Hanoi Times - Thousands of experts, educators and officials around the country Friday attended "The School Year of Information and Technology Application," a national o­nline education conference in major cities including Ha Noi, Vinh, Da Nang, HCM City and Can Tho. It was hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training and Ministry of Information and Communication.

Participants discussed issues related to strengthening the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) o­n education and administration management as part of Decree 64, which was issued by the Government last year.
Representatives from foreign companies and international organisations shared the experiences from other parts of the world.
Delegates from education agencies nationwide reported o­n their progress, methods of incorporating ICT into the pedagogy, and proposed changes to the project. How to use open source software for educational purposes was also a hot topic.
Following recent instructions from the ministry, educational agencies and departments will be equipped with ADSL so video conferences, web conferences and audio conference systems can be used to host o­nline events for educators.
The ministry also called o­n its sub-divisions to provide email addresses with the domain name of their particular departments to facilitate management and training.
This academic year, priority will go to seniors to be assigned email addresses with the department’s domain name to get graduation updates and vocational guidance. Other ways to use open sources in education and e-learning were also brought up.
The application of new ways of thinking about education in universities in HCM City and Ha Noi kickstarted a new vitality for education reform around the country. o­ne expert noted the concept of e-learning is by now familiar with Vietnamese educators.
Using ICT in education now is fortuitous as the country’s number of internet users has shot up. Some 15 million people are o­n line this year, according to a report from Vu Minh Tri, head of Yahoo! Southeast Asia’s representative office.
In two years, that number will double. Students account for 37 per cent of internet users in the country.
The conference was transmitted to education and training departments across the country so that attendees would not need to host other meetings to disseminate information to their staff, said Quach Tuan Ngoc, head of the Department of Information and Technology under the Ministry of Education and Training.
The development and application of ICT was an essential part of reforming the national education system, he said.
The Government wiould foot the bill to train 30,000 principals and teachers to use ICT. Meetings and trainings via satellite TV would also save money, he added.
This year, the Ministry of Education and Training will organise contests for educators applying ICT to their teaching methodologies to encourage familiarisation with the new technology.