Background

Macedonia is a small country of two million people located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. Macedonia is a young country, having gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. At the time of its independence, Macedonia was one of the least developed former Yugoslav republics, though the country has slowly attained economic stability. As the country has developed, so has the technology infrastructure. Of the total population, 19.2% of Macedonians have access to the internet, an increase of 1200% since the year 2000. World Links' goal has been to make sure every teacher has access, thus spreading the technology to the youth of Macedonia.

World Links in Macedonia

Location

Background

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is located in West Africa and is the most populous country on the continent with more than 80 million inhabitants. Following nearly 16 years of military rule, a new constitution was adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed. Nigeria faces the daunting task of reforming a petroleum-based economy, whose revenues have been squandered through corruption and mismanagement, and institutionalizing democracy.

Nigeria is currently experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence. Nigeria’s infrastructure is rapidly developing. Since 2000, internet usage has increased by 2400%. There is still a lot of work to be done as most of the development is in urban areas and 97% of the population is still without internet access.

World Links in Nigeria

Location

Zimbabwe Virtual Reality Program

Over time and through many projects at the Naledi3d Factory, a South African company that explores ways to use virtual reality as a social and development tool, we have regularly seen just how virtual reality can offer high returns on basic human (social) development.

Being both intensely visual and interactive, virtual reality easily overcomes the text-based and language barriers to learning in an engaging way and one that’s also characterized by a high learning retention.  Modern understanding of the human brain shows that the area of the cerebral cortex devoted to processing visual inputs is an order of magnitude more powerful than that responsible for text and speech.  Using virtual reality to demonstrate concepts and show knowledge visually greatly enhances comprehension of many topics.  Thus, we can easily offer effective skill development to those who are functionally illiterate.

Location

World Links Arab Region will be involved with the Middle East Partnership Initiative / USAID Dot-Com Alliance project in Yemen alongside the Education Development Center, a US-based NGO. WLAR's implementation role in the Yemen school connectivity pilot entails the following: first, the adaptation and preparation of training materials; second, basic computer literacy training; third, initial teacher training in the use of technology as both a master-trainer and school-based educational tool; fourth, monitoring and evaluation; and fifth, project management and coordination.

Following the USAID project, WLAR launched the World Links program in the Hadramaut province of Yemen in 2004 and conduct studies during the spring and early summer seasons.

Location

UPDATE: October 2nd, 2008

World Links has begun to train 30 teachers, along with some ministry staff, and are currently establishing computer labs in 11 schools. Aprotrain, our local partner, bid out the computer lab equipment and translated Teacher Professional Development (TPD) 1 and 2 in preparation for training. The enthusiasm and seriousness of the Vietnamese teachers and instructors was very impressive. Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is very interested in World Links continuing actively in Vietnam. In the view of the MOET staff, the World Links Program is superior to Intel Teach, and they would like to have all four phases of the program delivered in Vietnam. MOET was receptive to us delivering our full program in Deepika Sharma, the Workshop Facilitator notes on her last day of the workshop.

Location

Uganda was the first pilot country for the World Links program, with three schools initially connected to the Internet in July 1996. The program has since expanded to 32 schools, with 1920 teachers and over 30,000 students participating in the program. 26 World Links training workshops were held in 2000, and thirteen telecollaborative projects were under way in 2001.

World Links was instrumental in helping to establish Schoolnet Uganda, the first NGO in the country dedicated to information technology and education. Starting in late 2000, schools in the greater Kampala area were connected to the Internet via wireless microwave modems, which substantially reduced the costs of Internet access while offering greatly enhanced connectivity.

Location

World Links has been active in Turkey since September 1998, when the first schools were connected to the Internet. World Links is working closely with the Ministry of Education to support the 22 schools in the pilot phase of the World Links project. 500 teacher have attended World Links training workshops, and 1284 students have been trainined in the uses of ICTs in educaiton. Over one hundred educational projects are currently underway.