Focus on Canada

Canadian participation in the second annual eLearning Africa conference is showing a dramatic increase as an unprecedented number of Canadian delegates prepare to head to Nairobi in late May. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) recently approved a substantial contribution to CC Africa to support African participation in the upcoming event.
More

The Canadian team going to eLearning Africa at the end of May, 2007 has named Emily Claire Poupart as the deputy chief of its mission to Nairobi and Kenya. Currently the director of development for the Consortium for International Development in Education (CIDE) which is headquartered in Montreal, Poupart speaks English, French, and Spanish and she has studied Mandarin, Italian and Arabic.
More

eLearning Africa 2007 is enjoying a fantastic response from the African and international educational communities. The first eLearning Africa conference, held in 2006 in Addis Ababa, realized more than 800 participants and immediately established itself as a landmark for capacity building, networking, and collaboration for Africa. The registration of participants by late March 2007 for this year’s event was almost four times higher than it had been in March 2006 for last year’s conference.
More

Nineteen Canadian speakers, including two keynotes, have been confirmed for eLA in Kenya. Canadian presenters will be speaking on topics that address several conference themes. In addition, Canadians will facilitate two workshops, host two demonstrations, and participate in various panel discussions over the three-day event. The closing plenary will feature an interactive session with presentations from senior government representatives from a number of African nations along with other key stakeholder representatives. Keynote speakers during the closing plenary will include: Dr. Kenneth Keirstead, The Lyceum Group, New Brunswick, Canada & Conakry, Mali; and Nancy Knowlton, SMART Technologies Inc., Alberta. Canada.
More

eLearning Africa 2007, under the patronage of the Hon. Prof. George Saitoti, the Kenyan Minister for Education, Science and Technology, is focused on building a Pan-African educational event that will embrace all of Africa and nurture cross-border understanding and learning across the continent, and beyond. The event is expected to attract participants from over 80 countries and open the door for further collaboration and opportunity for the expansion of elearning in Africa.

A total of sixteen Canadian companies expressed an interest in exhibiting at this year’s event in Nairobi.
More

East and Southern Africa is the only region in the world that is not connected to the global broadband infrastructure. A crucial step in removing this obstacle occurred in Washington DC on March 29 2007 when the World Bank Board of Directors approved an International Development Association (IDA) financing package of 164.5 million (USD) for Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar. The financing package represents the first segment of the US$424 million Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) for high-speed connectivity in East and Southern Africa.
More

Roberto Gauvin, directeur d'école au Centre d'apprentissage du Haut-Madawaska, has been accepted as a speaker at this year’s eLearning Africa (eLA) conference in Nairobi, Kenya from May 28 - 30.

Mr. Gauvin’s proposal, "Comment Nous Avons Créé une Communauté d'Apprentissage à l'Ecole à l'Aide du Cybercarnet", was selected by the eLA Review Committee for inclusion in the session, "Successful Strategies for Implementing ICT in Schools", which will take place on Wednesday May, 30 from 11.15 am - 12.45 pm.
More

Maureen O'Neil (MO) is the president of International Development Research Centre (IDRC). In the following excerpt of a closed interview in late 2006, Maureen spoke to Atanu Garai (AG), Online Networking Specialist with Globethics.net, Geneva.
More

Two Canadian speakers of the upcoming eLearning Africa conference have been invited to speak at the upcoming International Development Days (IDD) conference being held from May 22nd to 24th in Fredericton. Gary Stairs, President of Red Hot Learning Inc., Fredericton NB will be speaking on the importance of viewing telecommunications infrastructure and learning technology as key tools for international development over the long term, while simultaneously taking advantage of immediate opportunities.
More

Before you travel abroad, it’s important to consult travel reports for the country or countries you plan to visit to learn about the safety and security conditions, health concerns, weather conditions, local laws and the country’s entry requirements. The following excerpt was taken from the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada’s Consular Affairs website at http://voyage.gc.ca/dest/ctry/reportpage-en.asp. The information contained in the article is important for all travelers who will be visiting Kenya for the eLA conference in May.
More

The second annual International Conference on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Development, Education and Training will be held in Kenya in May 2007. “eLearning Africa” (eLA), the world’s largest international eLearning conference, is held in a different African location each May and attracts over 830 participants from more than 80 countries representing every continent.
More

In an unprecedented partnership for the Canadian eLearning industry, the Canadian Council on Africa (CCA) and International Conferences, Workshops and Exhibitions (ICWE) signed a collaboration agreement in Ottawa and Berlin, on March 15 2007 regarding collaboration on the upcoming 2007 eLearning Africa Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
More

The eLA@Ca working group is pleased to report that EduCanada, the International Education Promotion unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) has agreed to financially assist the eLA Canadian trade mission project, in partnership with the Canadian High Commission in Kenya (CHC) and the DFAIT Business Sectors Bureau.
More

The 2^nd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, which is taking place in Nairobi this May, is realizing significant and growing Canadian support thanks to The Canadian Council on Africa (CCAfrica) and the Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance (CeLEA), two major proponents of the eLearning Africa (eLA) conference, who have been actively engaged in promoting the participation of Canadian companies and individuals in the event.
More

Canada as a country has a proud tradition of being as generous abroad as its people are at home. Canada spent $4.1-billion in official development assistance in 2004-05 and is currently supporting development efforts in more than 150 countries around the world. Notably, it took a leadership role on African development when it became the first Group of Eight country to support the New Partnership for Africa's Development and created the $500-million Canada Fund for Africa.
More

The eLA@Ca working committee has named Embleton Travel of Fredericton as the official travel agent for the Canadian trade and speaker delegation to eLearning Africa 2007. Notes Mary Ogilvie, the Atlantic Vice-President of the Council “We are fortunate that one of our own CCA members, Marie Embleton, has both a vast travel-industry purchasing network and, literally, decades of supplying corporate and leisure travel services to Africa. In our view, the eLA event has particularly complex integration requirements plus the demands of international travel are ever-increasing.”

Phone 1-800-525-4646 or contact@embletontravel.com
Travel advice: http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=149000#2

The Lyceum Group, a private consulting company based in Guinea, has dedicated its work to community development in West Africa. Since its foundation in 2001, the group has undertaken several activities in Guinea in the fields of health care, biological diversity sciences, and education. The eLA News Service recently spoke to the founder, Dr. Kenneth Keirstead, about his mission.
More

Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), in conjunction with Business New Brunswick, is pleased to present International Development Days and New Brunswick Manufacturing Days 2007 jointly in one comprehensive event, being held from May 22^nd to 24^th in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

International Development Days (IDD) 2007 promises to be particularly exciting with the anticipated attendance of an Africa trade delegation, as well as the presentation of the prestigious 15^th Annual Canadian Awards for International Cooperation at this year’s event.
More

Berlin/Nairobi. There was a phenomenal response in the 2007 call for papers for the second eLearning Africa conference, which will take place from May 28 to 30 in Nairobi, Kenya. The annual event is rapidly becoming the preeminent eLearning capacity-building event for the entire African continent and a forum for all stakeholders engaged in the planning and implementation of technology-supported learning and training.
More