Delegates from 81 countries to attend eLearning Africa

Rebecca Stromeyer, project manager of eLearning Africa and managing director of ICWE, who organises the conference in cooperation with Hoffmann & Reif and the Kenyan Ministry of Education, comments: “So far, just over 1000 participants from 81 countries have already registered for the conference. We are very pleased to announce that the second eLearning Africa conference has not only grown considerably in numbers but also is once again a truly African event, with more than 70% of the attendees coming from the African continent.”

The largest participant group will come from Kenya, the hosting country of this year's conference. Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, will send the second-largest group, followed by South African and Ugandan groups. From Europe, the UK will send the largest contingent. Canada and the USA are also well represented.

The conference focuses on ICT-supported education, which is a core component of the development plans of most African governments. ICTs are being integrated into many national educational systems in order to reach the Millennium Goal of “Education for All“.

This will be given special emphasis in the programme, which covers a wide range of topics, such as elearning in medical education and the fight against HIV and AIDS, mobile learning, open source and open content, as well as elearning in schools, higher education institutions, and in the public sector.

Universities from all over the continent are presenting ICT good practice and elearning programmes, including the University of Ibadan, Nigeria; the African Virtual University; University of Zimbabwe; Tumaini University, Tanzania; and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, to name but a few.

The 308 speakers from 55 countries include representatives from major development organisations such as UNESCO, UNEVOC, the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), and the World Bank, as well as national and governmental institutions, mainly from Africa but also from Europe, Asia, and North America.

The hosting country, Kenya, will be represented at eLearning Africa by high-level speakers from the Ministry of Education, the Universities of Nairobi and Maseno, as well as major Kenya-based global development organisations.

The event has forged a dynamic network of stakeholders and now links decision makers from governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, industry, and important partners in development cooperation. Each year a different African country will serve as the venue. Last year, 832 participants from 80 countries attended the first conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

For more information, see: www.eLearning-africa.com