Intel Corporation, the world leader in silicon innovation, is to launch skoool.com for Ghana, a groundbreaking educational tool that will offer students and teachers the best online education tools available worldwide.

The skoool.com.gh, the new portal, will provide mathematics and science modules which have been tailored to suit the new Ghana Education Service Curriculum.

A statement from Intel Corporation ahead of the launch of the portal at the ongoing e-learning Africa conference being held in Accra said through the skoool™.com offering, Intel hoped to work with local companies to provide localized science and math content for secondary students.

Intel is not new in Ghana. The company recently set up two projects in the country – Africa’s first WiMAX connected school and the iAdvance digital inclusion initiative.

The selected school for the pilot project, Accra Girls Secondary School, was set up with a full e-Learning centre, hardware, software, Internet connectivity and teacher training. WiMAX technology is now used to provide high-speed Internet access to the school. The iAdvance is Ghana’s digital inclusion initiative and was set up with the aim of ensuring that Ghanaians have access to PCs, the Internet and software.

Intel is partnering with the e-learning Africa for the second year running as part of the company’s ongoing drive to work with local governments, market players and NGOs to provide children in the African continent with the latest in educational infrastructure available globally.

William Swope, Vice President and General Manager, Corporate Affairs Group, and other Intel professionals who are in Accra for the conference, will meet with decision-makers, government officials and educators to discuss latest technology in education techniques and exchange know-how on enhancing e-Learning programs in Africa as a means of helping to bridge the digital divide.

Across markets including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and Morocco, Intel has signed memoranda of understanding with the governments to further ICT development, trained teachers as part of the Intel Teach Program and works tirelessly to help the young generation have a better chance in life.

This article is from Black Enterprise.com.

It’s no secret that online and distance learning have been growing in popularity in recent years.

Colleges everywhere are running full-blown degree programs and more businesses are doing the same for training and work-force development. But even the best online-learning software has drawbacks.

“Some of the concern is, you lose that face-to-face connection,” says Terry Keys, director of instructional technologies at Monroe Community College. “A lot of online reaming is text based.”

Students and instructors can feel they’re somehow missing out on something if there’s no personal interaction, Keys says. Although online learning can draw more people into a class because its nature forces participation from everyone, personal connections can sometimes be lost.

Some colleges and companies are finding that virtual worlds, such as the popular Second Life, offer a way to add some of those connections back into an online learning experience.

Second Life and other virtual worlds allow users to create digital representations of themselves, called avatars. Those avatars move through and interact with a three-dimensional, computer- generated environment.

The uses are nearly endless. Many people simply use Second Life for entertainment. But an increasing number of educational institutions and businesses are finding it useful for training.

“It gives you a different approach to things,” Keys says. “I see it as being another tool in the toolbox. It’s not for everything, but it certainly is something that can address students’ needs.” Click here to read the rest of this article.

Google Health https://www.google.com/health is online after a year and a half since Adam Bosworth announced a health product from Google. Google Health proposes to:

• Organize your health information all in one place
• Gather your medical records from doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies
• Keep your doctors up to date about your health
• Be more informed about important health issues
• According to the Google Health FAQ, “You can store records of current and past medications, allergies, procedures, immunizations, conditions, and test results. You can enter any of this information on your own, or you can import your medical records from a list of Google Health integrated partners, such as hospitals or neighborhood pharmacies.”

Google Health has been designed as a PHR (Personal Health Record), but it is also a bit of a different model. “We believe it’s not enough to offer a place where you can store, manage, and share your health information. You need to act on your health information to better manage your health needs on a daily basis. This is why we provide a directory of online health services to you. You must elect to sign up with a service and decide what level of personal data you want to share in exchange for the customized services those companies offer”, is mentioned on Google Health pages.