NEWS From COL

By Dave Wilson
Communications Manager
COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING (COL)
1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 1200, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9 CANADA
PH: +1.604.775.8200 | FAX: +1.604.775.8210
WEB: www.col.org | E-MAIL: info@col.org

In News from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) of December 2010, details on the following have been released:
1) Excellence in Distance Education Award winners
2) More than 600 attend PCF6
3) Call for expressions of interest to co-host PCF7

1) Congratulations to Excellence in Distance Education Award winners
COL’s biennials Excellence in Distance Education Awards were presented at the Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Kochi, India late last month. Congratulations to all the winners:

Honorary Fellows of COL:
• Professor M. Aminul Islam, Bangladesh
• Dr. Roger Mills, UK
• The Honourable Naledi Pandor, South Africa
• Ms. Peecheeta Spencer, Antigua & Barbuda
• Professor John Tarrant, U.K.

Institutional Achievement:
• Open University of Malaysia
• Polytechnic of Namibia
• Memorial University of Newfoundland

Materials, Category A:
Materials in print, audio or video, or a combination of these:
• Francistown College of Technical & Vocational Education, for the Botswana Technical Education Programme Certificate Course – The Human Body.

Materials, Category B:
Interactive, electronically delivered materials, which may be supplemented by materials developed in other media:
• University of Mauritius, for the Diploma in Web & Multimedia Development of the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning

Distance Learning Experience, degree-granting programme:
• Professor Chan Lai Keng, Malaysia

Distance Learning Experience, eLearning experience in difficult circumstances
Mr. Osman Ali Gema Eshag, Sudan

Further details on the awards, the ceremony and the winners:
www.col.org/edea/2010

2) More than 600 attend PCF6
More than 600 people from more than 50 countries attended COL's Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6) in Kochi, Kerala, India from 24-28 November. PCF6 was co-hosted in India in partnership with the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Conference Co-Chairs were Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, and Sir John Daniel, President and C.E.O. of COL. PCF6’s Honorary Chair was Professor M.S. Swaminathan.

Delegates explored the contribution of open and distance learning to international development goals, by opening up access to learning at every level. The theme was Access & Success in Learning: Global Development Perspectives. Sub themes were: Social Justice, Community Development, Skills Development and Formal Education.
PCF6’s daily newsletters with photos, published by IGNOU, can be read here: www.col.org/pcf.
Over 300 papers were included in the programme, which are available for all at http://wikieducator.org/PCF6.
Several keynote presentations, including Sir John’s sum-up (Access and Success in Learning: Your Conclusions) are available at www.col.org/speeches.
Reports, conclusions and impressions of PCF6 from COL staff are at www.col.org/blog (comments welcome).
News items published in the Indian and other national press have been collected by COL at www.delicious.com/Commonwealth_of_Learning/PCF6.
PCF6 participants are invited to complete an online survey that will help us to evaluate the Forum: www.surveymonkey.com/s/PCF6

In addition to COL and IGNOU other PCF6 sponsors included the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), UNESCO, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS, India), the Commonwealth Secretariat, The Open University (U.K.) and the University of London. Sponsorship funds are directed entirely to travel subsidies for over 100 delegates from Commonwealth developing countries – none of whom have received funding from COL in the past to attend a PCF – and ensure that there is representation from as many member states as possible. Thank you to all.
www.col.org/pcf6

3) PCF7 co-host: Call for expressions of interest

COL has issued a call for expressions of interest for organisations, institutions and/or countries interested in co-hosting the next Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in 2012. Please address your submission to COL’s President and C.E.O., Sir John Daniel, c/o info@col.org, and include details on proposed hosting arrangements and support. Deadline: 31 January 2011.
www.col.org/pcf

LEARNING FOR DEVELOPMENT:
COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

Connections/EdTech News: www.col.org/connections
COL blog: www.col.org/blog
COL videos: www.col.org/videos
COL facebook page: www.facebook.com/COL4D

World Press Freedom Day 2011

Paris, 16th December, 2010
“21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers” is the theme of the next edition of World Press Freedom Day, which will be celebrated on 3 May 2011. Events are planned in more than 100 countries to celebrate the Day, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration for the promotion of free and pluralistic media.
Among the highlights will be the presentation of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The award ceremony will be held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The Prize, created in 1997, is awarded annually to a person, organization or institution that has made an important contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom, anywhere in the world, especially if it involved taking risks.
An international conference will also be held in Washington from 1-3 May on the theme for the Day, organised by UNESCO, the U.S State Department and over 20 civil society partners. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a leading funder of the event, which will be supported by private donations. The conference will be held at the Newseum, which is a museum devoted to the history of the press and to freedom of expression worldwide. Discussions will focus on the increasing role of the internet, the emergence of new media and the dramatic rise in social networking. For a complete list of the organizations welcoming this dialogue and volunteering to support the co-hosts in organization of the event, click here.

A special event is planned for 4 May at United Nations headquarters in New York to mark the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration. Adopted in 1991 after a conference held in Windhoek (Namibia) on the development of a free African press, this declaration emphasizes the importance of an independent press for the development and preservation of democracy and economic development. Two years later, the UN General Assembly established World Press Freedom Day.
This anniversary will be celebrated in Windhoek with a regional conference to review the future of the media in Africa. A publication, “So this is media freedom? 20 years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom”, analysing two decades of media freedom in Africa, will be launched.
In the Arab States, UNESCO and the satellite network Al Jazeera will work together to host a series of events to mark the Day. UNESCO is also encouraging all those who are celebrating World Press Freedom Day to observe a minute of silence in memory of the journalists who have given their lives for our right to be informed.

Freedom of Expression

UNESCO International Symposium on Freedom of Expression
In Paris, 26 January 2011
An International Symposium on Freedom of Expression, sponsored by the Swedish National Commission, will be organized by UNESCO at its Headquarters on 26 January 2011. Based on the premises that freedom of expression is a cornerstone of the human rights edifice, and that open and participatory communication is vital for successful development, the debates will focus on the status of press freedom worldwide, the safety of media professionals as well as the changes of the media landscape in the digital age.
The meeting will gather some 300 participants including government officials, policymakers, representatives of major non-governmental organizations and media professionals, as well as the World Press Freedom Prize winner.

This one-day event is aligned with UNESCO’s mission to foster the free flow of ideas by word and image, and its promotion of the value of information and communication for “advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples”. UNESCO has long highlighted the links between the free flow of ideas and the broader objective of preventing wars and constructing the defences of peace.

Press freedom around the globe is far from secured, and new forms of restrictions have added to the traditional ones faced by news outlets and media professionals. Intimidation, arrests and physical attacks, and in the worst cases murder are a reality faced by journalists, editors and publishers throughout the world, both in conflict and peace-time settings. Impunity continues to surround most of these crimes, whose perpetrators are largely left unpunished. Reflection on the current obstacles to freedom of expression and press freedom, and on how to ensure journalists’ safety in this context will be fostered during the International Symposium.

The digital age has brought with it key opportunities, along with dilemmas whose complexity is today the substance of heated discussions. These issues will also be emphasized during the exchange of ideas promoted in the Symposium. The possibilities that new technologies have opened for the free flow of information and the expression of opinions, their potential to advance citizen empowerment, the demand for accountability and social and human development will likely be among the examined themes.

Moreover, considerations about how to best adapt the legal and regulatory environment, combat new risks to press freedom and freedom of expression, address privacy and security implications will also need to be addressed. Other central topics to be analysed in relation to journalism in a digitalized world will be the emerging media business models, the protection of confidential sources, and the promotion of media accountability and professional standards, among many others. To register for the event, please visit the following link: www.unesco.org/webworld/en/fed-symposium-registration
This message is brought to you courtesy of UNESCO

HealthPhone Promoting Healthy Communities

By Cameroon Link
HealthPhone is coming soon to village, town, city, slum, block, district, state, province, country near you! Mobile phones pre-loaded with reliable, relevant, contextually-appropriate, comprehensive, consistent health and nutrition knowledge and know-how delivered directly to individuals, families and communities, even those – especially those – who live in villages and slums and those that are illiterate. Available 24x7, Everywhere! Multimedia health and nutrition content, downloadable Apps., distribution networks and much more under development.
The uncomfortable reality is that we live in a world where there is a Silent emergency every day: 22,000 children will die from preventable causes today. 1,000 women will die from pregnancy-related causes today. This year, 4 million newborns worldwide will die in the first month of life.
The silent killers that will take away their lives are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and related causes. Five diseases – pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles and AIDS – together account for half of all deaths of children under 5. Hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent projects are being implemented in both rural and urban parts of the world. Some serve a village, while others serve a group of villages, a city, a town, a taluka, a block or a district. Yet few projects are implemented state-wide and even fewer nationwide. Why is that? A key factor is capacity-building and scaling-up.
Health education has to be one of the most effective ways to reduce maternal and child mortality, those preventable deaths that we never seem to manage to prevent. We need to deliver vital messages and information for mothers, fathers, siblings, caregivers and communities to use in changing behaviour and practices: messages that can save and protect the lives of children and help them grow and develop to their full potential.
For the illiterate, currently their only source of information is probably going to be the people around you, who are also, in many cases, illiterate. Their level of dependency and lack of self-reliance, their dis-empowerment and exclusion, is at a level that many of us will find hard to imagine.
The mobile phones have made connection possible in ways that were truly unthinkable very recently. And it has stoked the desire of people to be connected. Take India for example: with a population of 1.17 billion and a wireless user base of about 700 million, and growing at the rate of 15 to 20 million a month. "Cell Phone penetration will reach 97% by 2014", according to a recent study. Soon, almost everybody will have one.
This is a game-changer for capacity-building and scaling up. It means we can reach the excluded, the illiterate, all those women, men and children who were only visible in tragic statistics. We can reach families and communities as a whole - something we've never really been able to do before.
HealthPhone has health and nutrition knowledge, prepared jointly by UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP and The World Bank, on Timing Births, Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, Child Development and Early Learning, Breastfeeding, Nutrition and Growth, Immunization, Diarrhoea, Coughs Colds and More Serious Illnesses, Hygiene, Malaria, HIV, Child Protection, Injury Prevention, Emergencies: preparedness and response.
Initial content in English and 15 Indian Languages: Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Tamil Telugu and Urdu. Watch the intro video at http://healthphone.org