literacy & ICT

07.03.2008 Illiteracy among women will only worsen the already serious problem of digital divide, says Women’s Literacy and Information and Communication Technologies: Lessons that Experience has Taught Us, a book by Commonwealth of Learning. The study highlights policy as well as implementation strategies in the use of ICTs for women’s literacy.

22.02.2008 To boost its corporate social responsibility work, GAIL India Ltd has launched an e-Shiksha programme for rural children at some of its plants in north and central India. Started with an investment of INR 6.3 million, the mobile centres will have buses equipped with laptops to teach children computer basics in local languages.

11.12.2007 Kerala will soon become the first Indian state to achieve total IT literacy. ICT-based education has shown promising results. Now decision to equip 2,800 high schools with broadband internet connectivity by August next year would open up immense possibilities in the education sector.

14.11.2007 An extensive campaign aimed at taking Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to street boys in Rwanda will be launched. In fact, Africa as a whole is going to gain through projects in which at least US $ 300 million will be invested.

29.10.2007 EDEX – Sri Lanka’s largest Education and Careers Expo – will offer online resources in higher education, skills development, employment guidance and placements through its web portal. This would be operational via ICTA’s Nenasala programme that boosts IT literacy among rural youth through its 400 IT kiosks across the country.

09.10.2007 YouTube is all set to move beyond entertainment. The University of California (UC), Berkeley has become the first university to make its entire course lectures and special events available to viewers on YouTube. The university’s recently launched educational technology services (ETS) delivers course and event content as podcasts and streaming videos.

09.10.2007 Greater decentralisation of ICT programmes with locally relevant, context specific and flexible content can boost literacy, says the 10 point charter of the two day international conference of E-9 countries on ICT for Literacy in Bangalore, India. The E-9 countries are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, China and India.

04.07.2007 Global IT Company Intel plans to take Africa to the next level in technology by introducing digital literacy in the continent. Dr Martina A. Roth, Director, Intel Education Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), speaks on the challenges in incorporating ICT in ways that support 21st-century skills.

02.05.2007 Community radio is now a part of the lives of the people in Mangochi District, Malawi, in southeastern Africa. UNESCO supported Dzimwe Community Radio station is a boon for the locals who cannot read and write. High temperatures between 35-40° C and constant power failures are not enough to discourage the dedicated announcers keen on serving their community.

21.03.2006 A recent conference focused on how to ensure all schools, libraries and local governments from around the world could access information technologies within the next decade.

24.02.2006 Residents of the Netherlands, armed with a tax break for computer purchases and some of Europe's lowest broadband fees, lead the world in the use of personal computers and the Internet, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts released Tuesday.

16.02.2006 UNESCO staff from the region had a chance to get a more in-depth briefing and hands-on experience on the development and implementation of managing information systems in the non-formal education sector through a workshop organized by UNESCO’s Section for Literacy and Non-Formal Education, and UNESCO Bangkok’s AIMS and APPEAL Units.

18.03.2005 Multimedia software to help school dropouts in acquiring basic reading, writing and mathematics skills fast are being developed by a multi-stakeholder partnership in Andhra Pradesh. The training modules developed in Telugu aim to impart knowledge on health and sanitation to the young people aged 10 – 22.

13.01.2005 AS part of its IT@School project, the State Government has introduced a mobile computer laboratory to provide support to schools that do not have full-fledged computer laboratories of their own.

06.01.2004 The south Indian state of Kerala has launched the country’s first police portal. The new system, which began operations on January 1, 2004, will connect all 18 police stations in the city and allow the public easy access to registering complaints.

19.12.2003 This is the 'alternative' declaration adopted by civil society representatives on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. The declaration was needed because the official process had constantly been disillusioning and frustrating, said civil society representatives at a conference.

17.12.2003 Maureen O’Neil, President of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), announced during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) a new initiative that will help people in South and South-East Asia surf the Net in their native tongue.

03.11.2003 E-Government for All, a virtual conference focusing on the relationship between e-government and the digital divide, is now open to participants. Over 800 people from more than 60 nations are expected to take part in the event, co-hosted by the Benton Foundations, Bytesforall.org and others.

29.10.2003 Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey in the United States began this fall to establish virtual classrooms by providing all full-time undergraduate students with laptops connected to a campus-wide wireless network. Students now have the option of attending class, group meetings, or exchanging notes while sitting under trees on the quad, on park benches, in the library, or even in the cafeteria.

01.10.2003 This tool, created by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, allows educators and school adminstrators to measure how well they are integrating ICT literacy and other 21st century skills into the curriculum.