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Monthly newsletter

UNDP Project “Capacity Building for Internet technologies Development and Promotion in Uzbekistan”

Contents:

1. Events and announcements:
   1. Interschool Resource Center jointly with the Khokimiyat (government) of Sergeli district conducted a series of the electronic project contests dedicated to the Constitution Day of the Republic of Uzbekistan
   2. Participation of the project staff in the international conferences
   3. UZSCINET CISCO-academy received status “Regional”
   4. Tech Age Girls program was announced as a finalist of the 2006 Development Gateway Award organized by the Development Gateway Foundation
   5. Conference on Resource Centers’ sustainability
2. Our trainings:
   1. Over 20 medical officials attended training on the course “Computer literacy basics, work on the Internet, basics of working in Excel”
   2. Deputies of Oliy Majlis (Senate) of the Republic of Uzbekistan improve their skills in using ICT
   3. 8 trainees received certificates on specialization “Administration of computer systems on the basis of Microsoft Windows Server 2003”
   4. About 50 people attend training in local CISCO Academy
   5. Seminar “Distance education on international business”
3. Integration of ICT into education:
   1. Over 30 school administrators attended seminar on the topic “ICT in School Management” and “Multimedia tools and teaching methods”
   2. 27 teachers learned basic computer skills on the program “Teacher and mentor”
   3. Winners of the Autumn Online Festival “Modern Lesson” dedicated to the Year of Empowerment of Educators on ICT use
4. Technical assistanceа:
   1. Statistical data on network use
5. New resources:
   1. New resources of Interschool Resource Center
   2. Resources created as part of Teachers’ Workshop
   3. Other useful resources
6. Activities and contests:
   1. Online forum “UNESCO Educational Projects”
   2. Essay contest “Tolerance through Education”
   3. Seminar “Intercultural Differences in the International Education”
   4. Seminar dedicated to the Global Day of Combating AIDS and Drug Addiction
7. Photo gallery.

Новости:

1. Events and announcements.

• Interschool Resource Center jointly with the Khokimiyat of Sergeli district conducted a series of electronic project contests dedicated to the Constitution Day of the Republic of Uzbekistan., They include contest of electronic pictures, contest of electronic scenarios of activities, contest that tests students’ knowledge on the Constitution of Uzbekistan, contest of electronic presentations that can be used while conducting multimedia lessons on the Constitution of Uzbekistan. Results of seven contests were announced.

• Participation of the project staff in the international conferences:

• The project manager Vadim Navotniy took part in the 13th meeting of the “SilkHighway” NATO project management committee and 2nd meeting of the Europe Commission’s OCCASION project in Istanbul. At the meetings, the participants considered issues of the project management, as well as problems related to transition to the new satellite provider and double expanding of external channel.
• By invitation of ITU (International Telecommunications Union) as an expert of this organization, the project manager Vadim Navotniy took part in the conference of association of African Universities in Accra (Ghana). In this conference, the project manager presented three papers: “Opportunities of Financing National Scientific Education Networks”, “Services Provided by Scientific Research Networks”, as well as “Opportunities of Education as part of CEENET Association”.
• Technical expert of the project Grigoriy Yudin took part in the staff meeting of the “SilkHighway” NATO project technical specialists in Istanbul
• Curriculum specialist of the project Sayyora Rakhamkulova took part in the 11th workshop of NATO “Effective Methods of Distance Learning” organized by the Association of the Scientific Education Networks of the Central and East Europe that took place in Batumi from November 3 to 6. Rakhmankulova made a presentation on the topic “Distance Learning for Teachers of Uzbekistan Schools” sharing her experience in integration of the pilot distance learning courses in Uzbekistan on “Modern lesson” and “The project Methods in School Education” (www.connect.uz).

• On November 29, UZSCINET CISCO Academy received status “Regional”. This status gives the opportunity to expand number of the conducted courses, open local academies, as well as prepare instructors for these academies.

• Tech Age Girls program was announced as a finalist of the 2006 Development Gateway Award organized by the Development Gateway Foundation. (www.dgfoundation.org). Over 160 applications were received from around the world with descriptions of various projects on the topic “ICT for the Empowerment of Youth”. Among the submitted projects, Tech Age Girls entered the top 30 semifinalists and then it was specially recognized along with four contest finalists as a more promising project. In addition, this program will be included into an online special report that the Development Gateway Foundation plans to publish in December (http://www.developmentgateway.org/award/ceremony.do).

• Conference on Resource Centers’ Sustainability. Conference was organized for administrators of the Resource centers and leaders of the partner organizations. Goal of the conference is evaluation of activities of partners on creation of the base to continue work of the centers on completion of financing. As a result of the conference, partners and center administrators developed detailed plans of each center’s sustainability including issues of determining further mission, goals of the centers, research of paid services market, business planning, issues of taxation and associated problems.

2. Our trainings:

• Over 20 medical officials attended training on the course “Computer literacy basics, work on the Internet, basics of working in Excel”, that took place as part of collaboration with the project “Medical Information and Continuous Medical Education in Central Asia” and public organization Medicalexpress (http://medicalexpress.uz). Doctors from the 1st Republican Polyclinic, Institute of Cardiology, Nongovernmental enterprise “Blood Specimen” and Tashkent Institute of Doctors’ Development.

• Deputies of Oliy Majlis (Senate) of the Republic of Uzbekistan improve their skills in ICT use.In collaboration with the UNDP project “Enhancing Legislative and Institutional Capacities of the Parliament”, trainings on using Microsoft products and principles of working with judicial and legislative bases are conducted for parliamentarians. Aiming at this the project specialists developed handouts in Uzbek and Russian languages, as well as booklets on reviewing network resources, structure and principles of working with the judicial database, instructions on distance communication using NetMeeting program, safe work on the Internet and e-mail. Sessions for the Oliy Majlis deputies are conducted in Uzbek and Russian languages. Over 120 deputies of Oliy Majlis are planned to train. 38 deputies have already finished training and received certificates, 32 deputies continue training.

• 8 trainees received certificates on specialization “Administration of computer systems on the basis of Microsoft Windows Server 2003, sessions on which finished at the end of November. Now 6 trainees continue sessions on specialization «OC RedHat LINUX!» that will last till January 2007.

• About 50 people attend training in local CISCO Academy. To training group were also admitted winners of the CISCO contest held in the period of working of the First National Exhibition of Information Technologies ICTExpo 2006 that took place in the Republican Center “Uzkurgazmasavdo” (Uztradecenter) from September 26 to 28.

• Seminar “International business distance education” took place on November 14 in Navoi Resource Center for entrepreneurs and students of business subjects. The seminar participants familiarized themselves with the particularities and advantages of the distance business courses, determined needs in additional training.

3. Integration of ICT into education:

• Over 30 school administrators attended seminar on the topic “ICT in School Management” and “Multimedia tools and teaching methods”. On demand of the Tashkent State University of Teachers’ Development, a seminar was conducted for 32 school administrators on the topic “ICT in School Management” and “Multimedia tools and teaching methods”.

• 27 teachers learned basic computer skills on the program “Teacher and Student Mentor”.. The Interschool Resource Center hosted a training program on basic computer skills entitled “Teacher and Student Mentor” during which teachers were offered to take as a mentor their student who can work at computer and learn basic knowledge on Windows/Word/Excel in a month. As a result of this experiment, all teachers gained basic skills and submitted test work.

• Winners of the Autumn Online Festival “Modern Lesson” dedicated to the Year of Increasing Potential of Education Staff on ICT use.. On November 10, 2006, winners of the Autumn Online Festival “Modern lesson” organized in collaboration with the Avloniy Central Institute of Professional Development for Public Education Officials were announced. The winners were announced in the following categories: Best lesson teaching languages and literature, Best lesson using web quest in teaching English, Best lesson on natural subjects and exact sciences, Best lesson in elementary classes, Best lesson subjects of social cycle. This festival demonstrated experience of teachers of Uzbekistan in using ICT in the educational process to both prepare and conduct the lesson; assisted in integration of the modern education technologies and Internet into school daily practice; created the opportunity for wide development of creation of electronic educational resources by teachers of Uzbekistan.

4. Technical information

Statistical data on network use:

During November 2006, network’s incoming traffic was 2 Tb and outgoing traffic was 600 Gb. 24 POP servers are supported 10 in Tashkent and 14 – in different cities of Uzbekistan. According to statistics of November 272 local networks were connected to the Internet, 1173 users got access through dial up connections. 95 domains of 2nd level and 280 domains of 3rd level are supported by the project.
19 servers have been set up and supported for hosting websites.

5. New resources:

• New resources of Interschool Resource Center. In November with the consultative and technical assistance of the Interschool Resource Center new resources were created as a part of the following programs: “Teacher’s Personal Site” (http://www.nasiba.edunet.uz/), “Educational Methodological Web Projects” (http://ssayyid.edunet.uz/, http://www.8dekabr.edunet.uz), “Multimedia Resources for Education” (electronic version of the Constitution of Uzbekistan”, 2 electronic manuals on Russian language”), “Educational Database” (7 textbooks and methodological manuals on Russian language, set of the normative materials on conducting school Olympiads, electronic versions of the calendar thematic plans). In addition, 16 multimedia lessons on physics, computer science and literature were developed and conducted on the program “Media lessons”.

• Resources created as part of Teachers’ Workshop. In November as a part of Teacher’s Workshop 15 web pages, about 20 blogs, and over 120 electronic educational and methodological materials for e-library (http://www.connect.uz/e-library.php) were developed and published. There are more than 1500 materials on 25 general education subjects in the e-library of educational portal (www.connect.uz) In November as a result of the Autumn Online Festival, teachers of the republic tested about 100 resources of e-library.

• Other useful resources. With the consultative and technical assistance of the project, the following websites were created: website (http://www.isas.uzsci.net/)for the Institute of Seismology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan entitled “Digital Seismic Network of Uzbekistan”, website of the Tashkent Zoo (http://www.tashzoo.uzsci.net). In addition, section “File Archive” that contains free and useful programs was updated on the website (http://www.uzsci.net).

6. Activities and contests

• Online forum “UNESCO Educational Projects” involving representatives of the Asia/Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU), Japan,was organized on November 14 by UNESCO National Commission in Uzbekistan with the technical assistance of the project. To conduct the forum the following special guests were invited: UNESCO ASP net National coordinator in Uzbekistan, as well as guests from Japan: Program Specialist of Education Division, Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) and professional cameraman currently working for ACCU (http://www.connect.uz/children_forum/index.php?showtopic=835)

• Essay contest “Tolerance through Education”, organized by the teacher of Ferghana School No. 2 Natalya Aleynikova, (http://parvoz.connect.uz/tolerance), and aimed at dissemination of the idea of tolerance among youth was held from November 1 to 14. The project involved the students of Uzbekistan schools in the forum with the UNESCO representative http://www.connect.uz/children_forum/index.php?showtopic=833. participants posted their essays in English http://www.connect.uz/children_forum/index.php?showtopic=834, where they expressed their understanding of the problem of tolerance. The results of the essays were announced on November 14 on the forum http://www.connect.uz/children_forum/index.php?showtopic=841. The judges included English teachers from Karshi, Ferghana, Namangan, UNDP and UNESCO representatives.

• Seminar “Intercultural Differences in the International Education” took place in Navoi Reource Center as part of the International Education Week. The seminar participants – students of senior courses of Pedagogical Institute and teachers of Navoi colleges familiarized themselves with the problems of intercultural communication during study abroad related to both differences in culture and organization of way of life and education approaches and methods. They also considered issue concerning problems of the international distance learning from the technical, educational and administrative points of view.

• • Seminar dedicated to the Global Day of Combating AIDS and Drug Addiction took place on December 1 in Ferghana Resource Center involving students of Ferghana. Seminar conducted in English included game introduction, introduction to statistics that allows visually make sure of the AIDS problem topicality, as well as role games concerning difference between HIV and AIDS, risk of infection, protection and others.

7. Photo gallery