Third International ICT conference launched

04-23-08
Page 31
THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof Dominic Fobih, yesterday launched the third international conference on Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Development, Education and Training to be hosted by the country next month.
The annual event, which was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, last year, will be attended by about 1,800 guests and will be held from May 28-30, 2008.
Addressing the press in Accra, Prof Fobih said the sharing of ideas, best practices and lessons learnt in both developing and industrialised countries would strengthen the emerging Ghanaian community of ICT practitioners, as well as forge co-operation between African and European stakeholders.
He said the conference, which will focus on developing e-learning capacities in Africa, would bring high quality expertise and knowledge in a cost-effective way to the country through mobilising more than 300 African and international speakers.
“The magnitude of the event and its features will provide an unprecedented opportunity for hosting the country’s professionals and stakeholders for benchmarking, learning, sharing and networking, thus strengthening the numerous educational technology initiatives and projects,” he said.
Prof Fobih said in spite of the numerous benefits of e-learning, there were some challenges, including limited access to ICT hardware, inadequate infrastructure, and training of teachers and ICT co-ordinators.
The Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, Ms Dorothy Gordon, who outlined the structure of the conference, said there would be four plenary sessions, 66 sessions in 11 parallel conference stands, 48 demonstrations and best practices, 13 workshops and a number of new features.
She said the event, which will be organised in conjunction with International Conferences, Workshops and Exhibitions(ICWE) organisation and Hoffmann and Reif Consultancy, would seek to demystify the concept of e-learning.
She said pre-conference workshops would offer participants the opportunity to gain from leading experts knowledge and insight into a variety of specialised fields.
The Co-ordinator of the ICT session at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Rev Emmanuel Dadebo, said the government had mapped out a number of strategies in the deployment of ICT in the country.