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Regional Data Center
- Request for Proposals
Deadline September 13
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Up to 3 institutions will be selected to host a Regional Mirror Data Center and one to host the more advanced Regional Data Center.
Proposal Deadline for 2014 Funding:
September 13, 2013
Please contact Fran Boler if you have any questions or need any technical advice.
The aim of the COCONet project was the developing a large-scale geodetic and atmospheric infrastructure in the Caribbean.
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2 Haitians Awarded 2013 COCONet Fellowships
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Steeve Symithe and Roby Douilly, civil engineering graduates of Universite d'Etat d'Haiti who are currently pursuing post-graduate degrees in the USA, are two of the 4 recipients of the 2013 the Continuously Operating Caribbean GPS Observational Network (COCONet) Fellowship. The CKLN is a designated agency for COCONet's working group on Networking and is interested in research being done in and for the development of the region. Symithe's doctoral research aims to improve knowledge of earthquake risks in Hispaniola and elsewhere. Douilly's research will focus on understanding the distribution and strength of future ground shaking to improve risk resiliency in Haiti and other seismic zones. The other recipients are from the USA and Iceland. CKLN Congratulations to them all!!
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The 6th ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference
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Living in a converged world - impossible without standards?
3-5 June 2014,
St. Petersburg,
Russian Federation
Call for Papers
Deadline: 25 November 2013
This is the sixth in a series of peer-reviewed academic conferences organized by International Telecommunication Union, ITU, that bring together a wide range of views from universities, industry and research institutions. The aim of Kaleidoscope conferences is to identify emerging developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and, in particular, areas in need of international standards to support the development of successful products and services.
For additional information
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Caribbean Network Operator's
Group, CaribNOG 6
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The Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), will host its Sixth Regional Meeting from 23rd to 27th September 2013 in Belize.
CaribNOG 6 is expected to draw industry experts from across the region and beyond.
A key objective of CaribNOG is to better position the Caribbean to address critical technology challenges and issues and to collaboratively derive relevant solutions....More
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A population of approximately twenty-six (26) million in twenty-one (21) Caribbean countries can benefit from cost-effective access to high quality e-learning content and other knowledge resources from the region and around the world through the development of C@ribNET.
Over 30 institutions are currently connected to the network providing potential connectivity to 30,000 academics, researchers, and students throughout the region. Work is on going to extend connectivity to the Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, and Suriname all of which will be completed during this year. ...More
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Connecting Caribbean and European Researchers
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EUCARINET is a four-year INCONET Coordination Action, supported by the European Commission (DG RTD-INCO), whose main goal is to strengthen bi-regional sustainable dialogue on Science and Technology between Europe and the Caribbean.
The EUCARINET database provides up-to date information on Caribbean Research and Technological Development (RTD) institutions, as well as a search engine enabling Caribbean Science and Technology capacities towards European partners and others.
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Introducing
Pete the Panstick
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Those who attended the launch of C@ribNET in Port of Spain in February will have received a set of pan sticks. We share here Pete the Panstick®, a sophisticated, bilingual (Spanish and English) animated character whose role is to help beginners comprehend and remember basic musical, English and ICT concepts in an interactive way. There is also an Educator's Guide for Pan In Education (PIE) explaining how to incorporate into the curriculum, such as Language arts, Music literacy and Social Studies
Sanch Electonix is liaising with TTRENT, the Trinidad and Tobago NREN in formation, to explore possibilities for virtual pan education through the network and utilising C@ribNET for the wider reach.
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PM of Grenada Urges
Development of NRENs
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Dr. The Right Hon. Keith Mitchell,
Prime Minister of Grenad
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The Prime Minister also mandated that resource mobilisation for regional ICT development be given high priority and urged the development of NRENs in the Caribbean as part of advancing the regional agenda for information and communications technology (ICT).
The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) ICT was further mandated to meet urgently to consider the ICT Action Plan, the proposal for a Single CARICOM ICT Space and other relevant ICT issues and make recommendations to the Twenty-Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting in 2014 where ICT issues would receive focused attention. Prime Minister Mitchell, as Lead Head of Government with responsibility for ICT, will chair the meeting, that will be held in Grenada on October 24, 2013.
Prime Minister Mitchell said "The key recommendation of the Regional Digital Development Strategy is that we seek to transform ourselves from 15 sovereign states to a Single ICT Space. Our ICT structure within the next couple years will enhance the way we communicate and will seriously reduce wastage in our system, especially in government." . ....More
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CARICOM Agencies -
Forging Communities of Practice
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 Functional cooperation and collaboration are at the core of CKLN's activities, with C@ribNET being the infrastructure to enable this in the region. At the fifth meeting of the Secretary General of CARICOM and Heads of CARICOM Agencies held in Guyana on July 29, 2013, the meeting agreed that CKLN will host a workshop on C@ribNET with respect to the network functionalities and use by CARICOM Agencies in support of Functional Cooperation and Collaboration.
CKLN will host this (closed) workshop for the CARICOM Agencies in Barbados on October 10 and 11, 2013 to achieve the following objectives:
- To inform Heads of CARICOM Agencies on the benefits of establishing establishing a Community of Practice (CoP) as the operating principle for supporting Functional Cooperation and collaboration amongst Agencies using C@ribNET as the Regional broadband connectivity platform
- To agree on an operating framework, identification of the critical business process and the roles and responsibilities of Agencies that will support the efficient operation of the Community
- To agree on the commercial arrangements for last mile connection of Agencies to NRENS and C@ribNET
- To review the functionalities of the C@riBNET portal and evaluate how these functionalities aligns with the requirements of Agencies in supporting functional cooperation.
- To agree on a way forward to effect practical implementation of the CARICOM Agency Community of Practice
Importantly, the emerging Caribbean NRENs will of necessity be in attendance along side the CARICM Agency participants, as they will be inextricably involved in supporting and facilitating the resulting strategies and activities.
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ACP Connect Consultants To Start
Second Round of Consultations
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In early 2013, CKLN began implementing the ACP Connect initiative that is being financed by the European Commission.
Having completed a first round of Consultations with Caribbean Emerging NRENs, the second round of country visits and consultations will start in September, being convened after the preparation and circulation of the draft Business and operational plans The second round will seek to ratify the outputs of the first and also provide capacity strengthening for adoption and implementation of the business and operational plans for the respective countries
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ACP Consultants (left) with members of the
interim C@ribNET Applications and Services Task Force, CASTF.
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Addressing the other objectives, the ACP consultants and CKLN convened another workshop series. These sessions focused on the regional research and education agenda for the development of communities of practice, establishing an interim C@ribNET Applications and Services Task Force (CASTF), and The Development of Open Education Resources (OER) in the Caribbean.
The workshops, held in Jamaica in early July, included 31 participants, representing Tertiary Education Institutions, Ministries of Education and Research Centres from 11 countries, as well as CKLN's NREN Coordinators and other management. ....More
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Technical Training for OECS Tertiary Institutions
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In September, CKLN undertook a training activity aimed at capacity building for maintenance of customer premises equipment (CPE) at the community colleges within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS.
Participants gave a resounding "thimbs up" for the one week exercise which was facilitated by Cisco and staged at the premises of Illuminat (Trinidad and Tobago). The participants were network engineers from all OECS Community Colleges. This five day course provided network engineers with the knowledge they need to operate a Cisco ISR router using advanced tools like route-maps to manipulate routing updates and establish routing policies. It also provided students with in-depth knowledge of BGP; the routing protocol that is one of the underlying foundations of the Internet and new-world technologies such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
The training was a deliverable under the contractual arrangement between CKLN and Illuminat (Trinidad and Tobago) for the supply and installation of CPEs in the OECS as well as the relevant technical services. CKLN procured the CPEs to enable the colleges to exchange traffic with the regional research and education network, C@ribNET. Delivery and installation of the CPEs will follow the training.
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Caribbean Regional Infrastructure Program, CARCIP, Launched
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 CKLN in collaboration with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), and the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) launched the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) on 26th June 2013, in Grenada. CARCIP is designed to bridge gaps in the national and regional information and communications infrastructure and enrich the connectivity of countries that participate. Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent are the countries that will be implementing specific national projects, while CTU, CKLN and ECTEL will each be implementing specific regional components.
The programme includes three components (i) Regional connectivity infrastructure; (ii) ICT-led innovation and (iii) implementation support. In sync with CKLN's mandate,
CKLN's activities under the programme include facilitating the dimensioning of the design of the regional backbones to ensure that they fit within the broader regional framework of C@ribNet, providing support for generating research and education networks for the participating countries and leveraging the use of C@ribNet for innovation and skills development activities.
CARCIP is funded by the
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Are Caribbean Teachers ICT-Ready?
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At the start of a new academic year, one would be hard pressed to find a student that has not been exposed to some form of digital tool. In many places in the region, students have grown up with digital tools at their fingertips....and they have an expectation that their education will include the same authentic, relevant, and interactive characteristics. They are interconnected and ready.
CKLN is aware that one of the primary uses of the dedicated research and education network, C@ribNET, is teaching and learning. However, according to a UNESCO Policy Brief, it is the teachers who require support for understanding when and how to use ICTs in teaching and learning in order to engage with and enrich students' experiences. Are the teachers and lecturers in the Caribbean ICT-ready? The Brief states that the existence of ICT frameworks and standards for teachers is not enough to facilitate the change needed. The preparation and continuing professional development of educators is a major element that is required for school transformation and appropriate use of ICTs.
One key attribute the Brief identifies is that increases the rate of adoption of a new approach or method is its perceived relative advantage - a clear sense by users that the innovation in question is better than the tool or practice that it replaced. They state that effective policies is the missing piece necessary to bring together these important factors to provide professional development opportunities for teachers.
One challenge that emerged in a Commonwealth of Learning Survey on ICT in Education in the Caribbean (2012) was "to ensure that policy and implementation are in sync. At one point the report comments that: "the unevenness of ICT access and use in Caribbean schools is demonstrated by the continued application of technology access models that are outdated alongside attempts at distributing the latest available devices, software and access solutions". 
CoL continues, that policy and implementation have to bring together three vital elements if ICT is to add value to schooling. The first is access to appropriate equipment; the second is teachers who are trained to make good use of it; and the third is learning materials for teachers and children to work with. The evidence shows that the most vital element of the three, is having trained teachers.
The long-term outcome of this strategy is to ensure that all Ministry of Education officials, teacher development management and staff, school principals, and teachers are competent to harness ICT effectively to support high quality teaching and learning... with most of them able to integrate the use of basic ICT tools into the standard school curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom structures, knowing how, where, and when (as well as when not) to use technology for classroom activities and presentations, for management tasks, and to acquire additional subjects.
What are your thoughts, experiences and suggestions? |
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Training, Professional Development
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Study Opportunities for Graduates and Staff of Caribbean Universities
The ANGLE project gives UWI (University of the West Indies) students and staff, as well as graduates of any regional tertiary level institution, the opportunity to apply for scholarships to European universities. Scholarships are available for master and doctorate students and also for staff members (academic and administrative) and include a monthly allowance, travel, insurance and tuition fees.
For more information,
Free Professional Development
Coming out of the ACP/CKLN workshop on OER (see contents) the following professional development was recommended.
The OER Foundation is offering "Open content licensing for educators (OCL4Ed), a free micro Open Online Course (mOOC) designed for educators and students who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and Creative Commons licenses.
Register Online When: 4 - 18 September, 2013 Cost: Free
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CKLN Pilot Projects Still On Track
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In our last News Update, we reported on various pilot projects in the making, including tele-health, virtual library, security etc. Rest assured that these have not fallen off the radar, but encountered some slow down over the summer with many agency personnel taking some well needed vacation. CKLN will keep you updated as these projects progress in the coming weeks.
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The Caribbean's Emerging NRENs
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In the Caribbean, there are a number of national research and education networks, NRENs, that are in formation - Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Suriname, Haiti, Belize and the Dominican Republic.
For more information on the emerging Caribbean NRENs
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Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network
Trans-Nemwil Office Complex, The Villa, St. George's, P.O. Box 1431 Grenada, West Indies
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Copyright © 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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