In most developing countries, the access to education on all levels is limited while the quality of education is generally poor. Open and distance teaching and learning (ODL) methodologies, blending and integrating traditional distance education technologies with consolidated information and communication technologies (ICT) can play a substantial role in stepping up the quantity and quality of education provision in these countries, particularly in Africa. These opportunities are not yet fully, if at all, exploited in any level of most national education systems.
Objectives
Pedagogical Engineering and Interventions for which the need is widely recognise to improve the situation and to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and UNESCO's Education for All (EfA) commitments are the first objectives of this community of expertise, led by the Education Commission of the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR EdComm).
Deliverables
During the years 2006-2007, this Community of Expertise will be engaged in several widescale events and onsite workshops for empowerment and capacity building through ICT integration, particularly in Mauritius, Botswana, Ethiopia (WITFOR 2007) and Malaysia (ICOOL 2007). The Community will also participate in and benefit from the setting up of regional resource centres such as the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies (VCILT) of the University of Mauritius.
Lead organization
WITFOR Education Commission
Partners
- Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies (VCILT), University of Mauritius, Reduit (Mauritius)
- Department of Informatics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Sweden.
- Department of Educational Technology, University of Botswana, Gaborone (Botswana)
- BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning (BBC WIL), Milton Keynes (UK)
- College of Education, University of Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia)