Africa: All set for Second eLearning Africa Conference

Highway Africa News Agency

Kenya will next week host the second International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Development, Education and Training from 28th to 30th May, 2007 at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. Dubbed eLearning Africa, the conference will be held under the theme "Building Infrastructures and Capacities to Reach out to the Whole of Africa".

The conference will also be an opportunity to reflect on spirited attempts being made to set up regional ICT infrastructure within the continent to enhance education and training services.

The programme will cover a wide range of topics, such as e-learning in medical education and the fight against HIV and AIDS, mobile learning, open source and open content, as well as eLearning in schools, higher education institutions and in the public sector.

The conference is being organized by the Berlin-based ICWE GmbH (specialists in the fields of e-learning, higher education, language training and study abroad programmes) and Hoffman and Reif (a German consultancy firm and a partnership of international experts in the field of ICT based Human Resources Development, educational Change Management and Organisational Development)in collaboration with Kenya?s Ministry of Education.

"So far, just over 1000 participants from 81 countries have already registered for the conference. We are very pleased to announce that the second eLearning Africa conference has not only grown considerably in numbers but also is once again a truly African event, with more than seventy percent of the attendees coming from the African continent", says Rebecca Stromeyer, project manager of eLearning Africa and managing director of ICWE.

Says Kenya's Education minister Prof George Saitoti. "For us in Kenya, eLearning Africa is not just another event. Hosting this large-scale conference in Nairobi gives us the unique opportunity to benefit from the hundreds of experts convening and spending some extra time in our country. In keeping with the event theme 'Building Infrastructures and Capacities to Reach out to the Whole of Africa', we will make it possible for Kenyan teachers, professors, administrators, and students - in fact for the entire educational sector - to benefit in one way or another from the capacity-building activities".

Saitoti adds that the conference is of key significance to Kenya, coming as it does at a time when the government has formulated a national ICT policy aimed at efficient service delivery and capacity building in all sectors of the economy. "eLearning Africa aims to establish and link a network of decision makers from governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, industry, and important partners in development", says Saitoti.

The minister will host the first African High-Level Policy Maker and Industry Leader Round Table and Retreat, entitled 'Accelerating the Building of ICT Infrastructures and Capacities for African Educational Systems.' The conference focuses on ICT-supported education, currently a core component of the development plans of most African governments. It is noteworthy that ICTs are being integrated into many national educational systems in order to reach the Millennium Goal of "Education for All".

Launched as an annual Pan-African event in May 2006 in Addis Ababa and attracting more than 800 participants, eLearning Africa immediately established itself as a landmark for capacity building, networking and collaboration. This year's event brings together high-level policy makers, industry leaders, as well as Research and Development experts and practitioners from Africa as well as their counterparts from the rest of the world. In tandem with the conference theme, the event will reach out beyond the conference center and will feature large-scale lectures in Kenyan universities, addressing both fundamentals as well as Research and Development topics in technology-enhanced education and training.

In addition there will be two break-out workshops that address needs in rural areas and regional institutions: one held in Mombassa, on the Indian Ocean, and the other in Kisumu, on Lake Victoria. Reputable universities from all over the Continent will present ICT good practice and e-learning programmes. Among the universities expected to give presentations at the conference include the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, the African Virtual University, University of Zimbabwe, Tumaini University, Tanzania,and the University of Western Cape, South Africa.

The largest number of participants, however, will be drawn from Kenya, followed by Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda in that order. The largest group of delegates from Europe is expected from the UK, while the USA and Canada will also send representatives.

The conference has also attracted 308 speakers from 55 countries, including representatives from development organisations such as UNESCO, International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education Training (UNEVOC), the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), and the World Bank, as well as national and governmental institutions from all over the world. Kenya, the hosting country will be represented at the conference by high-level speakers from the Ministry of Education, the Universities of Nairobi and Maseno, as well as major Kenya-based global development organisations.

Major sponsors of the conference include the European Commission, the UNEVOC and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Sponsorship has also been drawn from ICT service providers and grant givers namely Intel, the Swedish Programme for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER), Worldwide Education (wwedu), hp, Nokia, Panasonic, Cisco and ORACLE. Kenya Airways is the official carrier.

Key highlights of the event include the 1st African UNESCO-UNEVOC Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Summit titled "Access to and Inclusion in TVET in Africa Through New ICT-Based Solutions" Organised by the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning, the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa and the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training.

Innovative ICT-based TVET initiatives will be showcased and selected participants in the Summit will have the chance to present their work. Projects will also be presented on the dedicated web space 'Best Practice in Technology Enhanced TVET' on the eLearning Africa website. Other highlights will include approaches to quality assurance in eLearning programmes in Higher Education institutions. The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) will present a successful case study in "Online Learning Opportunities for Health Professionals".