radical goals associated with the lifelong learning agenda. The main  rationale of this agenda is to draw in  to new learning opportunities people who have not previously benefited  fully, or at all, from education or training. Also, in the most ambitious way, to reposition education and  training so that they will no longer be  undertaken at a particular stage of life, providing a single platform of knowledge and skill which will last for a whole career, or for a lifetime. Rather, this learning has to become a synonym for sustainability of the  knowledge economy: for a world  where knowledge and skills are continuous, and where people  build their own knowledge and skill profiles from an instantly accessible  menu of learning delivered just in time.