The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) advances mutual understanding and collaboration between the people of Asia and Europe through intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges. These exchanges include conferences, lecture tours, workshops, seminars and the use of web-based platforms. The major achievement of ASEF is the establishment of permanent bi-regional networks focussed on areas and issues that help to strengthen Asia-Europe relations.
Established in February 1997 by the partners of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)1, ASEF reports to a board of governors representing the ASEM partners. ASEF is the only permanent physical institution of the ASEM process. Since 1997, the Foundation has initiated projects engaging 14,000 individuals from Asia and Europe. ASEF works in partnership with other public institutions and civil society actors to ensure its work is broad-based and balanced among the partner countries.
The Asia-Europe Classroom Network (AEC-NET) (formerly known as the Asia-Europe Classroom) is one of programmes developed by the Asia-Europe Foundation. The original challenge was to harness the potential of Infocomm Technology (ICT) in connecting secondary and high schools of Asia and Europe and construct the framework for a "cyber classroom" that would promote intellectual and inter-cultural exchanges among secondary and high school teachers and students of Asia and Europe. The Asia-Europe Classroom was conceived at a brainstorming session attended by secondary and high school teachers and educators from Asia and Europe held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May 1998. The AEC has since evolved to encourage more active interactions between secondary and high schools in Asia and Europe.
In summary, the key objectives of the AEC-NET programme are:
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To foster collaborations among secondary and high school teachers and students in Asia and Europe with the view to promoting collaborative, cross-cultural learning and exchanges among ASEM countries.
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To encourage the advancement of education through the use of Infocomm Technology (ICT).
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To develop innovative and interactive platforms offering inter-cultural learning opportunities for secondary and high schools in Asia and Europe.
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To develop a network of secondary and high schools in Asia and Europe. |
1 The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation. It brings together Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vietnam, the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Commission. http://www.aseminfoboard.org
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