Held in conjunction with SchoolNet SA and Western Cape Schools Network

Cape Town, South Africa, July 10-13, 2001

The 8th I*EARN International Teachers' Conference represented an historic opportunity for SAF to promote itself and to observe, at close quarters, the experiences of other like-minded organizations. The conference itself focused mainly on ways in which the digital divide is being bridged in many parts of the world and the policies (micro and macro) required to make initiatives successful.

The SAF team prepared and delivered a presentation to conference delegates titled, 'Empowering the Youth in Iran - the work of the Science and Arts Foundation', which was very well received. SAF team members also took every opportunity to engage delegates in constructive dialogue and participated in an historic meeting with a team of American teachers that inspired the ideas of establishing the Good Hopes Project for developing collaborative projects between teachers and school children of both countries.

SAF's impact on the conference can be seen in the fact that the organizers asked the team to arrange and deliver the final moments of the closing ceremony. The impact of the conference on SAF can be seen in a number of areas, most particularly in the development of collaborative ventures, the identification of new avenues of funding and the establishment of links with organizations empathetic towards our goals.

The Africa Connects conference aimed to cover a wide variety of subjects related to educational computing and the educational use of the Internet. The broad theme of the conference examined ways in which access to the new technology could be expanded in Africa specifically, and developing countries in general. The conference was delivered to delegates in the form of presentations and hands-on workshops.

Africa Connects brought together two groups of delegates - those attending the South African national annual computer and educational conference and those participating in the 8th annual International Education and Resource Network (http://www.iearn.org) conference, which also included the 5th annual Youth Summit.

The conference offered an excellent opportunity for educators and administrators from all over the world to meet and develop professional contacts. Delegates were also given the chance to learn about the innovative uses of technology in the classroom.

Over 1,600 delegates, representing over 70 countries, attended the conference. The presence of a team from Iran, for the first time, was deemed sufficiently important and noteworthy to be greeted with a long round of applause at the opening ceremony.

Delegates could choose from almost 400 presentations to attend and the following list represents only a fraction of this range - Cognition in Education; Active server pages for dynamic student portfolios; Virtual Museums; Web-based Classrooms; Problem solving using Information and Communication Technology (ICT); e-sheets for Maths; Schools without IT; Integrating IEARN projects with the curriculum; Cognition and the web; The move towards curriculum based ICTs; Towards a SchoolNet Africa; Teachers for 21st Century Schools; Internet Safety - Keeping Children Safe Online; Collaborative learning; The Digital Divide; The Power of the Internet; Sustainable Development and Technology Education; IEARN in Japan; Using computers to visualise Math concepts; Successful IEARN Schools: the reasons for success; Negotiating the gender divide: women as new ICT users; Bringing Africa's Youth into the information Age: The SchoolNet Cameroon Initiative; Numeracy and Computers; Spanning the Digital Divide; Tomorrow's Education Today; World Links for Development Program; Schooling in the Digital Age; free Mathematics Online Resources.

The most popular sessions attended by the team from Iran were those aimed at addressing the issue of the digital divide in specific countries, focusing on lessons learnt and funding streams accessed in order to make the work a success. In this respect, an important part of the conference can be seen in the number of new funding leads given to SAF by colleagues from other organizations that have already been successful in raising finance for their projects.

On Friday July 13, SAF's team gave a presentation titled, 'Empowering the Youth in Iran - the work of the Science and Arts Foundation'. The 45minute presentation covered the need to bridge the digital divide in general and, specifically, the work of the Science and Arts Foundation in Iran. The presentation outlined, in general, the work of the charity and the role it is playing in the effort to ensure that the digital divide is addressed in Iran, in addition to focusing on specific details regarding School Information Centres and School Computer Sites. The presentation concluded with an outline of future plans for the Foundation in terms of expanding activities into more provinces of Iran and beyond.

The presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session.

The presentation was extremely well received by those delegates in attendance and was important in raising the profile of SAF at the conference.

Throughout the week, SAF team members were in regular contact with delegates from a wide range of countries.

In particular, SAF's team was involved in an historic lunch meeting, with a team of between 7-10 teachers from the USA, during which they discussed a number of issues related to teaching, the use of the Internet and approaches towards implementing ICT in teaching methodology. After a number of informal gatherings, it became clear that, in terms of pedagogy and interest in ICT, the two teams shared a great deal in common and, as a result, suggested that they should work together on launching an IEARN project based on a joint website where Iranian and American teachers and students could collaborate on various scientific and Internet projects. It was also decided that the initiative should be called the Good Hopes Project and, as a result, the domain names www.goodhopes.org and www.goodhopes.com were registered with this aim in mind.

At the end of the week, a more formal meeting was held between the two teams, in which a broad outline of the mission statement was discussed. It was also decided that the Good Hopes Project should be established with the following objective. Good Hopes aims to promote dialogue, collaboration and partnership in cultural and scientific spheres among students and teachers in countries not officially engaged in constructive relations. By using the Information and Communication Technologies, Good Hopes provides an environment for learners and educators of these countries to explore commonalities, to resolve misconceptions, to appreciate differences, to build common understanding and trust, and to inspire creativity in one another. Through a continuous process of exploration, collaboration and learning from each other, Good Hopes thus works towards new beginnings in people-to-people relations.

The group of Iranian and American teachers planned to work together in the coming months, with the aim of delivering a joint presentation to the next IEARN conference to be held in Moscow, July 2002.

It was clear that the organizers and other delegates were delighted at having colleagues from Iran attend the conference. This was reflected in the fact that for the closing ceremony, the conference administrators asked the Iranian team to organize the closing moments.

At the closing ceremony, two members of the team from Iran delivered a poem (in Farsi) and some observations regarding the value of collaborative work respectively. They were replied to in kind by two American teachers. The group of four were rewarded by an ovation from the delegates in attendance.

The success of the conference can perhaps be seen in the progress made in the course of only five days - SAF colleagues from Iran delivered a presentation to a major international conference; teachers and administrators from Iran and the USA held discussions on collaborative work and made concrete plans to make a presentation at the next IEARN Conference in Moscow; SAF has become well known to a significant number of internationally recognised organizations; new funding avenues have been identified.