Future school on the net
The software developer Future School has created an online learning system that is tailored to the curriculum of each Australian state, with a database to keep students’ results so parents can watch their progress.
Students can study mathematics, English grammar and English as a  second language on the web at home, with each subject related to  what they are learning in class. Future School is also negotiating with  TAFE Global to provide vocational learning online.  But the big advantages of online learning are its flexibility and reach. Students must download a Future  School programme before being able to access lessons on the website  (www.futureschool.com.au). The lessons include video tutorials and  animation to help them understand
topic areas. The students can then test themselves with online  quizzes and get their marks immediately, letting them and their  parents know how well they grasp the concepts.  The project would be implemented promptly on the finalisation of the ICT system under establishment  at woreda levels. The college has also been working with the Britishbased  Open University to standardise its diploma programmes  in the fields of law, accounting and administration during the past three years.

US president says learn math, else Indians will take the job
Learn your math or watch your job go to China or India. With this modern  US version of the Indian parents’ nighttime admonition to sleepless  kids about Gabbar Singh, president  Bush cranked up a new math initiative in US schools to try and retain US leadership in science  and technology. The US president has increasingly invoked competition from India and  China to bestir the American public on issues ranging from energy to  education. Urging students to study
math and science because they were “cool subjects”, Bush announced the  etting up of a National Math Panel which would determine best practices for teaching math in the nation’s schools. He also proposed to double  federal spending on basic research, piquing student interest by pointing out that both the Internet and iPod were products of government investment in research. Bush’s

Demand for computer skills drives low-cost blended
learning solutions Today’s businesses need their staff to be IT literate to compete effectively. This pressing need has led to  increased demand by companies for IT competency standards such as  ECDL (the European Computer
Driving Licence), which tests allround IT knowledge for business  applications. This drive for IT standards has prompted gtslearning  to develop a complete blendedlearning solution for its ECDL  portfolio. This new initiative has been
conceived to help educators costeffectively deliver large scale training programmes. Gtslearning, a London-based  education solutions provider, has announced the launch of a new  blended-learning solution for ECDL study using Microsoft Office 2003,  XP or 2000.

Distance education through video conferencing in Ethiopia
The Ethiopian Civil Service College of Ethiopia is working  with the World Bank and other relevant international institutions  to upgrade the distance education
with the help of video conferencing  and Internet, besides the traditional means of utilising books and papers. initiatives stems from recent studies that paint a grim picture of declining US competitiveness in the face of the rising number of science and engineering graduates from China and India.

South Africa: Primary school learners get technologically wise Mindset
Cabanga (Cabanga is the isiZulu word for “think”) is launched by education minister Naledi Pandor,  the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Mindset Network in Diepsloot, Johannesburg. Through this project, each school will receive a computer, television set and a satellite dish so that they  can access the curriculum-aligned lessons and educator support  content. The equipment allows the content to be used on-demand  at the educator’s convenience and the various lessons, videos and print content can be replenished  and remotely updated via satellite. Mindset Network is a satellite television network that  tackles key educational and healthcare challenges. It broadcasts at various times to suit schools and allows for home viewing. It targets grades 10-12 learners and teachers, and places an emphasis on Maths,  Science and English.

Global Gateway portal
Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) and the British Council have kicked off the  Global Gateway Project (GGP) with local schools.  GGP, described as a one-stop free-ofcharge shop for international educational activities, aims to   develop and strengthen international educational partnerships between  educational organisations around the world. The Global Gateway portal is  developed, funded, and directed by the British Department for Education  and Skills and operated worldwide by the British Council. In collaboration with ictQATAR, British Council is to hold workshops, in Doha for teachers from Independent Schools,
covering all the available tools within the GGP.

Learning Danish online
Denmark’s Ministry of Refugees, Immigration and Integration Affairs has developed and launched a comprehensive online  Danish course. In cooperation with the Dansk e-Learning Center, Denmark’s  Ministry of Refugees, Immigration and Integration Affairs has  developed and launched a comprehensive online Danish course  at http://www. danskabc.dk. DanskABC is an online language learning tool for students worldwide  and besides Danish language schools, many companies, private  individuals, elementary schools and prisons are already using  DanskABC.dk.

DAA launches new online learning programme
Dubai American Academy has launched a new online learning program through Virtual High School. DAA will expand the  student’s 21st century learning skills by offering their studentsaccess to over 200 online courses to  obtain credits, to get ahead or simply to learn about a subject that  interests them. This new programme is made possible by a partnership with Virtual High School (www.goVHS.org), the pioneer of online learning for high school  students and online course design and instruction for teachers.  Students can access the courses  from the school terminals or from  any other Internet connection at their convenience, and a dedicated site coordinator, Amy Smith – also the  IT Director, will act as a liaison between students, teachers and VHS  assuming the position of VHS Coordinator.

New Spanish localisation portal for English / Spanish translators
Spanish localisation leader, Trusted Translations, Inc., announced the launch of a new portal for English – Spanish translators containing free  English – Spanish localisation resources, including accounting and   financial English / Spanish dictionaries and other critical translation tools. First South African schools get connected to a new world of learning Two secondary schools have become the first in South Africa to join an electronic network of 24

African schools with access to worldclass learning material.
Ipetleng Secondary School in Free State and Thozamisa Secondary School in Eastern Cape have been connected by the Oracle  Consortium under the e-Schools initiative, supported by the New  Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). The initiative is designed to upgrade  all of Africa’s secondary schools over the next 10 years by providing  them with information and communications technology  hardware, software and content, and by training teachers to use the new facilities

Microsoft stretches IT drive in rural Sri Lanka
Compared to many Asian countries, Sri Lanka’s IT drive has been lagging behind with IT literacy recording only nine percent and to uplift the IT penetration levels and awareness in  rural communities, Microsoft Sri Lanka further strengthening its commitment to community outreach in  Sri Lanka, through a contribution ofRs 16.5 million to fund basic  technology and job training to empower under-served people with  new skills for better employability. The grant will be utilised in IT capacity building exercises at grass  roots level and will be channeled to InfoShare Ltd, a Sri Lankan NGO  that focuses on ICT for development. Microsoft’s contribution to  InfoShare will help fund hardware,
software, development of Industry  specific IT curriculum, technical advice, helpdesk support and  connectivity at the VTA Centres. Under the project, Microsoft has also made copies of its ‘Unlimited  Potential’ Curriculum available, which will be implemented at 60 sites.

eTUKTUK takes internet and radio to the Sri Lankan village
The Kothmale Internet Listeners Club in Sri Lanka in association with UNESCO, the MJF Foundation and Suntel has launched the eTUKTUK  at the Kothmale Community Radio Station.  Kothmale Community Radio (KCR) has been serving as an interface between the rural communities in the  central hill region of Sri Lanka and new communication technologies  Hishammuddin Hussein said this  was to ensure there was no wastage under  the Ninth Malaysia Plan. The days
when it was emphasised providing schools with computers, laptops or  LCD projectors are over. From now on, it will be ensured that only  schools that are eligible and have the  facilities receive the equipment. Next year, the ministry would carry out a  survey on future teacher requirements before offering places for teaching degrees in universities.

Walk for school in Sri Lanka
Sixth form students from Sidmouth College took part in a sponsored walk during their Easter break, to raise  money for ICT equipment for one of the re-built Sri Lankan schools backed by Sidmouth’s Rotarians. The 15-mile walk along the Undercliff  between Seaton and Lyme Regis, accompanied by head of sixth form  Geoff Wake, replaced a planned visit to Thambaddia School on the east coast of Sri Lanka, which the college has been supporting during its rebuild. The idea of the trip is to take ICT equipment, but, more importantly in some ways, to be able to show the people how to use the software that will be donated.

Indian students to study in Bangkok
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, will have tie up with  Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in the Indian  through its Community Multimedia Centres (CMC). This innovative  approach to content delivery and  radio production is in line with the station’s commitment to increasing access and participation to new and  traditional ICTs (Information
Communication Technology) while  providing a voice and expression to the community it serves.  The eTUKTUK is a self-contained mobile telecentre and radio  broadcasting unit housed within a tuk-tuk, or three wheeled motorcycle,
a favoured form of transport common  hroughout South Asia. A laptop computer is located inside the vehicle as is a battery operated printer,
amera, telephone and scanner.  Internet is provided via a CDMA enabled wireless connection and electricity is provided via a generator  which in turn charges a battery that is used to provide additional power for  short periods of time.  The weekly route of the eTUKTUK is broadcast over the Radio to inform
the listeners as to the location and time that it will arrive in their  community. The mobile design of the eTUKTUK provides access to the  most geographically remote areas of the Kothmale region.

ICT audit for schools
A company has been appointed to carry out an independent audit on the effectiveness of the development of information and communication technology in schools in Malaysia. Education Minister Datuk Seri  state of Karnataka from the next academic year commencing inAugust. A Memorandum  of Understanding (MoU) will be signed  with VTU soon. The understanding between the two universities will provide an opportunity  for VTU graduates to pursue their post-graduation in AIT and  the AIT students belonging to 50 countries will study in engineering colleges of Karnataka. The  understanding covers two-stage master’s programme, integrated  engineering and joint research. There are 2,000 students in AIT  and 80 among them are Indians. The university has teachers from 30 countries. 

USD one million tech assistance from ADB to support ICT in education
Asian Development Bank (ADB) grants USD 1 million technical assistance to support innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education in developing countries. The technical assistance will help carry out studies to support the development of policies and  strategies in the area of ICT in education, focusing on the  contributions the innovations can make to improving the quality of and access to education. The asistance  will also carry out pilot studies on e-textbook development and  e-teacher training in Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, and Samoa, where  ADB has ongoing related projects. To disseminate the technical  assistance results and promote the sharing of ideas about e-learning innovations, the assistance will support the ongoing series of international conferences on ICT in education.

EU, China to link up high-speed electronic networks
Communication and collaborationamong 45 million researchers and students  across Europe and China will be greatly facilitated by a new Sino- European high-speed network connection. Co-funded by the European Union, China and European National Research and Education Networks, USD 5.67 million-ORIENT (Oriental Research Infrastructure to European NeTworks) project will
benefit all Sino-European research, including radio astronomy, sustainable development, meteorology and grid computing, by helping to step up the flow of information between Europe and China. Access to applications such as telemedicine, digital libraries and e-learning will help the general public, as well as the research community, to build academic and cultural links between Europe and China and an open exchange of opinions and expertise between Chinese and European researchers. Military Academy to be upgraded to university

The Malaysian Military Academy will be upgraded into a university and be
e-Learning supplements face-to-face teaching: OECD According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey of institutions in 13 countries

e-Learning has yet to revolutionise teaching in universities.
It has more impact on administrative services such as admissions, registration,
fee payment and purchasing than on the fundamentals of classroom teaching and learning. The OECD survey has found that e-Learning typically supplements rather than replaces face-to-face teaching. The OECD says universities are considering how to unleash the potential of e-Learning. The challenges are to use the technology to teach in new and effective ways to get academics and technical staff to work together and to reduce costs by using open standards software, by replacing on-campus teaching and by encouraging peer and automated learning.

known as National Defence University. The university plan was a  follow-up to the forces’ current e-learning long distance education programme called K-Force conducted with the cooperation of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) since 2002. Efforts will also be continued to establish cooperative programmes with other local and foreign universities to broaden  opportunities for further education for Armed Forces personnel. The  K-Force programme offers four
types of courses that award a degree or diploma in either  information technology or business management. K-Force was introduced to create a  lifelong learning culture among military  personnel. So far, 218 officers and 621 members of other ranks had signed up for the programme with  153 expected tograduate with diploma and 34 with  degree this year.

NIIT’s computer literacy programme
NIIT is looking at expanding its K-12 computer literacy campaign to schools across all the states of India. The company now covers 4,200  schools in both the public and private domains. The company is looking for  partnerships with all the states to extend the programme. At present, the  company offer this programme in Assam Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil  Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and West Bengal.

Computer education for 10,000 schools in Andhra Pradesh
The State Government of Andhra Pradesh is chalking out plans to  introduce computer education in 10,000 zilla parishad and Government  high schools. The Government is also evolving ways to change education  curriculum to suit the needs of the industry.

Dell’s community reach programme
Dell Corporation has initiated a community reach programme in  Hyderabad, inaugurated at the HOPE Foundation, which is backed by funds  from Dell Foundation. The centre is equipped with 30 Dell  established schools would be called  Bharti Schools and the company plans to spend INR 10-15 lakh in
establishing them. Another INR 5-7  lakh (0.1 million) are expected to be spent as operational expenses.

Government of India plans a mega school online The Human Resources
Development Ministry in India plans to set up a one-stop education portal for nearly 500 million users in both formal and informal systems,  spread to the remotest corners of the country and capable of handling  nearly 10 million simultaneous web sessions.  The scheme will initially start as a pilot project in Delhi from July covering one lakh senior secondary  students and those in the first year of professional or graduate courses. It  will eventually go on build a database on the capabilities of 500 million  students in the country. Sitting at
home or school, a student will not  only be able to hone her knowledge in a particular subject but could also seriously pursue areas of interest  outside the curriculum.

24×7 Learning to tie up with engineering colleges
24×7 Learning Solutions, a learning management technology company, has created a separate Academic Solutions Group to serve as a  finishing school for engineering  graduates and is eyeing overseas markets by establishing an Overseas  Solutions Group. The company has committed investment of about USD10 million in its expansion and the creation of  these services groups is aimed at  tapping new segments.   desktop computers, and will impart computer education to under-served  students of the twin cities. The approach is to give under-served  students the necessary tools to compete on equal terms. The centre will bring in technology that will  allow imparting of knowledge. Dell
works on community outreach  initiatives under h.u.g that stands for ‘Helping U Grow.’

Rediff iLand to offer Moblogs
Rediff.com India Ltd launched Rediff iLand, the first blogging service in  India to introduce Moblogs. Now users can upload a picture or text  directly from a mobile or any  handheld device into their blogs. This service will allow users to blog  from anywhere. Rediff iLand also allows users to customise their blogs
in several ways. Bharti group to spend INR 2  billion on primary education
projects

Bharti group of companies,
one of the  largest telecom operators in India has announced a corpus of INR 2 billion,  which would be spent on setting up primary schools around the country.  The project would be carried out through the company’s Bharti
Foundation that aims at establishing a few hundred schools over the next  18-20 months. Investors in this group, Vodafone and Warburg Pincus have also supported the cause and would be playing a role in this project. The Foundation would also setup Teachers’ Training facilities throughout the country to improve the level of competence in teachers  who would be teaching at these primary schools. These newly

Students to handle e-Governance in Indian state
Engineering students in Karnataka will now handle e-Governance initiatives of the state government. In a novel scheme aimed at addressing e-Governance glitches faced by several government departments, the  Board for IT Education Standards (BITES) in association with the IT  department and IBM has launched
Project INVITE (Initiative to Nurture a Vibrant Information Technology  Ecosystem). Over 400 students are working on 24 project scenarios for 22 government departments. More than 100 faculty  members have been trained to help students with the projects.

Now prepare for IIT, JEE online
Indiatimes.com, India’s leading Internet portal is now providing online testing services, under its knowledge brand – Indiatimes Mindscape Test Centre. This service allows students to take a number of practice tests for competitive exams like IIT JEE, CBSE PMT, BITSAT and AIEEE at a very  nominal cost. The service will very shortly be extended to various other  competitive exams, including CAT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFL and also Xth  nd XIIth boards. National Knowledge Commission calls for more varsities

National Knowledge Commission
 Chairman Sam Pitroda says that there should be a 15-fold increase in the
85% mobile telephony, broadband to all schools in India; IT minister gives fillip to education
All the Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools in India will be covered by broadband by the year 2007. Educational software for Class I to XII and training software for ITIs will also be made available for access through the Internet. These are among few other announcements Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, India has come up with recently,  while listing out the new thrust areas for his ministry. Maran announced 85 per cent of the geographical area of the country would be covered by mobile telephone by the year 2007. 250 million connections would be provided by the year 2007 and further 500 million connections by the year 2010, all paving the way for easy mobile learning to take place.
Department of Information Technology has already released software tools and
fonts in 3 Indian languages, namely, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu in the public
domain. Software tools and fonts in 2 more languages, i.e., Punjabi and Urdu are
now ready for release. 17 other Indian languages are expected to be covered by
2007. The other things announced in this line include Indian language webbrowser to bring the benefit of all knowledge available on the web to the rural masses. Educational software for Class I to XII will be made available as approved by the Human Resource Development Ministry. Indian language
domain names on the Internet too will come a reality soon. number of
universities in India for building  human resources in the country.  The number of universities will have to be increased from the 350-odd to about 5,000. Pitroda emphasised the need for the number of youths studying in universities to go up  from the present 8 per cent to at least 10 or 15 per cent, which 
could only be achieved through more institutions of higher education.  He has already discussed the matter with the Prime Minister Manmohan  Singh and the commission is likely to submit a report in the  next three months.

Oracle Academy to benefit  Delhi Public schools through collaboration
Marking the first phase in the Oracle Academy and Delhi Public School (DPS) Society partnership, Oracle and DPS are currently hosting their firstever  Oracle Academy training event in India. The partnership and  corresponding training event are designed to prepare teachers to  deliver Oracle Academy curriculum to  their students in order to help students prepare for technology careers and higher education.  The event kicks off a train-the-trainer model for teacher preparation that will help to rapidly introduce the Oracle Academy programme into new schools in India. The Oracle Academy,  part of Oracle’s Education Initiatives,  support the needs of the educational institutions by helping to provide  schools, districts and ministries, with the tools required to prepare students  for 21st century careers. Students can learn database design and
programming skills, as well as vital  business skills such as criticalthinking, problem-solving, resumebuilding  and interviewing, group
collaboration and project management skills used throughout the IT industry  in companies around the world.