PARTNERING WITH POLYTECHNICS IN AFRICA

COL Education Specialist, Skills Development, Alison Mead Richardson with Nigeria’s Minister of Education, RUQAYYATU Rufa’i at the CAPA conference

COL continued its partnership with the Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA) by supporting its conference on the Entrepreneurial Polytechnic held in Nigeria in April. Officially opened by Nigeria’s new Minister of Education, Professor, the Honourable Ruqayyatu A. Rufa’i, the conference was attended by 150 participants from eight African countries. The three-day meeting focussed on studies and activities to support students who are preparing for self-employment.
CAPA membership is open to any technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institution in Commonwealth Africa. Established by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1977, it supports capacity building and policy development within member institutions.

www.capa-online.org

UPDATE FROM WIKIEDUCATOR

WikiEducator, the innovative online community dedicated to collaborative development of open educational resources (OERs) launched by COL in 2006, continues to expand its reach and features. Here’s an update from the OER Foundation, WikiEducator’s governing body:

• Vital statistics: 13,500 registered users on WikiEducator, top 100K website and approximately 10 million hits per month.
• New features: a WYSIWYG editor, the ability to convert MSWord and OpenOffice files into wiki format and a national OER repository for schools, pioneered by New Zealand teachers with funding support from the Ministry of Education. 
• Plan approved: The OER Foundation Board has approved the strategy and operational business plan, which was developed openly and transparently in WikiEducator. 
• Learning4Content: WikiEducator continues its groundbreaking work in providing free training in wiki skills through the Learning4Content project with funding support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and COL. Close to 4,000 educators have already taken Learning4Content training; there’s at least one free workshop each month. All members of the Commonwealth have an open invitation to sign up for a course.

www.WikiEducator.org

COL, CEMCA VIDEOS ONLINE

COL’s website now offers a number of videos that explain COL’s work. The collection of short videos include COL President Sir John Daniel providing an overview of COL, Vice President Professor Asha Kanwar outlining COL’s Three-Year Plan, 2009-2012 and COL Education Specialists discussing their particular areas of work. There are also links to videos from COL’s Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in London in July 2008.

www.col.org/videos

The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) website offers videos focussed on the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding: Civil Paths to Peace. These include interviews with Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, who chaired the Commission, and Commonwealth Secretary-General Mr. Kamalesh Sharma as well as educational leaders from around the Commonwealth.

www.cemca.org