BPN 1342 WSYA winners' list

Young People act on United Nations Millennium Goals using Internet Contents
From online music and TV communities to interactive gaming platforms to e-learning applications and HIV/AIDS resources, the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) presents young people who use Internet and Mobiles to get Action on United Nations Millennium Development goals.

Over 600 projects were evaluated in a three-round judging process by an international jury of 20 experts in the fields of youth engagement, new media and social entrepreneurship.

The Winners are:

Category 1: FIGHT HUNGER, POVERTY & DISEASE!
- "Lil' MDGs: Kids making Changes" by Dylan Mahalingam (USA)
- "Remote Patient Monitoring System" by Tanwani Ajay Kumar (Pakistan)
- "Mobile Doctor" by Andreas Jakl (Austria)

Category 2: EDUCATION FOR ALL!
- "Everything on HIV and AIDS in Iran" by Morteza Moshir Sinaei (Iran)
- "Alternatives: Findin New Possibilities for Youth" by Sanjeev Raj Neupane (Nepal)
- "Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development" by Crystal Kigoni (Kenya)

Category 3: POWER 2 WOMEN!
- "Dokhtiran: e-Magazine on Women's Rights" by Gholamzadeh Hamid Reza (Iran)
- "The Sisters 4 Peace Network" by Sejal Hathi (USA)
- "Empower Women and Meet Millennium Challenges" by George Onyango (Kenya)

Category 4: CREATE YOUR CULTURE!
- "Roots & Routes TV" by Aileen Wessely (Germany)
- "Savvy Chavvy" by Christy McAleese (Great Britain)
- "The Extraordinaries" by Jacob Colker (USA)

Category 5: GO GREEN!
- "Sewer Tourism" by Andrew Mutua (Kenya)
- "Greenlighted" by Vladimir Dubovskiy (USA)
- "Guardian of Eden" by Ricardo Quirante Martinez (Netherlands)

Blog Postingh Number: 1342

Tags: multimedia competition

BPN 1107 Developing m-learning in Bahrain

On my last day in Bahrain, Wednesday, I was invited by Dr Ali M.A. Al-Soufi, one of the eGov jury members, to the Arab Open University Bahrain branch. He is there the section manager for ICT. I was welcomed to the campus by Prof. Samir Qasim Fakhro, the director of AOU Bahrain branch. AOU is a collective of branches in the Gulf area. The Bahrain branch is housed on a small campus just outside Manama. I had a tour of the building, the library and the facilities as computer labs.

The Arab Open University (AOU) offers three streams of learning. One stream is for a BA degree, accredited by the British Open University; the second stream is a centre of excellence for the Open University of Malaysia and the French university of Rouen offering a Master’s degree. The third stream is the hosting of professional skills enhancing graduate programs. The BA program includes a BA in Business Administration and a BA in Information Technology. The Master's program offers amongst others MBAs in General management, ICT and HR/Marketing. Most interesting is the course on Islamic finance, a new way of interest free banking. And as Bahrain is a kingdom, it was interesting to hear that the AOU offers a course on water management, a speciality of our Dutch crown prince (The AOU Bahrain branch is sponsored by one of the three crown princes of Bahrain).

The AOU offers its own e-learning campus system. It was started between 2003 and 2004. Their system contains five modules. There is a learning management system, containing all the administrative procedures for entry to the AOU and for payment. The second module is the virtual classroom in which you can talk to the instructor, but also the other students. There is a an e-library system, linking the students amongst others to the Open University Malaysia with its 21 databases of bibliographic book information, e-journals and repertory of master theses. Of course there are e-lectures. Last but not least there are the student packages of books and CDs. The Arab Open University believes in blended learning, using all the tools, analogue or digital, but also in studying at the university and virtual classes. The trade language is English while there is also support material for Arabic. The professional courses in for example finance, health, hotel management and manufacturing are produced in cooperation with industry, government and institutions; the students receive a certificate for following these courses.

The AOU Bahrain branch is ambitious. They are developing a platform for m-learning. But they are also eager to link up with other universities to develop programs. They look at this world in terms of networked learning. But even important to the management is the exposure to other cultures. I had a chance to them about digital paper and the experiment with digital paper by the Dutch Open University.

Blog Posting Number: 1107

Tags: e-learning, m-learning