Dear GKD Members, At the meeting of the World Economic Forum now taking place in New York City, the WEF Digital Divide Task Force proposed three WEF initiatives to be piloted in Ghana. The goal of each is to extend Internet access for students into remote, rural schools that will not otherwise be 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 Africa. The three WEF pilots are: (1) an ISP experimenting with a business plan placing telecenters in rural schools to provide students with free Internet access; (2) a team of Ghanaian NGOs installing used computers in 38 rural schools to connect them to the Internet; and (3) partnerships between two universities in Ghana adopting the content adaptation, teacher training, and computer/network maintenance for their neighboring primary and secondary schools.
Africa Online and World Computer Exchange are the co-leads for Ghana of the Education Steering Committee of the Global Digital Divide Task Force of the World Economic Forum. This new collaboration is showing early success in bringing a private business sector and a non-governmental organization together to work out together novel forms of support in the ICT area. If the WEF Telecenters-In-Schools is successful, they are considering working together in Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. World Links also made a major contribution to the development of the Telecenters-In-Schools pilot initiative. World Computer Exchange is planning on working with Kabissa.org, InterConnection, SchoolNet Africa and IDRC, Teachers without Borders, and World Links to expand the WEF Universities-Schools Partnerships initiative into nine of the following countries: Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Moçambique , Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The Education Development Center's dot-EDU project (the new USAID mechanism established to bring digital opportunities to developing countries) is committed to supporting the effort and contributing funds toward WEF's pilot initiatives. They will assist with the adaptation with more appropriate local content for teacher training in Ghana, the training of teachers in using ICT in education, the development of cultural exchanges (telecollaborative projects) between schools of different countries, and assistance with the consulting to help develop this as a sustainable and scalable initiative. The report was presented at the World Economic Forum by Ayisi Makatiani, Chairman and Co-Founder of Africa Online. You can find the full WEF country report at the following links to our website in both PDF and MS Word formats: <http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/press/GHANA.pdf> 49 KB <http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/press/WEF_Ghana_Pilot_Initiatives.doc> 588 KB For more information on the WEF Donated Computers for Ghanian School Initiative, you can visit the following link: <http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/partner_plans/Ghana-CEV-Plan.doc> 125 KB Timothy Anderson, President World Computer Exchange [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.WorldComputerExchange.org Bridging the global digital divide for youth Offices: Boston, San Francisco & Stockholm Reps: Bangkok, New Haven, Sydney, Tokyo & Washington 936 Nantasket Avenue Hull, Massachusetts 02045 USA + 781-925-3078 FAX: + 509-752-9186 ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
