Berlin (GER), May 2008 - This year's agenda of eLearning Africa features the contributions of 240 speakers from 51 countries, including representatives from UNESCO/UNEVOC, the World Bank, the Global Development Learning Network, as well as from national educational institutions from 28 African countries. The third International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training will take place from May 28 to 30, 2008, in Ghana's capital Accra. CHECK.point eLearning today presents some interesting topics of the programme in advance.
This year's agenda features highly interactive, small-group expert discussions on pertinent topics such as innovation and copyright, regulation, management of e-waste, the use of ICT to support African mother-tongue language learning, as well as animations, simulations, and computer-generated graphics and the role they play in learning.
Furthermore, there will be a range of presentations on Open Education Resources (OER) such as Aluka, a digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa, a Cereal Knowledge Bank for farmers, and Siyavula, a project developing comprehensive OERs using the community.
Participants can look forward to presentations by the rectors of leading virtual and open universities such as the African Virtual University and the Open University of Catalunya. The agenda will include contributions from major intergovernmental organisations such as UNESCO/UNEVOC, the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), and the World Bank, as well as national educational institutions, mainly from Africa but also from Europe, North America, and Asia.
Building on the success of last year's Harambees, a number of Nnoboa sessions will be offered throughout the conference. These will be highly interactive, informal, and informative events addressing some of the key interests and issues of concern to eLearning Africa 2008 participants. Nnoboa is a word in the Ghanaian Twi language that means "working together for the common good".
"Interaction is the key term at the third eLearning Africa conference," explains Rebecca Stromeyer, Managing Director of ICWE and project manager of eLearning Africa. "Knowing that networking, the exchange of experiences across geographical and cultural borders, as well as learning from best-practices is what participants value most, we place an emphasis on discussion sessions on pressing issues. Some examples are the way in which ICTs have facilitated and enabled the empowerment and advancement of women in Africa, the role of libraries in supporting eLearning, and how eLearning can be used to support the learning needs of medical staff in Africa", she says.
