PALOP/RINAF Workshop
Maputo 14-17 November 2000
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture
PALOP Workshop 14-15 November 2000
RINAF Workshop 16-17 November 2000
Hotel Cardoso, Maputo, Mozambique
Virtual Learning in the African Context
Günther Cyranek
UNESCO Office Addis Ababa
Regional Adviser
g.cyranek@unesco.org
Summary
Interactive media promise a broader access to distance education material in urban and rural areas. CDROM production and delivery is important for developing countries as long as access to on-line
information is too slow and too expensive. Beside traditional institutions like libraries, schools and
universities Community Telecentres offer access points to learning material. UNESCO is supporting the
benefits of Information Society for education, science, culture and communication. Concepts for virtual
learning environments are discussed. Through Satellite Radio Broadcasting Internet content is accessable
without a phone line e.g. a distance education course for development in rural areas. Recommendations for
implementing distance education are referred.
1
Information Society supported by UNESCO
Virtual environments are getting more and more popular: We are talking about virtual libraries, virtual
schools, virtual universities, and virtual laboratories (IITAP & UNESCO 1999) to broaden access to
knowledge and skills as far as connectivity is available. In combination with traditional face-to-face
classroom based teaching and learning, virtual environments become efficient means in translating the
principle of the right to access to knowledge into reality. ICT can now offer effective and efficient learning
environments for primary and secondary education, vocational training, universities, continuous education,
but also for literacy training.
When considering the underlying infrastructure for virtual learning, we have to keep in mind that there are
substantial differences among geographical regions and countries in the availability and in the capacity of
network services. Examples for research and development on appropriate use of advanced IT for virtual
learning environments are the information highway initiative and the related higher education and school
programmes in the USA, programmes of the European Commission, the Francophone Virtual University
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or the African Virtual University of the World Bank. Specific educational technology standards are needed
to ensure re-usability of contents, methods and tools, interoperability of services, quality, multi-linguality,
harmonized curriculum, accreditation etc. Educational systems and other public service organizations will
have to work closely with industrial concerns to develop standards which are flexible, open, freely available,
and meet the needs of both industrialized and developing countries. The international community,
including UNESCO, has a special role in promoting and guiding this process (Hunya & Rose 1998).
In basic education, the main challenges of the information society include providing tools for students to
share ideas, to learn in collaborative environments, and to become literate in the information technologies
which will be part of the future work places and lives. Lifelong and non-formal learning will be increasingly
pursued by a large number of people in the information-based society. The labour market and changing
working conditions will necessitate more re-training. The availability of non-traditional learning materials
will encourage those who prefer the edutainment style. Crucial issues are intelligent course design,
adaptability of use, high quality, accessibility and affordability.
In industrialized countries the development of virtual universities is very promising, a booming area (EU
1998). The Open University of Catalunya was established as a virtual campus from the beginning. The
Spanish national open university UNED with over 150,000 students, has made significant progress in using
ICT. The german distance education university Fern-Universität Hagen offers courses on its WWW-based
virtual campus. In Switzerland the Swiss Virtual Campus is getting reality (Levrat 1997). Other examples for
virtual approaches in the USA are the World Lecture Hall of the Houston University, the Maryland Virtual
High School Project, the Virtual Washington University Project, or the University of Central Florida.
Examples for UNESCO projects
UNESCO is developing a strong focus on ICT in education, working closely with institutions in
industrialized and developing countries and international organizations like the European Commission and
the Commonwealth of Learning. The overall goal is to promote the appropriate use of ICT in education
world-wide, taking account of the economic, technological, organizational and educational constraints
faced by Member States.
 Creating Learning Networks for African Teachers
Within its objective of promoting the application on telematics in achieving Learning without Frontiers and of
Education for All in Africa, UNESCO is supporting an initiative called Creating Learning Networks for African
Teachers (UNESCO 1998) which foresees the development of a network connecting African teacher
training colleges and educational authorities to the Internet, to promote educational reform, upgrade the
capacity of teacher trainers and in-service teachers, develop educational resource centres in the libraries of
colleges, and initiate pilot experiences on technology-based learning in the surrounding schools (Quéau &
Rose 1998). Pilot projects started 1997 in Zimbabwe with connection of five teacher training colleges,
courses for network use, and Web content development (e.g. Mutare Teachers‘ College.
 International Virtual Classroom Environment
In pilot projects tools were collected and tested for creating and operating virtual learning services
(temporary address www.szit.bme.hu/vlc/list.php3 )
 International Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE)
The IITE was launched 1997 in Moscow. The Institute will establish an international Internet-based
information system on education. This will provide students, teachers, educational managers and decision
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makers with information on technologies in the learning process, on leading educational institutions and
programmes, on freely available tools for virtual learning (www.iite.ru) .
 World Communication and Information Report
Every two years this UNESCO report with chapters on ICT and social processes, on evolution of ICT
with regional overviews is published (UNESCO 1999, www.unesco.org/webworld).
Learning to learn, and learning to use information, will be essential in the Information Society. Therefore
we have to redefine current conceptions of literacy and basic education. In addition, pedagogical research
needs to look at new forms of teaching and learning as well as new learning tools and materials.
2
Initiatives in Africa
Out of 53 African countries 43 are now participating in the Regional Information Society Network for
Africa (RINAF, see www.unesco.org/webworld) as part of the Intergovernmental Informatics Programme
(IIP) of UNESCO. RINAF is particularly concerned with strengthening the roles of the public sector and
the civil society in Africa in exploiting information and communication technologies for development. In
the coming years we have to strengthen RINAF networking for the inclusion of all societal sectors
including rural, isolated and other disadvantaged communities. During the RINAF meeting in Addis Ababa
October 1999 as part of the African Development Forum (www.uneca.org/adf1999) ten priority projects
were identified: 1 Linking Scientists, 2 Content Development for Interactive Media, 3 Tertiary Education
& Research Organisations, 4 Promote wireless based technology, 5 Use of solar panel for PCs and MCTs,
6 Future Training activities, 7 Distance Education, 8 Virtual Multimedia Academy, 9 Public access to
information, 10 Computer recycling and maintenance. A detailed analysis was elaborated at the RINAF
workshop in Cape Town, May 2000, with the elected project coordinators. The RINAF workshop in
Maputo, November 2000, will finalize the proposals of the identified priority projects.
UNESCO supports strongly the installation of African digital libraries (Quéau & Rose 1998). However, the
advances to network libraries were concentrated in university-based libraries, and therefore school and
public libraries have been largely excluded. African libraries have to strengthen their efforts to become
gateways to information highways for development, by making textbooks and periodicals electronically
available, as well as audiovisual materials and computer-based courseware. All appropriate technologies
should be applied to bring needed information to the community level, including CD-ROM and
inexpensive local reprographic facilities.
The potential of virtual learning environment has to be understood by decision makers in the educational
and vocational sector. To support and evaluate virtual learning environments for distance education is now
the task. First hands-on experiences in the field are necessary with Internet browsing for relevant materials,
E-mail for communication with teachers and professors, CD-ROM access for documents and interactive
simulations. In addition, the access to virtual libraries will improve educational institutions with state-ofthe-art didactical and methodological materials, access to international scientific journals and conference
documentation. Just as important as electronic access are print-outs at free or minimal charge for
educational and public service use. The implementation of Virtual Laboratories (IITAO & UNESCO
1999) and the production of CD-ROMs with examples of good practice are one way to support
educational institutions, using simulation tools, groupware and other new software techniques as
appropriate. Nevertheless, this approach has to be supported by affordable delivery channels which means
that public service sector users have to consolidate their needs in negotiations with telecommunication and
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Internet service providers, and that the public authorities have to assume a proactive, constructive role in
promoting the installation of information infrastructure in schools, communities and other public service sector
institutions.
In addition to affordable information infrastructure and IT applications based on African needs, for
building information communities in Africa requires appropriate political, legal and ethical frameworks
ensuring the development of a dynamic electronic public domain and affordable access to information
facilities by all sectors of society including professional and grass roots communities. These are part of the
wider domain "info-ethical" considerations which are a key part of the UNESCO concerns (see
recommendations of the Regional Infoethics Workshop Africa, held in Addis Ababa, September 2000, and
the Global Conference Infoethics2000 at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/).
3
Different Approaches for Virtual Learning
The most promising Internet applications in education are virtual libraries, lesson–experience
environments and course-support environments (Collis 1998). The private library made from collections of
resources of virtual libraries becomes the bookmark collection of one’s browser. These virtual materials are
available on the basis of interest, rather than location restrictions and cost. The lesson–experience
approach is attractive for linked creative educational projects e.g. on water pollution or second language
courses. More and more course-support environments are experienced all over the world at University
level and as seminars for business people. This virtual campus approach is a fashionable word for
organizing the institutional process in education, but has to be developed in a stronger regional and local
manner for cooperation and exchange of educational knowledge. We need more experience to develop the
medium in new directions. The expression Virtual University offers different approaches how to benefit
from and how to use this interactive medium for access to resource persons, documents and virtual
libraries, videoconferencing, chatrooms etc. Unfortunately, the access to educational services is more and
more seen as electronic commerce (IMS-Project 1997).
One criteria to look at the concept of virtual university is: How do different virtual learning environments
support regional cooperation within the existing educational institutional context? Generally spoken, for all
these approaches is very important: for a better understanding and the development of local Internet
didactics (Harris 1998, Winnips 1998) there is a strong need for courses to traditional professors at the
collaborating universities about self–learning, cooperation, autonomy and self-organizing of the learning
process and about what the options are for designing virtual learning environments (Ramos & Fagundes
1998).
Very important is the type of evaluation process looking very clearly to learn from the use, possible misuse,
advantages and disappointments in cooperation with the actors in future projects. Therefore the evaluation
methodology should include participating observation with follow-up and assistance in the activities
evaluated, and which is based on interviews and videotaped on location for further demonstration and
discussion.
3.1
South Africa: UNISA
During a visit to South Africa’s largest distance education university UNISA attempts were discussed to go
on-line. It was indicated that UNISA’s education system still depends on postal services. Experiences from
the States have shown that on-line courses are very difficult to manage when targeting a large number of
students as it is the case with UNISA. Benefiting from new technology, UNISA which offers courses
cheaper than most open or distance universities, is spreading its wings across the world. Experiments,
especially in co-operation with Canada are now under way to have technical courses on-line accessible.
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3.2
Virtual Francophone University
The project of Virtual Francophone University (l’Université Virtuelle Francophone UVF) is supporting
with its approach the cooperation of regional research institutions. Open questions are the role of local
professors in study centers, the acceptance of credits, the didactical structure of the courses. The idea for
members of the expert committee in each country is to have one head from the North, one from the South
on the board.
3.3
African Virtual University
The African Virtual University (AVU) project of the Worldbank started 1997 in 12 English speaking
coutries. French and Portuguese speaking countries joined the project in 1998 (Jensen 1998, Vol II., 117).
The courses are developed in Canada, the USA and Europe. The videotapes and live lectures are
broadcasted from uplinking facilities in the USA via INTELSAT. A digital library program offers access to
1700 scientific journals for African students and faculty. Training of librarians who will in turn train
students and faculty, are organized.
The concept of the African Virtual University (AVU) is a interactive-instructional telecommunications
network established to serve the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The mission of AVU is to use the
power of modern information technologies to increase access to educational resources throughout SubSaharan Africa. The objective of the AVU is to build world-class degree programs that support economic
development by educating and training world-class scientists, technicians, engineers, business managers,
health care providers, and other professionals. As AVU is a project of the World Bank, the central
scheduling for broadcasting courses is headquartered in Washington, DC.
AVU undergraduate program course package consists of videotaped and live lectures supplemented by
class notes, textbook and homework. The videotapes and live lectures are broadcasted from COMSAT RSI
uplinking facilities in Clarksburg Maryland. Live sessions are originated in Ku band from US universities on
GE Spacenet 3 and INTELSAT 603 for the Irish courses to COMSAT earth station which re-transmits the
signal to Africa on INTELSAT 515 in C band frequency. The typical satellite receive terminal at an AVU
partner institution in Africa consists of a 4.5 meter antenna, coaxial cabling to the classroom, and a totally
redundant receive system in the classroom, i.e. VCR, PC to control the system, high speed data interface,
an integrated receiver decoder (IRD), facsimile, printer and UPS for dish antenna and classroom
equipment. The AVU sites work with VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) to direct satellite link. VSAT
technology offers communication for Telephon, Fax, E-Mail and Internet with at least 64 Kbps. Costs for
the terminal and dish antenna are 20-25,000 US$. The costs p.a. for satellite access for Virtual Learning and
Videoconferencing are 60,000 US$ for the
Example 1: AVU Business Centre approach at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Sustainability of the AVU after the pilot phase will be ensured from students tuition and revenues from
seminars. The virtual seminars at Kenyatta University in Nairobi are financially a success. As a background,
the educational situation in Kenya is alarming: Annually 160.000 students are leaving secondary school. But
in 1999 only 9.000 students had access to the country’s universities. That means 151.000 have no adequate
perspective as alternatives to the University diploma are more or less missing like vocational training
institutions, polytechnics, etc. Therefore AVU is a chance to get a course degree e.g. in Information
Technology: Operating systems, Webdesign, Network Management, etc. 2 weeks cost 50$ covering 2
hours/day; a 2 month course with 8 hours/day costs 200US$, a 9 month pre-university course costs 1200
US$. It is very popular and fashionable to demonstrate for example a MIT course certificate, independent
of the course content. In addition executive seminars are offered for 40$/day. The services like Fax
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service, e-mail (1$/page) digital library (2,5 $/month) are used by students, faculty members, workers,
housewifes from town. AVU at Kenyatta University Nairobi with this fee structure makes 80,000 US$
profit/year. This amount will be reinvested for infrastructure, buildings, PCs, etc. In a next step, the
cooperation between universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will be strengthened for local course
development which then will be broadcasted through the World Bank satellites network.
Example 2: Applications at Ethiopian Civil Service College (ECSC)
For the Ethiopian Civil Service College in Addis Ababa the Worldbank offered equipment, dish antenna,
and training for staff. ECSC has a 64 Kb connection to the satellite, Worldbank Headquarter for download
128 Kb. In the beginning 10 PCs were connected to the Internet, an extention to 35 connected PCs was
realized in 2000. The students have to pass tests via e-mail.
One example is a course in Economy, Growth and Poverty Reduction which is broadcasted for governmental
bodies during 10 weeks at the same time in Ethiopia, Benin, Ghana and Senegal. The course is organized in
3h broadcasting, and 3h additional classroom presence per week. The total costs, including Worldbank
instructors, are 2000 US$/week. The college only has to pay for electricity.
The offered degree program is depending on the demands of provinces, e.g. in municipal engineering, law,
accounting etc. Also short term courses are offered for local needs. A two-week course for the public costs
80 US$/participant (salary in Ethiopia 60 US$/month, but other statistics say that 60% of the population
have a daily income of 1 US$ or even less). As an evening program an accounting diploma is offered. A
master degree program runs in urban management. From all 14 regions in Ethiopia 1800 regular students
are at ECSC. A Centre for Distance Learning will be established with centres in each region (starting in
2000 with 6 regions). In the beginning the courses are offered only on paper. Similar satellite stations like in
Addis Ababa are planned in 2000 for regional centres within these six Ethiopian provinces. In the near
future the ECSC has to make its own profit to expand and spread courses in the country.
4
Access points for virtual learning
In the long run, access to virtual learning environments will be provided by traditional academic
institutions, vocational training centres, schools, public libraries, cyber cafés, Multipurpose Community
Telecentres, merging medias TV, community radio and Satellite Radio Broadcasting.
Africa has made important progress in defining priorities to catch up with the implementation of national
information society policies and the infrastructure for information highways, particularly through the
Africa's Information Society Initiative (AISI) framework adopted by Ministers of Planning and of
Telecommunication in 1996 (see http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi and the document The African
Connection of African Ministers of Communication at http://www.telecom98.co.za/africonnect.html). The
African Development Forum was an important forum to demonstrate National Information and
Communication Policies (www.uneca.org/adf1999).
4.1
Multipurpose Community Telecentres
The concept of the multipurpose community tele-centre (MCT, see http://www.bica99.org) is seen by
UNESCO (Rose 1998, Cyranek 1999, Rose 1999) and its partners as an approach which can empower
communities to make appropriate use of information and communication technologies for social, cultural
and economic development – through the co-operation of all concerned stakeholders at the community,
regional and national levels.
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With support of the DANIDA (Danish Development Assistance Agency) UNESCO could help to
implement MCT pilot projects in five least developed African countries within the HITD/AISI framework
in Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda. This development programme is jointly sponsored by
IDRC, the ITU and UNESCO, and has the support of several other international partners in specific
projects. The five telecentre pilot projects were selected by the national authorities on the basis of
development needs, available infrastructures and logistical considerations. The different locations and
national supporters of these MCTs are:
Benin: Malanville, a town in the far north of the country. VSAT system foreseen 2001. Support by
telecom, concerned ministries, local authorities and enthusiastic user groups.
Mali: Timbuktu, a medium sized city and the principal regional administrative centre for the desert north.
The MCT will work with a leased 64 Kb line. Support of the ministries concerned with communication,
culture, tourism, education and of the regional and municipal authorities.
Mozambique: Manhiça and Namaacha, about 80 km from Maputo. Participants in the Mozambique
telecentre project include various sectors of Eduardo Mondlane University especially the Informatics
Centre (CIUEM) with support from teacher training institutions and various governmental bodies which
are members of the Mozambique Acacia Advisory Committee.
Tanzania: Sengerema, a rural town on Lake Victoria. Support of the Tanzania Commission for Science
and Technology, ministries of health, environment, agriculture and rural development, a local development
association, local Government, Open University in Tanzania, hospital and health organizations in the area,
local business, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Uganda: Nakaseke, a rural village 50 km north of Kampala. Principal national support of Uganda
National Commission for UNESCO, the Uganda Public Libraries Board and Uganda Telecommunications
Limited.
The UNESCO/DANIDA component in these five pilot projects concentrates on support for formal and
non-formal education initiatives, experiments on distance education, but is also aimed to strengthen grassroots organizations, and the information capacity of the MCTs in co-operation with public library systems.
4.2
Distance Education via Satellite Radio
The WorldSpace Digital Satellite System consists of three geostationary satellites which will cover Africa,
Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean Basin, Latin America and the Caribbean. Each content provider
routes a specially coded digital signal through a small satellite dish to a Worldspace geostationary satellite.
The WorldSpace Digital Satellite Receiver has been developed in cooperation with Matsushita (Panasonic),
Hitachi, Sanyo, and JVC (www.worldspace.com). The Afristar satellite operates now for Africa. Since the
last 10 years WorldSpace has secured $1 billion in private financing.
4.2.1 Downloading Internet content without a phone line
Contracted content of Internet can be downlowded since November 2000. This offers new possibilities for
downloading distance education materials. A special modem (35$) is needed for connecting the
WorldSpace receiver (120US$) with a PC. Contracted are yet NASA, WHO, Washington Post, New York
Times, Reuters. UNESCO is in discussion with WorldSpace, to offer the UNESCO Web content
(www.unesco.org) with continous updates for education, science, culture and communication.
4.2.2 Mobile Telekiosk on a Truck
A mobile telekiosk unit has been developed by Worldspace to test the market and train people. The truck
is equipped with Multimedia (WS receivers, PCs, Internet access, and printing facilities), with a Radio
Studio (for local radio shows, recordings and re-broadcasting outside area for social and community
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development activities), Public telephones (Schlumberger Publiphones and Inmarsat Publisat) and general
equipment like power generator, solar panels, air conditioning, security and fire alarms, various antennas).
The costs for a mobile unit are 200.000 US$, it may come down to 50.000US$ if produced for all 53
African countries. The first pilot project started 2000 in Mali in cooperation with the national Telecom
Sotelma.
5
Recommendations for Distance Education
The seminar Distance Education by Satellite (NILESAT) held in Cairo April 1999 in cooperation with the
European Union and UNESCO resulted from the four working groups on Educational Aspects, Courseware
Development Aspects, Delivery Technology Aspects, and Administrative Aspects among others with following
recommendations (Shawki, Cairo 1999):
 Assessment for Distance Education: Target audience and priority areas are viewed as critical success
factors.
 Importance of conducting a pre-phase to raise awareness among university professors and students as
to the availability of numerous new means for knowledge delivery and acquisition.
 Pilot projects to test different distance education models, including evaluation methods.
 Assessment study including
 Education models and teacher models for different faculties and curricula (including reexamination of various existing curricula)
 Methodologies for courseware development
 Suitable incentive schemes (financial or academic) to compensate staff for their involvement
relating to a chosen cost model
 Admission policies and procedures for distance education students
 Development of guidelines for admissible educational materials
 Faculty training and training of trainers on priority aspects of ICT applications in education
 Accreditation of distance education courses (undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programmes)
 Coordinating body serving as National Centre for ICT in Education (e.g. at Supreme Council of
Universities or Ministry of Higher Education).
 Attention to legal aspects of distance education: copyright, intellectual property, ownership of digital
media (see Copyright Bulletin 1999).
 Appropriatedness of tele-centres, equipment and interactive classrooms for distance education
 Support by government and private sector for affordable telecommunication costs
6
PALOP Co-operation on Virtual Learning
The objective of this UNESCO sponsored workshop for portuguese speaking African countries is to
strengthen co-operation in the field of distance education and virtual learning environments. Questions for
a demand driven approach are e.g.: Which courses are needed in the African context at local universities?
How to adapt existing course material? Can Universities or teacher training institution in Angola, Cape
Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tome e Principe offer courses or material for distance education?
What type of training for local professors to reach a better understanding of didactical methodologies, of
tools for co-operation, etc? What can be done at each institution to integrate distance courses in local
curriculum? Which institutions in Brazil and Portugal are willing to offer courses? What are actually
experiences in distance education cooperation between PALOP countries in Africa, including Brazil-Africa
and Portugal-Africa?
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recherche (AUPELF-UREF), http://www.refer.org
Winnips K. (1998): Scaffolding the development of skills in the design process for educational media
through hyperlinked units of learning material (ULMs). University of Twente. Faculty of Educational
Science and Technology. http://scaffolding.edte.utwente.nl
G. Cyranek, UNESCO
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APPENDIX
Contacts for Projects in Distance Education and Virtual Learning in Africa
 Distance Education and Online Learning
UNESCO framework of the Intersectoral Project on Education Technology, Distance Learning and
particularly on-line learning.
Contact: Mr Tawfik, Tel 0033-1-45 68 39 27, mk.chamakhi@paris.unesco.org

University of South Africa UNISA
Largest Distance Education University in Africa www.unisa.ac.za
Contact: Mr Robert Day, Executive Director, Information and Communications Technology Directorate,
PO Box 392, Unisa 0003, Johannesburg, South Africa, Bday@unisa.ac.za
 Institute for Distance Education South Africa
Activities in South Africa www.saide.org.za/
 African Virtual University AVU
http://www.avu.org/ also www.worldbank.org
Contact: Mr David Birk, World Bank, Washington, USA dbirk@worldbank.org
 Educational Media Agency EMA
reaches 5 Mio people in Ethiopia, cooperation with 10.000 schools, produces learning materials in 17
languages incl. English
Contact: Mr Damisso, Managing Director, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
 Worldspace project Ethiopia in cooperation with EMA; 6 month pilot project with 50 receiver for
digital radio via satellite. Aim: To re-educate 14.000 teachers in English, local languages, science etc
Contact: Mrs Aster Hidaru, Worldspace Corporation (www.worldspace.com) , Senior Adviser for
Africa, P.O. Box 17, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ahidaru@worldspace.com
 EMA-Cooperation with UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building (IICBA) in
Distance Education for Teacher Upgrade Program, Training the Training-course with IndiraGhandi University, India
Contact: Mrs Fay Chung, Director, IICBA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, fchung@unesco-iicba.org
 Association for the Development of Education in Africa
See publication catalogue: higher education  down-loadable reports including Bill Saint's report on
Distance Education in Subsaharan Africa http://www.bellanet.org/partners/adea/index.html
 Zimbabwe Open University
Planning Project for satellite based Virtual University 2001
Contact: Mr Peter Knight, USA ptknight@attglobal.net
 Commonwealth of Learning
www.commonwealth.int
G. Cyranek, UNESCO
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PALOP/RINAF Workshop
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 Virtual Learning at COL
down-loadable reports at http://www.col.org
 Global Development Learning Network (GDLN)
Distance learning centres around the world, launched by the World Bank 21 June 2000. Learning activities
on development issues using a web of high-speed communications technologies and interactive video,
electronic classrooms, satellite communications, and internet facilities www.gdln.org
Contact: Mrs Hubbard, World Bank, Washington jhubbard@worldbank.org
For comments and further information:
Günther Cyranek
UNESCO Office Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Regional Adviser Africa
Information Society Division
Tel 00251-1-44 54 22 direct , 00251-1-51 39 53 Secretariat
Mobile 00251-9-20 27 01
Fax
00251-1-51 14 14
g.cyranek@unesco.org
G. Cyranek, UNESCO
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