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Taipei launches cyber-academy for civil servants

To bring the government's plan of turning Taiwan into a "digitalized state" closer to fruition, the Cabinet yesterday launched a cyber-academy to get civil servants to pick up the practice of life-long learning.

"As constructing an e-government underpins the government's six-year national-development program, we hope that the inauguration of the e-learning academy will help materialize the building of a digitalized Taiwan," said Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), chairman of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會).

Lin made the remark at a one-day symposium held at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday.

The Cabinet introduced the NT$2.6 trillion six-year national-development program on Wednesday, with the central government planning to invest about NT$30 billion to turn Taiwan into a "digitalized state."

Major tasks include constructing an e-government, developing e-commerce, building an e-society, constructing an e-transportation network and increasing the household use of broadband Internet services to 6 million homes.

The E-learning Civil Servant Academy (http://elearning.nat.gov.tw) will offer 10 different courses to the nation's 600,000 civil servants.

Addressing the 70 civil servants attending the symposium, Lin said that the inauguration of the online academy shows the government's determination to build an e-government.

"To respond to a fast-changing world, it's important to provide civil servants -- whoever they are and wherever they work -- with a new way of learning, so they'll remain abreast of the most updated information," Lin said.

In addition to inaugurating the online academy, the commission yesterday set up a booth at the World Trade Center -- the venue of the five-day computer and computer software exhibition -- to promote the government's efforts.

Chan Tak-wai (陳德懷), a computer science professor at National Central University and the keynote speaker of the symposium, said that ubiquitous learning is a trend of the future.

"Future schools will provide an interest-oriented and online educational environment and offer Internet course contests to attract participants," he said.

Lee Kuan-ching (李冠卿), a physics professor at National Central University and head of the online academy project, said that he is happy to see the project come into being after nine months of work.

"It's a challenge to make long-distance learning as interactive and responsive as face-to-face teaching," Lee said.

To encourage people to learn online, Lee Huang-kuei (李皇葵), standing board director of the Information Service Industry Association of the ROC, proposed that the government consider liberating the acknowledgement of the credentials of cyber-educational programs.

Huang Hsu-hung (黃旭宏), chairman of the Taipei City Computer Association, agreed.

According to Huang, 67 of China's 200 universities, or about 30 percent, acknowledge the credentials of cyber-programs. About 44 percent of the 3,000 universities in the US offer cyber-programs and acknowledge their credentials.
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