The UNESCO International Research and Training Centre (INRULED located in Beijing at the Beijing Normal University)conducted a project on ICT in Education for Rural Development with several partners. The project was implemented by the Research Institute of Modern Educational Tecdhnology of Beijing Normal University. The project developed links with African development through e Learning Africa with a INRULED Delegation visiting Africa. A plenary conference convened by eLearning Africa includes some useful papers on this subject including one by Dr Zeng Haijun of INRULED on "ICT in Rural Development : Current Situation and Good Practices in China. After the INRULED delegation returned to China, a saloon was held on 16 June 2012 to share knowledge on e-learning in China and Africa.

Information on this project up to 2012 may be found on the April-June UNESCO INRULED Newsletter in a special issue on "ICT in Education for Rural Development". Further information is available on the INRULED web site (www.inruled.org) and on the site for this project ([email protected]). The role of ICT in promoting sustainable learning cities has received attention from time to time, but is likely to have a more significant role in learning cities for the future in a connected world. This subject would seem to be particularly relevant to the PASCAL Networks project on Connecting Urban and Rural Learning Initiatives so that there will be value in keeping in touch with further INRULED work in this area.