ICT For Eritrean Education

Abstract

This presentation narrates how a successful project was set up between the University of Eastern Finland and the Eritrea Institute of Technology: ICT for Eritrean Education (ICT4EEDU).

International cooperation projects usually start with some generic guidelines set up by a funding institution. These guidelines eventually evolve into a project proposal in which several parties agree what to do together. While it is preferable that these parties have a long term relationship, this is not always possible.

In this presentation, we share how two teams of people who have only met in the context of this project, built a proposal, implemented the project, and formed a long lasting relationship that strengthened each other.

Presentors BIOS:

Andrés Moreno

With more than 10 years of combined research and development experience in educational software, visualisations and ICT for Development, Andrés has successfully integrated different approaches and tools to create innovative solutions. At the United Nations University-Computing and Society he further developed the social media analytics tool Aggie, and carried out field research during the Ghanaian elections in 2016.

He has been part of the development team of educational software Jeliot 3, which has been used all around the world to teach Java. Andrés has developed most of his international development career in Mozambique and Eritrea, putting into action the conflicting plans of local and international partners. As a researcher, he has published more than 15 peer-reviewed papers and participated in several international conferences sponsored by ACM and IEEE.

Currently, he is a service manager at an European institution, maintaining services vital for chemical companies and authorities around the world.

Samuel Tewelde

Samuel has been serving at the Eritrean Higher Education Institutions for more than 15 years in various positions, from academic network administration to different levels of academic leadership. During his earlier engagement at the University of Asmara as the Network Administrator, he coordinated an international linkage partnership project for developing academic ICT facilities for the university in connection with the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He was also the founder and national coordinator of the Tele-Education infrastructure and programs in Eritrea, since the year 2009, under the Pan African eNetwork project, which rendered postgraduate programs in connection with selected Indian universities.

In the last four years since Feb 2014, he has been the director of ICT and Tele-Education centre at Eritrea Institute of Technology. During this period, he has coordinated two projects in the higher education collaboration on promoting quality of education using ICT support, with Finnish Universities- the University of Eastern Finland and Helsinki University. He has also published more than 10 papers and participated in several related conferences.

Currently, Samuel is a PhD candidate and early-stage researcher at the School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland.

Presentation link: https://utu.zoom.us/j/4734166416