Winners in the
Education category
Project OASISS: Online Advising Support and Interactive Study System
Oasis is a project true to the spirit of empowerment and of equal opportunity. Integrated into a well established institution, it has achieved sustainability. The bilingual platform excels and should be considered as good case study by other countries and regions of the world. The unique features of this student support system include the way it caters for English and Mandarin students. Oasiss also provides the platform to advice and support for lifting the academic abilities. All students are provided with high value support and given all a chance to succeed. Congratulations to Oasiss for showing how ICT can assist in interactively supporting students.
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Women Aloud Videoblogging for Empowerment
Women Aloud is a powerful empowerment tool. If a picture is worth 1000 words, any story can best to be told by videos. This project is based on this simple idea. It is certainly worthwhile and the initial impact is very encouraging. It is a case where ICT gives women the possibility of interaction and access to role models. It is grassroots and with great impact. It has reached out even in war affected areas. Sustainability is an issue, particularly since the project addresses politically sensitive issues related to human and women rights. The determination demonstrated by the project participants gives us certainty that they will overcome this Challenge. Women Aloud is an important and excellent use of ICT to address critical social issues. Very exemplary. It is an example to be followed. Congratulations.
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Honorable mentions in the Education category
IT@School Project - programme for ICT interventions in schools in Kerala, India
IT@School has a well established management, organization and infrastructure. It has achieved greatly and has had great impact. This project has well organized ICT enabled education by integrating diverse elements such as capacity building, infrastructure, content development, and advanced technologies. It is notable to see a "School WIKI" for sharing knowledge. To improve the intellectual ability of the teachers and comprehension ability of the students is always a difficult task. This on-going award project with 10 years under its belt is no doubt impressive in size. We can appreciate the logistics involved in project with this extension. Soon IT@School will have to confront the challenge of renewing itself. We are certain they will be up to the challenge, given IT@School achievements so far.
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KEBI Online (Indonesia Electronic Braille Community)
KEBI Online empowers the vision impaired with easy access to Braille file and has a consistent focus on achieving its objectives. Building an online library and distributing files in Braille format for the visually impaired is commendable. It is empowering and providing equal opportunity to the sight impaired. It is an important application of technology to address an important social issue. Sustainability is clearly a major issue since the integrity of the system relies upon content development and the availability of specialized hardware (e.g., Braille printers). However, the goals and ambition of the project should make the sustainability concerns solvable. Entrepreneurship was rated highly since there appear to be numerous business opportunities surrounding the support of use of this system. Kebi is a project on the move and growing and soon it will reach the full potentials of ICT. The potential is present. Kebi is a courageous and very commendable project. Its example should be followed everywhere.
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m4Lit (Mobile Phones for Literacy)
m4Lit is an interesting project, down to earth, applicable. Nice case of adjusting to the local context ideas that are operational elsewhere. It is a superb application of technology which leads to the empowerment of a very large audience. M4Lit has the potential to become sustainable. If entrepreneurship depends upon potential "spin-offs" or enhancements, there would appear to be excellent possibilities. Before iPad and Kindle, reading books on PDA and mobile phones did not catch on in most countries. Perhaps using an Interactive device to do solitary activity is counter-intuitive. However, the idea in the context of Africa seems reasonable and the initial success should be congratulated.
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New Zealand International Science Festival's Meet a Metre: Flora, fauna and fungi in your school grounds
New Zealand International Science Festival is a fun project demonstrating the role of ICT in education. Information as well as activities are made accessible through the links. There is a good deal of focus on making difficult concepts fun to learn. The project is congratulated for providing information on scientific themes for young students and teachers through the Web site. New Zealand International Science Festival is expected to grow into new technologies on the site such as video and Web 2.0, so that users will be able to take full advantages of the potential presented in the site.
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NIIT Yuva Star Career Development Centers - Employability Training for the Under Served
NIIT Yuva focus on empowerment. The project has generated trained and qualified staff to assist people in challenging the ongoing unemployment crisis. Education is no doubt the best way for the unprivileged to climb the economic ladder. The target of training ten thousand youth in 500 centers is by no means an easy task. Matching India's unemployed workers with jobs in the country's growing economy is an excellent use of technology. Despite reliance on fees, NIIT Yuva continues to move forward given the difficult barrier this creates for the user community which is, by definition, unemployed. The impact is good, despite a great deal of competition in this arena. NIIT Yuva is a very meaningful and important project and it is worth receiving more support. The NIIT Yuva project itself is worthwhile and eventually will enhance the social mobility in the country.
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openEyA: Academic Classroom Webcasting with a Free Automated Lecture Capture System
openEyA is good, interesting and useful technology. It facilitates the class room work. To have an automated lecture recording system is rather appealing in many contexts. This project seems to alleviate the most time-consuming post-production editing stress of video production. It is nice that it is open source framework which should help to sustain it. Thus openEya has potential applicability in the developing world. We see a good future for this technology.
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Vidunena (Interactive e-learning portal for Sri Lankan Advanced Level students in Local Language)
Vidunena is a good project with a notable effort at empowerment. The project also has the admirable aim of teaching sciences, which at times is expensive. It is admirable to have a project to help disadvantaged high school students in the rural area. This project has definitely a step in the right direction in terms of using technology to help unprivileged students. It will be interesting to see it grow to include interactive multimedia and more. For this resources are needed. We would like to express our expectation that the achievements of this project will attract the well deserved recognition Vidunena deserves, as its managers outline in the project strategy. Congratulations for an excellent project.
Visit the Project website.