04.19.08
Commonwealth of Learning
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is a collaboration, started in 1989, of the 53 Commonwealth head’s of state to promote open and distance learning (ODL), as well as sharing resources and technologies. COL works with government officials to promote information and communication technologies (ICT) as a means to impact the areas of education, learning for livelihoods, and human environment.
One of the projects launched by the COL is the WikiEducator, a website that gathers people who believe education should be free and available to all. They aim at helping users plan, and develop educational projects, especially those based on free content. Through their Learning4Content program they are working at conducting workshops, train educators, and develop free educational content. At times all of this work is done virtually, other times participants have been able to meet to collaborate.
COL also helped coordinate the development of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). During its initial stage, the VUSSC will focus on creating courses in Tourism and Hospitality, and Small Business Management.
The COL understands that millions of children worldwide have no access to basic education, and many more are taught by poorly trained teachers, and study in schools with few resources. Estimates are that about a billion adults worldwide are illiterate, or have received a very rudimentary education. And while COL focuses on the Commonwealth countries, it aims to help improve opportunities for all adults, children and the generations to come.
I truly love the “radical” idea behind these projects, that education should be free and accessible to all! May the Commonwealth of Learning continue with many more great projects!
Image info here.
Robert Kent said,
April 21, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Hello, Colombianflowers: Your blog’s Latin American theme is appreciatd, and heere is a link which may of of interest to your readers:
Eliades Acosta CENSORED
NEW YORK, April 17, 2008 (Friends of Cuban Libraries) - On November 29 a government website, Cubarte, published a startling interview with Eliades Acosta, the former director of Havana’s National Library, in which he called for tolerance and greater freedom of expression in Cuba….
In an apparent turnaround from the hardline views he has expressed for decades, Acosta used the Cubarte interview to point out serious problems in Cuban society, comparing them to “red lights indicating a need for changes,” and declared: “We aspire to a society that speaks openly of its problems without fear, in which the news media report on life as it really is, without triumphalism, in which errors are publicly ventilated in order to explore problems, in which people can express themselves honestly….”
On the day following its publication, the article was removed from the Cubarte website by censors….
For the full article, please see the Recent News section of our website at:
http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org