COL hosted a meeting of its country Focal Points from the African and Mediterranean regions in Lilongwe, Malawi in May 2008.
Sixteen representatives attended the two-day meeting, which focussed on: - reviewing the progress of COL's Country Action Plans,
- gathering input for COL's Three-year Plan 2009-2012,
- providing a platform for network and future collaboration among Focal Points and COL staff, and
- providing a professional development opportunity for all participants.
The Focal Points provided reports about the status of open and distance learning in their countries, key priorities and how COL can help further their agenda. There was general endorsement of COL's current direction and a call for greater support for research, capacity building and implementing open universities.
The Focal Point is COL's primary contact for programme matters in each Commonwealth member state. The Asia/Pacific Focal Points are meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October 2008.
www.col.org/focalpoints 
COL is working in partnership with Rupantar, a non-governmental organisation, to strengthen the skills and knowledge of elected local government representatives in Bangladesh. Because of varying literacy levels and time commitments, this group is not well suited to traditional education. Rupantar addresses governance issues by building on traditional culture through drama productions, folk music and popular publications.
With COL's support, Rupantar has developed four training modules that focus on: - The role and responsibilities of local government,
- Participation in the government system,
- Accountability and transparency, and
- Ensuring the participation of women in government systems.
The modules, which include print materials supplemented by folk songs and drama on DVD, will be piloted with local government offices in the southwest region of Bangladesh in early 2009. The next steps include ODL for good governance using radio. Rupantar has applied for a community radio station licence and hope to deliver programming within the next year, supported by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA).
www.rupantar.org COL continues to work with experts in copyright law to help Commonwealth member states increase access to learning content. Recent discussions have clarified two frequently used Creative Commons restrictions: No Derivatives (ND) and Non-Commercial (NC).
The ND restriction in Creative Commons licenses means that users may download, copy, and distribute the work as long as they don't change it in any way. If they want to translate it into another language, make changes or copy substantial excerpts, they need permission from the rights holder.
The NC restriction in Creative Commons licenses means the work may only be used where the project (or the new work) is planned to not generate a profit. Costs, including salaries and overhead expenses, may be recovered, and any kind of organisation may use the materials.
Complete details about ND and NC restrictions and other copyright information are available at
www.col.org/copyright. COL contributes to professional development and training in open and distance learning (ODL) knowledge and skills by providing professionals with experience outside their normal working environment. This could be with COL, in another institution or through conference participation.
Attachments Programme: COL provides financial support for ODL professionals who are at an early stage or mid-point in their careers and would benefit from a short-term attachment to another institution. All attachments are within Commonwealth member states. Applicants are responsible for finding their own attachment institution and for organising their own travel and professional development activities.
Executive Secondment: COL offers secondment/sabbatical opportunities for senior officials/academics in Commonwealth governments or institutions to live in Vancouver, Canada, working out of COL's offices for up to three months on specific projects related to COL's mandate.
Dr. Gamini Kulatunga, Coordinator of the Rural Research Unit at the Open University of Sri Lanka, took part in an executive secondment at COL in June 2008. During his one-month visit, Dr. Kulatunga studied COL's Lifelong Learning for Farmers programme, which relates to his work at OUSL's Rural Research Unit. He met with COL staff about their initiatives in different sectors, consulted with COL experts about monitoring and evaluation of rural development projects and visited local universities to broaden his understanding about the application of ODL and information and communication technology (ICT) for rural development projects.
"The time I spent at COL was useful to obtain firsthand experience of COL's work especially in the livelihood area," said Dr. Kulatunga. "I am assisting the Open University of Sri Lanka in implementing the milk-farmers project under Lifelong Learning for Farmers, and I will look at the possibilities of combining rural radio with mobile phone technology for communication."
www.col.org/Internships 
NINETEEN EDUCATORS TOOK PART IN A LEARNING4CONTENT WORKSHOP IN TONAGATAPU, TONGA IN AUGUST 2008
More than 700 people have been trained in wiki skills for content editing through COL's Learning4Content initiative. Since the beginning of 2008, 30 online and face-to-face workshops have been held, drawing participants from around the world. In return for the free training, participants are asked to sign a "learning contract", pledging to contribute one learning resource to COL's library of free learning materials.
Learning4Content is supported by COL and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. An honorarium of US $1,000 is available for each workshop to support the costs of facilitation and/or hosting. The initiative seeks to train 2,500 educators and is actively seeking new participants.
For more information about facilitating a workshop, organising a workshop in your country, taking part as a learner or contributing funding to Learning4Content, contact Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, COL Education Specialist, eLearning and ICT Policy at
wmackintosh@col.org or visit the WikiEducator website.
www.WikiEducator.org/Learning4Content Unreliable Internet connectivity often serves as an obstacle to the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) for educators in developing countries. COL has worked in partnership with the Open Society Institute to create an Open Document format that allows users to download materials from WikiEducator to a word processor. Unlike a PDF, these documents can be easily edited on a desktop. This means that educators who don't have 24/7 Internet connectivity can still use content from WikiEducator.
COL's WikiEducator was the inaugural recipient of a Merlot Africa Network (MAN) Exemplary Open Education Resources (OER) Practices Award in the category "Free Software for Content Authoring" at this year's eLearning Africa conference held in Accra, Ghana in May. MAN is a group of African and US educational institutions affiliated with the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) and eLearning providers with development programmes targeting Sub-Saharan Africa. The awards programme is a partnership between MAN and eLearning Africa.
The Awards Committee acknowledged the WikiEducator community's "pioneering role of the WikiEducator project as a model of content authoring and professional development that supports the OER movement".
http://man.merlot.org COL President Sir John Daniel's March 2008 speech to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Grantees Meeting was selected to be included in the international magazine, "Vital Speeches of the Day". Sir John's comments on Open Education ran alongside speeches by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the magazine's May 2008 issue.
www.vsotd.com
www.col.org/speeches