Update from Country
(Philippines)IT mobile clinic to boost science, math teaching.
(Philippines ) IT mobile clinic to boost science, math teaching. Rose B Palacio. Information Agency. Online November 2005. … the education department will get a big boost in teaching science and mathematics in the region through the Mobile Information Technology (IT) provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) … The IT Mobile clinic has been very useful to students living in far-flung and depressed barangays who will have the opportunity to used computers and learn its systems. … The Mobile Information Technology Classroom is specially designed for students who are interested in learning computer technology. The bus is air-conditioned, equipped with lap top computers, audio-visual equipment and learning sofwares.
Informative Reading
From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities: Measuring Infostates for Development.
From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities: Measuring Infostates for Development. ITU and UNESCO. … The (ICT Opportunity) index shows that digital opportunities are unequally distributed and suggests that the gap between the ICT-poorest countries and most others is actually growing. … As part of a larger collaborative project, the index is based on the Infostate conceptual framework that allows linkages of ICTs to economic development through the country’s productive capacity and use of ICTs. It relies on 21 indicators that help measure ICT networks, education and skills, uptake and intensity of the use of ICT. For analytical purposes, economies are grouped into 5 categories, from ‘high’ to ‘low’ Infostates. … A major contribution of this report is the systematic investigation of the gender divide, which for the first time includes a significant quantitative component, particularly since ICT measurements and comparative analyses in this area have been scarce… Download the free publication in English or French (PDF format)
Informative Readings
Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2006
Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2006. UNESCO. Online November 2005. The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006 aims to shine a stronger policy spotlight on the more neglected goal of literacy - a foundation not only for achieving EFA but, more broadly, for reaching the overarching goal of reducing human poverty.. Foreword. Table of contents. Headline messages. Executive summary. Full Report.
Update from Country
(Tunisia)New Regional Centre in Tunisia to Help Young People Participate in the Knowledge Economy
(Tunisia) New Regional Centre in Tunisia to Help Young People Participate in the Knowledge Economy. PRNewswire. Online November 2005. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Microsoft Corp, (Nasdaq: MSFT) in cooperation with the Tunisian Ministry of Youth, today inaugurated the InfoYouth Centre, a regional community technology centre for North Africa, designed to provide youth with access to, and skills training in, IT. The InfoYouth Centre will provide training for IT instructors in more than 200 youth centres across Tunisia, extending its reach to as many as 50,000 young people throughout the region each year. … The Tunisian InfoYouth Centre will act as a hub for ten centres in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, enabling them to share best practices and establish joint activities and programmes. One of the first joint activities will be a collaborative project to design a web portal for hundreds of websites across the region. This portal will be maintained jointly by the participating centres and will allow thousands of young people in the region to engage in a cultural dialogue and, in the near future, access training materials. …
WSIS Selected News and Views
World Summit on the Information SocietyPhase 2: TUNIS, 16-18 NOVEMBER 2005. Annan calls for digital bridges. BBC News. Online November 2005. The UN secretary general has called on the world to do more to narrow the technology gap between rich and poor. Opening the World Summit on the Information Society, Kofi Annan said nations had to show the political will to bridge the digital divide. …
UN net summit diary: Day one.Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. … This gathering has been described as a summit of solutions. ICT is an important part of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve global poverty by 2015. As it becomes clear that many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are likely to miss that target, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and even businesses are pulling together, trying to work out solutions that may help equip the large numbers of people who are still outside the networked world. …
UN net summit diary: Day two. Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. … Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) have now become the buzzword in development circles. Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) have now become the buzzword in development circles. … The answers to bridging the digital divide are already here. The challenge is in their implementation. …
UN net summit diary: Day three. Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. This was billed as a Summit of Solutions. But I'm still struggling to understand what it has achieved. The two key issues - internet governance (UN speak for how the web should be run) and financing the digital divide (the funding that's required to bring everyone into the information age) - were controversial from the very beginning. …The success of the WSIS, however, does not lie in the official declaration that will be issued later today. Instead it's in the broad consensus that has now been achieved. …
UN debut for $100 laptop for poor. Jo Twist. BBC News. Online November 2005. ... A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. …
Pics of $100 laptop prototype from WSIS 2005. Andy Carvin’s Flickr page. Online Novemeber 2005.
Controversy blights UN net summit. Jo Twist. BBC News. Online November 2005. A crucial UN summit on expanding net access around the world has ended in Tunis marred by controversy over censorship and who runs the internet. … Amidst exceedingly tight security, world leaders, civic groups, non-governmental groups, representatives from leading global technology companies, journalists and bloggers converged in what was the biggest global event to come to Tunis. … Much of the summit was dogged with controversy over the choice of Tunisia as the host nation. … A compromise solution for the future of net governance was reached in a late-night meeting. …
ICT Support
MIT Is Crafting Cheap -- But Invaluable – Laptops.
MIT Is Crafting Cheap -- But Invaluable – Laptops. Kids in Poor Nations Would Benefit. David A. Fahrenthold. Washington Post. Online November 2005. …scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they're close to creating a device that would fulfill this ambitious vision -- a tough, kid-friendly laptop that could be sold to poor countries for $100. ... "It will change . . . the way children everywhere think about themselves in relation to the world," said Seymour Papert…The product of all this will be made public at the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society, when Secretary General Kofi Annan and MIT Media Lab Chairman Nicholas Negroponte unveil a green-and-yellow computer with a sheath of black rubber around its edges. …
ICT Support
Seconds out, round two.
Seconds out, round two. Guardian Unlimited. Online November 2005. ...The explosion of new web services - such as 'blogs' and 'wikis' - has led many to believe that the internet is now entering a second phase. It's finally beginning to resemble a truly interactive learning tool, … If the early version of the web took a "top-down" approach to content, which consisted mainly of standalone and static web pages that were hard to update, web 2.0 takes a more "bottom-up" approach - where web services and applications allow users to publish content without the need to write code and exploit the network's potential to support greater social interaction and collaboration. As a result, we are seeing a renaissance of … an "architecture of participation".
News from Funder
Closing the Global Technology Gap
Closing the Global Technology Gap. Rob Knies. Microsoft Research News and Highlights. Online November 2005 … Microsoft has a vision of enabling all people to have the opportunity and the skills to harness technology’s rewards, and to underscore that commitment, Microsoft Research announced on Oct. 20 a $1.2 million Digital Inclusion funding opportunity to encourage academic researchers from around the world to pursue research in technology to improve health, education, and socioeconomic conditions. …
Informative Reading
Harnessing the Potential of ICT for Education – A Multistakeholder Approach
Harnessing the Potential of ICT for Education – A Multistakeholder Approach. UN ICT Task Force. Online November 2005. (Book available to download from site.) Education is the cornerstone of sustainable development. It contributes to building a modern and thriving society and empowers communities and citizens to fully participate in development and prosperity. … “Harnessing the Potential of ICT for Education – A Multistakeholder Approach – Proceedings of the Dublin Global Forum of the United Nations ICT Task Force” contains key presentations and contributions from the event held on 13-15 April 2005. It captures innovative ideas and initiatives on the use of ICT in strengthening education and communities and highlights the enabling role of all relevant stakeholders. It also introduces case studies of ICT-based projects at the grassroots level and efforts to create a national infrastructure that makes use of new technologies to improve teaching and learning habits. This book is a valuable reference for anyone seeking solutions or thinking about the use of technology in education.
Update from Country
Sesame Street gets an Indian address
(India)Sesame Street gets an Indian address:The global show acquires local content as it gets set to arrive in India in 2006. Somashukla Sinha Walunjkar. The Financial Express. Online November 2005. Finally Sesame Street will find an Indian address. The globally recognised Sesame Workshop will team up with Turner International to produce Sesame India, aimed at serving the 157 million children from 3-8 years in India.
Update from Country
Jordan e-learning plan may go global
Jordan e-learning plan may go global. Al Jezeera.net. Online Novembe 2005. An innovative, e-learning initiative first undertaken by Jordan two years ago has been a success and could serve as a global template, the education minister said. … The World Economic Forum also is expected to launch a global education initiative during the meeting based on the Jordanian model to be implemented in several countries in the region and beyond - including Egypt, India, and Pakistan.
ICT Support
Alcatel and Maplecroft Launch Global Map of ICT Access
Alcatel and Maplecroft Launch Global Map of ICT Access. Online November 2005. WebWire as reported by DivitalDivideNetwork. On the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Alcatel … and Maplecroft … launch a global map about access to information and communication technologies (ICT). This map explores the role of ICTs as an enabler of social and economic development, in particular how ITC’s might contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals. This map, produced by Alcatel and Maplecroft, features 178 countries colored according to one of four distinct levels of digital access - as presented in the Digital Access Index of the ITU. The map also describes the win-win benefits of engagement in facilitating digital inclusion and how companies can work in partnership with other stakeholders to achieve greater levels of digital access for all segments of society. Spotlights on company engagement in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, Europe, are presented alongside case studies that highlight the wide range of benefits and opportunities for all stakeholders involved. Hard copies of the map are available on request. Interactive version available at http://alcatel.maplecroft.com/digital and http://maps.maplecroft.net/digital.
Informative Readings
A Global Imperative: The Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit
A Global Imperative: The Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit. The New Media Consortium (NMC.) as reported by the Digital Divide Network. Published July 2005. Online November 2005. … The report details the outcomes of an international "summit" of thought leaders in visual and digital literacy convened by the NMC, and cosponsored by Adobe Systems, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. This world-renowned group of leaders, researchers, artists, and practitioners engaged in two days of substantive dialog around emerging trends and issues in visual and digital literacy and developed the action plan described in the report. A Global Imperative outlines five strategic priorities for visual and digital literacy, their implications, and what it will take to achieve them. ..
Updates from Countries
Literacy, Technology & Expression in Uzbekistan
Literacy, Technology & Expression in Uzbekistan. Ari Katz. Digital Divide Network. Published July 2005. Online November 2005. When School Connectivity for Uzbekistan opened its first 30 Internet centers in schools in late 2003, its target users were unsure of what to expect. The program was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm by teachers and students, who were gaining access to 21st century educational tools for the first time in Uzbekistan. But it was the first project of its kind in the country. Teachers had limited experience to build on and, beyond a vague knowledge that the Internet contained a lot of information, little idea of what ways technology could be used productively in the classroom. …The introduction of the Internet to Uzbekistan’s schools has seen many gratifying successes, some difficult challenges, and much in between. This article examines the experience of teachers exposed to the new resources offered by the program and reviews the obstacles encountered, the benefits accumulated, and the lessons learned from 18 months of program activity. …
ICT Support
tech.life@school | Get free images legally via copyleft
tech.life@school Get free images legally via copyleft. Joyce Kasman Valenza. Philly.com. Most students are aware that they can find a huge number of images using Google's remarkable Image Search. But the fact that an image is available to us on the Web doesn't really give us the right to copy it and use it indiscriminately. … Most Web images are copyrighted and licensed. New copyright-friendly archives are recognizing and responding to these educational needs while they remove many of the legal and ethical thorns. .... Enter the new concept of copyleft, a license that allows creators to maintain a copyright while allowing users the right to reuse, reproduce and change software or files. In the spirit of the open-source movement, a growing number of new sites encourage the sharing of photographs, clip art and other illustrations. …
Informative Readings
New Technologies for Literacy and Adult Education: A Global Perspective.
New Technologies for Literacy and Adult Education: A Global Perspective. Daniel A. Wagner and Robert B. Kozma. UNESCO Publishing. Available in English, French and Arabic. (Table of Contents available online.) New technology can provide powerful new tools for enriching the lives of poor people and communities in unprecedented ways. … New Technologies for Literacy and Adult Education, published as a contribution towards the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012), analyses two interconnected approaches to using ICT to support adult literacy and basic education. The first views ICT primarily as a set of instructional tools to help people acquire the skills associated with traditional notions of literacy. The second treats the relationship between literacy, technology and development in a more integral way. The authors also consider the implications and options for policy makers in the use – and necessity – of expanded roles for new technologies in literacy development.
Update from Country
Web Offers World Of Resources For Teachers
(USA) Web Offers World Of Resources For Teachers. Denise Felder. StarTribune.com. Online October 2005. Teachers can be full of passion and commitment, but if they’re not able to lead productive class lessons, they will not be good teachers. One of the best resources for new teachers creating their first syllabus is the advice of other teachers. Some school districts have mentoring programs for new teachers to guide them through instructional techniques. But eventually, every teacher will have to find his or her own way to connect with students. Elementary and secondary teachers looking for new inspiration for lesson plans often find help on the Internet. …
