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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear Members,</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Taking the WSIS agenda for education
forward, the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, CSDMS (a
non-profit organisation based in India, working through media research
and advocacy in ICT4D domain, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><A
href=""><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">www.csdms.in</SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">) India, is building a regional
platform for Asian level consultation on ICT in education. With a focus on
promoting education and capacity building with ICT at all levels
and recognising the criticality of knowledge sharing in integrating ICT in
education among all stakeholders, this platform will provide
practitioners an opportunity to share views and experiences in ICT
enabled learning and capacity building programs. This face-to-face
consultation titled <B>'Digital Learning Asia'</B> will be held from 25-28 April
2006 at Bangkok, Thailand.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This conference will see
participation from policy-makers in Government, academicians and practitioners
from civil society organizations and industry solution providers to share
knowledge, dialogue on policy issues and learn from best practices in Asia and
outside. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Some of the themes of discussion
(among others) in this conference will be National ICT in education
policies, trends in e-learning in Asia, challenges of integrating ICT in
education, opencourseware for higher education, public-private partnership for
education, measuring outcomes of ICT enabled learning. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">The consultation
has assumed immense importance with the commitment of the South East Asian
Ministers of Education Organisation, SEAMEO (</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href=""><SPAN
style="COLOR: purple; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">www.seameo.org</SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">) and
Asia e-learning Network, AEN (<A href=""><SPAN
style="COLOR: purple">www.asia-elearning.net</SPAN></A>), Software Industry
Promotion Agency, SIPA (<A href="">www.sipa.or.th</A> ), UNDP APDIP (<A
href=""><SPAN style="COLOR: purple">www.apdip.net</SPAN></A> ) as supporting
organisations We hope to be able to advocate and bring the recommendations of
this conference at the highest level of decision-making.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">The
conference has already received response and support from Chulalongkorn
University at Bangkok (Thailand), National University of Singapore (NUS),
University of Malaya (Malaysia), </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">National Computerization Agency,
Govt. of Korea; EPFL, Switzerland, Govt. of Egypt, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">The
Danish Technological Institute (Denmark), Universiti Teknologi Mara (Malaysia),
Centre for Good Governance (CGG), India.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">We would
like to welcome members of this group to participate and share your views in the
conference to strengthen the agenda for ICT in education in Asia. Your presence
and active participation will guide the conference and help enhance the
value of the consultation. Please take a few minutes to view (and bookmark)
the conference website </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href=""><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">www.dlasia.csdms.in</SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> which
is being frequently updated with latest information about the partners, and
associates who are supporting this conference. Please write to <A
href="">himanshu@csdms.in</A> if you are interested to be a speaker and/or
participate in the conference.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rumi Mallick</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
(CSDMS), </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>India <BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href=""></A></FONT> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
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