Asia-Pacific

Distance education in the E9 countries
In 1993, the world's nine high-population countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan) committed themselves to using distance education as one means of addressing some of their needs in basic education. This paper reports their progress.

Interactive radio instruction for mathematics from around the world
Fourteen applications of interactive radio instruction (IRI) in mathematics have been developed in twelve countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nepal, either as part of an integrated educational series, or as the sole subject matter for the radio programme.

International Schools CyberFair
International Schools CyberFair is an award-winning, authentic learning programme used by schools around the world. Students conduct research about people or programmes in their local communities that convey a sense of caring and then publish their findings on the Web, acting as ambassadors for their community. The annual contest has involved more than 500,000 students from 2,500 schools in 75 countries, with affiliate programmes being established around the world, including in Taiwan and the Philippines. The idea behind the project is to identify the predominant benefits and challenges of online collaborative learning for K-12 students and teachers.

The Schools Around the World (SAW) Programme
Internet friendly SAW relies on the latest technology to bring together teachers from seven U.S. districts and eight partner nations (Australia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) to analyse and discuss student work, expectations and achievement.

World Links schools
Teachers and schools in the countries involved in World Links teacher training programmes have partnered with thousands of students, teachers and schools around the world. These partnerships range from one-to-one e-mail exchanges to participation in large-scale international school projects. Many of these partnerships have been established through WorLD's linkages with partner SchoolNets around the world and through the international iEARN teacher community. In Asia-Pacific, World Links schools online collaborations have taken place in Japan, Singapore and Thailand.

Australia

Innovative Bandwidth Arrangements for the Australian Education and Training Sector
Prepared in consultation with the education and training sector, ten overseas case studies are examined here, using innovative arrangements to manage and purchase bandwidth relevant to education and training, while assessing the feasibility of these arrangements for Australia.

Connecting Tasmanian Schools
Officially launched on 6 October 2000, the Connecting Tasmanian Schools programme is part of the Commonwealth Government's Telstra Social Bonus Initiatives to expand educational opportunities offered by the knowledge economy. The aim is to establish local and wide area networks linking Tasmanian schools, and to provide additional computers and support equipment for the state's government and non-government schools.

Bringing the Internet into the Classroom
Founded in 1993, myInternet Limited has developed a full suite of unique Internet tools and services that enable customers to easily define and monitor Internet access and activities, personalise the Internet experience for individual users and develop online communities.

Skills.net in Schools
Skills.net is a State Government of Victoria initiative working to ensure that everybody is able to access the resources of the Internet. By 30 June 2003, 80,000 citizens will receive Internet training and access through Skills.net projects. In particular, Skills.net is assisting technologically disadvantaged communities, including those in rural and remote Victoria, people with disabilities, women, older Victorians, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, indigenous Australians and low income earners.

International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) Projects
iEARN Australia involves teachers and students working together on collaborative projects that use the full range of ICTs, including newsgroups, email, web pages, video-conferencing. Many projects also involve physical exchanges of student work either as part of the process of the project or as a culmination of it.

Addressing the digital divide: integrating traditional and new information and communication technologies
This article describes the experiences of Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, and other countries in other regions of the world in the use of radio and for some the combined use of radio and Internet in delivering information on development concerns in the communities.

Cambodia

VillageLeap.com
Established with international funding, VillageLeap.com is the result of the opening of three computer-equipped schools in a remote, practically inaccessible area of Cambodia. In addition to providing computer education and Web access to the central school of 400 students, the Internet project is supporting the creation of a small woven-silk industry in the village, which plans to sell products on the Internet through VillageLeap.com. The project aims to show the tremendous untapped potential of such a village to use ICTs to market hand-made products, to access information, to communicate internationally and to enjoy better healthcare via the Internet.

CambodiaSchools.com
American Assistance for Cambodia and Japan Relief for Cambodia are helping children in remote regions through an adopt-a-school programme at CambodiaSchools.com. Donations are solicited online to build the schools, and  matched by World Bank. The village children are taught to use computers, and can connect by e- mail to other children around the world. Over 200 schools have been completed so far. With energy provided by solar panels, several of the schools are now connected to the Internet.

China

Project Hope Cyberschools
With a $46,000 donation from Microsoft, Project Hope is creating five computer labs, or Cyberschools, that will teach computer skills to disadvantaged youth in rural China. Each lab includes 15 computers, network and audio-visual equipment, computer-assisted educational software, access to the Internet, and thus, access to the highest quality teachers and curricula in China.

School Governance Network for Educational Improvement
This project seeks to improve governance in isolated rural schools serving impoverished populations. The project team proposes an ICT-enabled rural school governance network for principals in remote regions of Northwest China. ICT tools that facilitate school management and planning will be developed, piloted, and refined, and interaction with peers and expert advisors will be promoted.

Coca-Cola E-learning Initiative in China
Bringing digital resources and e-learning opportunities to teachers, less advantaged young people and rural communities, Coca-Cola brought its e-learning for life initiative to China in 2001. Since then, over 10,000 Chinese students and their communities have benefited from the project, which has so far established twenty 'Coca-Cola e-learning centres' in rural areas of the country. The project also involves ICT skills training for school teachers who use the centres and software to teach subjects such as Maths, Chinese, English and History.

India

Rural Relations
In order to prepare children from rural areas for life and work in the modern age, Rural Relations is working towards taking second-hand computers to 28,000 village schools in India. Used computers are collected from donors and given to schools free of cost, after a thorough needs assessment.

India: Rural elementary students get “Headstart” with computer-assisted education
A new programme aimed at making the learning process interactive and interesting through computers was launched in August 2003 in the elementary level in rural schools across Madhya Pradesh. 'Headstart', one of the largest computer-enabled education programmes in the country was initiated by the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission (RGSM) of Madhya Pradesh government.

Goa Computers in Schools Project
The Goa Computers for Schools Project is a community-based project attempting to improve the levels of computer literacy and computer access to students in Goa, while training teachers to use them to teach effectively. The vision of the project is to help all secondary schools obtain a lab of at least eight Internet ready computers with the help of the government, industry, and the community, relying on teamwork and networking among volunteers. Being based on Linux, the software used in the project is freely distributable, moderately priced and legally copyable.

Project Shiksha - Computer Literacy
Shiksha, which means "education" in Hindi, is about empowering students to learn in ways that can vastly elevate quality of life. The Project aims to accelerate computer literacy by providing an end to end solution which includes software solutions, comprehensive training for teachers and students, IT curriculum development, and scholarships for teachers and students across India. Over 80,000 school teachers and 3.5 million students across government schools will have an opportunity to strengthen their IT proficiency via the initiative over the next five years.

Karnataka CLC in Schools Initiative
The Community Learning Centre initiative, a joint initiative of the Government of Karnataka and the Azim Premji Foundation, has entered the third phase of expansion - 135 more centres across the state became operational by the end of June 2003. Previously, the project had set up 90 Community Learning Centres in rural Government higher primary schools in 14 districts of Karnataka. The project aims to demonstrate, that technology initiatives, such as the use of software to reinforce certain aspects of mathematics, geography, environmental sciences and Kannada, have a positive impact on the interest levels of children and increase their learning achievement levels. So far, this aim has been realised, as student motivation levels have been stimulated by the introduction of computers, and attendance and enrolment rates have been shown to increase.

Mobile Classrooms: IT Buses in Rural India
Using buses converted into mobile computing classrooms to spread IT literacy among rural school students, this project is being piloted in Maharashtra’s Pune district, India. The project will be jointly funded by World Bank, a Japanese aid agency and the district administration of Pune. Under the plan, 20 buses converted into mobile computing units will travel from one school to another in rural Pune, teaching basic computer skills along with typing knowledge through local language curriculum. If successful, the project will be replicated in other parts of the country.

Indira Soochna Shakti - "Empowering a Quarter Million Schoolgirls through ICT"
This project in Chhattisgarh, India is aiming towards the "seamless access to IT education for all girls in high schools". The project mission is to work in all 1605 of the state's government high schools by delivering four years of IT instruction to girls through an innovative public-private sector partnership, where a private entrepreneur has been provided space in schools and permitted commercial IT use outside school timings. Volunteers then share networked handheld community computers in villages and help route information and information-enabled services of local relevance to the communities.

Pratishrishti Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) Centres in Western India
Encouraging children in primary municipal schools to use computers by playing games and learning basic computer functions, Pratishrishti has set up 13 Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) centres in municipal primary schools of Mumbai. The Pratishrishti Computer Assisted Learning Model uses a LAN of 10 computers per school, thereby covering up to 8000 children per week in total. The project also generates maths and language educational games in local languages.

Indonesia

Indonesia launches nationwide computer literacy programme in schools
The government of Indonesia has recently launched a student computer literacy programme aimed at introducing information technology in schools nationwide. Dubbed “One School One Computer Lab (OSOL)”, the programme has two main thrusts: firstly, to establish infrastructural support by providing sufficient hardware for schools and improving telecommunications and internet infrastructure in a number of regions; secondly, to increase access of students and the community to information, and integrate ICTs into the teaching process.

E-dukasi.net - Providing fun learning content for Indonesian students
As a learning site, e-dukasi.net has several features and facilities that are valuable both for students and teachers. The main feature contains learning materials that currently focus on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics for students of Senior Secondary Schools or the Vocational Secondary School level. Based on the latest curriculum, the learning materials were developed by experts, including curriculum developers, experienced teachers and lectures, media developers, programmers, graphic designers, and animators.

Japan

E-square (e2) Project
E square enables schools to improve their current networks, provides participants with an opportunity for collaborative learning and analyses the effectiveness of advanced educational methods incorporating ICTs.

Lao PDR

Jhai - Reconciliation through technology
Jhai Foundation, a reconciliation project active in Laos since 1998, is aimed at wiring the country, one school at a time. Set up in collaboration with Schools Online, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help students gain access to and use the communication and information resources of the Internet for learning and cross-cultural dialogue The Internet Learning Centre (ILC) schools vary in population from 1600 to 3800 students, with from 60 to 170 teachers. Each ILC is given ten computers, ten monitors, one to two printers, one scanner and one digital camera, with local language training manuals.

Malaysia

Smart Schools
The Malaysian Smart School application is the government's initiative to enhance learning institutions through a 'Teaching-Learning' process of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and teaching-learning materials. The process will enable students to practice self-accessed and self-directed learning that focuses on individual achievements and mind development. There are currently about 7,000 primary and 1,500 secondary schools in Malaysia. The Government envisages that all will be converted to Smart Schools by the year 2010.

Mobile Internet Unit
In Malaysia, there are currently about 7,000 primary and 1,500 secondary schools, most of which are in rural areas and cannot be covered by the Smart Schools programme under the Multimedia Super Corridor. So the Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) was created, developed to expose secondary schools teachers and students to new technologies. The Unit is a self-contained, mobile library cum computing centre in the form of a bus, which travels to non-main stream Smart schools in the country to conduct basic ICT literacy programmes.

e-learning for life - Malaysia
The Malaysian Ministry of Education, Coca-Cola and UNDP launched “e-learning for life” in March 2002. Supporting the Malaysian government's vision to build a knowledge-based economy, the project is bringing e-learning opportunities and ICT training and access to more than 10,000 students, as well as to their teachers and local communities. ICT "hubs" have been set up in six secondary schools in suburban and rural areas across Peninsular Malaysia. The hubs are equipped with Internet connectivity, hardware and software through which students and teachers gain access to and training in ICTs. These ICT "hub" schools are integrating computer-based training into existing curricula. A core group of students and teachers are also being trained as "peer trainers" who will then transfer their ICT skills to others in the hub area.

The Cyber Plant Conservation Project
Involving the participation of approximately 1500 secondary school students from 17 schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, The Cyber Plant Conservation Project (CPCP) aims to inculcate awareness of conservation and environment education, while providing involving and inspiring ICT-based education and training for secondary school students. The idea is that the creation of an electronic community will help bridge the digital divide between those in the "better-endowed" urban schools and those in the rural schools. Students will acquire and apply in a problem-solving context, the necessary ICT skills of a knowledge worker in an ICT-based economy.

Mongolia

Mongolia’s Knowledge Web Centre
The first of its kind for the Mongolian educational sector, this Centre incorporates both English and local language text, providing electronic learning resources to teachers and students. Three pilot schools have created their web pages and linked to the Knowledge Web Centre. A special daily schedule of Internet surfing for teachers and pupils has been set up, as well as regular updates on current resources they can access on the web. One school is publishing a school newspaper using information from Internet. Within the project, Mongolian secondary schools are connected to the Internet, enabling students to participate I*EARN and Think Quest projects, establish new contacts, widen their knowledge of the world and to work on collaborative projects with similar schools.

Nepal

Computers in Rural Nepal
At least 20,000 rural children in Lamjung, Rolpa, Solukhumbu, Dang, Gorkha, Tanahu, Dhading and Bajura district do not only have a glimpse of computer but also play with their keyboards. At the beginning they familiarised themselves with such programmes as MS-Word, Spreadsheet, Windows 95 in the beginning, and later on graduated to Internet, Multimedia and so on. At least 73 public schools in eight of these remote districts were provided with computers as part of a bridging-the-digital-divide programme.

The Philippines

text2teach revolutionizes elementary science education
Science classes in elementary schools in the Philippines will soon experience the benefits of multimedia learning. A new project called text2teach is using the power of mobile and satellite technology to deliver rich educational content to teachers and students even in the most outlying areas of the country. Launched on May 16 2003, text2teach is the initial Philippine-wide pilot of Bridgeit, a global programme developed jointly by Nokia, Pearson, the International Youth Foundation (IYF), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Infotech Training in Remote Places
The Infotech project aims to provide teachers and students from far flung areas of the country with the knowledge, skills, facilities, and the materials to use information technology and with access to information from the Internet. Infotech was piloted in 6 schools and 2 division offices in the two contiguous provinces of Antique and Guimaras in the West Visayas.  The two central schools with access to Internet service serve as the downloading stations that access teachers’ lessons from the UNICEF website, www.unicef.org/teachers and www.unicef.org/voy as well as other websites focused on student learning. Downloaded materials are shared with the other schools and the division office.

Coca-Cola Computer Learning Centres
As part of Coca-Cola’s e-learning initiative rolling out in countries all over the Asia Pacific region, the company has partnered with the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development (FIT-ED) to establish 15 state-of-the-art, Internet-connected computer centres in remote public schools across the Philippines. Entitled “ed.venture”, this community programme initiative has benefited over 15,000 Filipino schoolchildren in its first phase, while centres are also open for community use. Meanwhile, a comprehensive teacher-training component of the programme has trained over 630 public high school teachers and administrators.

Singapore

Radin Mas Primary School

Inaugurated in 1926, the Radin Mas primary school has become a shining example of successful use of ICTs within school systems to improve teaching and learning, serving as a model for the school of the future. The school has some 200 computers, most of which are connected to the Internet. With a computer-to-student ratio of 1:5, Radin Mas is one of the best-connected primary schools in the world. Rather than simply using computers as a reference tool, the focus of Radin Mas is to firmly integrate computers into the learning and creative process, using a wide range of highly innovative projects.

The school houses a multi-media library equipped with full multi-media facilities and stocked with books, video tapes, music CDs and computer CD-ROMs. In addition, the school is proud to own a Kids Matrix Zone and a Digital Art Room, set up with cluster funds.

Sri Lanka

Secondary Education Modernisation Project
Up to one million secondary students will benefit from a new programme to modernise Sri Lanka's secondary education, with the modernisation of 2,300 secondary schools nationwide. Modern teaching facilities such as multimedia rooms will be provided in all the secondary schools to enable the use of television, VCRs and audiocassettes as learning materials in key subjects. A major focus of the project will be on developing computer literacy. The first stage was launched from the Kalutara district by providing at least one or two computers to each rural school in the district. It is hoped to open 24 computer centres equipped with a set of 20 computers and accessories each in the district. This programme will be further extended to cover all districts in 2003.

Viet Nam

Coca-Cola Learning Centres
Providing a dynamic environment in which Vietnamese youth can extend their education through IT access and tools, Coca-Cola, in partnership with Vietnam's Ministry of Education-Training and the National Youth Union has set up an inter-linked network of learning centres in secondary schools and youth centres across Vietnam. Covering 33 provinces and cities and benefiting an estimated 10,000 students and their teachers, 40 centres have so far been built. Staffed by teachers, these Learning Centres are equipped with computers providing Internet and e-mail access, software and books in a comfortable learning environment, for use both during and after school hours. The programme includes the annual “Young Leaders of the Future” contest, covering a number of academic disciplines and involving the 200 top students involved in the Learning Centre programme. Eventually the programme will cover each of Vietnam’s 61 provinces and cities.

Educational ICT Pilot Initiative: Viet Nam
The World Economic Forum’s Digital Divide Task Force is proposing three Forum initiatives to be piloted in Viet Nam. The goal of each is to extend Internet access for students into remote, rural schools that will not otherwise become connected for several years. Each seeks to develop and test new collaborative business models that are sustainable, scalable, and could be rolled-out to other countries in Asia.

Viet Nam government to connect all schools by year end
The government of Viet Nam is working to connect all research facilities, universities, colleges, vocational training schools and over 1,000 high schools by the end of the year. This is part of a strong push towards nationwide connectivity, with the aim of raising Internet penetration to around five percent by 2005.