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.