Digital Opportunities Israel speech

• Global issues and trends in digital divide• Leadership opportunities for colleges of education to move toward digital equity

traditionally defined in terms of access to computers and Internet

is part of broader divide contributing to social and economic exclusion of people

multiple aspects: economic, geographic, languages, gender, etc.

The digital divide helps widen an even more alarming divide - the knowledge divide

Closing digital divide will not suffice to close the knowledge divide for access to useful, relevant knowledge is more than a matter of technology access

1 Gigabyte = 1,000 Megabytes1 Terabyte = 1,000 Gigabytes

(Library of Congress = 40 Terabytes)

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To connect villages, schools, hospitals and libraries and to ensure that over half of the world’s population has access to ICT’s and the Internet by 2015.

UNESCO World Summit on the Information Society Tunis, 2005

Access to: basic literacy skills ICT devices, software and high

bandwidth connectivity to the Internet meaningful, high quality, culturally

relevant content in local languages creating, sharing, and exchanging

digital content

Access to: educators who know

how to use digital tools and resources in pedagogically sound, culturally responsive ways

effective leadership in policy and planning

• 1 billion non-literate adults (26% of world adult population)• Women make up 2/3 of the illiterates• Africa has literacy rate less than 60%• UNESCO ‘Education for All’ Initiative

Source: UNESCO, 2001

Access to Basic Literacy

Source: International Telecommunications Union (2007) World Information Society 2007 Report

Source: International Telecommunications Union (2007) World Information Society 2007 Report

Top 1,000 companies have an estimated technology stock of more than 70 million machines to dispose of.

Effective international and national models to refurbish computers and distribute

Digital Partnership, International Business Leaders Forum, 2006

IntelClassmate

EeePC

Low cost laptops gaining traction OLPC XO (600,000

orders): Peru, Haiti, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Mexico, Uruguay, Mongolia

Intel Classmate: Nigeria, Libya (150,000)

Source: VilaWeb.com

Use of technology: to develop culturally responsive content in local

languages (Example Nepal, 4Directions) to incorporate traditional cultural knowledge into

curriculum to preserve and revitalize native languages

An Indigenous Model of Education

• Many cultural & historical artifacts of indigenous peoples are spread across the world in museums and private collections• Partnerships between museums & tribal schools offer way to create virtual museums that “digitally repatriate” items back to their cultural homelands

Enable Indigenous voices to share what is shareable about their culture

Use the Internet as means of fostering cross-cultural understanding and to share knowledge with other indigenous peoples

Most PCs developed for individuals who are both literate and numerate

Need research on ICTs for non-literate populations in remote and poor areas

.

ICT Competency Standards for Teachers Implementation Guidelines,Version1.0. UNESCO, Paris France

Resta, P. Teacher Development in E-learning Age. UNESCO (in press)

Access to effective leadership in policy and planning

•Removing policy barriers and formulating new policy frameworks to move toward digital inclusion•Gathering data and doing research on digital equity situation in schools across country or region

Today’s broadband challenge requires new thinking and an end to business as usual

Build on mobile success where 1 billion mobile customers (or 58% of today’s 1.8 billion mobile users) are in developing countries

Regulators have an unprecedented opportunity to speed the uptake of broadband to enable the Information Society

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Source: International Telecommunications Union (2007) World Information Society 2007 Report

Source: International Telecommunications Union (2007) World Information Society 2007 Report

Develop trans-national collaborations between universities in region and across the globe

Work with universities, schools, communities, government agencies, private sector to demonstrate benefits of e-learning access

Example of Educational Native American Network (ENAN)

Rapid growth of digital libraries, open educational resources Merlot, Google, Yahoo

Open Courseware Initiative (MIT, UNESCO)

Rapid growth of free /open source software

• Provide leadership in open educational resources• Collaborate with telecommunications regulatory

agencies to develop policies that will support educational development

• Establish trans-national partnerships with higher education institutions in developing countries to foster exchanges and sustained dialogue

• Help initiate or support national initiatives for wireless and broadband access• Develop pilots to demonstrate effectiveness and feasibility of e-learning• Work with community members to develop culturally responsive cultural digital content in local languages