Iearn has been linking schools internationally since 1988. Active in 115 countries, iEARN is the world’s largest K-12 project-based Internet supported
learning network. All projects in iEARN are initiated and designed  by teachers and students, and provide powerful examples of how  new and emerging technologies can make a difference in teaching  and learning iEARN, the  nternational Education and Resource Network, is a Network  of educators and students from 20.000 schools over 100 countries spread  around the world. It has the vision to save the planet by improving the  environment, the welfare and quality of life of the people around the world  through online collaborative projects among participating schools.  iEARN programme has the goal to:
• Stimulate student’s engagement  and service in their community
• Arouse civil awareness and responsibility
• Improve learning and teaching practices
• Integrate technology in the curriculum in meaningful projects As part of iEARN’s mission to improve the quality of life on the planet, iEARN projects include magazines, creative writing anthologies, websites, letter-writing
campaigns, reports to government officials, arts exhibits, workshops, performances, charity fundraising, and many more examples of youth taking action as part of what they are learning in the classroom. These projects enable students to develop:
• language, literacy, research and critical thinking skills
• experience with new technologies
• cultural awareness
• the habit of getting involved in community issues.
A strong network in the Asia Pacific region, iEARN Indonesia (www.iearnindonesia.org) is formed under  UNESCO Associated  School Project Network (ASPnet). ASPnet as UNESCO  experimental projects is a UNESCO  vehicle to achieve peace through development of educational  innovation by implementing the four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. ASPnet  activities among others are: access to education and raise quality of  education, provide life skills Safe
environment, build a peaceful community, build a cross-cultural  understanding, provide school health services, and provide ICT for learning to live together to safe the planet. iEARN Indonesia made great strides in July 2006 with two successful workshops for teachers that took place in Aceh. The workshops aimed to empower teachers who fell  victim to the Tsunami of 2004. On July 19th, the first workshop took  place with the Madania School. After a complete one-day training in how to join a discussion forum,  introduction to iEARN Online Projects and how to use and navigate a computer – 30 new teachers joined the iEARN family. The second workshop took place on July 22-24 in Banda Aceh. 15 teachers were trained representing three different schools. This workshop focused on the benefits of collaborative learning. Through these activities, iEARN Indonesia brought  support to many teachers who not only wish to pursue online collaborative learning, but also desire to benefit from professional development opportunities and resources.

E-Learning: A guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices
ISBN: 81-88770-04-3 This guidebook on e-learning was developed from  aterials that were developed for a series of workshops  on e-learning sponsored and organised by the Commonwealth  Educational Media Center for Asia  (CEMCA) over the past couple of years in Calicut, India and the Open University of Sri  Lanka (January 2003), and in Delhi (January 2006).  The content of this  guidebook will help readers to systematically  approach their engagement with elearning, irrespective of the  educational sector or level within which they may be working. Developed by Dr. Som Naidu of the  University of Melbourne, Australia on behalf of the Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia, New Delhi, the 100-pager guidebook is not just another textbook on elearning, but aims to clarify, simplify and demystify e-learning

E-Learning definition, scope, trends, attributes and opportunities, pedagogical designs for e-learning, assessment, feedback, e-moderation,  online learning management systems, digital learning objects, online  learning course  development models, management and implementation of e-learning,  evaluating the impacts of e-learning- all these terms giving ultimately the look  and framework of a text book on e-learning, in reality is  a guidebook that  iscusses issues related to attributes of e-learning and acts as a primer for those who seek to  venture into a new field. Rather it is designed to highlight the important  issues, to ask the key questions and to tease the reader into independent thoughts.  This reviewed and updated book originally written in 2003 has been tested for the technologies that are  changing the way in which education is being designed and  delivered through a training programme. Divided into nine chapters, the  content of the book are set in such a way that they do not represent any  particular sequence, providing much scope for backtracking and forward  planning process. A comprehensive reference list on the subject is also  provided, which is quite useful for further reading on the subject. Aside  it also includes a glossary of commonly used terms on the subject.  Apart from the valuable resources the book provides, one interesting feature it shows is the opportunity it  provides readers to “tell us a story” about their experiences in relation to  the issue or subject under discussion.

Telling a story requires  readers to pause, slow down, reflect, learn, access and share their  experiences or connect in a meaningful way with others. These are opportunities designed to  remind readers of relevant experiences, which will enable them  to reflect upon their experiences. Reflections, Points to remember and Tell us a story, going as bottom  lines of each chapter and defining the goals at the start of the chapters  increase the interest level of the readers significantly and along with  the content enable one to make sense of new information, and in turn  enables to expand the knowledgebase. The author of the guidebook, an  Associate Professor in Educational  Technology at the University of  Melbourne, Australia is an award winning researcher and practitioner in  online education who has been  published extensively. The book is  published on behalf of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia by the director,  CEMCA, Dr Usha V. Reddi. The book, as the publisher   entions is neither a definitive   publication nor a treatise on e-learning. It is designed to highlight important issues, to ask  the key questions and to tease the reader into independent thought  so that decisions are based on sound judgment rather than  wishful thinking

Imbewu to promote ICTs in education in Eastern Cape
A programme to promote integration of ICTs in all its operations in order to enhance education service delivery in the province of the Eastern Cape has been initiated by The Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDOE). Imbewu is an ECDOE initiative, sponsored by the British donor agency, DFID that seeks to improve learning and educational services  provision in South Africa. This programme aims to streamline ICT usage in the areas of educational  management, governance, reporting  and consultation as a way of improving service delivery in the  sector. One of the major areas of focus proposed includes the piloting of the electronic interactive whiteboard and  e-Beam projects.
Uganda govt asks Japan to establish university
Uganda’s Education Minister Namirembe Bitamazire has appealed to the Japanese government to help Uganda transform Nakawa Vocational Training Institute into a university. Bitamazire said the proposed university would help the expected high number of Science students get  vocational technology skills.
Bitamazire said her ministry was reviewing the school and education  curriculum to make Science and  Technological Studies compulsory from primary to university level. The information communication  technology policy will soon be adopted to enhance access to  knowledge, information and skills through distance education and e-  Learning. Bitamazire appealed to the Japanese government to help Uganda  construct science laboratories in

secondary schools.
e-Admissions in London In order to comply with the e- Government  requirement for all local  authorities to provide online school admissions facilities for the September  admissions round, the 33 London boroughs have worked together to  provide a system via a single portal. The National Project, which is funded  by the Department for Communities and Local Government to support 150  local authorities in delivering online school admissions, has  provided  guidance and research results to aid development of the London  system.

UNEP’s Atlas of Our Changing  Environment released
One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment provides a comprehensive, visual presentation of scientifically verifiable information about changes in the global  environment, shown through state-ofthe- art remote sensing technology. A collection of 405 Powerpoint slides divided into Regional and Thematic  sets covering 11 contemporary and dynamic themes – Introduction to the  Planet, People and Planet, Atmosphere, Coastal Areas, Urban Areas, Water and  Lakes, Forests, Cropland, Grassland, Tundra and Polar Areas and Extreme  Events – and 6 geographical regions – Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe,  Latin America, North America and Polar Regions – can now be downloaded free  of charge at http://www.na.unep.net/  nePlanetManyPeople/  powerpoints.html.

Firefox goes popular
The Mozilla Foundation’s opensource  Firefox web browser is gaining ground on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). According to a recent  study on web browser usage, by  Netherlands-based OneStat.com, Firefox has gained 1.14% in June and is now used by 12.93% of surfers.  This is up from 11.79% in May.

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.

American Higher Education in India
North America-based American Higher Education has entered the Indian  education market with online offerings from Columbia University,  Harvard  Graduate School of Education and the Boston University Corporate Education Centre. The programmes in the company’s  offerings include Columbia
University’s unique disciplines of engineering like earth, environmental,  finance to name a few – none of them  require extensive laboratory usage. The ‘Wide World’ programme from Harvard has a skill-enhancement programme for teachers and administrators on integrating and  leveraging technology in their
teaching process. Priced between INR20,000-23,000, the company believes the programme has the potential in creating a talent pool.

eschoollinks.com to make school management easier
Interactive Concepts Digital Technologies (ICDT) Private Limited, a Hyderabad-based communication and software company has come up  with a portal that promises to make school management easier.  The company has completed the portal – eschoollinks.com that would display  performance record of students, fee updates, information on examinations,  timetable or the syllabus. It enhances interactions between students, parents  and teachers and serves as a stage for inter-school interactions. Once  registered, each class of a particular school would have separate links to be managed by a teacher designated by the school.

Everonn aims big in satellite education in India
Everonn Systems, an e-learning solutions company in India, has set up two studios as part of its Zebra Kross programme which provides  virtually interactive, satellite-based education to various institutions.  The company set up its own V-SAT based studio two years back in  Chennai to offer a gamut of
educational and training programmes to the varied segments in schools and  colleges. Virtual and Tech Enabled  Learning Solutions (ViTELS) offered curriculum and job oriented courses  to colleges and schools under the
company’s own brand, Zebra Kross. Everonn is in partnership with HughesNet Global CommunicationsLtd to bring management courses  from premier business schools, offered under the brand name,  Direcway Global Education.

Winners of Red Hat Scholarships Programme 2005 –  2006 announced
Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, announced the winners of  the Red Hat Scholarships 2005 – 2006
programme. Red Hat Scholarships is an open source programming competition, conducted jointly by the eKALAVYA open source initiative at IIT Bombay and Red Hat India. The first place prize of INR2 lakh was  given to a two-member team from IITBombay. The second (INR1.5 lakh)  and third (INR1 lakh) place prizes were won by all-women teams from the  Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune and the Shri  Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, respectively. The Red Hat Scholarships 2006-2007  programme has been expanded to cover countries in the Indian sub  continent, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Bhutan.

Software to help students clear exams
A new software claims to help an average student crack exams without burning
the midnight oil. Named ‘’CLEaRS,’’ acronym for Compuertised Learning, Evaluation and Review System, the software has been developed by New  Yorkbased multinational, Learning Accord (L A). The software teaches exactly what the student does not know, what he needs to know and is knowable to him, in the time frame available before his exams. The software has two versions, one for the Medical College Admission Test for students in the U S and Canada and another for Indians taking the board examinations and entrance tests for medical and engineering institutions. It maps the student’s mind 18 times per second to work out a strategy. After mapping his activities, it tells the student what time of the day he is most attentive and formulates a strategy for  reparations

Microsoft to train 45 million Africans in ICT
Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, has announced that his company is planning to assist in giving ICT training to more than 45 million people  in Africa by year 2010. During this announcement, Gates  highlighted Microsoft’s long-term approach to investment in Africa, including collaborations between  Microsoft, local and global organisations such as the United  Nations World Tourism Organisation, the United Nations Industrial  Development Organisation and the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

Intel promises help in Uttar Pradesh’s computer revolution
Intel Corporation has shown interest  to set up production unit for low-cost battery operated ‘’Rural Personal Computer’’ in Uttar Pradesh in India.  This battery operated PC would be useful in the common service centres,  which have been proposed to be  established in over 16,000 villages of the state as part of the Core  Infrastructure Projects development scheme of the Government. Intel also  plans to introduce the course of chip designing in the top technical  colleges of UP. The top chipmaker in the world is willing to impart its  expertise in preparing the curriculum of the technical and engineering colleges of the state in this regard and  also free training for students and teachers at Banglore.  Cisco launches School Messenger to improve attendance rates Cisco Systems has unveiled  automatic communication software
called SchoolMessenger for Cisco  Unified Communications, which will enable schools to convey  important information to parents more efficiently.

SchoolMessenger,
a US parental  notification company, has integrated its system with the Cisco telephony  application, which is based on Internet protocol (IP). Teachers can
record a personalised message, select a preprogrammed calling list, and send  a message to parents from a computer or IP phone. It helps improve  attendance rates and increases  student performance.

Harbinger in global top 20 learning process providers list
Harbinger, a Pune-based e-Learning  company in India finds its name in the top-20 list of specialised learning  process providers, brought out by TrainingOutsourcing.com, a leading  analyst in business strategies for  learning,  based in the US.  Harbinger made it to this global list as a content development tools provider. Other international and  Indian companies in this top 20 list include Hewlett Packard, Hewitt  (admin services), Thomson Prometric  assessment and testing) and Adobe (content development  tools), Tata Interactive Systems,   enpact, IBM Learning solutions and Convergys.

IBM, Micorosoft protest
Indonesia’s open source policy A number of US informatics technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle have criticised Indonesia‘s open source application policy.  Under its open source application policy, Indonesia  uses systems  ithout licenses formed by the user  country itself and for its own
interest. Microsoft considered that  Indonesia has discredited the license product protected by property rights such as what was  produced by Microsoft. Microsoft said that Indonesian government‘s  support to the open source
application could threat market of  informatic technology (IT) software produced by some US IT giant  companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle.

Pondicherry tapping e-Learning for school education
The Pondicherry Government has planned to improve the quality of school education through e-Learning. According to the Education Minister  M. O. H. F. Shahjahan, a blueprint had been prepared. The teachers would  train students in e-Learning with the support of centralised laboratory. A  coaching centre to prepare students for various professional courses was  also on the anvil. The thrust areas would include infrastructure  development, orientation courses for
teachers and helping children overcome their disability to learn fast.  The anganwadis would be made a hub of educational activities to encourage  opening of kindergarten schools.  

Deemed varsities need not get UGC approval for new courses  In a relief to deemed universities,
the University Grants Commission has clarified that they do not require its  approval for starting new courses or post-facto clearance.  It was only a few days ago did the UGC write to most of the 103 deemed  universities in the country seeking information on the courses they  offered and asking them to give an undertaking that they would not start  any new programme or vary student intake without its approval. Reversing  its stand, the UGC in its communication said its approval is not  required for starting new courses. 

Progress review on Education for All movement
The Human Resources Development ministry has reviewed the  progress of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in India  and has approved steps to fill up infrastructure gaps so as to provide  education to children with special needs (CWSN).  The National Mission for SSA focuses on improving the learning level of children thereby increasing  the literacy rate in the country. On the occasion of the second Meeting of  the Executive Committee, the HRD minister released a publication by  National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) on District Information System for  Education (DISE) data for the year 2005. This is an analytical report  based on the Education Practices for  children at their home. Another document- “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: Discovering New Paths in Inclusion” was also released which was a record on the initiatives being undertaken by  states to impart home-based education to Children With Special Needs (CWSN) in SSA. States have  adopted different methods to provide  home based education to CWSN. Cyberage PC in Goa faces
conflict The Cyberage PCs continue to be a  bone of contention for the Goa ITChannel Association and the  government in the state. The state  government in India has decided to continue with the scheme and there is  a requirement for about 22,000 PCs to  be supplied to the high school students in Goa under it.

The Cyberage PC is a government of Goa initiative,
which began as an  attempt to take computers to schools in Goa. Under this scheme, high school students are to get a PC   irtually free, paying a nominal sum of Rs 1,000. The PCs are supplied  through the IT channel to the  principals of the various schools who  then pass it on to their students. But Computer professionals in the state  have questioned the scheme and have  asked whether it would not make more  sense to hand out PCs to schools, to be used collectively. There are other  questions on whether the computers have been delivered as promised, and  on schedule.   AICTE’s new Web Portal to
make admissions easier
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will soon  launch a new section under it’s site
www.aicte.ernet.in where students will  be able to get any information regarding admission process and  ven apply to more than 9000 technical institutions in the country. The portal will not only make the  admission easier but also help the students to choose their best  institutes on the basis of teaching  standard and other facilities. The candidates who have been qualified in the AIEEE (All India Engineering  Entrance Examination) will no more  face problems of traveling to more than one institute for submission of  application forms. They will be able to apply online and also pay their fees  through credit cards. The final selection list and waiting list will also  be available on the net.

Global publishers eye India to  outsource e-Publishing projects
India is all set to emerge as a hub of e- Publishing because several global publishers such as Oxford University  Press, Cambridge University Press, Prentice Hall, Macmillan, and Pearson   re eyeing at India for outsourcing their e-Publishing projects. According to A. Elangovan,  Managing Director of Cadgraf Digitals, the Indian companies in the  e-publishing space are currently
working on books and journals for  overseas clients. The process the Indian publishers follow is completely different from others. He said that  Indian e-publishing houses are able to meet the clients’ requirements. While  the opportunity is tremendous, the hunt is for trained manpower. There is  no formal educational institute on  digital publishing. People are trained by companies. Only in the last few years have Indian companies forayed into copyediting and the orders are  really heavy.

India rubbishes MIT’s laptop scheme for kids
The Human Resources Development  ministry in India has rejected the idea of ‘one-laptop-per-child’ (OLPC)  being aggressively marketed by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Laboratory.  The ministry says, India must not allow itself to be used for experimentation with children in this  area. The ministry’s detailed objection based on technical, social and  financial grounds were sent to the Planning Commission few times back.  Negroponte had made a presentation
on OLPC seeking to sell one million laptops at the rate of USD100  per unit for children, the cost to be borne by the government. HRD  contends that spending INR 450 crore  on digital empowerment can be better spent on primary and secondary  education. The ministry says 6-12 is a highly vulnerable age group to cover in an area of human technology  interface, which is so new and heavily debated.

Educomp launches online mathlearning  portal
Delhi-based Educomp Solutions Ltd. launches a math-learning portal for classes 6 to 12 based on the NCERT  curriculum. The product, Mathguru.com, will provide step-by-step solutions for all   math problems from NCERT schoolbooks through visual and voice explanation. The subscription to the site comes at INR1,200 a year for  each student. The company is targeting a subscriber base of 75,000  students in the current fiscal and 2,00,000 students by the end of the  next fiscal. The portal would also have solutions categorised on the basis of
chapter so that students of other  boards can also find solutions.

Research has shown that if you study by hearing something you retain 20 per cent. If you see what you learn you retain 50 per  cent. So what if you can see and hear what you learn? Retention becomes  70 per cent or more. This is more than enough to understand that ICTenabled  education is the education of the future. Kerala believes in this. This is better proved with the recent  inauguration of a ‘Smart Class’ in a  Higher Secondary School in Thiruvananthapuram. As part of the innovative teaching method, a  computer and four monitors each would be provided to all classes in the  school.
Kerala is the most literate State in
India. As per 2001 Census, the effective literacy rate was 90.92%. At present, there are 12271 Schools consists of 6712l L.P. Schools, 2951 U.P Schools and 2608 High Schools in the State.  Of these, 4492 are Government Schools, 7282 are Private aided Schools and 497 are Private Unaided School

The teachers will display on the monitor the topics on which they  are taking classes for helping the students to understand them clearly.  So when a Geography teacher explains a lesson dealing with  volcanoes, a visual of the exploding volcano and flowing larva would be displayed on the computer screen. As  part of the scheme, the school has purchased 42 computers for all the 42  divisions from standard I to standard XII. The computer in each class will  be connected to the server room named knowledge centre. The  teachers should inform the knowledge centre the topics they intend to cover  during a week. The belief goes firmer with the fact that the hardware for ICT-enabling  secondary education was almost in place in the state, for programmes like IT@School and EDUSAT. The IT @ School Project has remodeled conventional teaching  methodologies in classrooms through use of Information Technology. The  project, in its first stage, is being  implemented in 2,738 High Schools; over 40,000 teachers were given 90  hours of training on IT skills and computer labs with 10 to 60  omputersare available in all High Schools. The  project is unique in that it is the  schoolteacher than a techie who delivers lessons, both theory and  practical, in classrooms.  The Virtual Classroom Technology on EDUSAT for Rural Schools (VICTERS) programme is active to  harness the satellite for teacher training programmes, providing highspeed  net connectivity to schools and for  implementing learning   management solutions. In tune with the policy of the National Institute of Education  Technology, SIET, Kerala, wasengaged in  eveloping broadcastready  educational content for students from standards eight to  twelve. As of now, SIET had about 600 hours of broadcast-ready educational content. SIET has also  readied a CD-kit containing 150 video CDs as part of the CD library project of the Education Department. These  CDs contain documentaries based on the syllabus of standard 10 in the  State’s schools. SIET is also awaiting  the final approval for its Rs.138-crore ‘ICT@School’ project submitted to  the Centre. This project, if cleared, would ICT-enable learning and
teaching in all Government schools in  the State within five years.