Ministry Of Education: Minister

Message From: Hon. Prof. Sam Ongeri, Minister for Education, Kenya

The Ministry of Education is pleased to invite and welcome you to participate in the upcoming 1st Regional Education Conference on E-Learning to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, 29th - 31st March 2010.

For us in the Ministry, eLearning is not just another technology. We have actively been developing local e-Learning content at the Kenya Institute of Education.

ICT integration, capacity building, and localisation of digital content are being implemented to ensure access, quality and equity, and education. We are grateful to Microsoft and VVOB who have partnered actively with the Ministry.

This conference is a capacity building event that also gives us the opportunity as Education managers in the country to stop and reflect on the technology path we are taking. A paradigm shift in implementation strategy will go beyond just putting computers on the desks by:

• Providing internet connectivity to schools for E-mail and Web browsing to supporting teaching and collaborative learning.
• Use of ICT’s to support school administration.
• Development of evaluation tools to measure impact of new technology on enhancement of teaching and learning.
• Providing teachers with extensive on-going training on how to integrate ICT’s into their teaching process (subject integration), the curriculum (curriculum integration) and how to mainstream ICT’s into the entire teaching and learning process.

In terms of policy environment, the Ministry have articulated role of ICT in education in documents such as KESSP. The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the private sector through the Kenya ICT Trust Fund have also developed a Regional ICT Strategy for Education and Training aimed at making ICT integration possible at all levels of education and training.

In keeping with the event theme “Transforming Education through e-learning” it is my wish that this conference will seek ways of ensuring the spirit of Vision 2030 is addressed through your interactions and the way forward.

Against this background, Ministry of Education is hosting this conference. I look forward to seeing you in Nairobi in March 2010.

Ministry Of Education: Permanent Secretary

Message from: Ambassador Magadaline Wambua. Acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education is honoured to host the 1st Regional Education Conference on E-Learning which will take place in the country between 29th - 31st March 2010 at the Kenya Institute of Education in Nairobi.

This Conference is hosted by my Ministry and sponsored by the Microsoft among other organizations. Other organizations working in partnership with us include other line ministries and ICWE Africa Ltd.

The theme of the 2010 conference “Transforming Education through E-Learning” reflects the significantefforts made by Kenya Government in facilitating the growth of ICT’s in education and development by setting up national and regional ICT infrastructures such as the submarine optic fibre and national fibre backbone so as to improve access to quality education and training for all.

This conference will give our education managers the opportunity to engage in discourse, share ideas and experiences on ICT’s and e-learning to supplement traditional methods of curriculum delivery. The conference will also provide an opportunity for the Ministry to re-examine our initiatives and achievements as we prepare to roll out the e-learning curriculum.

Since this forum brings together education practitioners, policy makers, industry leaders, as well as ICT research and development experts from Kenya and other countries, It will provide the opportunity for the participants to grasp and internalise the huge potentials advanced telecommunications technologies offer for the benefit of the education fraternity in Kenya Together we hope to take account of the challenges, achievements, and the strategies as well as the opportunities for inter-institutional cooperation and benchmarking.

We confirm - with confidence - that participants can look forward to an extensive and exciting agenda, featuring presentations from major players in the education and the development sector in general.

Kenya Institute Of Education

L. N. Nzomo OGW (MRS) Director

This conference marks a milestone in the African region as it is the first ICT regional conference. The conference recognizes the region’s level of connectivity and the great role of that it is technology in education to transform the region through extended access and lifelong flexible learning. Information and communication technologies have a great impact in education, and especially in this era when the integration of ICTs in education is a contemporary global concern and universally accepted trend. The use of computers in curriculum development in particular promises better and improved methods of content delivery, pedagogy as well as the expansion of the available teaching and learning resource base. Whereas technology cannot replace the teacher, in the instructional process, it forms an important and additional resource for both the teacher and learner.

The Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) as the National Center for Development of curriculum and curriculum support materials recognizes the importance in its undertakings. This in a nutshell is the provision and delivery of instructional and educational materials via all electronic media, including the internet, intranets, extranets, satellite, mass media in video, in DVDs and CD ROMs, Interactive Internet Radio and television among others. The e-content for schools is expected to aid the learning process by harnessing the benefits associated with digitized content including animation, simulation and graphical illustrations. The digitization of content will also facilitate virtual learning and enable access to the education contents by any learner in the country who has access to ICT facilities.

Microsoft East and Southern Africa

Mr. Mark Matunga

Microsoft Corp welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the Ministry of Education and stakeholders in the education sector in supporting the 1st National EducationConference on eLearning. Microsoft in partnership with the Government of Kenya, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Cisco and Intel are working to establish a School Technology Innovation Center (STIC) in Nairobi - a model that has been promoted in other countries through the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PiL) program.