With the emergence of new global economy, ‘powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge’, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are seen as having a great potential for improving the human condition by creating new economic and educational opportunities, improving health delivery, improving governance, and improving the general provision of services. The ICTs play a pivotal role to expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. ICTs have been utilized by education ever since their inception, but they have been massively present in schools only since the early 1980s.
The developing world has seen an increased pressure for a more rapid infusion of ICTs into academics in recent years. For developing countries in general and Muslim countries in particular, the ICTs have the potential for increasing access to and improving the relevance and quality of education and thus represents a potentially equalizing strategy for these countries.
Taking cognizance of the above and to combat the challenges of educated and qualified workforce, the Inter Islamic Network on Information Technology (INIT) in collaboration with the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), Islamic Scientific Educational and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Industrial Consultancy and Research Center (IRCC), Republic of Sudan, University of Science nd Technology, Sudan is convening an International Conference on ‘’Diffusion of ICTs in Academia: Learning in the Digital Age in Islamic Countries’ on October 4 - 5, 2010 at Khartoum, Republic of Sudan.
The Conference will provide a forum for academicians and professionals from Islamic countries to help facilitate exchange ideas and discuss best practices in diffusion of ICTs in academics of developing and developed world. It will present a unique opportunity for fostering collaboration, and strengthening cooperation and dialogue among the delegates. It aims at improving links between measures and initiatives at all levels, providing a forum to all the players in enabling their respective areas of academics in integration of ICTs i.e. universities, schools, training centres, decision-makers in the Islamic countries.
The Conference would rectify the shortage of infrastructure and skills associated with diffusion of ICTs in the academics, ways and measures necessary to improve the integration of ICTs in academics, social inclusion and help promote the employability and adaptability objectives of the developing world in general and Islamic Countries in particular. Common recommendations and priorities will be established by involving the educationists, academicians, IT professionals, and ICTs training players.
Activities