EMINENT conference on ICT in education

EMINENT, European Schoolnet's annual conference for ICT in education policy makers just ended successfully last week. The two-day event brought together around 200 experts from European member states and beyond.

Particular highlights for me were:

• Mike Trucano from World Bank giving a great keynote speech


• Turkish teacher, Elif Kara, winning an eLearning award in only her second year on the job.

It's especially good news for Turkey, as they only became a member of European Schoolnet this year and are already winning prizes!

For more about EMINENT, check out the blog and the podcast.

Glance at a country: Malaysia

I'm about to leave for Kota Kinabulu in Malaysia for the Asia-Europe Classroom Connect conference, so I thought I'd take this chance to make another country focus, this time looking at Malaysia.

First of all, an example of classroom practice in a Malaysian school, as part of the Asia-Europe Classroom project. The project links schools in Asia to their counterparts in Europe using ICT.

Schools using ICT in Malaysia are part of the Smart Schools programme. Take a look to learn more about the status in 2007 and plans for 2008. Also, this article from Digital Learning India gives a great overview of ICT in education in the country.

I also came across this Smart Schools promotional video - including possibly the world's first song about ICT in education!


Other developments are ongoing in Malaysia, and the
Asia Open Source Software project just held it's latest workshop in Kuala Lumpur. THe AsiaOSS project also provides the Asia OSS wiki including all kinds information about the project, including learning materials and details on the working groups.

Finally, take a look at One School, a portal of learning resources, including flash cards, revision notes, homework help and free reference books tailored for the Malaysian school system. It's all available in English.