Avallain

German Basic Skills system counts more than 350.000 alumni

2012-02-07T18:36:00.000Z

359.462 learners have used the revolutionary www.iwsl.de adaptive basic skills learning system since inception in 2004. With a uniquely rich content spread ranging from basic reading and writing to employability and English skills, the free system is enjoying continuously high popularity in blended and self-paced learning settings. The system is built around Avallain core expertise and architectures. www.ich-will-lernen.de

2011-12-21T08:38:00.001Z

This year we decided to use our holiday budget to support the Tumaini secondary school. Located in a very remote area without power supply, the school was firmly on the far side of the digital devide. Using our growing local network of suppliers and alumni in Kenya, a solar power station and laptops were installed. After a period of training and monitoring, a theft and recovery, the systems are now regularly used to access the internet over 3G and generally aquire computer literacy, a decisive skill in Kenyas fast developing internet industry.

Cornelsen publishers academic prep system based on Avallain META www.studienstarter.de wins Comenius EduMedia-Seal 2011

2011-09-22T08:07:00.001Z

Cornelsen & Charité - www.studienstarter.de - first assessment based academic prep system on Avallain META showcases a promising new e-learning model. Studienstarter offers online courses in individually tailored packages for high school students preparing for entry exams to medical studies. An elaborate assessment cockpit identifies needs and proposes corresponding interactive learning content. Sophisticated curriculum handling, an innovative interface and extensive commerce support characterize the system based on the Avallain META architecture.

LitCam Conference 2011

2011-09-15T10:39:00.000Z

On the 10th and 11th October 2011 the 6th LitCam conference will take place in Frankfurt, Germany. LitCam is part of the Frankfurt Book Fair and for the past 6 years it has opened the event with a conference which brings together interesting and vibrant presentations and workshops from projects and organisations around the globe. For more information on LitCam please visit http://www.litcam.org/

The theme for this years conference is "Literacy and Sustainable Ecomonic Growth" and will again attract speakers from as far and wide as Iceland, Nigeria and Bolivia. Once again Avallain is a Cooperation Partner and will be supporting the event by giving a workshop on day 2 of the conference around developing and deploying a mobile health literacy system for Africa.

For info on the conference please visit http://www.litcam.org/images/stories/pdf/en/5517_Einladung_LitCam_SCREEN_final.pdf

Why not follow LitCam on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/litcam

Avallain powers tablet-friendly eBook platform for OUP and OCR

2011-08-09T16:08:00.000Z

OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA awarding body) teams with educational publishers to provide free eBooks starting autumn 2011. Oxford University Press participates with a sleek I-pad compatible solution created by Avallain.

"As a result of a partnership between OCR and top educational publishers, free eBooks for A Level teachers and students will be available from autumn 2011.

OCR ... provides free e-versions of AS and A2 publications, starting from September 2011. The offer is available to all schools and colleges teaching A Levels, not just those that currently use OCR's AS and A2 qualifications."

The solution covers access control and a best-of-breed display technology using the Avallain META platform architecture.

Read more at OCR

Wonderful Review on English Raven

2011-07-04T12:42:00.000Z

The highly regarded ELT blog "English Raven" has previewed ELT publishing products and their online components for 2011.

"Macmillan's website and offerings for 2011 look great, with genuinely new stuff and more than a dash of innovation and thinking outside the regular big publishing box. If you're looking for one of the big publishers to follow and get some exciting new offerings from this year, I would say Macmillan is your best bet."

Given that the online components of two of the three products mentioned in the review are powered by Avallain tools and services, we think we can share a bit of the sunshine.

English Raven Blog

Basic Skills on Level 3 in Ireland

2011-06-22T06:13:00.000Z

The National Adult Literacy Agency and Avallain launch first site offering Level 3 accreditation in Ireland. www.writeon.ie - www.nala.ie

Using the Avallain Author to create interactive content and the Avallain META archcitecture for the adaptive platform, Nala is now operating learning content up to official Level 3 accreditation.

META academic prep system www.studienstarter.de

2011-06-22T06:09:00.000Z

INFONET Biovision at UNESCO conference

2010-01-19T15:28:00.002Z

INFONET Biovision will participate in the poster presentation at the "UNESCO International Scientific Conference on Technologies for Development" held from 8th until 10th of February 2010 at the EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland).

Save the Date: World Dyslexia Forum

2010-01-11T08:45:00.003Z

The World Dyslexia Forum will take place 3-5 February at UNESCO Paris. It brings together education authorities and experts from more than 190 countries in order to address the teaching of reading and writing, as well as the difficulties for learners who struggle with memory and organisation.

It will consider good practice for teacher training and establish a platform for a world-wide network of supportive forums. Through different languages and cultures, it will also explore the approaches that work best for dyslexic learners to help them manage the challenges they confront.

Find out more at www.worlddyslexiaforum.org
Find the programme here (pdf file).

Save the Date: International Scientific Conference concerning Technologies for Development

2010-01-09T14:24:00.006Z

From 8-10 February 2010 the UNESCO International Scientific Conference on Technology for Development will take place at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.

It advocates an interdisciplinary approach based on international scientific cooperation and will focus on 3 main spheres:

- Scientific research and development
- Context and social dimension
- Cooperation and scientific partnerships

Presentations and workshops will address issues such as Disaster Risk Reduction, ICT for Environment, Sustainable Energies

Find out more at http://cooperation.epfl.ch/page70491-en.html
Programme overview (pdf document) here.

Happy 2010

2009-12-28T10:24:00.002Z

Rather than sending out cards, this year Avallain supports the Gentiana Primary School (GPS) in Nairobi, Kenya. Our donation allows GPS to provide the students with new t-shirts printed with the "family names".

The 275 children in the small school in the slum of Kawangware are organized in three "families": groups within which the elder take care of the younger students, learners support each other, take responsibilities within the school and much more.

GPS is exclusively open to children of the poorest and many students are orphans. For these children, GPS gives access to education, thus unlocking their potential and opening the possibility for a self determined life.

We thank all our clients and partners for a wonderful year. We wish you a peaceful holiday season and look forward to new joint projects in 2010.

Your Avallain team

Find out more about Gentiana Primary School at www.gentiananairobi.org

Avallain supports tree planting

2009-12-28T10:23:00.002Z

In keeping up our commitment to full CO2 neutrality Avallain this year supports the NGO Trees for the Future to plant further 15,000 trees in the Gusii Community in Keroka, Kenya.

Why 15,000 trees? With 150,000 new online learners this year, we support planting one tree for each ten learners, bringing our "Forest" to 40.000 trees.

For the planting project Trees for the Future cooperates with the Kenya based NGO Wide Rescue Initiative Organization (WiRIO).

Why planting trees? Planting trees protects the environment and helps to preserve traditional livelihoods and cultures for generations.

Find out more at www.treesftf.org

Learning material in Kiswahli

2009-12-28T10:22:00.000Z

Avallain Africa, the Kenyan sister company of Avallain, started developing interactive learning material for Literacy, Numeracy and Environment in English and Kiswahili. The exercises will address issues relevant to fishery, tourism and environment at the east African coast. The online learning material will be launched in May 2010. The highly interactive e-learning content is being created in collaboration with CORDIO, an NGO working to save and improve coastal and ocean ecosystems.

400,000 learners use solutions developed and operated by Avallain

2009-12-28T10:21:00.000Z

At the end of 2009 our counter has reached a new high: more than 400,000 learners worldwide are currently improving their language, reading and writing competencies or workplace skills with learning solutions developed by Avallain.

Find out more at www.avallain.com

Macmillan #1: New content and American English Interactive Worlds on Macmillan English Campus

2009-12-28T10:20:00.002Z

The online practice environment for learners of English as a foreign language now offers 25 extended exercises for British English in addition to the available stock of thousands of classic interactive exercises. The longer and richer two-part tasks now include 25 new videos. Furthermore, "Interactive Worlds", the topic-based resource for 10-14 year olds, is now accessible for all American English users. This modern non-linear and white-board enabled resource was entirely created by Macmillan Editors using the Avallain Author.

Macmillan English Campus is driven by technology developed by Avallain. The learning platform complements face-to-face teaching with engaging interactive learning material for learners and teachers worldwide.

Find out more at www.macmillanenglishcampus.com.

Avallain takes the Career Express 2010

2009-12-28T10:18:00.001Z

Career Express Business English kicks off the series with a two-volume English course for business students at intermediate and advanced level. Extending our collaboration with the leading German publisher Cornelsen Avallain deploys a comprehensive online learning environment to complement the series. The system is once again based on Avallain META, our architecture for Social Learning Content Management Systems.

Find out more at
www.cornelsen.de
www.cornelsen.de/sites/careerexpress

Macmillan #2: MindOnline

2009-12-28T10:16:00.002Z

In addition to openMind, a four-level series for learning American English, our long-standing partner Macmillan now offers mindOnline, the companion blended-learning website that accompanies openMind, running on a custom platform based on Avallain META.

MindOnline provides numerous additional learning resources for both students and teachers: interactive activities, downloadable worksheets, and a host of other materials help learners improve their English, while providing teachers with easy-to-use teaching tools. In this project, Avallain META is used to deploy interactive and flat content coming from various sources and third party developers, supporting advanced content integration through an up-to-date "RESTFUL" API.

Find out more at www.macmillanmindseries.com

e-Learning for Kids in Amsterdam

2009-12-28T10:14:00.003Z

Our partner e-Learning for kids (background information on cooperation as pdf document) has established a european presence in Amsterdam. In doing so, the US-based, global operating non-profit foundation hopes to start new cooperations and launch initiatives on the continent to provide free online learning for children 5-12.

Find out more at www.e-learningforkids.org

ICT Update reports on Avallain E4D

2009-12-28T10:13:00.001Z

The current issue of the magazine on ICT for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries features an interview with Avallain. It highlights Avallain's efforts developing a practical solution to bring agricultural information to Kenyan farmers using internet and mobile technology.

Read the full article at ICT Update.

Save the date: elearning Africa 2010

2009-12-28T10:12:00.000Z

The fifth pan-African conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in development, education and training will take place in Lusaka, Zambia May 26th–28th, 2010.

Find out more at www.elearning-africa.com

"Wings of a butterfly" - Litcam 2009

2009-10-14T11:31:00.006Z

The last 2 days saw inspirational exchange between colleagues, from more than 15 countries at the fourth annual LitCam conference at Frankfurt Book Fair. Frankfurt Book Fair has put together a brief video covering this year's conference.

Presentations from India, Nigeria, Ireland, Afghanistan, USA demonstrated various approaches to use media - television, radio, internet - to facilitate learning and teaching reading and writing and to increase public awareness for the issue of Literacy challenges, and awareness amongst adults who might struggle with difficulties in their everyday life.

In his gripping presentation Brij Kothari from Planet Read demonstrated how "a wing of a butterfly can create a storm": his idea of same language subtitling (SLS) of "Bollywood" films is an example how a simple idea can create a massive impact: with subtitling bollywood movies with a "karaoke" text that highlights the words in order of expression, Brij and his team unlock the potential especially of "weak readers" to improve their abilities. Brij presented impressive figures demonstrating the impact of SLS on the general reading behaviour e.g. in terms of the use of newspapers.

Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, film producer and Executive Director at Communication for Change Nigeria presented a wide range of examples from radio soap operas written by young authors to "Nollywood" movies and tv dramas, educational as well as fictional material to address important issues for Nigerian population like like corruption, democracy, AIDS/HIV or women rights.

Tom O' Mara from the Irish National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) presented the comprehensive media approach in the distance learning programme in Ireland including tv series, online learning opportunities, tutor support on telephone and workbooks.

For further information on this years conference edition please refer to www.litcam.org
or join the LitCam network at www.literacy-campaign.org

Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign "Litcam"

2009-09-26T09:32:00.004Z

Not long to go until the fourth international conference on literacy and basic education at the worlds largest book fair at Frankfurt, Germany.

On 12 and 13 Ocotber more than hundred experts and delegates from organisations from more than 20 countries will present examples for best practice in literacy, discuss the current state of affairs in basic education, share their knowledge, present new approaches, discuss future strategies and foster new cooperation.

This years workshops focus on media and literacy. Key presentations come from China, Nigeria, India, Ireland and Afghanistan. Find programme here.
An accompanying exhibition provides international organisations like UNESCO or the Irish National Literacy Agency with the opportunity to present themselves and their work.

Interested participants can pre-register for the event via the online community at www.literacy-campaign.org. Please ask for an invitation to this closed user group.

Together with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), Google and other partners, Avallain acts as sponsor of the Frankfurt Literacy Campaign (LitCam): www.litcam.org.

World Literacy Day 2009

2009-09-18T09:43:00.005Z

As last year, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) hosted the German national celebration for International Literacy Day (ILD) 8 September in Berlin. This years focus was "Literacy in the Workplace" featuring presentations of Carol Taylor (NIACE, UK), Bertrand Le Grix de la Salle (Vice-President of OPCA FAF Propreté, France, the umbrella organisation of cleaning services in France), Hans Jørgen Hansen (Folk High School South Jutland, Denmark) and Shirin Huber (United Parcel Service, Germany) demonstrating the impact improved basic skills have on the performance and productivity of individuals and companies.

For World Literacy Day and in preparation for the German federal elections in 3 weeks, Avallain's Basic Skills System was used to create several interactive online exercises as part of the comprehensive elearning portal "ich-will-lernen.de" (I want to learn) commissioned by the German Adult Education Association.
The online learning materials provide adult basic skills learners with background information on the general election, the parliamentary system, the process of voting and much more.

Further information (German):
Radio feature at WDR5
Merkur Online
Datensicherheit.de
Op Online

$100 laptops for primary school in Kenya

2009-09-14T15:52:00.002Z

In the past few weeks we have been "afk" and headed into the field: we went to Kenya to meet with project partners, talk to farmer groups, learning more about their needs and exploring project opportunities for ICT driven learning.

Our first visit brought us to the Gentiana Primary School. We had ten XO, better known as $100 laptops, in our bags. The OLPC foundation provided us with the little green machines so that we could prepare them with software, including learning material from e-Learning for Kids and podcasts from "Learning by Ear", a program by German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The Learning by Ear program examines the challenges that young Africans face and engages listeners in an informative and entertaining way. The programming is a lively mix of in-depth reports, radio dramas and feature stories that will provide listeners with an opportunity to get the necessary skills to succeed in Africa today. The target audience is girls and boys from 12 to 20 years of age.

In the following days and weeks we accompanied the introduction of the laptops into everyday school practice offering support when troubles occured and evaluating how the laptops were being implemented into the learning process. "When we are able to establish a case of good practice, we hope this example will motivate funding bodies to support the expansion of the use of ICT and the XO in African schools", says Ignatz Heinz.

See pictures of our trip at flickr.com/Avallain

Find out more about our approach to facilitating development by means of education and ICT at www.avallain.com/e4d

Ma te mohio ka ora! elearning for basic skills in New Zealand

2009-09-14T15:22:00.002Z

One more flag for elearning for basic skills on the world map: after Germany and Ireland, the University of Waikato, New Zealand, comissioned Avallain to develop an online learning portal for literacy and numeracy."We are very happy to have found another partner to share our competence for elearning in basic skills and to widen our experience with this particular area of learning", says Ursula Suter, managing director at Avallain.

Avallain invites organisations and projects to benefit from its conceptual and technical solutions for basic skills, including literacy, numeracy, work skills and most recently financial literacy. "With our existing pool of nearly 60 exercise types, various communication tools and a quick production process we are able to keep projects within reasonable budgets and time limits – and achieve outstanding and appealing results", says Ursula Suter. The New Zealand project is due to launch in January 2010.

43% in New Zealand with poor Literacy

Recent evidence has highlighted the importance of this work. In 2006, New Zealand participated in the international Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) Survey. The results indicated that 1.1 million New Zealanders (43 percent of the adults aged 16–65) have literacy and numeracy skills below those needed to participate fully in a knowledge society (over 80 percent of these people are in work).

Find out more about Literacy and basic education in New Zealand at www.literacyandnumeracyforadults.com

Find out more about our solutions for elearning for
basic skills at www.avallain.com/basicskills.

p.s. For those of you who are not fluent with maori, "Ma te mohio ka ora" means: "Through learning there is life."

UNESCO features Avallain community for Literacy

2009-07-25T10:48:00.008Z

In its recent newsletter UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) features the online community of Frankfurt Literacy Campaign (LitCam). Together with the UIL, Google and other partners, Avallain acts as sponsor of LitCam. The annual international conference during the worlds largest book fair offers a platform for experts to meet and draws the attention of a wider audience, publishers, politicians and the media towards the importance of Literacy. To support the growing LitCam community, Avallain launched the on-line community enabling former LitCam participants to stay in touch, present their work, share knowledge and experience.
The community is at www.literacy-campaign.org.
Please ask for an invitation to this closed user group.'
Find out more about our activities for basic skills at www.avallain.com/basicskills

E-Learning for Kids on the "100$ laptop"

2009-07-13T08:42:00.002Z

In cooperation with the global non-profit foundation e-Learning for kids, Avallain E4D makes interactive learning content for kids available on the XO, better known as the 100$ laptop. More than 100 learning units cover a wide range of topics including: math, science, English as a second language and life/health skills.

The content comes on a bootable OS image packed on a flash card (value ca 10$). The conversion of the e-learning for kids content library is a first step, tests at the Gentiana Primary School in Nairobi will launch in Summer 2009 and provide insights for further steps in shaping locally suitable content packages for the OLPC and similar emerging hardware platforms. The OS image also features a bandwidth-friendly remote update solution and supports connectivity for these updates via mobile networks.

It is based on the standard Ubuntu OS, an open source operating system, which is already being provided and championed by a growing community of XO users.

www.e-learningforkids.org
www.gentiananairobi.org

Farmer Info Station with mobile Internet and solar power

2009-07-13T08:30:00.005Z

To make information on improving agriculture accessible for small scale farmers Avallain E4D is refining the "Info Station". It consists of the XO hardware, better known as the "$100 laptop", enhanced with bandwidth-controlled mobile Internet access, solar energy power and a custom software set based on the Ubuntu OS.

The pre-installed INFONET-BioVision software by the Swiss BioVision Foundation for Environment and Development is the core component and can be updated and supported remotely using bandwidth (= cost) saving custom software components.

It offers information on socially, economically and ecologically sound technologies in crop and livestock production, environmental and human health. The Info Stations, which provide a rugged and sustainable solution for field work by extension farmers, are being piloted with farmer groups in rural Kenya. "The stations have created wide interest due to their affordability and ease of use. After a recent workshop at the Ministry of Agriculture, the permanent secretary expressed support for a nation-wide deployment to all districts in Kenya." says Ursula Suter, Managing Director of Avallain. The Solar Power solution has been locally sourced.

Find out more about our approach to facilitate development by means of education and ICT at www.avallain.com/e4d

Improving financial literacy online

2009-07-13T08:23:00.003Z

Understanding contracts and bills, calculating budgets, keeping track of finances, planning for financial security - these tasks call for a complex competence combining basic skills like reading, writing or calculating and knowledge on financial matters. Especially adults with poor basic skills are highly at risk of running into debts or fail to plan for their future.

Therefore, governments undertake efforts to improve individual capacity, known as "financial literacy" enabling individuals to take responsibility for their financial affairs.

Efforts that increasingly include e-learning: As a follow up of the successful on-line literacy portal writeon.ie the Irish National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) now commissioned the creation of an on-line learning portal to cover financial literacy.

Find out more about our solutions for Basic Skills at www.avallain.com/basicskills

Boots on the Ground' - The Only Way to Ensure Impact in ICT4D Projects?

2009-07-08T09:45:00.005Z

The following text formed the base of Avallain's presentation at eLearnig Africa 2009)

In the context of our so-far successful Organic Farming information system "Infonet-Biovision", we have reached the critical phase of ensuring effective dissemination to the target audience, small scale farmers in rural Kenya.

Having witnessed a variety of discouraging "Potemkin village" ICT4D projects by NGO's and Governments (all of the best intentions) during the concept phase we came to the conclusion that only "boots on the ground", sustained local presence and collaboration with experienced activists on site can ensure that there will be a real impact and benefit beyond ambiguous statistics and project reports based more on wishful thinking than reality.

Unfortunately, extended local presence and involvement of a meaningful character are not easy to achieve for most ICT based projects. The aspects of scouting and establishing serious local partnerships should thus be embedded already in the planning phase/proposal stage.

Before discussing a few of the core insights here that might help in the said planning, we would like to make it very clear that in fact most of the observations are just as valid in any ICT project in the "developed" world.
With some aspects, there is an obvious underlying difficulty in transfer and we have to be careful with our concepts. With others, for some reason, we tend to forget even the basics of ICT deployment planning when it comes to development activities. We suspect that this is due to the fallacy No. 1 - Thinking that people are just waiting for our solutions, waiting with arms and eyes wide open.

A few insights:

1) People are not just waiting for our solutions with open arms
As in any ICT project, we should not assume that just because we bring a new solution, it is automatically accepted, no matter how advanced we believe it to be. Just as a salesperson at Toyota might not like the new CRM system that headquarters have just rolled out, any local user or coordinator in a development context has his entirely own attitude to the solution proposed. Target audience acceptance is crucial and can not be taken for granted, just because we bring "free" solutions.

2) People are not just waiting for our solutions with open arms - any more
Many Elephants have trampled the ground before. Many "villages in the bush" have a dusty dysfunctional Laptop, Projector or Satellite Dish lying in a shed. The people who brought it made promises that where not kept. We need to be aware of these possible experiences and make sure we don't repeat mistakes and promises.

3) Too much thinking too early from too far away is wasteful
In our case, we had elaborate plans for using mobile handsets over bluetooth. We knew that we could not count on the newest models, so we planned and discussed for the older generation of mobiles. Once on site, we had to find out within one hour (talking to the real target audience) that they are not just older but rather completely different models configured for the market. No statistics readily available had shown this.

4) What does not work here does not work there
A sin shared by educationalists and technologists - if they really love an idea they will find an audience for it... Furthermore, the "wonderful" lack of existing infrastructure can turn into a trap if we are not carefully managing our temptation to finally try these beautiful ideas that we never have been able to implement in the "developed" world due to existing structures. An example: It might not be categorically wrong to try a revolutionary user interface like the OLPC (www.laptop.org) foundation did, but at the end it turned out to be a drag on the otherwise wonderfully pragmatic hardware. If nobody has managed to introduce a convincing new interface for children in the "developed" world, why burden an already difficult project for development with it?

5) Simple here is not simple there and complex here is not complex there
Things that are simple from a "developed" country point of view might not be simple in the target location, and vice versa. If we send a 15 MB uncompressed PPT by mail to our partner in a bandwidth-challenged country, we are making their life and efficiency miserable. If we ask them to pick up a package at the airport, it might take them a day stuck in local traffic and put them at peril. On the other hand, pools of ingenuity, creativity and flexibility are available that have long been stifled by oversupply in the "developed" world, and almost anything can be organised and created from scratch once you have established local contact and trust.

6) Keep things in proportion to the local scale
The often great disparity in financial terms between the world of the ICT specialists and the audience presents a danger in itself. This applies even to local IT specialists who are often at the upper end of the usually extremely polarised income spectrum. People in the "developed" world have a hard time at the moment understanding why investment bankers need to be paid several lifetimes worth of salary per month in order to do their job and keep the bank working. We need to be very careful to remain aware of proportions, not only on ethical but also on practical grounds. In Kenya, we found that a few Gigabytes of mobile bandwidth can cost more than a teacher earns in the month, although the pricing is not very unreasonable in European terms. We have to take these different proportions serious and be very effective per Gigabyte as to justify not rather hiring more teachers!

7) The world is flat
We are lending the phrase and title from Thomas L. Friedman (www.thomaslfriedman.com), and have encountered another great example in the spirit of his anecdotes. After extensive Internet research on the best solar equipment for a specific solution to be deployed in Kenya, we had not come up with a really affordable and solid solution. Affordable in this case meaning half the price per unit of the cheapest available product in Switzerland. When we finally found it, it was in a local Nairobi shop full of interesting material. Much of it sourced from India and Russia and not easily findable on the Internet. The lesson being that locally there is a real demand for a solution that is locally affordable. And more often than not, thanks to the flattened world, someone in their very own part of “the grid” will be offering a solution already. We can win enormous efficiency by looking for these entrepreneurs rather than accidentally and unfairly competing with them with aid-funded imports.

8) Potemkin, Potemkin, Potemkin
Everybody who has worked in publicly funded projects or even a sufficiently large organisation knows the effects of projects-that-can-not-fail. Those projects can not fail not because of their merits but because of the fact that everybody involved thinks their future or income or both depends on it. So, sufficiently removed from any direct harm by failure or even absence of relevance of the project, everybody involved including the target audience will say great things, write beautiful reports and smile a lot. For ICT4D projects, this seems very relevant because the pressure can come from the funding structure as well as the target audience. From a short or mid-term perspective, it can make a lot of sense for the target audience in a pilot project to claim that everything is working wonderful. The necessity for any externally funded organisation to present a picture of high success rates is evident in itself. So there are many factors, none of them necessarily evil, that promote a too rosy judgment on ideas and activities. We need to remain very alert to see through this jungle of smiles and detect the problems in order to assure a real sustained impact.

9) Believe too much or too little in government
This is not to be understood in the usual sense of distrusting institutions due to the many faults they have everywhere in the world in various degrees. In our experience, it means to look carefully at what the government or generally existing institutions already have in place and what parts of that infrastructure really works, including human resources as well as technology. Only by doing this analysis we can avoid redundancy and waste or worse being an agent of eroding the citizens trust in institutions that are often striving to really improve. The examples we have encountered range from existing but defunct infrastructure over infrastructure that exists but is not made accessible to perfectly willing officials that just lack basic equipment to perform their duties. The answers are different in each case (replace, lobby, equip) but are almost always most effective when done in complement to the institutions rather than in ignorance of or opposition to them.

Find out more about our approach to facilitate development by means of education and ICT at: www.avallain.com/e4d

Watching the future happen in Dakar

2009-07-06T16:17:00.008Z

Only a few weeks passed since the highly anticipated eLearning Africa conference in Dakar, Senegal. The conference featured more than 350 speakers from approximately 60 countries, 10 parallel conference strands with 60 sessions, 14 demonstrations and best practice examples and much more.

Avallain's E4D department presented our recent projects and developments at the exhibition and made a multitude of relevant contacts.

In our presentation we discussed our experience in development projects and the importance of keeping in touch with the reality on location. In this spirit, we have recently expanded our local activities in Nairobi, Kenya and are working with a growing network of Kenyans on E4D solutions for small scale farmers.

As a silver sponsor, we were happy to see the success story of eLearning Africa grow and bringing together increasingly sophisticated participants for the now major platform for ICT driven solution in education and development in Africa.

Very popular as "Internet Café": XO a.k.a. 100$ laptop at the Avallain E4D booth

Find out more about our approach to facilitate development by means of education and ICT at www.avallain.com/e4d.

Farmer information system creates a buzz

2009-03-30T14:31:00.023Z

Two reports by Reuters and the renowned Swiss daily "Tages-Anzeiger" highlight the activities around the farmer information system to which Avallain is contributing ICT components since 2005.

April 1st marks the fourth birthday of "The Organic Farmer", an agricultural journal providing small scale farmers in Kenya with practical information on farming and income increase.

Since project start, more than 500,000 copies have been distributed. Each month, 18,000 magazines are being distributed to farmer groups reaching an audience of 100,000. Additional channels like radio enable to reach a wider audience of approx. 3 million people in Kenya and Tanzania - including people with literacy difficulties.

To support distribution on all channels, The Organic Farmer is also included in the database-driven information system "INFONET-BioVision". Developed by Avallain for the Swiss BioVision foundation who finances the production and distribution of the journal, INFONET-BioVision provides farmer groups and agricultural advisors with up-to-date material on environmentally friendly and sound methods for pest, water and soil management and income increase.

INFONET-BioVision offers all 45 issues of the Organic Farmer as pdf - and allows to search the magazine by keywords on specific subjects.

The following report by Reuters shows how organic farming offers a sustainable income opportunity for young men in Nairobi - and features Peter Kamau, editor of The Organic Farmer:

The article in the Swiss newspaper "Tages-Anzeiger" (PDF, German) reflects on the value of farmer information in the context of the water scarcity brought about by global warming.

Avallain will present the latest findings at eLearning Africa in Dakar 27 - 29 May.

www.elearningafrica.com
www.avallain.com/e4d

E-Learning Africa 2009

2009-03-16T13:17:00.002Z

In their latest newsletter, eLearning Africa reports on on of Avallain's project from the field of development, INFONET-BioVision: "Kenyan farmers, who have suffered from a lack of practical information, are now smiling as they discover innovative information management tools. Reuben Kyama reports about BioVision’s Infonet for Kenyan farmers." Read more ...

This year for the 4th time, eLearning Africa the Continent’s largest annual assembly of eLearning and education professionals from Africa and beyond will convene in Dakar, Senegal. Avallain supports eLA as silver sponsor.

Find out more at www.avallain.com/e4d

Avallain at German Education Trade Fair

2009-02-11T10:40:00.012Z

Together with its partner VHS.Böblingen Sindelfingen (the Adult Education centre at Böblingen Sindelfingen) Avallain is presenting products jointly developed to meet the special needs of adult education centers and colleges at the biggest German Education Trade Fair "Didacta" at Hannover. The clou of all products is that adult education centres do not have to buy, install and maintain a software: they book access to the web based tools and can use them - with localised details such as logo, localised URL, etc. - without the effort of hosting, maintenance, security, etc. The presented products include:

vhs-intern.de is a project management tool enabling the communication with internal and external partners and the joint management of courses and projects. A sophisticated distribution of rights allows external partners to work within the system, edit projects and add items.
vhs-WISSEN provides the platform to run localised online quizzes. A useful tool to strengthen the local education marketing and PR.
vhs-KINDERuni.de (Kinder Uni = Kinder Universität = children's university). In Germany universities offer since 2002 lectures specially designed to attract children and win them at an early age for later studies. Recently, adult education centres (Volkshochschulen) also started offering such courses and lectures for children to establish a positive connection to learning and the brand "Volkshochschule" at an early age.
vhs-KINDERuni.de is an online platform enabling children to learn in addition to lectures: together with their parents they can answer questions in reference to the attended lectures and solve tasks.

Find out more in Hall 14/15 at booth 56/1.

Perfect English for Professionals

2009-02-09T14:34:00.003Z

Introduced in October, the online learning system Perfect English for Professionals (PEP) for the leading German education publisher Cornelsen (1500 new titles per year) already hosts a number of institutional clients. PEP gives language schools and companies working with Cornelsen learning materials the opportunity to offer their language students e-learning in addition to course work. PEP is based on Avallain's LCMS Architecture and was written entirely in the next generation Ruby/Rails development approach. An expanded version of PEP is to be launched in Q1. PEP will also be presented at Learntec, Karlsruhe.

Click here for a guided tour through PEP

Avallain launches on-line community for Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign (LitCam)

2009-02-09T14:30:00.005Z

Together with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), Google and other partners, Avallain acts as sponsor of the Frankfurt Literacy Campaign (LitCam). The annual international conference during the worlds largest book fair offers a platform for experts to meet and draws the attention of a wider audience, publishers, politicians and the media towards the importance of Literacy. To support the growing LitCam community, Avallain launched an online community enabling former LitCam participants to stay in touch, present their work, share knowledge and experience.

The community is at www.literacy-campaign.org. Please ask for an invitation to this closed user group.

Usability tests and TV exposure for writeon.ie

2009-02-09T14:27:00.002Z

Recently, the Irish National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) ran a usability test for writeon.ie. All in all learners responded very well to the learning site. Testers liked the content, design and layout and had no real trouble with log in or finding the relevant sections. Nevertheless we received valuable feedback on a few issues that we will need to rethink in the presentation of the learning progress, which has to be aligned to the European certification model without showing its complexity. The end of March will see a last modification before a massive publicity is launched. Already now, Write On stars in the acclaimed TV series "Written Off". Developed with the Avallain Basic Skills System, the internet based e-learning portal for adult literacy learners offers highly interactive learning material allowing adults to improve their reading and writing skills.

www.writeon.ie
www.literacy.ie
www.nala.ie

Avallain supports eLearning Africa 2009 as silver sponsor, creates department of e-learning for development (e4d)

2009-02-09T14:23:00.003Z

In line with the expansion of our activities in e-learning for development we have launched www.avallain.com/e4d where we present our latest activities, project ideas and solutions for development. Development activities are not regionally limited; Basic Skills training for unemployed adults in Frankfurt is just as important as Health training in Uganda - but Africa is clearly a hotspot and also a very dynamic environment we want to participate in.

As such, being participants since day one, we are sponsoring the latest edition of eLearning Africa this time held in Senegal.

We are looking forward to your visit to the Avallain booth!

I want to learn: Germany’s biggest e-learning portal for basic skills officially launched

2009-01-26T10:05:00.014Z

Early school leavers prepare online for school leaving certificate
www.ich-will-lernen.de (I want to learn) is the new address for German speaking adults who want to catch up with their learning. In extension to the highly successful, award-winning German online learning portal ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de (I want to learn to write) for adult literacy learners, today ich-will-lernen.de was launched in Essen, Germany.

Welcome to the virtual learning centre: the start page of ich-will-lernen.de

Developed on behalf of the German Adult Education Association (Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband, DVV) with funding by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the online learning portal offers interactive learning material in two areas: basic education and the school leaving certificate.

The section for basic education offers interactive learning material for literacy and numeracy including all the established and familiar features of the acclaimed literacy system (comprehensive audio support, automatic feedback and additional help, individual learning file, online tutor support, learning material with reference to everyday and work life, newsfeed, and many more).

A new additional section offers scenario based learning units focusing on basic work skills (communication with colleagues and customers, task and time management, intercultural differences, and many more). Also new is the learning section for adults who are taking courses in preparation to obtain a school leaving certificate. They can access learning material for German, mathematics/arithmetic, English and also basic work skills.

Individual learning packages – automatic evaluation and tutor support
Learners access the portal at ich-will-lernen.de, decide in which area they want to learn, complete the initial assessment and get started. They receive daily learning packages, can play games, stay in touch with other learners and their tutor and much more.

New types of exercise New features include additional interactions. As a result the system now offers more than 60 exercise types.

New types of exercise

Accessible interface design New interfaces have been created to organise the learning material, reduce complexity and increase accessibility:

New interfaces have been created to organise the learning material,
reduce complexity and increase accessibility

In the section for the school leaving certificate, the complete curriculum for German (yellow), mathematics (green) and English (violet) is presented in the form of a board game. Thus learners always have a complete overview of the entire programme and can locate where they currently stand. Different token reflect the current stage of learners in the different areas. Learners have to complete each learning section – but they can leapfrog any exercises and access later learning units. (In contrast, learners in the basic skills section are presented with automatically assembled learning material based on their initial assessment and weekly results.)

The blue cards on the right offer learning units for basic work skills: communication with colleagues and customers, task and time management, how to deal with conflicts at work or intercultural differences. Learners can flip through the cards and access any topic they’re interested in.

Exercises are presented in this narrative context.
At the beginning of each learning chapter,

the background story is presented as an animation

Each learning chapter is based on a background story introducing a character in a work or life context. Exercises are presented in this narrative context. At the beginning of each learning chapter, the background story is presented as an animation (Image above).

Additional functions include audio supported chat and group chat, audio supported e-mail, games, an audio supported newsfeed and a vocabulary trainer (image below).

All in one: administration – content creation – online tuition – learning ich-will-lernen.de reflects a complex architecture which unites learner access, tutor support, content creation and user administration.

(image above) Four dimensions in one system: (from left to right) administration – content creation – learners management and tuition – learner access.

Background: More than 80.000 early school leavers per year
In Germany, there are more than 80,000 young adults who leave school without qualifications. For obvious reasons they have problems finding a job due to their lack of skills and qualification. But a school leaving certificate is no guarantee for a job. A growing number of graduates fail to meet the ever growing demands of the labour market. Employers complain that graduates perform poorly in basic competencies such as writing, calculating or basic skills, and lack the prerequisites to function at the workplace such as punctuality, reliability, accuracy, perseverance, communicating with colleagues, supervisors and customers and many more.

Adult education centres (Volkshochschulen) offer courses for literacy and numeracy (for German native speakers) as well as courses to prepare for exams for a school leaving certificate. Therefore, as the federal umbrella organisation of the Volkshochschulen, the German Adult Education Association successfully applied for governmental funding to develop the online learning system.

In 2003, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research funded the initial development of ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de, the groundbreaking literacy online learning portal. Since launch in 2004, more than 120,000 learners have followed the online learning programme.

In 2005, the ministry extended funding to enable the expansion of the learning portal.
Thanks to the governmental funding, the use of the system is free of charge – for learners as well as for trainers. The project team at DVV provides support and training for interested trainers (also free of charge).

Further information:
The online learning portal at www.ich-will-lernen.de (German)

Information by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research on their Literacy programme (in English) at http://www.bmbf.de/en/426.php

Further information on the Avallain Basic Skills System at www.avallain.com/basicskills

Alphabund – based at UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning at Hamburg, Alphabund is the coordinating office for projects of the current literacy funding programme

25,000 trees for 250,000 learners

2008-12-18T16:21:00.009Z

Rather than send out Christmas cards and in keeping up our commitment to full CO2 neutrality this year, we are making a donation to the NGO Trees for the Future and starting something new - a forest.

With our donation Trees for the Future, working with the Kenya based Wide Rescue Initiative Organization (WiRIO), will plant 25,000 trees in the Gusii Community in Keroka, Kenya, where WiRIO already operates a tree nursery with approximately 20,000 seedlings.

Why 25,000? With 250,000 regular e-learners, we thought we would plant one tree for each ten learners!

About WiRIO
WiRIO promotes tree planting and environmental management. WiRIO also has a technical school that teaches basic skills to unemployed men and women, and looks after children, many of whom were orphaned following the post-election violence in January-March of this year. WiRIO works primarily with the Gusii Community in districts around Kisii.

It’s amazing what a seed can grow! - About Trees for the Future
Since 1989, Trees for the Future has been helping communities around the world plant trees.
Through seed distribution, agroforestry training, and their country programs, Trees for the Future has empowered rural groups to restore tree cover to their lands. Planting trees protects the environment and helps to preserve traditional livelihoods and cultures for generations.

Find out more about Trees for the Future at www.treesftf.org.
Current projects can be located using Google Earth at www.treesftf.org/projects.htm
Take a look at the work of Trees for the Future at www.flickr.com/photos/plant-trees

We thank all of our clients, partners, supporters and friends for a wonderful year and wish you a peaceful holiday season and a happy new year. We are looking forward to seeing you in 2009!

Your Avallain team

"Future basic education" 11th DIE-Forum Continuing Education 2008

2008-12-09T13:33:00.008Z

At the 11th DIE-Forum (DIE: Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung, or German Institute for Adult Education) in Bonn, Germany, more than 100 experts, teachers and researchers discussed the latest challenges and trends in basic education.

Discussing the challenges of basic education at the 11th DIE-Forum (from left to right): William Thorn (OECD), Dr. Peter Lavender (NIACE), Dr. Jutta Schubert (German Federal Ministry for Education and Research), Dr. Ursula Howard (former director at NRDC, presenting for EU commission), Facilitator: Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein (DIE)

International input was provided by Dr. John Vorhaus, research director at NRDC, who presented a summary of the latest research results, Dr. Ralf St. Clair from the University of Glasgow (who chaired the workshop on "Literacy in social contexts"), Dr. Peter Lavender, director for research, development and information at NIACE, Dr. Ursula Howard (former director of NRDC, who presented on behalf of the EU commission) and John Stewart of the Irish NALA, who presented NALA's latest activities in distance learning including the successful TV series Written Off? and the new learning website www.writeon.ie developed with Avallain.

The DIE-Forum particularly attracted a lot of German attendants as the huge research program funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research is now up and running and so a lot of new faces from recently launched projects came to familiarise themselves with the German basic skills scene, exchange information and update one another on the latest approaches.

Just like Litcam, the DIE-Forum proved the importance of hooking up in "first life". As helpful as e-mail and websites, downloads and PDF might be, nothing works like 2 days spent together building contacts and networks, sharing information, clearing up misconceptions and long standing questions.

Avallain at 11th DIE-Forum Continuing Education

2008-11-27T11:48:00.002Z

Avallain participates at the 11th DIE-Forum at the German Institute for Adult Education (= Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung, DIE) at Bonn.
This year, the DIE-Forum focuses on basic skills and includes presentations by NRDC, NIACE, NALA, Statistics Canada, the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, OECD, UNESCO Insitute for Lifelong Learning, University of Glasgow and many more.

Click here for more Information...

(Photo: mzacha)

Avallain presents Basic Skills System at UNESCO conference

2008-11-26T08:34:00.003Z

www.avallain.com/basicskills is the new home and participation hub for all activities around
our award winning Basic Skills System.

On occasion of the UNESCO International Conference on Education in Geneva we launched
a new website presenting the System and its features.

Included in the site are short videos giving an overview of our solutions for e-learning for
literacy, numeracy and work skills. Take a fresh look at the System at www.avallain.com/basicskills.

Avallain supports UNESCO conference

2008-11-04T18:45:00.004Z

From 25 - 28 November the 48th session of the International Conference on Education is taking place at Geneva, Switzerland. The conference is a major international forum for education policy dialogue among Ministers of Education and other stakeholders (researchers, practitioners, representatives of intergovernmental organizations and civil society.

It is organized by the International Bureau of Education (IBE), the UNESCO institute specializing in assisting Member States to achieve quality Education for All through innovative curriculum development and implementation. Avallain supports the conference as a sponsor.

Find out more about the conference on UNESCO's website.

Online Tools support Adult Education Centers, featured on TV

2008-07-29T10:50:00.009Z

Who were the last 4 mayors of Bochum? What is a "Bagasse"? Who discovered dynamite?
If you know the answers to these questions (and speak German) you should access the online quiz "Bochum want to know" currently hosted by the German adult education centre (Volkshochschule, VHS) at Bochum and the leading local newspaper.

From Monday 28 July until Sunday 24 August the two organizations challenge users to answer tricky questions online. The success has been impressive enough to trigger a report in one of the public television stations.

The online quiz is a localized edition of the online knowledge and quiz-tool "www.vhs-wissen.de" developed by Avallain on behalf of the VHS Böblingen Sindelfingen who offers the online environment to all adult education centers in Germany.

The online quiz is an example for how local education centers such as the Volkshochschulen can offer tools and services without much overhead cost and thus set their landmark on the learning map in their communities, and (re)gather attention to their competence as brokers of learning - and simply attract more learners.

VHS Böblingen Sindelfingen, in cooperation with Avallain, developed further services for adult education centers: the project management tool www.vhs-intern.de and www.vhs-kinderuni.de, an online environment to accompany children's universities.

And by the way, if you haven't already "googled" it: Bagasse is the biomass remaining after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice!

Avallain at "Key Competencies" Conference

2008-06-13T09:01:00.009Z

From 19.-20. June Avallain will be at the "Key Competencies. Skills for Life" conference at City College, London. Hosted by Eifel and the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).

The conference focuses on the challenge imposed by globalization and modernization in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. In these contexts, the competencies that individuals need to meet their goals have become more complex, requiring more than the mastery of certain narrowly defined skills:

Individuals need to develop abstract competencies in order to adapt to ever changing circumstances and orient themselves in different environments: learning to learn, problem solving behavior, social skills, cooperating in groups, organizing and managing social processes with various partners (more and more from different cultural backgrounds) by means of communication and much more.

ICT is a key tool in this process and media literacy a key skill to confront this challenge as more and more information and communication (and thus: learning) is accessible and takes place online. But ICT can also function as a learning environment, supporting the classic learning/teaching process, especially when it comes to basic skills: literacy, numeracy, ESOL, working place skills.

Findings (e.g. by NRDC) show that the use of computer and internet has positive effects on learner motivation and thus persistence. The opportunities of organizing learning in a different way, enabling different interactions that complement classroom learning open up new potential for exciting learning experiences. Especially with tools that increasingly allow a high learner involvement and enable them to write stories, create photo books, post short videos and share more content of different kind, all of which gives an idea of the vast educational potential that is yet to be unlocked.

We will be presenting at the exhibition and discuss the challenges of producing "e-learning for basic skills" (meeting high demands and requirements with small budgets and time) and present our approach, the "Avallain Basic Skills System", which comprises a certain production process and software solutions that we developed over the last decade.

Find out more about the conference at events.eife-l.org/kc2008/overview
Find the programme here...

Improving opportunities for African small scale farmers through e-learning for basic skills, agricultural education and market information

2008-05-29T14:18:00.007Z

Press Release | May, 29

Ugandan farmer network, Swiss e-learning expert and English adult education organisation unite their expertise to develop e-learning system for small scale farmers and fishermen.

(Accra, Ghana) The Ugandan "Busoga Farmer Network" (Bufanet), the Swiss e-learning developer Avallain and the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) have teamed up to jointly develop "MarketInfonet", an internet-based and mobile phone driven market communication and e-learning system for small scale farmers and fishermen covering three areas: agricultural education, market information and basic skills training.

Currently, agriculture in Uganda mostly takes place at subsistence level. "Small scale farmers and fishermen know too little about agricultural techniques or the possibilities of income increase e.g. through processing and value addition", says Patrick Kiirya, Director of Bufanet. A lack of knowledge in appropriate agricultural methods leads to little harvest or low quality produce that does not meet market standards for processing, regional and international export. As a result, Uganda’s agriculture remains far below its potential: Although employing more than 80% of the workforce, agriculture contributes less than 36% to the GDP.

Also, a lot of smallholders don’t know the value of their produce. They negotiate prices individually with itinerate traders at the farm gate and sell their products below value.

The provision of information and learning material for market and agricultural skills contributes to closing the knowledge gap – and unlocks human potential: "Access to information is prerequisite for small scale farmers and fishermen to adapt new agricultural techniques, improve their business and achieve good prices", Mr. Kiirya emphasizes. "The ability to read, write and calculate is prerequisite to make full use of information."

Hence, MarketInfonet will address basic skills. The user friendly edited information in English and local languages will be amended with interactive exercises for literacy and numeracy: Comparing prices, calculating the amount of fertilizer, writing an order, reading a manual –MarketInfonet will present basic skills learning as a key to improved business. Business becomes the driver for education.

Interested parties are invited to contact Avallain for participation.

Meet Avallain until May 30 at elearning Africa at Accra, Ghana, booth M09.

Contact:
Ralf Kellershohn
rkellershohn@avallain.com
phone: +49 172 198 70 34

About Busoga Farmer Network (Bufanet)
Bufanet unites over 30 associations of small and medium scale farmers, traders and processors in the Busoga region, in the south-west of Uganda. Bufanet provides its members with a wide range of services in general agricultural information, improved marketing and agro processing.

About National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) England and Wales is a non-governmental organisation working for more and different adult learners. NIACE exists to encourage more and different adults to engage in learning of all kinds. NIACE campaigns for – and celebrate the achievements of – adult learners, young and old, and in all their diversity. NIACE is the largest organisation working to promote the interests of learners and potential learners in England and Wales.
www.niace.org.uk

About Avallain
With a passion for education, innovation and the potential of the internet, Avallain offers high quality services and products for the most demanding challenges in e-learning. We develop award-winning e-learning solutions for public and private clients with one simple goal: to create choice and unlock human potential.

Avallain services include the design and implementation of complex e-learning systems, as well as the development and provision of tools and software to create, maintain and publish interactive content and learning material. Avallain also offers customised solutions for the hosting of e-learning-systems, and provides organisations and institutions with consultancy and expertise.

Avallain services are delivered carbon-neutral and Avallain supports innovative projects such as the Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign "LitCam" and Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC-initiative by providing free services and software.
www.avallain.com

Avallain at eLearning Africa 2008

2008-05-26T17:29:00.004Z

eLearning Africa is an annual, pan-African conference that focuses on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Development, Education and Training.

From May 28 - 30, high-level decision-makers from governments as well as practitioners from education and business sectors will come together at Accra, Ghana to present and discuss latest approaches to unfold the potential of computer and internet based learning and training to unlock the dormant capital that lies in people.

With 315 speakers from 54 countries, 4 plenary sessions, 66 sessions in 11 parallel conference strands, 48 demonstrations and best-practice examples, 14 pre-conference events and a number of exciting new features, the event represents a landmark in pan-African capacity-building for ICT-enhanced education and training.

This year Avallain will present at the conference as well as participate in the exhibition.

Mobile phone driven information for African small scale farmers

We will present our latest project initiative, jointly developed with the Ugandan Busoga Farmer network (BUFANET) and the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE): “Uganda MarketInfonet”.

With "MarketInfonet" BUFANET, Avallain and NIACE aim to develop an internet-based and mobile phone-driven platform, providing small scale farmers and fishermen in rural areas with sound information on

sustainable and environmentally safe agro-ecosystem management (focusing on tropical fruits and fish),
prizes,
aspects of marketing to improve productivity and foster agricultural entrepreneurship (exploring post-harvest management, processing, value addition, presentation, storage, transportation, etc.),

MarketInfonet will mediate market demands with supplier resources by providing an virtual market place where traders can insert their demand for certain produce and farmers and fisher can signal their – thus a virtual contract is being established providing both

Additionally, the system will offer context related basic skills training (Literacy and Numeracy learning packages with reference to everyday life: setting up a budget, calculating and comparing prizes, reading instructions, writing orders, etc.). The project partners aim to implement Uganda MarketInfonet as a component of already operating literacy teacher training courses in Uganda.

Presentation, May 29, 11:15
Join our presentation on " Uganda-MarketInfonet”, May 29th, 11:15 (ADV06) at Meeting room 3.

No time to visit the presentation? Further questions on the presentation or other topics? Meet us at the exhibition: Booth M09.

Avallain and partners contribute e-learning to Google’s “The Literacy Project”

2008-04-24T10:25:00.005Z

Press Release | April, 23

Free content and tools available online in honour of UNESCO World Book Day

(Lustmuehle, Switzerland) In honour of World Book Day, Avallain and its partners at e-learningforkids.com and Teshkeel have put together some of the tools and material coming out of their projects and products that can be useful for learning reading and writing.

The three organisations are contributing to many aspects of Basic Skills Education and Literacy, in many different ways.

Among the material and tools offered to the community is the "Avallain ComicMaker", an interactive system for creating comics – or more generally “picture stories” – a method very much favoured by literacy trainers around the world. Originally developed for the OLPC (aka $100 laptop), the ComicMaker enables children to create their own story using given elements like figures and background images, and adding their own written texts in speech bubbles – including the indispensable "ZAK!" and "BOOM!".

The professional cartoon characters from Teshkeel and background photos contributed by the community round out an open source product that allows for the complete re-use and even publication of the user’s creations thanks to its generous "copyleft" license.

Several units from the free catalogue of e-learningforkids.org, presented in Spanish and English, cover topics ranging from Math to English as a foreign language for kids aged 5-12.

Teshkeel contributes entire comic books from its acclaimed superhero comic "The 99" for download, in English and Arabic. The now famous series is a successful and highly important approach to offering positive and inspiring role models anchored in Middle Eastern and Islamic culture to a worldwide audience, on a premium quality and entertainment level.

"World Book Day celebrates the power of change and development emerging from the access to information and the spread of ideas through the written word. As e-learning developers and educationalists, we believe that the internet can contribute to this ideal by making information widely available and bringing people together to enable learning – and thus unlock human potential", says Ursula Suter, Managing Director of Avallain.

A notion that is shared by Google: "The worlds of technology, literature and learning have a responsibility to play whatever part they can in helping to alleviate the problem of illiteracy. We're very excited to be involved in this project and help provide a platform through which literacy and reading promotion organisations can connect and share best practices and tools," says Jessica Powell, founder of The Literacy Project, Google.

Contact: Ralf Kellershohn, rkellershohn@avallain.com, +49 172 123123123

About "The Literacy Project"
“The Literacy Project” is Google’s contribution to Frankfurt Book Fair’s Literacy initiative “LitCam”, in cooperation with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. Avallain acts as sponsor and partner of LitCam. “The Literacy Project” highlights information and statistics about literacy, features e-learning tools, links to classic children’s books and scholarly articles — users can find books, videos, articles, blogs, and groups about literacy, as well as share all of their own ideas and projects. An updated Literacy Map allows organisations to join “The Literacy Project” and input their project and contact information so that others can get in touch, and much more.
For more information about the site go to: www.google.com/literacy

About Avallain
With a passion for education, innovation and the potential of the internet, Avallain offers high quality services and products for the most demanding challenges in e-learning. Avallain develops award-winning e-learning solutions for public and private clients with one simple goal: to create choice and unlock human potential.
Avallain services include the design and implementation of complex e-learning-systems, as well as the development and provision of tools and software to create, maintain and publish interactive content and learning material. Avallain also offers customised solutions for the hosting of e-learning-systems, and provides organisations and institutions with consultancy and expertise. Find out more at: www.avallain.com

About LitCam
Together with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, the German Association for Literacy and Basic Education and Avallain, and with support from Google, Frankfurt Book Fair launched the “Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign” (LitCam) to promote public awareness for the global challenge of literacy, support cooperation and networking of international organisations and feature projects and innovative approaches in the field of literacy.
For more information go to: www.litcam.org

About e-learningforkids.org
e-Learning for Kids is a global non-profit organization that is dedicated to opening doors to education worldwide. Established in 2004, e-Learning for Kids is dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children aged 5-12.
Find out more at www.e-learningforkids.org

About Teshkeel Media Group
Teshkeel Media Group, KSC is one of the Middle East's leading developers of comic books, magazines, and other forms of children's entertainment. Based in Kuwait, and with offices in New York and Cairo, the company's mission is to fill a significant void in positive, high-quality children's content in the region, including in print and electronic media, film, and television. In addition to working with global publishers like DC, Marvel, and Archie Comics, Teshkeel also develops its own original character properties, including THE 99, an award-winning original superhero property based on Islamic culture and history, which debuted in June 2006.
Find out more at www.teshkeel.com

vhs-intern.de – an "intranet" for educational organisations

2008-04-01T08:46:00.005Z

In Germany, only 5% of the employees of organisations in the field of adult education are regular staff. The majority of employees are freelancers and independent teachers. The approx. 1,000 "Volkshochschulen", the adult educations centres in Germany, employ 200,000 tutors and only 9,000 regular staff. Hence, the need for coordination in day-to-day work.

To support communication with internal and external partners, vhs.Boeblingen-Sindelfingen and Avallain have jointly developed an internet-based "intranet"-system, custom designed to meet the needs of educational organisations: vhs-intern.de.

The intuitive graphical interface presents an office. All tools are accessible via interactive objects. The diary opens the time planer. The mobile phone opens a dialogue box to set a new reminder. The project management can be accessed via the file on the desk.

The blackboard displays latest activities; a news feed gives relevant news. Daily work processes are displayed and made transparent. Projects with internal and external partners can be applied and edited. A sophisticated distribution of rights allows external partners to work within the system, edit projects and add items.

vhs-intern.de offers the opportunity to communicate directly with partners via chat, make appointments, track ongoing projects. A reminder keeps assigned group members posted on changes in the system. vhs-intern.de can be rented on a monthly base directly from vhs.Boeblingen-Sindelfingen.

Contact (vhs.Boeblingen-Sindelfingen): christian.fiebig@vhs-aktuell.de

Organic Farming – a vision for Africa?

2008-03-31T07:33:00.006Z

Panel discussion of the Biovision foundation and the Liechtenstein Development Service. Agricultural knowledge for development and income growth.

When he arrived at the lectern, he loosened his tie as if he needed space to breathe. And space to breathe is exactly what Peter Baumgartner needs when he talks about Africa, the "continent of the future", as he assured his audience.

An audience of 120 was enthralled by the Africa expert’s gripping presentation. It was his response to an invitation from the Swiss Biovision Foundation for Environment and Development and the Liechtenstein Development Service to give an introduction into the situation of small scale farmers in Kenya. The presentation formed the ground for a panel discussion on the opportunities of organic farming for income increase and food security.

Does organic farming offer better prospects for food security and income? Yes!, according to the panel (from left to right) Peter Baumgartner (Publisher, "The Organic Farmer"), Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (Director, Institute for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) Nairobi, Kenia), Hans Rudolf Herren (President, Biovision Foundation), Klaus Büchel (Managing Director of Agricultural Organisations in Liechtenstein), Dr. Rudolf Batliner, (Director, Liechtenstein Development Service)

"I am prejudiced – I love Africa. To me, it is the best continent", the 65-year-old journalist confessed – which does not mute his criticisms. For more than ten years, Mr. Baumgartner reported as foreign correspondent for the respected Swiss "Tagesspiegel" on Africa. Since his retirement 2004 Mr. Baumgartner got involved with small scale farmers by publishing "The Organic Farmer", a Magazine for organic Farming.

In his presentation Mr. Baumgartner tapped the complex relationship of various factors: land (property), soil, infrastructure, poverty, lack of agricultural knowledge and skills, all of which determine the situation of small scale farmers in East-Africa.

How to build a goat stable?

"A lot of Kenyans are not farmers voluntarily," says Mr. Baumgartner. "They become farmers because there are too few jobs in the sectors of service or administration."

In consequence, most farmers do not see themselves as agricultural entrepreneurs and keep their activities at subsistence level, which leads to generally low purchasing power as farmers do not produce enough (or according to the quality demands of the market) to earn an income on their farming. This leads to low income and little capacity to invest in production improvements. In addition, farmers lack the basic agricultural knowledge and skills to run their farm business appropriately.

A problem Mr. Baumgartner tackles with "The Organic Farmer", a magazine for organic farming that he publishes. Funded by the Biovision foundation, the magazine comes out monthly and is distributed free of charge to provide small scale farmers with practical information: How to build a goat stable, what do you need when beginning raising chicken, how to attract bees to a new hive, etc. 100,000 farmers already receive concrete guidance and practical tips on securing and increasing their harvests through simple, environmentally friendly means.

Farmers access information online

The magazine is very popular among farmers and is also distributed online via www.infonet-biovision.org. This internet-based knowledge management system was presented at the panel discussion as an example of innovative development by Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, president of the Biovision foundation.

The database-driven system, technically developed by Avallain, offers media-rich information on environmentally-safe pest control, water and soil management, human and animal health – and organic farming. It can also be used offline – it fits onto a memory stick or on the XO, better known as the $100-laptop. Further distribution channels are currently being explored, including mobile phones, which are very popular in Africa: The penetration of mobile phones in Kenya is nearly 80%.

The knowledge-management system INFONET-Biovision.org can be accessed offline too – e.g. on the $100 -Laptop, as Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, president of Biovision, explains.

The real star at any event. After the panel discussion a lot of visitors seized the opportunity to try INFONET-Biovision.org on the XO, better known as $100-Laptop.

After Mr. Baumgartner’s presentation, a panel of acknowledged experts discussed the possible scope of organic farming for food security and as a stable source of income. A perspective strongly emphasized by all panellists. Dr. Herren said that several surveys prove that organic farming can guarantee food security. A lot of projects run by Biovision show that a huge impact and sustainable results can be achieved even with small measures and little investment: Productivity can be increased as well as the quality of the produce thus contributing to stabilised markets and increased incomes.

The challenge to be an optimist

The panel ended with an expression of confidence. A lot of the troubles in Africa give reason to be pessimistic, says Peter Baumgartner in reference to the unrest after the elections in Kenya in December last year. “It is very easy to be a pessimist when it comes to Africa. I can give you thousand examples that prove the difficult conditions and the obstacles – this is easy.” The pessimist uses his negative perspective to justify non-intervention, Mr. Baumgartner went on. “To be an optimist demands the willingness to become involved, to try, which includes the risk of failure – but it’s more than worth the effort.”

Hands on the $100-laptop (from right to left): Ursula Suter (Managing Director, Avallain), Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (Director, ICIPE), Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren (President Biovision), Andreas Schriber (CEO Biovision)

(Photograph: Peter Lüthi, Monique Hunzicker, Biovision)

Avallain at NRDC International Conference

2008-02-27T13:48:00.006Z

Avallain presents the latest project in integrated e-learning for basic skills in developing countries at the NRDC International Conference, Nottingham (UK): Uganda MarketInfonet.

With MarketInfonet, Avallain and the Ugandan Busoga Farmer Network (BUFANET) develop an internet-based knowledge-management and market information system to provide small scale farmers and fisher folk with information on sound agriculture techniques as well as market information (e.g. on prizes, aspects of post-harvest management, storage and transport, etc.).

Additional modules will present literacy and numeracy training in the context of everyday life usage: Calculating the amount of fertilizer, comparing prizes, writing an order, reading instructions, etc.

To assure accessibility MarketInfonet will include mobile phones: Farmers can extract from and enter information into the system via sms.

NRDC International Conference
The 6th International Research Conference brings together researchers, developers, policy makers and practitioners in the field of post-16 literacy, language and numeracy. The themes of this year's conference are Social Inclusion, Persistence and Progression.
More Information...

About NRDC
NRDC was established in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills as part of Skills for Life the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills.
NRDC aims to improve teaching practice and inform government policy through the generation of knowledge, by creating a strong research culture and developing professional practice.
More information...

Worried about Kenya

2008-01-27T18:13:00.002Z

Like everyone with a special relationship to Kenya, we witness the latest news on the spreading violence in Kenya with great sorrow.
Latest news report that new acts of violence among the ethnic groups took place at the weekend.

Avallain began in 2006 to develop "INFONET-Biovision.org" on behalf of the Swiss Biovision Foundation for Environment and Development. The internet based knowledge management system offers hands-on information on environmentally friendly methods for pest control, water and soil management, and much more.

As Hans R. Herren, president of Biovision states, no projects and employees of Biovision are in danger, according to current information.

Biovision projects, mostly not affected by the riots, are continuing their work, as they are located in more or less ethnically unmixed regions. But the magazine "The Organic Farmer", that is also distributed via INFONET-Biovision.org, faces logistic problems: "In the areas of unrest, where we deliver about 1,500 of the 16,000 copies, postal services are no longer working properly."

Please find more informationen in the situation report by Peter Baumgartner, a journalist with profound knowledge of Africa and a project leader for BioVision.

The title of the report, "Work in Kenya continues", sets the tone: As often "the everyday people", small scale farmers and women are those suffering the most, irrespective of ethnicity or political orientation.

Further Information:
www.biovision.ch

In the press:
Kenya Death Toll Near 800 in a Month at AP
Police, rioters clash in fresh Kenya violence at AFP
Police face riots in west Kenya at BBC, with background information on ethnic conflicts and "Kenya's Mafia"
Ethnic hatred fuels more Kenya violence at CNN
Rift Valley clashes claim 19 lives as Annan makes moves to end crisis at The Independent
Death Toll climbs to 800 in fresh wave of Kenya violence at The Guardian
19 Burned to Death in Violence in Kenya at NY Times
Rival Kenyan tribes face off with machetes and clubs at International Herald Tribune

100$-Laptop in Nigeria

2008-01-26T08:52:00.001Z

A wonderful audio slideshow by Jonathan Fildes at BBC depicting the impact of the XO at LEA primary school, Galadima, on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7113548.stm

Primary musings on Video and the Web 2.0

2008-01-07T10:55:00.001Z

In one of his last newsletters, Elliot Masie pointed out the ever growing importance of on-line snack-size videos and asked whether this could be used as a channel to create short learning content.

A good question and suggestion.

We thought of that suggestion when we browsed the news on the US primaries and noticed that the Obama-Campaign used video not only to distribute their political messages - On the website they set up for the Iowa Caucus they used video to explain the procedure of Caucus.

The core-family of Web 2.o: YouTube, FlickR, MySpace, Facebook

Interesting as well is the increasing presence of web 2.0 tools in the primaries. Web 2.0-tools have arrived in the official world of communication and publishing: Nearly every candidate is running a blog and assembles on its website links to a couple of Web 2.0 tools that seem to represent the current "core-family" or "basic Web 2.0 tool kit" in order to reach the public.

Like in all families, you'll find "the parents" at the core: YouTube and FlickR. The kids, Facebook and MySpace, are arranged around and in a lose order you'll find cousins, friends and neighbours, changing from website to website : eon, blackplanet, linkedin, meetup, etc.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-20T15:26:00.001Z

Dear All

rather than sending traditional cards for the holidays, Avallain this year makes a donation to the Swiss Helvetas foundation which supports the Nepalese NGO "SKILL" to conduct rural, mobile, and needs-oriented technical and vocational training courses for young deprived people like Radhika Makaju enabling her to run her own repair shop for electric equipment. (More information …)

We wish a peaceful Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Teshkeel teams with Avallain to contribute interactive content to "One Laptop Per Child" project

2007-12-03T15:11:00.001Z

Press Release | December, 4

Naif Al-Mutawa, CEO of Teshkeel Media Group, KSC, announced that the company would collaborate with Avallain to contribute interactive artwork and design assets to the One Laptop Per Child project, which focuses on providing low-cost computers to children in the developing world.

(Lustmühle, Switzerland) Artwork created by the illustrators of Teshkeel’s original comic book series, THE 99, will be incorporated into Avallain interactive content and made available for download to each laptop. A tool will also be provided that will allow children who receive the computers to create their own comic stories and digital illustrations. "Teshkeel gave individual characters and illustrations for modification by kids," said Avallain’s Ignatz Heinz. "Avallain will develop a variety of learning interactions based on its e-learning authoring software, the first being a comic builder with which kids can create their own stories using artwork similar to THE 99 characters," he added. The entire product is released for free use and modification under a so-called Creative Commons license.

As part of One Laptop Per Child’s large-scale humanitarian effort to educate needy children, the interactive e-learning software will be made available to all participants in the One Laptop Per Child program. This ambitious program aims to provide laptop computers for underprivileged children in countries ranging from Argentina to Pakistan to Rwanda.

"One of the driving forces behind THE 99—and Teshkeel as a whole—is the desire to influence children all over the world in a positive way," said Al-Mutawa. "That’s why we’re very excited to be joining with Avallain to take part in this innovative effort to supply kids in developing countries with the tools they need to get an education."

Today’s announcement marks the first collaboration between Teshkeel, which publishes comics and other children’s entertainment properties around the world, and Avallain, which provides e-learning services to customers internationally.

About "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC)
Founded by Chairman Emeritus of MIT's Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child is a US-based non-profit organization that plans to provide their pioneering, highly efficient computers to governments around the world. Find out more at www.laptop.org

About Teshkeel Media Group
Teshkeel Media Group, KSC is one of the Middle East's leading developers of comic books, magazines, and other forms of children's entertainment. Based in Kuwait, and with offices in New York and Cairo, the company's mission is to fill a significant void in positive, high-quality children's content in the region, including in print and electronic media, film, and television. In addition to working with global publishers like DC, Marvel, and Archie Comics, Teshkeel also develops its own original character properties, including THE 99, an award-winning original superhero property based on Islamic culture and history, which debuted in June 2006. Find out more at www.teshkeel.com

About Avallain
With a passion for education, innovation and the potential of the internet, Swiss based Avallain AG offers high quality services and products for the most demanding challenges in e-learning. Avallain develops award-winning e-learning solutions for public and private clients with one simple goal: To create choice and unlock human potential.
Avallain services include the design and implementation of complex e-learning-systems and the development and provision of tools and software to create, maintain and publish interactive content and learning material. Avallain also offers customized solutions for the hosting of e-learning-systems, and provides organizations and institutions with consultancy and expertise internationally. Find out more at www.avallain.com

CONTACTS:
Teshkeel Media Group, KSC
Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa
+965-961-8666 (Kuwait)
+001-917-689-8880 (New York)
naif@teshkeel.com

Avallain AG - Enhancing Education
Ignatz Heinz
+41 71 450 06 85
iheinz@avallain.com

AVALLAIN at Online Educa 2007

2007-11-02T09:18:00.002Z

Online Educa Berlin is one of the leading international conferences in the realm of learning with information and communication technologies (e-learning). From November 28 - 30, training specialists whose expertise spans the globe will hold lectures and seminars and lead discussions and workshops in which current trends and the latest developments are introduced. Details of new projects, practical applications, learning software, and research results also enrich the conferences’ learning experience. The trade exhibition that runs parallel to the learning sessions offers the opportunity for in-the-flesh exposure to the very best products and services in the field.

This year AVALLAIN will present at the conference as well as participate in the exhibition. We present latest developments of "e-learning for Basic Skills" (Literacy, Numeracy, knowledge for African Farmers), language training (Macmillan English Campus) and much more. Try out AVALLAIN solutions on the XO a.k.a. "100-Dollar-Laptop".

"e-learning for Basic Skills" - Presentation at Nov 29, 14:00
Join our presentation on "E-Learning for Basic Skills. A case for E-Learning that is anything but basic" , Thursday November 29, 14:00-16:00, at ACC20.

No time to visit the presentation? Further questions on the presentation or other topics? Meet us at the exhibition: Booth A26b.

Further information:
www.online-educa.com

"99% of opportunity" - Connect Africa Summit

2007-11-01T12:49:00.000Z

While computer and internet expand with accelerating rate with a growing number of more and more common tools in fields of everyday life, the workplace and learning, the benefits of the developments still are mostly limited to western industrialized countries.

Nevertheless information and communication technology (ICT) holds a lot potential to contribute to development and growth in Africa in all sectors of economy, information and education. E-learning for Basic Skills can bridge distances and provide expert proven learning material in areas with no education infrastructure.

Initiatives and projects such as the OLPC initiative or the INFONET-BioVision in Kenya give concrete idea how computer and internet can contribute in various fields to make relevant information accessible, support and enable learning and bridge the digital divide.

To enable Africa's participation in the benefits of the digital revolution United Nations include several programmes and initiatives to support efforts to connect Africa to the digital global community.

"Connect Africa" - Hence the name of an international forum provides a forum for global multi-stakeholders to discuss activities to bridge major gaps in ICT infrastructure across the region, with the aim of supporting affordable connectivity and applications and services to stimulate economic growth, employment and development throughout Africa.

"Africa needs to embrace wireless broadband as a potential solution to the digital divide", said Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel and the Global Alliance for ICT Development. "It's cheaper, easier and more efficient to communicate wirelessly," he told the BBC News website. Less than 1% of Africans have access to broadband and only 4% use the net.

"The good news is that Africa has had the highest growth in mobile use globally - twice the global average over the past three years.", says Dr Hamadoun Toure, head of the International Telecommunication Union at the Connect Africa Summit in Rwanda. ""If you have just 1% of broadband access today you have 99% of opportunity."

Africa doesn't need charity
The lack of interconnectivity is one of the biggest problems facing internet development in Africa with more than 70% of internet traffic within Africa routed outside the continent, driving up costs for business and consumers.

"This is a serious problem and will be discussed," said Dr Toure and stated that Africa should not be looking for special treatment. "Africa has to create the opportunities; Africa doesn't need charity," he said. "We need to make sure we have a good environment that will attract private sector investment. There's nothing wrong with making profits in Africa."

Further information:
Official Connect Africa Website http://www.connectafrica.gov.rw

"Africa waiting for net revolution" (BBC)
"Intel backs wireless Africa plan" (BBC)

Urugay first to buy '$100 laptops'

2007-10-30T09:41:00.000Z

As the BBC reports Urugay (represented by the state-run Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay, Latu, which runs a large scale education and communications project known as Ceibal) has placed an order for 100.000 of the "XO" laptops that are developed as part of the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) initiative of former media lab director Nicholas Negroponte.

A small revolution - the XO a.k.a. 100$-Laptop (Image: Heise)

Initially the XO laptops will be distributed in eight to nine of the country's 19 regions. A further 300,000 machines will provide machines for all of the country's children. "We will also cover the rest of the country later in 2008 and Montevideo in 2009," said Miguel Brechner, president of the organisation.

Although media reported that several countries such as Lybia, Peru, Rwanda or Brazil wanted to buy the XO, OLPC did not finalise a deal until now. "I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a cheque written," told Negroponte the New York Times.

The project also faced hurdles when Intel started to promote its competitive model "Classmate". Negroponte accused Intel of pushing the Classmate to drive OLPC out of what might become the most promising market for ICT in the next 20 years. The argument between OLPC and Intel took an unexpected turn when Intel joined OLPC in the summer of 2007.

OLPC started the "give 1 get 1" initiative inviting people to support the project through their donations. Starting November 12, OLPC will be offering a "Give 1 Get 1" program for a brief window of time in North America. People will be able to buy an XO for $399, thus paying for one machine "that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home."

Education for all

The non-commercial OLPC-initiative aims to develop and distribute a laptop for children in developing countries, to unlock the educational potential.
The laptop ("XO") designed to meet the special requirements (durable, waterproof, sunlight readable display, can be powered by solar, foot-pump or pull-string powered chargers, etc.) runs completely on open source software to avoid license costing, and is developed within an open community. Companies as Red Hat or Google support OLPC with developers.

AVALLAIN supports OLPC contributing the AVALLAIN ComicMaker, a tool that allows children to create their own comic stories with given elements such as figures, background images and speech bubbles.

Source:
"Urugay buys first '$100 laptops'" at BBC Online

Further information
More about OLPC and the XO at www.laptop.org

"What if Every Child had a Laptop" very good and comprehensive report and video by CBS "60 Minutes"

"Learning as easy as pie" at heise

INFONET-BioVision – Avallain e-learning expertise for Kenya’s farmers

2007-10-09T06:07:00.000Z

Press release | October, 9 2007

The database driven knowledge-management INFONET-BioVision .org provides Kenyan Farmers with information on socially, economically and ecologically sound technologies in crop and livestock production, environmental and human health. Developed by AVALLAIN on behalf of the Swiss BioVision Foundation for Environment and Development, the project draws on rich international experience with challenging e-learning projects.

(Lustmühle, Switzerland) In Kenya agriculture is the main source of income for over 80% of the rural population and represents 25% of the region's gross domestic product. Crop pests (insects, weeds, plant diseases, rodents, etc.) represent a considerable limiting factor in the production of local food crops and are a major cause of agricultural under-production, malnutrition and poverty.

New methods and scientific results on affordable, effective and ecological methods for the sustainable management of plant-, human- and animal- targeting pests and disease vectors, for adequate nutrition, as well as methods to maintain a healthy and productive environment are continuously being developed.

"The knowledge is available." says Ursula Suter, Managing Director at AVALLAIN AG. "But the knowledge is not accessible for farmers. The formats currently used for capturing the methods are not focused on practical needs of the rural population."

A problem that is now tackled by INFONET-BioVision.org. The internet-based knowledge-management system offers practical, demonstrative edited information on sustainable socially, economically and ecologically sound methods in crop and livestock production, environmental and human health, pest control and income increase for farmers in Kenya. INFONET-BioVision .org is being developed by AVALLAIN on behalf of the Swiss BioVision Foundation for Environment and Development. The project is being funded by the Liechtenstein Development Service (LDS) and BioVision.

An internet-based platform for farmers in Africa? "This is not a contradiction, on the contrary!"says Ursula Suter. "We saw that it took farmers who used a computer for the first time less than 30 minutes to understand how to use a mouse and browse through the INFONET."

The development of internet-based applications to offer locally relevant information and learning material offers much potential for regions where the internet and computers so far are not in wide use because the impact of innovation can be exponentially higher than in technology-saturated societies. „This is an area where e-learning can do its best – there is an enormous potential to be unlocked by education delivered on information technology. We believe that implementing the best available learning solutions will help to close the digital gap.” says Suter.

Farmers involved in development

Farmer groups have been included in the development of INFONET-BioVision. Their feedback on early versions of the platform has been included to adjust user guidance, handling, structure and presentation of material in a manner that suits the requirements of the target audience.

Despite the fact that INFONET-BioVision is an internet-based offer, established and traditional social structures for the distribution of information are included as well. An offline edition of INFONET-BioVision is installed at central places that can be easily reached by farmers and their supporting trainers. "INFONET-BioVision offers "Eco-Trainers" the possibility to equip themselves with latest information for their consulting and training with farmer groups." says Ursula Suter.

About Avallain:
The Swiss e-learning Specialist AVALLAIN develops innovative computer and internet-based learning solutions for public and private clients. More than 180.000 learners worldwide are currently using e-learning made by AVALLAIN. Several of the projects that have been launched since 2002, such as the groundbreaking Literacy-project ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de, have received prestigious e-learning-awards. In addition to the main business activities AVALLAIN supports innovative projects such as the OLPC-project.

Contact:
Ralf Kellershohn, mail: rkellershohn@avallain.com, mobile: +49 - 172 198 70 34

Further Information:
www.infonet-biovision.org
www.avallain.com
www.biovision.ch

Avallain at Frankfurt Book Fair‘s Literacy Campaign "LitCam"

2007-10-09T05:57:00.000Z

Press Release | October, 9 2007

AVALLAIN sponsors Frankfurt Book Fair’s campaign „LitCam“ for the promotion of Literacy and Basic Skills. At a second annual international conference 100 experts and delegates met at Frankfurt to present current best practice projects and new approaches and to discuss remaining challenges and future strategies. "Today the productivity of knowledge-based economies depends directly on the education of the population. Basic Skills therefore steadily gain in relevance, even for economic reasons alone. An important field for e-learning", says Ignatz Heinz, Managing Director of AVALLAIN.

(Lustmühle | Switzerland) According to UNESCO an estimated 771 million adults worldwide can not read nor write, with two thirds of them being women. An estimated 100 million children worldwide do not attend school. Western industrialised countries struggle with the consequences of poor Basic Skills for individuals as well as the national economies: Despite a comprehensive educational infrastructure and compulsory schooling millions of adults lack the Basic Skills they need to meet the demands in everyday life or their workplace. Basic Skills such as Literacy or Numeracy represent the foundation for the permanent acquisition of competencies within lifelong learning.

Enough motivation for the world‘s largest book fair to put Literacy and Basic Skills on the agenda and offer it an international platform as part of the new established focus "Education for the Future". "As a book fair, we are deliberately picking up on the issue of education because of its growing economic significance for publishing companies. At the same time, the Frankfurt Book Fair takes seriously the demand for equal opportunities in education availability and provides a platform for the education debate", says Karin Ploetz, director of "Education for the future".

Impressions from LitCam 2006

More than hundred experts and delegates of organisations from more than 20 countries are expected at the second annual conference. Discussions, workshops and an accompanying exhibition offer the opportunity to present best practice projects, new approaches, share experiences, discuss future strategies and foster new cooperation.

This years workshops address distance education, basic education for immigrants and concepts of easy to read material.

AVALLAIN supports Frankfurt Book Fair in the organisation of LitCam. As a pioneer in the development of e-learning for Basic Skills AVALLAIN created the acclaimed e-learning-portal for adult literacy learners "ich-will-schreiben-lernen".

"The internet offers rich possibilities to support Basic Skills education. Innovative learning solutions motivate learners and support teachers.", says Ignatz Heinz. "If the specific challenges are taken seriously and the experience from traditional Basic Skills education is applied, e-learning can play an important role."

With the growing importance of ICT in the workplace and everyday life the integration of computers and the internet in Basic Skill education is a must. "The computer is an instrument with a high value for learners." Heinz emphasizes. “Being able to use the internet and to work with a premium tool has a huge positive impact on the self esteem of learners who are most likely to have had negative education experiences in school."

About Avallain: The Swiss e-learning Specialist AVALLAIN develops innovative computer and internet-based learning solutions for public and private clients. More than 180.000 learners worldwide are currently using e-learning made by AVALLAIN. Several of the projects that have been launched since 2002, such as the groundbreaking Literacy-project "ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de", have received prestigious e-learning-awards. In addition to the main business activities AVALLAIN supports innovative projects such as the OLPC-project.

Contact:
Ralf Kellershohn, mail: rkellershohn@avallain.com, mobile: +49 172 198 70 34

Further information:
www.litcam
www.avallain.com

Countdown: launch INFONET-Biovision

2007-09-16T08:37:00.000Z

Only three weeks until the launch of infonet-biovision.org, the internet-based knowledge system for organic farmers in east Africa.

INFONET-BioVision contributes to poverty reduction and environmental protection by disseminating appropriate methods for crop and livestock production, human, animal, plant and environmental health. INFONET-BioVision is developed by AVALLAIN for the swiss Biovision foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods of rural people in Africa while maintaining the natural resources and diversity.

INFONET-Biovision

provides information on socially, economically and ecologically sound technologies in crop and livestock production, environmental and human health
compiles, tailors and disseminates geographically focused information for trainers, extension services to primary beneficiaries such as rural farming communities – especially women who are the main producers
serves as a source of information for the compilation and dissemination of teaching material and leaflets
collaborates with existing extension and training networks so that farmers and communities who have no access to the internet are also reached
operates within an active feedback system by expanding and adapting content and services according to the needs in the field, thus empowering farmers and rural communities in handling their own sustainable development activities

INFONET-BioVision supports a multi channel approach including web, mobile phones, print, linking with existing learning networks e.g. local farmer- and women’s groups and partners such as the UNDP or the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI).

The official ceremony will be held on 9th october at icipe, at its Headquarters in Kasarani, Nairobi. Key guests include the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, His Excellency Mr. Otmar Hasler, whose Government Development Agency is providing important funding for this initiative.

Also present at the occasion will be representatives from BioVision Foundation and the Swiss Embassy in Nairobi. Further more senior representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, various international research collaborators, as well as members of the Kenyan and international media are expected to join the event.

Further Information
www.infonet-biovision.org
www.biovision.ch

See our promotion video at youtube.

Flash to be supported for 100$ laptop?

2007-09-15T18:27:00.000Z

The OLPC project within which the 100$-Laptop (XO) is being developed reports in its latest news that Gnash has been updated to Version 0.8.1. An interesting aspect is that Adobe Flash player has been tested extensively which indicates that Flash might become supported format for the XO. This would widen the possibilities to contribute e-learning for the XO.

Emma Shercliff of Macmillan and Ignatz Heinz of AVALLAIN are finishing work on a language-learning tool this month, and a collection of Ethiopian texts and materials for the team in Addis. The material will be available to the world. OLPC reports that Macmillan is also interested in working with local teams across Africa to help share their experiences working with education ministries and schools; they have local authors and publishing branches in around half of the countries there.

AVALLAIN is participating in the OLPC project developing and contributing e-learning for literacy and basic skills.

Further information
on the OLPC project and the XO at www.laptop.org
on AVALLAIN Basic Skills www.avallainbasicskills.com
on Macmillan at www.macmillan.com

Avallain supports Frankfurt Book Fair's Literacy Campaign

2007-09-13T15:42:00.000Z

Four weeks to go until the world's largest book fair opens its gates for 7.275 exhibitors from 110 countries and 300.000 guests from all over the world. In a press conference today at Frankfurt, Juergen Boos, Director of Frankfurt Book Fair, presented this years program. For the second time, the book fair will feature "Education" as a focus with special pavillons, exhibitions and events such as the Literacy Campaign "LitCam".

"LitCam" welcomes international expertes and organisations from the field of literacy and basic education, publishers and policy makers to present current tasks and best practice projects as well as discuss future strategies and challenges. For example colleagues from Ireland will showcase their latest developments in distant education for literacy learners, combining a tv series with online learning material. Due to the increasing presence of media in both the workplace as well as everday life, media literacy, the competence to use computer and internet in order to access information, participate in public debates, develop and comunicate ideas has become the fourth basic skill.

Hence, the need to integrate computer and internet in basic education is thus ever growing, which poses a challenging task for e-learning. E-learning not only offers a possibility to learn with computer and internet establish a competence and confidence for adult learners to use them as tools for information and communication but also support s teachers and trainers, providing them with a motivating tool that enriches their teaching practice.

AVALLAIN supports LitCam and will present within the accompanying exhibition its range of software and services for this emerging application of e-learning.

"We intentionally adress EDUCATION because of the economic importance of this area is rapidly increasing for publishers. German publishers alone are producing 3.000 to 4.000 new titles. Sales volume for educational books, software etc. achieved 2006 500 Millionen Euro. In addition Frankfurt Book Fair wants to provide a forum for the international demand for equal access to education and participation for all", Boos said at Frankfurt.

Further information:
www.book-fair.com
www.litcam.org

International Literacy Day 2007 "Literacy, key to good health and well-being"

2007-09-10T11:24:00.000Z

On Sep 8 the world celebrated International Literacy Day (ILD) to remind the world communitiy of the remaining challenge of equal access to litearcy and basic education for all. This years Literacy Day is placing special focus on the vital relationship between literacy and health. As 2007 marks the half-way point in the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012) UNESCO Director-Genral Koïchiro Matsuura reviewed the review the global literacy challenge.

In today’s world, some 774 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 72.1 million children are out of school and many more attend irregularly or drop out; and literate environments with access to reading material and suitable publications are lacking, with the result that neo-literates cannot sustain their skills.

UNESCO Director- General Matsuura pointed out, how the understanding of who is literate and who is illiterate has evolved considerably over the years, giving rise to new implications for both policies and programmes. "The practices of literacy are changing rapidly in contemporary societies in response to broad social, economic and technological changes. Indeed, only a plural notion of literacy can capture the variety of literacy practices undertaken by women and men across the world in their everyday lives."

The slogan for this year's Literacy Day is "Literacy, key to good health and well-being". Also, this year's UN International Literacy Prizes focus on the connection of Literacy and Health and award projects and organisations adressing health issues in the context of literacy learning.

Literacy strengthens the capabilities of people to take advantage of healthcare and educational opportunities, the Director-General emphasizes – for example, by seeking medical help for themselves and a sick child, by adopting preventive health measures such as immunisation, and by acquiring greater knowledge of family planning methods.

In addition the understanding of Literacy has changed enormously in the recent years due to the growing importance of computer and internet. "Media Literacy", the competence to use technics to access und use information distributed online, has become the fourth basic skill.

Hence, computer and internet are being integrated in basic education. In addition the introduction of computers to basic education help to stimulate learner motivation. Especially men are more likely to attend a "computer class" than a "literacy course". More than that , E-Learning for Basic Education offers a wide range of opportunities to enrich the teaching and learning experience.

AVALLAIN has developed the first german web-based e-learning-portal for adult literacy learners (Watch our Videos). Nearly 100.000 learners have logged in since the launch on World Literacy Day 2004. Today, the portal is being expanded to cover also Numeracy, Workplace Skills and Basic English.

Further Information
UNESCO-Press Release
Further resources to International Literacy Day 2007
Brothers of Pen and Paper. 10 min. Documentary by kenian literacy learners on the links between literacy and health.
Selection of Effective Adult Literacy and Numeracy Programmes
UNESCO Global Monitoring Report 2006: Literacy for All

Mobile Technology for open journalism

2007-08-10T07:17:00.000Z

The dutch Africa Interactive Media Foundation and the dutch media service Skoeps join together in the "Voices of Africa"-project where they equip african journalists with mobile technology.

"The development of Internet and mobile communication in Africa has impressively progressed, thereby putting Africans in a much better position to take part in discussions that have been taking place about their continent for centuries without their knowledge and participation. This trend is very promising as communication and interaction among people are preconditions for reinforcing democracy and greatly contribute to good governance and the rule of law." states the Foundation.

"Although the communication channels are making considerable progress, the number of African journalists, reporters, photographers, film makers and internet experts taking advantage of them is still relatively very low. Also, the number of citizen journalists - who are very active in Western countries through mobile communication and internet, can be expanded. Therefor the "Voices of Africa" Project equips african journalists with mobile technology.

Since june, Kenya-coordinator Wafula is also "on air". He writes texts, adds images, audio and video and sends the material directly online or offers them to publishers. The fast and direct technology strenghtens free opinion forming as censorship becomes harder to maintain. Immediately after he started he had his first scoop when I arrived first at the centre of Nairobi where a bombexplosion took place. The most important test for the mobile journalism will be the presidential election in december. "We want first hand eye-witness reports of the results without delay.", he says.

More and more the once exclusive mobile technology becomes a common infrastructure in Africa. Be it farmers, cleaning woman or security guard: For more and more people, also the poor, the mobile phone is becoming basic equipment. What started off as a status toy for the rich and often corrupt elites has now become a core tool for communication and trading. Familys keep in touch, farmers get information on prices for their products on the local markets - sometimes the mobile phone is used as asubstitute for a bank account: In Kenya, a country with a population of 32 million, there are just 2 million banknotes). Contracts for mobile phones are also rare: "99% of our customers use prepaid cards", says Les Baillie, representant of Safaricom, a huge mobilephone provider in Kenya. A true "Mobile Society".

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the numbers of mobile phones in Africa has increased by 400% in the last decade. In 2005 94 Million people south of Sahara owned a mobile phone - one out of six.

Example Farming: An estimated 80% of the agricultural production in Africa is small-scale or subsistence. Often their crop can't even feed their own families. THis must not be, says former UN-secretary general Kofi Annan. The "mobile Revolution",should lead the way to the "green revolution" helping tripling the production, he hopes. "Aside better fertilizer and seed , mobile phones can help providing small-scale-farmers with access to markets and relevant market information", says Annan, new chairman of the "Alliance for a green Revolution in Africa" (AGRA).

Mobile technologies for information distribution are also a core topic for INFONET-Biovision, a databased driven web based platform providing information on organic farming, AVALLAIN is developing on behalf of the Swiss Biovision foundation. INFONET-Biovision is launching 9 October 2007 at icipe Headquarters in Kasarani, Nairobi. See promotion video at youtube.

Find out more at www.infonet-biovision.org

Mobile Phones in Africa - a growing economy and learning tool

2007-06-04T09:13:00.000Z

As the G8 summit is about to take place in Germany the press delivers a lot of coverage on Africa, Development and Globalisation. An article in the latest issue of FRANFURTER ALLGEMEINE SONNTAGSZEITUNG highlights the growing importance of mobile phones in Africa.

According to UN statistics ten years ago there were only 2 million people equipped with a mobile phone as they were in those days toys for the rich urban elites.

This situation has changed completely: The african market for mobile phones is the fastest growing worldwide. More than 100 million mobile phones are. 97% of the population of Tansania reports to have a mobile phone. The mobile phone helps the people to stay close to their friends and family and supports them to improve their economic situation: Fishermen of the Sansibar Island explore via mobile phone wich prices they can expect for their fish. If the prices are too low due to a high supply, they sail to Daressalam to sell their fish there and achieve higher prices.

More and more new services blossom connected with mobile phones: Callcenters with mobile phones, advertising agencies providing ads via textmessages, energy recharching services that connect mobiles to car batteries. According to a survey 85% of the new small enterprises are based on mobile phones and mobile phone related services.

Mobile phones and mobile computers are also a core element of the distribution concept of the INFONET-BioVision knowledge system that offers information on sustainable agriculture and ecological control of plant-, human- and animal- targeting pests and disease vectors. AVALLAIN is developing the technical infrastructure.

As computers and internet aren't available area-wide in Africa, a wide range of media such as posters, brochures, local radio, marketplace and other "low-tech" media is being used to disseminate the information. Mobile devices as mobile phones, PDAa etc. will become more and more important within the project.

The distribution of information through mobile devices does not only make sense as mobile devices are more availabe in remote areas but as mobile users can easier enter and retrieve context related , up-to-date information in and from of the system.
Every farmer that reports e.g. a new case of plant desease contributes information to the system that can be compared to other incoming reports from other farmers. This offers the opportunity to link them together and gives the administration the possibility to react for example by sending a special support team, report the case to
The inclusion of mobile infrastructure enables the collection, evaluation, design and distribution of flexible, up-to-date, relevant information and learning material. An approach especially promising for the support of farming in Africa.

Further Information

on INFONET-Biovision at www.infonet-biovision.org and www.biovision.ch
The impact of mobile phones in Africa (PDF) Backround report by Nigel Scott, Simon Batchelor, Jonathon Ridley and Britt Jorgensen for the Comission for Africa.
For those who still read books: Traxler, J., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2005). Mobile Learning in Developing Countries (G. Chin, Ed.). Vancouver, BC: Commonwealth of Learning.

A conversation with Bill and Steve

2007-05-31T13:50:00.001Z

In one of their rare joint appearances at All Things Digital 5, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates discussed their contributions to the technology industry, the qualities they most respect in one another, and former Apple CEO Gil Amelio’s seamanship.

Watch the discussion at: http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/video-steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-prologue/

AVALLAIN at eLearning Africa 2007

2007-05-28T16:29:00.001Z

Together with John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton, Leonard Mware Oloo, Maseno University Kenya, AVALLAIN is presenting the INFONET-BioVision project at the eLearning Africa conference at Nairobi, Kenya.

Within the project, run by the swiss Biovision Foundation, AVALLAIN develops the online resource platform. It aims to strengthen sustainable development of farmers and rural communities in Africa providing local relevant and effective information on sustainable agriculture and ecological control of plant-, human- and animal- targeting pests and disease vectors. Contributions are being made by farmer groups, local experts and international scientists.

The information platform is used as a resource pool for disseminating information inside and outside the internet through active cooperation with partner organizations and local farmer- and women's groups and with information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Find out more about INFONET-BioVision at www.infonet-biovision.org
More information on eLearning Africa available at www.elearning-africa.com

100$-Laptop

2007-05-28T12:23:00.000Z

One of the most exiting ideas in the recent years is the dream of former MIT media lab founder and director Nicholas Negroponte to provide every child in the developing countries with their own computer in order to unlock the potential to meet the desire to learn and explore and thus contributing to closing the knowledge gap and digital divide - through the very same media that are mostly known for requiring so many prerequisite competencies that they are setting up hurdles more than they contribute making information and education accessable for all.

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project is a vision of vast proportions, proposing huge challenges on all levels: the technical requirements for hard- and software are special (software must be open source, hardware must meet the special conditions of developing countries - such as a sunlight readable display, waterproof hardware, little power consumption, crank, pedal, or a pull-cord for hand powered energy charging etc.) as the distribution model is (to market the laptops in very large numbers directly to ministries of education, which can distribute them like textbooks.)
The target is 100$ per laptop. OLPC needs a high number of orders as well as support by sponsors contributing money, knowledge, infrastructure, software - anything that helps moving the project forward. A key supporter is RED HAT contributing a special Linux version for the OLPC and working on several aspects of the project such as interface design and software development.

Several short clips from "60 Minutes" on the 100$-Laptop are availabe at yahoo.
Also inevitably there are a lot of clips available at YouTube.

Find out more about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative at www.laptop.org