Second WITFOR project has now co-funded by THE EMBASSY OF FINLAND in PRETORIA, SA
Second WITFOR project has now co-funded by THE EMBASSY OF FINLAND in PRETORIA, SA
The project aims at developing the capacity of Southern African teachers in using ICT. It will be implemented through setting up a support website and a network of innovative knowledge sharing communities of teacher trainers and teachers. It will be applying a new method of professional development for teachers ICT capacity building in Southern Africa based on methodologies developed in the Centre for Activity theory and Developmental Work Research in University of Helsinki and in Virtual centre for Innovative Learning Technologies in University of Mauritius.
The project is initiated within Education Commission of WITFOR 2005. Matti Sinko, Alain Sentini, Paul Nleya and Abdul Wahid Khan chair the commission.
WITFOR is a major global ICT initiative aimed at accelerating development for the world's poorer nations. To be held in Gaborone from August 31 to September 2, 2005, it will be hosted by the Government of Botswana, in collaboration with the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
WITFOR 2005 has eight commissions focusing on accelerated development in different sectors such as health, education, environment, economy, etc by using ICT. The work forms part of an ongoing process. The vision for each commission was described during WITFOR 2003, held in Lithuania. Each commission is now identifying concrete projects to transform that vision into reality, with tangible benefits for the peoples of developing countries.
Another WITFOR project was initiated in February 2005 with the generous funding acquired from the European Union (EU) for the Health commission's BEANISH project. The EU is also a sponsor of WITFOR 2005. The BEANISH project is developing regional health information systems, together with local stakeholders, using open source software. The BEANISH project addresses this by building a Europe-African network that combines experience from the previous South African implementation, best practices from other African countries, and research from Europe into the application of ICT in health. It is building appropriate African ICT solutions and know-how. Jorn Braa, Mikko Korpela and Kgomotso Moahi chair the health commission at WITFOR 2005.
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