Wednesday 26 August 2009

14.00 – 15.30

Parallel sessions 1: Education for All (EFA) 

Session chair: Prof Alain Senteni, EC Chair, Dubai

Theme:    UNESCO leads the global Education for All movement, aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. Six internationally-agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

     Goal 1 - Expand early childhood care and education

     Goal 2 - Provide free and compulsory primary education for all

     Goal 3: Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults

     Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent

     Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015

     Goal 6: Improve the quality of education

Speakers:

·        ICT for EFA in Kerala, Hon Minister Alexander Baby, Kerala Ministry of Education

·        HiWEL (India, Ethiopia, Botswana), Paul Nleya, A. Gupta, HiWEL, HiWEL&Newcastle University

·        AGORA, Jan Wibe / Raymond Morel,  IFIP

·        ICT in Education: Promoting Knowledge Society for All, Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen, GeSCI

·        International Computer Skills Certification to Enable Economic Growth and Employability,  Ms. Tina Wu, Business Development Manager, ECDL Foundation   

Wednesday 26 August 2009

16.00 – 17.30

Parallel sessions 2: Open Distance Learning (ODL) 

Theme:     Open learning and distance education refers to approaches to learning that focus on freeing learners from constraints of time and place while offering flexible learning opportunities. For many students Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is a way of combining work and family responsibilities with educational opportunities. The ‘open’ nature of distance learning might be formally institutionalized in such policies as open admissions, and freedom of selection of what, when and where to learn. The openness of distance learning is also seen in relatively flexible organizational structures, delivery and communication patterns as well as the use of various technologies to support learning. ODL at the tertiary level is offered by single-mode institutions, an increasing number of traditional universities, ‘dual-mode’ institutions, consortia of universities and virtual universities, and an increasing number of private companies.

Session chair: Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, ADG Communication & Information, UNESCO

Speakers:

·        Open Universities for the XXI-st Centrury, Prof Asha Kanwar, COL

·        Open Universities Panel, Prof Dr Abtar Kaur, Open University Malaysia

·        Open Universities Panel, Prof Denise Kirkpatrick, UK Open University

·        Open Universities Panel, Prof Raj  Dhanarajan, Wawasan Open U  Malaysia

Thursday 27 August 2009

14.00 – 15.30

Parallel sessions 3: Open Educational Res. (OER)

Theme:   Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner. OER may be either Course-Related Materials or Libraries and Collections items. Course-Related Materials include both Full Courses and Learning Modules. Components include syllabi, lectures, lesson plans, homework assignments, quizzes, lab activities, pedagogical materials, games, and simulations. Libraries and Collections items are resources from digital media collections or libraries of digitized primary sources.

Session chair: Dr Paul Nleya, University of Botswana, Botswana

Speakers:

·        The open learn project, Prof  Denise Kirkpatrick, The Open University, UK

·        The side CAP project, Prof Frank Rennie, Highland Millenium Institute

·        Demystifying the Challenges of OER, Prof Rozhan Idruss, University Science Malaysia

·        2nd AGORA session, Jan Wibe / Raymond Morel / Bernard Cornu, IFIP

Thursday 27 August 2009

16.00 – 17.30

Parallel sessions 4: ICT-enhanced Education in Vietnam & South-East Asia

Theme : The objective of this wrap-up session is to summarize and to outline of the way forward and to propose an agenda for future action in the region along with recommendations to feed into the WSIS action plan covering all sorts of ICT-enhanced education projects e.g. lifelong learning project, like what Grameen Bank achieved in Bangladesh using mobile phones to support women vegetable growers/traders, low-cost technologies to support learning,  not limited to computers e.g. radio, audio-cassette, video, mobile telephone and other devices deemed relevant to partner printing, and effectively stimulate further educational activities and learning.

Session chair: Prof Asha Kanwar, COL Canada

Speakers:

·        Vietnam ICT applications in education,  Dr. Quach Tuan Ngoc, Director General of IT, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Vietnam

·        ICT-enhanced FLE French 2nd Language, Mrs Elsa Chachkine, Insititute de la Francophonie pour l'Informatique AUF Asie-pacifique (Hanoi)

·        OLPC, Satish Jha, OPLC India

·        Dr Vo Thanh Long, Country Regional Manager, IBM                    

·        A Moodle Block for m-Learning, Dr David Kennedy, Hong-Kong University