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Seven South East Asian Countries Commit to SchoolNet Project
[3.3.2004 | ]
Two workshops fostering major developments under the project? Strengthening ICT in Schools and SchoolNet Project in the South East Asian Setting? were held recently in Bangkok. The UNESCO project aims at the information-rich and well equipped ASEAN countries to share their resources with information-poor and ill-equipped countries in the region through an ASEAN SchoolNet.
The project focuses on south-south cooperation, using the full range of ICTs and partnerships to enhance education and prepare students fully for life. National SchoolNets will also be developed to support the specific educational needs of each country. The project attempts to demonstrate that the use of ICT in education will make a difference in improving the teaching/learning process through the systematic integration of the use of ICT into existing educational curricula on science, mathematics and language.
The South East Asian ICT Advocacy and Planning Workshop for Policy Makers and National ICT Coordinators, (15 December 2003) provided the foundation for implementing the launching of the project. It is only through the commitment and support given by the High Officials from the Ministries of Education that the successful achievement of the goals and objectives set forth in the project can materialize. Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Viet Nam committed to pilot testing the project for three years.
The Sub-Regional Meeting of National ICT Coordinators on Project Planning and Management (16-18 December 2003) was organized back to back with this Policy Makers? workshop. To follow up on the decisions and agreements made on the 15th, this Meeting fleshed out and detailed the Memorandum of Agreement and the set of recommendations arrived at into a more workable master plan/work plan for implementation at the national level.
The ICT Coordinators participating in this Meeting translated the commitment made by their policy makers into an actual set of activities in order to pave the way for the implementation in their respective countries. But before this could be undertaken, the Meeting first set the necessary regional frameworks and parameters, which the national projects will be based on. Such overall frameworks will provide benchmarks for comparing progress and developments among the countries.
Thirty participants from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam took part in the presentations and dynamic discussions. The participants were those responsible for the ICT Unit, SchoolNet, and the curriculum development of science, maths and language in the Ministry of Education.
SchoolNets differ widely from country to country. At worse, they may involve a simple resource base for students and teachers of one school, perhaps with a simple level of interactivity, such as a question and answer service by e-mail. At best they include nationwide or international networks of schools, teachers, parents and resources; forums; databases; teacher training; interaction among students and teachers; collaborative projects between schools and nations and more. Students become engaged in real exploration and simulation instead of remaining passive recipients of information. Teachers can use ICTs for administrative and assessment purposes.
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