Dear eLearning expert,

Desirable, unavoidable or under way: How can universities integrate  eLearning as a driver for innovation? What could these Universities 2.0  look like?

An exponentially growing number of students need to be educated, academic staff need to be massively up-skilled and solutions need to be invented to address the pressing development challenges embodied by the MDGs: Can universities of the 21st century afford to continue business as usual? "Universities 2.0" are called for: a new generation of universities that acknowledge the need and accept to walk the way of change. These are universities that innovate their own structures in order to provide opportunities for learning across disciplines, across borders, and become nests of innovation to find global solutions to local problems. ELearning can be a powerful innovation agent, provided that it is considered strategically in relation with the whole university system: integrating technological, pedagogical, organisational and economical dimensions and their interrelation.

If you are interested in exploring these questions with us, join our workshop "Universities 2.0: Global Learning Organizations" which will take place on May 27 2009 from 14:00 to 18:00 in Dakar, Senegal, in the frame of the 4th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training (eLearning Africa). eLearning Africa is the most comprehensive conference on ICT for development, education and training on the Continent which attracted last year over 1502 eLearning users, newcomers, providers and experts from 83 countries, 80% of which from Africa.

This pre-conference workshop is organized by the United Nations University and will benefit from the stimulating input from four African academic experts: Sam Siminyu, Makarere University (Uganda), Mama Foupouagnigni, Yaoundé I University (Cameroon), Tony Carr, University of Cape Town, (South Africa) and Alice Barlow-Zambodla, South African Institute for Distance Education (South Africa). The format of the workshop will be based on interactive discussion and creative collective thinking as you can see in the agenda attached to this email. If you're interested to join, please register online (the registration is handled by the eLearning Africa conference organizers) at:  http://www.elearning-africa.com/part_fee.php

You already have ideas or comments and would like to join us virtually to discuss beforehand? You can do so by contributing to our Wiki: this is an opportunity to get to know each other and hear the different  stakeholders' perspectives and start our discussion. Even if you can not  be with us in Dakar, your questions, comments are welcome!
http://future-universities.wikispaces.com
If you have further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to  contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Aimard Virginie
Head of Section
SCIENTIA - Strategic partnerships, Capacity Development and Science
Policy Support
:::
United Nations University
Vice Rectorate in Europe
UN Campus
Hermann Ehlers Str. 10
D-53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 (0)228 815 0273 (Office)
+49 (0)176 611 29 499 (Mobile)
www.vie.unu.edu