Panel description: Rural and Community Development – Community supported learning for informal groups

Mortimer Neufville, NASULGC

Abstract
This Panel will address access options, partnerships, strategies and creative methods that can impact rural poverty using today's digital technologies. Case examples from collaborative education and training programs will be shown and discussed.

Strategies for sharing digital repositories/libraries will be covered including questions related to platforms, content, language, culture, access and sustainability. Rural local telecommunications centers are suggesting the types of education and training programs useful to farmers and families.

Programs for businesses, extension workers, educators at all levels, scientists, government and non-governmental organizations are being developed.

E-learning topics include income generation, health and safety, environmental issues, animal science and veterinary, food production, marketing and safety, nutrition, child development and others.

Partnerships among institutions and organizations are now possible to test new educational approaches and technologies. Human Language Technology is an emerging field bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to design strategies for use in rural situations where more than one language and/or local dialects are used.

Real time global seminars and workshops are growing within higher education and the professions.

Panel Members:

Dr. Dean Sutphin, Professor, Agricultural & Extension Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Professor V. Balakrishnan, Tamil Nadu Animal & Veterinary Sciences University (TANUVAS), Chennai, INDIA

Dr Venkataraman Balaji, Head, Information Systems Unit, OR Mr. Dileepkumar Guntuku, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), INDIA

Ms. Claudette de Freitas, Caribbean Agricultural Research & Development Institute (CARDI), TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Dr. Moses Tenywa, Soils Scientist, Makerere University, UGANDA

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