Avallain at Frankfurt Book Fair‘s Literacy Campaign "LitCam"

Press Release | October, 9 2007

AVALLAIN sponsors Frankfurt Book Fair’s campaign „LitCam“ for the promotion of Literacy and Basic Skills. At a second annual international conference 100 experts and delegates met at Frankfurt to present current best practice projects and new approaches and to discuss remaining challenges and future strategies. "Today the productivity of knowledge-based economies depends directly on the education of the population. Basic Skills therefore steadily gain in relevance, even for economic reasons alone. An important field for e-learning", says Ignatz Heinz, Managing Director of AVALLAIN.

(Lustmühle | Switzerland) According to UNESCO an estimated 771 million adults worldwide can not read nor write, with two thirds of them being women. An estimated 100 million children worldwide do not attend school. Western industrialised countries struggle with the consequences of poor Basic Skills for individuals as well as the national economies: Despite a comprehensive educational infrastructure and compulsory schooling millions of adults lack the Basic Skills they need to meet the demands in everyday life or their workplace. Basic Skills such as Literacy or Numeracy represent the foundation for the permanent acquisition of competencies within lifelong learning.

Enough motivation for the world‘s largest book fair to put Literacy and Basic Skills on the agenda and offer it an international platform as part of the new established focus "Education for the Future". "As a book fair, we are deliberately picking up on the issue of education because of its growing economic significance for publishing companies. At the same time, the Frankfurt Book Fair takes seriously the demand for equal opportunities in education availability and provides a platform for the education debate", says Karin Ploetz, director of "Education for the future".


Impressions from LitCam 2006

More than hundred experts and delegates of organisations from more than 20 countries are expected at the second annual conference. Discussions, workshops and an accompanying exhibition offer the opportunity to present best practice projects, new approaches, share experiences, discuss future strategies and foster new cooperation.

This years workshops address distance education, basic education for immigrants and concepts of easy to read material.

AVALLAIN supports Frankfurt Book Fair in the organisation of LitCam. As a pioneer in the development of e-learning for Basic Skills AVALLAIN created the acclaimed e-learning-portal for adult literacy learners "ich-will-schreiben-lernen".

"The internet offers rich possibilities to support Basic Skills education. Innovative learning solutions motivate learners and support teachers.", says Ignatz Heinz. "If the specific challenges are taken seriously and the experience from traditional Basic Skills education is applied, e-learning can play an important role."

With the growing importance of ICT in the workplace and everyday life the integration of computers and the internet in Basic Skill education is a must. "The computer is an instrument with a high value for learners." Heinz emphasizes. “Being able to use the internet and to work with a premium tool has a huge positive impact on the self esteem of learners who are most likely to have had negative education experiences in school."

About Avallain: The Swiss e-learning Specialist AVALLAIN develops innovative computer and internet-based learning solutions for public and private clients. More than 180.000 learners worldwide are currently using e-learning made by AVALLAIN. Several of the projects that have been launched since 2002, such as the groundbreaking Literacy-project "ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de", have received prestigious e-learning-awards. In addition to the main business activities AVALLAIN supports innovative projects such as the OLPC-project.

Contact:
Ralf Kellershohn, mail: rkellershohn@avallain.com, mobile: +49 172 198 70 34

Further information:
www.litcam
www.avallain.com