Global Alliance for ICT and Development
United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development
Brainstorming the conference theme
Dear colleagues,
As per Sarbuland’s request, I would like to make some suggestions as to breakdown of the theme of the Global Forum: ICT and Innovation for Education. I think the overall theme is a pertinent one, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to contribute to its further refinement with you, and later on structure the theme further together with you.
I will start by sharing some recent experiences I had at a number of schools in a developing country. (I’ll refrain from referencing the country in order to avoid making generalisations about the country and region in question). Two of the schools had computers and one or more computer labs. The poorest of the schools had only one lab with half of the computers being un-operational. As the lesson was being delivered there were 10 children working in pairs with the remaining computers. The remaining 30 children were waiting their turn in the centre of the classroom. Those ten students with access to the computers were doing nothing more than copying exercises from the screen to their notebooks while the rest waited – doing nothing.. Each class undertook this activity up to twice a week. I thought to myself, how can these computers enhance the quality of these children’s learning when utilised in this way? Where is the innovation, where is the interaction?
The second school had more resources with three computer labs with functioning computers. I was optimistic, believing that this school may be adopting a more innovative approach when it comes to ICTs and teaching and learning.. Though there were no children queuing to access computers, they were all busy copying content from the screen to their notebooks.. The school was proud of having so much educational material.. They were also pleased that their sisters schools followed the same regimented system of learning – the same curriculum, every day, every hour of every day. I immediately imagined hundreds, if not thousands of children in similar schools copying page after page of content from screen to notebook – memorising their lessons for upcoming tests.. I could not help but think of how much money and potential for innovative teaching and learning had been wasted. After all, overhead transparent would achieve the same outcome, are much cheaper and require no maintenance. I’m sure you can see the big question this raises – How can ICT be used to enhance the access to, and quality of, education? What is the innovative component that may be attached to ICTs in education?
- Is it about numbers of computers, of new technical innovations, that would alter the situation I described above?
- Is innovation enhanced if every child has a computer of their own? Or should they have a mobile phone instead?
- Or is the problem the software? Would it change the situation if they used web resources rather than VDDs?
- Is the problem with the teacher who does not understand how to utilise ICTs effectively? Should the teacher be more innovative? Or is the principal narrow minded?
- How about the school itself? What level of innovation is possible with 40-100 pupils to a teacher and perhaps 20 computers? Could they network with other schools or institutions and use computers outside of classrooms? Should the school (and ICTs) be reorganised in partnership with a private company? How that can be done? Does ICT have an innovative “seed” for changing the whole school system?
These are the questions raised by the reality that many schools find themselves in today.. Many more schools have no computers at all, never mind access to the world-wide-web. And what of the children who are excluded from the school system completely? Should we be aiming to raise these schools to the standard of the schools I visited? What are our priorities when faced with so many challenges? We need to carefully consider the key ingredients for innovation before we try to provide ‘solutions’ to some of these problems.
I would like to recommend that during the next forum we begin to examine some of the layers identified above and to evaluate the potentials and limitations of ICT related innovations in problem solving. By simplifying the concept of information systems, we could structure the forum in subsections or layers as follows:
1) Technical innovations in education (“hardware”, software applications, digital materials),
2) Process innovations (“warm ware”, new learning methods with ICT, education managemnent and ICT, etc) and
3) Social innovation (“social ware”, new institutional arrangements and restructurings that are made possible with ICT, like business innovations for PPPs in education, virtual universities, learning networks, home schooling, communities of practice, etc.)
In fact these layers are overlapping. By categorising them we could discover new ways of understanding the innovative role of ICT in education. It could also lead to a better understanding of how the innovations are spreading in education, schools, among teachers and learners.
I also realised that the theme of the forum is “ICT and Innovation for Education”, not other way around. However, another and very important perspective is “ICT and education for innovations”. With this word twister I want to emphasise that one big problem in developing countries is still the relevance of education. How great is the contribution of educational outcomes to the development of society currently? One key element to consider here is how education systems are equipped to support important skills like creativity, problem solving and learning as well as science and technology capabilities in general. These skills are the most important for the socio economic development of the developing countries. We know that ICT can play a central role in this, if used appropriately. The ways of using ICT I described previously, reading and copying the digital content from screen does not really contribute to the development of the skills listed above – the very skills that societies needs now, more than ever.
Finally, ICT could play a central role in linking institutions like schools, colleges and universities to working life. This contributes to the relevance of the education issue, but is also a major source of innovation that can be transferred form education system to business. Here, ICT, education and innovations are really shaking hands.
I hope that my first input will provoke a discussion among us to open the concept of innovation in education and the role of ICT in it.
Yours,
Jyrki
Jyrki Pulkkinen, PhD
CEO,
GeSCI - Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative
14 St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)1642 5281
Mobile: +353 (0)872 409105
Email: jyrki.pulkkinen@gesci.org
Mobile email: jyrkipulkkinen@mobileemail.vodafone.ie
Web: www.gesci.org
As per Sarbuland’s request, I would like to make some suggestions as to breakdown of the theme of the Global Forum: ICT and Innovation for Education. I think the overall theme is a pertinent one, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to contribute to its further refinement with you, and later on structure the theme further together with you.
I will start by sharing some recent experiences I had at a number of schools in a developing country. (I’ll refrain from referencing the country in order to avoid making generalisations about the country and region in question). Two of the schools had computers and one or more computer labs. The poorest of the schools had only one lab with half of the computers being un-operational. As the lesson was being delivered there were 10 children working in pairs with the remaining computers. The remaining 30 children were waiting their turn in the centre of the classroom. Those ten students with access to the computers were doing nothing more than copying exercises from the screen to their notebooks while the rest waited – doing nothing.. Each class undertook this activity up to twice a week. I thought to myself, how can these computers enhance the quality of these children’s learning when utilised in this way? Where is the innovation, where is the interaction?
The second school had more resources with three computer labs with functioning computers. I was optimistic, believing that this school may be adopting a more innovative approach when it comes to ICTs and teaching and learning.. Though there were no children queuing to access computers, they were all busy copying content from the screen to their notebooks.. The school was proud of having so much educational material.. They were also pleased that their sisters schools followed the same regimented system of learning – the same curriculum, every day, every hour of every day. I immediately imagined hundreds, if not thousands of children in similar schools copying page after page of content from screen to notebook – memorising their lessons for upcoming tests.. I could not help but think of how much money and potential for innovative teaching and learning had been wasted. After all, overhead transparent would achieve the same outcome, are much cheaper and require no maintenance. I’m sure you can see the big question this raises – How can ICT be used to enhance the access to, and quality of, education? What is the innovative component that may be attached to ICTs in education?
- Is it about numbers of computers, of new technical innovations, that would alter the situation I described above?
- Is innovation enhanced if every child has a computer of their own? Or should they have a mobile phone instead?
- Or is the problem the software? Would it change the situation if they used web resources rather than VDDs?
- Is the problem with the teacher who does not understand how to utilise ICTs effectively? Should the teacher be more innovative? Or is the principal narrow minded?
- How about the school itself? What level of innovation is possible with 40-100 pupils to a teacher and perhaps 20 computers? Could they network with other schools or institutions and use computers outside of classrooms? Should the school (and ICTs) be reorganised in partnership with a private company? How that can be done? Does ICT have an innovative “seed” for changing the whole school system?
These are the questions raised by the reality that many schools find themselves in today.. Many more schools have no computers at all, never mind access to the world-wide-web. And what of the children who are excluded from the school system completely? Should we be aiming to raise these schools to the standard of the schools I visited? What are our priorities when faced with so many challenges? We need to carefully consider the key ingredients for innovation before we try to provide ‘solutions’ to some of these problems.
I would like to recommend that during the next forum we begin to examine some of the layers identified above and to evaluate the potentials and limitations of ICT related innovations in problem solving. By simplifying the concept of information systems, we could structure the forum in subsections or layers as follows:
1) Technical innovations in education (“hardware”, software applications, digital materials),
2) Process innovations (“warm ware”, new learning methods with ICT, education managemnent and ICT, etc) and
3) Social innovation (“social ware”, new institutional arrangements and restructurings that are made possible with ICT, like business innovations for PPPs in education, virtual universities, learning networks, home schooling, communities of practice, etc.)
In fact these layers are overlapping. By categorising them we could discover new ways of understanding the innovative role of ICT in education. It could also lead to a better understanding of how the innovations are spreading in education, schools, among teachers and learners.
I also realised that the theme of the forum is “ICT and Innovation for Education”, not other way around. However, another and very important perspective is “ICT and education for innovations”. With this word twister I want to emphasise that one big problem in developing countries is still the relevance of education. How great is the contribution of educational outcomes to the development of society currently? One key element to consider here is how education systems are equipped to support important skills like creativity, problem solving and learning as well as science and technology capabilities in general. These skills are the most important for the socio economic development of the developing countries. We know that ICT can play a central role in this, if used appropriately. The ways of using ICT I described previously, reading and copying the digital content from screen does not really contribute to the development of the skills listed above – the very skills that societies needs now, more than ever.
Finally, ICT could play a central role in linking institutions like schools, colleges and universities to working life. This contributes to the relevance of the education issue, but is also a major source of innovation that can be transferred form education system to business. Here, ICT, education and innovations are really shaking hands.
I hope that my first input will provoke a discussion among us to open the concept of innovation in education and the role of ICT in it.
Yours,
Jyrki
Jyrki Pulkkinen, PhD
CEO,
GeSCI - Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative
14 St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)1642 5281
Mobile: +353 (0)872 409105
Email: jyrki.pulkkinen@gesci.org
Mobile email: jyrkipulkkinen@mobileemail.vodafone.ie
Web: www.gesci.org
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by T.R.Gopalkrishnan Nair on -
Dear Dr.Jyrki,
Thank you very much for bringing out these points. The major points brought out by you are relevant. The issue of number of computers ( Accessibility to ICT resources), The pattern of usage and Return on Investment on ICT access points, the technology parameter in utilization , Web /mobile phone/ Software etc. need to be analyzed in a 2009-10 context. However the problems related to our topic in a three tier or 4 tier Economy/ Social structure of the world ( developing country is one stratum) today need to be discussed thread bear as pointed out.
I hope the discussions will bring out the results of experience, thoughts and expectations in these lines. I will be tracking these points and will try to support you with the derivatives we get out of this. Soliciting your further contributions,
Best Regards
Dr. Nair
Chair
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Permalink Reply by Renata Horakova on
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Jyrki, thank you for your contribution. It allowed me and my colleagues at EMC to narrow down how our company could contribute to the ICT for Education cause.
EMC would like to emphasize the role of social networking not only in terms of providing the much needed access to information and knowledge, but also as a way to unleash talent and innovation that can lead to significant improvement in education in the developing world. Social networking can also eliminate some of the cultural/organizational barriers to education Tim highlighted in his post. The contribution of social networking could really be discussed as part of all three categories you've outlined (technical, process and social innovation). EMC could potentially provide leadership on this subject during the conference.
Also, on the more general access level, the company is well positioned around its areas of strategic focus that can make ICT more manageable and affordable for the developing (and developed) world: information lifecycle management optimized for energy efficiency, de-duplication, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, etc.
In addition to making information more accessible to the developing world, the environmental sustainability element is also critical. Our solutions could help them dematerialize their economies--making them more energy efficient and less resource intensive. For example, instead of developing countries having to build financial- and natural resource intensive data centers to manage their data, the information their societies generate could be stored and managed on a cloud (the Internet). It would allow the developing world to leapfrog the unsustainable elements of economic growth that the industrialized nations have undergone. While we want the developing world to grow, we know our planet cannot sustain the same industrial growth that led to prosperity in the Western world.
Best,
Renata
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Permalink Reply by Jyrki Pulkkinen on -
Dear Renata,
I am also a believer of social networking, but also I believe on network based economic models in organizing educational services. It can really break down educational costs if planned properly. ICT solutions, as you also described (reorganizing data storages, etc) , can help in this, but only if the educations organizations are willing and able to reorganize themselves and adopt these technologies, processes and models. This requires new management strategies and practices and well as financial models and agreements. How all this fits to national strategies and financial plans and models? All this requires strategies and capacities at institutional level as well as at strategic levels. The question is, how these institutional level changes (social innovations) can be managed and capacities can be build and the innovations introduced in sustainable ways. (I also believe that social networking is one new avenue to do this but…)
By experience I know that this kind of new processes and network organizations at public institution level have been challenging in many advanced countries, where the processes and technologies have been developed and maybe adopted in private companies (like in Finland where I have done most of my work with collaborative learning). The real challenge on the top of the challenges in advanced countries, in developing countries there is a lack of capacities as well as weakly developed institutional frameworks (and still in many cases lack of access to ICT).
I would like to challenge the group to think, how these new processes and technologies (including social networking itself) as well as network based economic models can be introduced in developing countries. My argument in my story was that previously the new processes based on ICT (like new interactive ways of learning) has not been adopted together with the technology, but instead, technology is used as a new tool to do the old process. So, what would be different with social networking (technologies) if we have failed with social collaborative learning methods (and technologies)?
My organization GeSCI is in business of building strategic capacities on ICT in education in developing countries (mainly at Ministries of Education, but also at major national institutions levels as well as at regonal basis). Our main approach is knowledge sharing and creation of communities of practices, which are actually part of our own social networking activities. We do it in many ways and levels, F2F and virtually, country based and regionally. We really feel that social networking is a challenge – but worth of trying (this can be observed also from this social network of ours ;-)). It would be interesting to work with you and see how the modern social networking applications can be used in national / regional capacity building processes. We do this already in some extent, but could do more and better.
The issue in which GeSCI could potentially take a leading role in the global forum is “how to support strategies and capacities of developing countries in the innovative use of ICT in education”, which is actually what we already do in practice. There is also a good link to social networking concept and technologies.
Yours,
Jyrki
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Permalink Reply by Linda Hahner on -
Dear Jyrki,
I believe you are correct in both your assessment that new technology is being used in old ways and that social networking may not be the best solution for promoting ICT in developing countries. We may need a more fundamental global shift.
Believe it or not, I started on my ICT journey teaching ESL at the University of Helsinki. Back then, I was really excited about the impact of the video camera. I then wandered into Silicon Valley and Internet , opening one of the first design companies specializing in Interface design for the Internet. That was back in 1996 when the Internet was just a gray page with a lot of big ugly pictures of people's dogs that took all day to download. From the beginning of Internet time, I have been trying to develop strategies to better use the computer in the ESL classroom
My team developed the first real-time 3D alphabet and we delivered it to more than 60 countries over the Internet within two months in 1999. At the time, it took more than half an hour to download our application and still we had people doing it and telling us that the 3D experience was helping their children "play and learn". At the same time, I was very aware of what i would now call "barriers to entry". Our real-time 3D educational games were too computer intensive for the average computer. They also only would run on Windows machines.
That led me to apply for a US Dept of Education Small Business Innovation Research contract. I was all about innovation and delighted to receive the opportunity. We used the money to develop a website that could run on all computers--www.literacycenter.net. The academic reviewers of our project really didn't get what we were doing at all. (Remember this was before Google or Wikipedia.) One wrote on an old rickety typewriter (missing letters!) that it was not possible to deliver the same lesson to every state in the United States. Well. Last year our website had more than 30 million page views from children in 220 countries. We deliver more than 170,000 free lessons to children in Texas/ Mexico border towns every month.
We currently offer four languages--English, French, German, and Spanish but would like to work with folks in this community to add many more languages. Our system is modular so it is easy to add languages and lessons.
My years in Finland taught me many valuable lessons. Today, I believe that old fashioned melting pot theories about language learning are bogging down education in the United States and contributing to the fact that only half of our children read at an appropriate level in third grade--a predictor of whether the child will graduate from high school. Clearly, children need to have a strong foundation in their first language before they start to study a second language. This is still not a popular idea in this country. Maybe the new administration will be more open.
So, we have moved one step backward but I think this will help the children you described. My partner and I recently built out a new website: www.readtoday.net This site has only printable lessons. When combined with the literacycenter.net, these lessons allow the child to have both interactive (innovative) experiences on the computer and then take something home to share with others. They don't need to copy the screen. They do need to have access to printers and paper which is another problem that needs to be discussed.
I am a great believer in innovation but I am a greater believer in reaching all children, equally, with free high-quality, professionally designed literacy material.
I look forward to new ideas and a great discussion!
Best wishes,
Linda
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Permalink Reply by Jyrki Pulkkinen on
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Hi all,
As I saw that the preliminary agenda is already published, I would like to make couple of tangible suggestions to the agenda.
Because the overall title of the Forum is ICT & Innovation for Education, I think the innovation theme should be brought throughout the conference, not only in the last session. The themes of the first two sections “Content” and “Access” are quite general by nature and does not lead thinking towards ICT innovations. Therefore I would suggest that the two first section themes would be changed to something like “ ICT innovations changing education processes and learning culture” and “ICT innovations providing affordable access to education” Third section theme could be changed also to “ ICT Business innovation for Education” . This would lead us to talk about new products, business models as well as partnership models that the private sector is developing currently.
I also would suggest that the session title where GeSCI is involved ( ICT Curriculum, culture and language) should be changed. It is really misleading and not capture the real issues from the ground. My suggestion for this session would be “Intercultural dimension of ICT innovations in Education”. This would lead us to talk not only about ICT curriculum or content and language but also other cultural aspects of ICT innovation that are introduced in education ( like learning methodologies, curriculum structures, collaboration traditions and teaching traditions that are all challenged by the integration of ICT in education,)
Yours,
Jyrki Pulkkinen
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Permalink Reply by Ernesto Lozano on
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Hi Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen
My Name Ernesto Lozano of I am of Venezuela sorry my English no is very well now because participate in its Forum I see in the world one the firts reason of different educational Technical in the Children for access for Technology and Computer is high cost for its project in this moments its. Today the world obteined Technology low Cost for Development new Technology for its and go distint site in the World with are Technology whose The Virtualization a new concept for increment more student in zone difficult access with are Technology
We are help in promoting because see very much possibility with are Technology low cost for Center Informatic Popular with intervention of Comunity in coordination with your Schooll The Excellent Invent of and your Products Ncomputing are a reality and excellent products and good for Development are Center of Low Cost in Every for Children low recourse economy its is pòssible with are Technology create Center Eduactiona in with Laboratory in Zone difficult in Energy and Telecomunication and its is viability
In The Worlwide The Innovation for Education with Technology is excellent and good for our world
See are possibility and no close are New Tendency Technology help in Education a distance of low cost
No Iam go travel in its Forum for Marketting please no see its of form only specialy in see whose little distance for our Children of World access Eduactional with Technology of Integration and Red Social and Virtual in world little thanks for Telecommunications
Thanks for your attention and sorry in case of No understand my wrote in my bad English
I am sorry my english no is good
Kind
Best Regard
Ernesto Lozano
General Director
HIA TECHNOLOGY DE VENEZUELA S.A
Email elozanohia@gmail.com
Telephone 00582418672023
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Permalink Reply by Serge Kapto on -
Dear Ernest,
Please feel free to contribute in Spanish.
Regards,
Serge
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Permalink Reply by Ernesto Lozano on
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Hi Serge
Thanks for you recomend for write in Spanish
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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Bracey Sutton on -
Thank you , your English may not be good but your thoughts and contributions are stellar . My husband translates the writing for me. You are right on target. We have a common understanding.
Thank you for your thoughts. Bonnie
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Permalink Reply by Serge Kapto on
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Dear Jyrkki,
Thank you for your suggestions, which capture the the essence of the sessions. We tried to keep the the titles of the sessions as short as possible (one punchy keyword), and that may indeed not convey fully the ideas behind.
We will incorporate your suggestions in the next version of the draft programme.
Regards,
Serge
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Permalink Reply by Noubissié Ngadeu Samuel Désiré on -
Dear All,
Thank for these greats contibutions.
According to me, we cannot discuss about innovations in Education without have a global picture of the Education Problems. It will be important to perform an assessment of the current Education system- After this, it will be easy for us to identify the sets of the Education system which need to be innovated and how we will proceed to bring this positive change.
Regards
Samuel
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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Bracey Sutton on
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Innovation in education should include some of the pointers to Supercomputing.
This is for the awareness so that people won't think, ok we are connected and working. Technology is sometimes ever changing as in the different technologies being used in phones all around the world, the online ways we now have of telecasting, and collaborating, and use of podcasts, and other 2.0 collaborations.
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