| Capacity Building
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UNESCO?s Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL) has supported member states in systematizing the non-formal education curriculum, training personnel and developing learning materials. Since the late 1990s, APPEAL has also has been promoting the concept of Community Learning Centres for generating grassroots based interest and participation in literacy, basic education and continuing education activities for disadvantaged people.
To respond more effectively to the diverse learning needs among and within member states, this project will take advantage of the power of ICT to contribute to promote EFA and encourage the application of alternative strategies to APPEAL activities. Using the potential of ICT, the project will also explore more effective use and delivery of existing resources and develop new resources to widen access to and improve the relevance and quality of learning.
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As part of its "Bridging the Digital Divide" project, the UNESCO Office in Beirut in cooperation with the Safadi Foundation recently distributed more than 130 refurbished personal computers to 21 schools in the Northern Lebanon. Each school received 8 to 12 computers depending on the number of students and teachers were trained in how to use the new equipment.
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Training of trainers workshops in the use of ICT organized within the framework of the project "Establishing the Effective Use of ICT in Education for All in Cambodia".
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The high illiteracy, high incidence of poverty and large number of out-of school youth remain a key challenge for education and poverty reduction in Cambodia. This project is based on the premise that the innovative and appropriate use of ICT can help reach those excluded from learning and improve the quality of learning and quality of life for all. Through ICT, disparities in educational access and quality can be reduced, and education systems can enhance the knowledge and skills of their learners and promote creativity, critical thinking, and self-learning, thus facilitating the achievement of the national Education for All goals.
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Sri Lanka has launched professional development programmes to train teachers in the use of computers. However, most of these training activities are crash programmes, which focus on computer literacy per se and do not enable teachers to return to their classrooms with the ability to use the computers in teaching their assigned subjects.
Teachers still require not only training in computer literacy, but also in how to apply various educational software in teaching and learning and how to integrate this resource into their classroom activities and school structure.
This project will therefore aim at helping upgrade knowledge and skills of teachers and facilitators in genuinely integrating educational technologies in their work. More broadly, it will also aim at tapping the potential of new ICT (including distance education methods) for more easily accessible and better teachers education and professional development, supporting teacher education reforms taking place in many countries, and reducing the gap between and within countries in terms of qualified teachers trained in new learning environments.
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The effective use of ICT for educational development in the disadvantaged western region of China requires favorable supportive policy environment, up-graded skills of teachers and other facilitators, locally relevant approaches to ICT application to education, and school nets for resources sharing.
However, provinces in the western region of China have had major problems in meeting the multi-faceted challenges to educational development by means of modern information-communication technologies
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The programme aims at enhancing awareness, vision and commitment of decision makers for the judicious use of ICT in education and at strengthening national capacities to develop, implement and monitor ICT master plans
Facilitating the policy integration and implementation of other JFIT project components, e.g. the professional development of teachers and educators in ICT integration into teaching and learning.
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This project aims at to contribute to bridging the digital divide and promoting digital inclusion by creating, collecting, analysing, and providing quick access to knowledge and information to support policy formulation, management and monitoring, teaching and learning, community outreach, networking, and programme implementation through Web-based clearing house services. The end result is to create knowledge portals that will promote free and equitable access to information and learning resources.
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The main objectives of the project ?Improving Management and Delivery of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) through the Application of ICTs? are to supply and equip departments or commissions of TVE, vocational education and training institutions, curriculum development centres with suitable computer equipment, Internet, multi-media software; to provide training in their use to directors, principals, curriculum developers, vocational teacher trainers; and to expand access to teaching and learning materials and to enrich delivery of TVE.
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The project "Training and Professional Development of Teachers and other Facilitators for Effective Use of ICTs in Improving Teaching and Learning", run by the UNESCO-Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID), aims at improving the capabilities of teachers/facilitators, through both pre-service education and in-service training, to integrate/infuse ICTs as pedagogical tools and educational resources and to facilitate interactive learning; identifying, creating and disseminating country/locally-specific ICT pedagogies and models of ICT use in different learning environments and teacher-developed e-lesson plans and educational software;and developing and putting into operation a regional on-line teacher resource base and off-line network of teacher training institutions to share teacher-developed education courseware and innovative practices.
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The project ?Training of Teachers in Information Technology (IT) to Meet the Emerging Needs of the New Learning Environment in Sri Lanka ?aims at helping to upgrade knowledge and skills of teachers and non-formal education facilitators in genuinely integrating educational technologies in their work. More broadly, it also aims at tapping the potential of new ICTs for more easily accessible and better teachers? education and professional development, reducing the gap between and within countries in terms of qualified teachers trained in new learning environments. The project is run from UNESCO New Delhi.
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The UNESCO project ?Educational Radio and TV Centre in Kabul (Afghanistan)? consist in completely upgrading and rehabilitating distance education services in Afghanistan. Apart from renovating the building, UNESCO with $2.5 million funding from Italy has equipped the ERTV Centre with furniture, internet access and 40 computers linked through a Local Area Network (LAN). Some digital television equipment has also been provided, with complete radio and television studios. Under the project, UNESCO has provided three months of intensive training in fields such as TV and radio techniques, use of digital equipment, programme production, English language proficiency and computer literacy. In the next phase of the project, ten ERTV staff members will receive advanced training at the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD).
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Follow-up and Evaluation
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As ICTs become increasingly widespread, schools and other learning settings as well as education systems as a whole need to develop performance indicators to monitor the use and outcomes of the technologies and to demonstrate accountability to funding sources and the public. These indicators are needed specifically to monitor the types of ICT resources available and their accessibility, the extent and nature of professional development efforts, changes in teaching/learning practices, and improvement in what is learned by students.
An initial assessment of the indicators already developed by others shows their largely quantitative nature. While data that can be collected from these indicators can provide an overall view of infrastructure support and ICT penetration, this component should strive to examine more closely indicators that will show how ICTs have been used not only as a basic operational tool but also as a communications tool which promotes the development of creativity, interactivity, collaborative learning, critical thinking and problem-solving.
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ICT Applications
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Building on UNESCO?s Free Software Portal, the main goal of the project ?Free open source software for information processing and education? is to promote and encourage use of free open source software in the Organization?s fields of competence and to contribute to their development and distribution as ?global public goods? serving UNESCO?s Member States. A web-based collaborative working environment will catalyse and coordinate the production and dissemination free-of-charge of selected UNESCO open source tools for processing information, communicating knowledge and facilitating education. The whole development is based on the ?Open Source Software/Free Software? (OSSFS) development model, thus encouraging international solidarity, collaboration and voluntary community work among institutions, programmers and computer users.
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ICT Applications: E-science
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The Syrian Higher Education and Research Network (SHERN) project aims at building the core infrastructure and networking capacity and Intranet/Internet capacities for the purpose of developing active electronic exchange of information among all four national Syrian Universities and also Syrian research institutions. Such capabilities are also expected to provide the proper basis for future applications of e-learning and e-administration within academic networks. The theoretical and practical training received by the local teams during the course of this project is expected to result in enhanced capacities in modern technologies leading to the modernization of academic programmes and the development of new methodologies in teaching and research.
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Asia and Pacific
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Preliminary comparative analysis of Asia and the Pacific shows great disparities within and between countries in their degree of ICT integration in the field of education. A multitude of international and national players try to correct these disparities and meet existing needs. Players include the public and private sector, education communities, NGOs and ICT professionals. In order to make evidence-based programme decisions it is important to know to what extent countries in the region have established connectivity and access to ICT in education, formulated and implemented policies on ICT use in education and roadmaps for the future development and management of ICT, undertaken professional development programmes to train teachers and other education personnel in the use of ICT; and developed ICT-based educational software and educational material.
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Creating equal opportunity in education for the ASEAN countries by exploring and demonstrating how ICT can be used in schools and consequently improve the quality of education for all and better prepare the youth for the demands of the Knowledge Society; testing innovative models of ICT use and of ICT-based teaching education, teaching-learning methods, and curriculum/materials development in schools and in other places of learning; and improving connectivity and access to the wealth of educational resources through the establishment of SchoolNet in the ASEAN countries
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Asia and Pacific: Singapore
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"Integrating ICTs into Education: Lessons Learned" seeks to present the cream of countries efforts to integrate ICTs into their education systems. This practical guide synthesizes and analyzes experiences in connection with specific lessons learned and highlights best practices and the need for further improvements, based on the experiences of six Asian countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, The Republic of Korea and Thailand.
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Europe and North America: Slovenia
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The project "Strengthening National Educational Capacities by Harnessing ICTs for Education and Diversifying their Application for Training Purposes" is aimed at developing a systematic educational use of ICTs for educational planning and policy-making, through multi-country ICT and education projects and through the sharing of information. The project is being implemented by the UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education (IITE), Moscow.
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Global
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Project for the development of an international framework for the creation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs)
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UNITAR in Malaysia, the Campus Numérique Francophone de Dakar, Senegal, the Universidad Virtual de Quilmes in Argentina and USQOnline in Australia, are but four virtual universities included in the case study entitled "The Virtual University: Models and messages" published by UNESCO's Institute for Education Planning (IIEP).
Other institutions included in the study are the Athabasca University in Canada, African Virtual University at Kenyatta University in Kenya, l'Université Virtuelle en Pays de la Loire, in France and NetVarsity, in India.
The cases selected for study represent a range of institutional models, and diverse geographic regions.
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Laid out in four substantive guidebooks, this kit is targeted especially towards policy- and decision-makers, school managers, practitioners, teachers and principals. Guidebook One provides a general overview and discusses how ICTs have been understood to improve the value and quality of education. Guidebook Two looks at planning a schoolnet programme, in terms of infrastructure, professional development, online content, curriculum integration etc, as well as ways in which to integrate change management, the sustainability of schoolnet activities and how can we better institutionalise programmes. Guidebook Three is more hands-on and practical. It is targeted towards the people actually running the projects ? looking at the educational and social value of online communities, technological components, the different ways in which technologies can be adapted and so on. Guidebook Four is a practitioners? guide, setting out the typical processes which they may follow.
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UNESCO and the Club of Rome are co-organizing a three-day ?World Conference on Harnessing the Potential of ICT for Capacity Building? from 11 to 13 May at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. The event is one of UNESCO?s thematic meetings in preparation for the second meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (Tunis, Tunisia, 16-18 November 2005).
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The "ICT Portal for Teachers" provides a gateway to Internet resources and websites to help teachers utilize ICT to enhance their teaching. The portal is part of an Asia-Pacific Programme on ICT in Education run by UNESCO's Asia and the Pacific Bureau of Education and sponsored by the Japanese Government through Japanese Funds-in-Trust. The programme?s focus is on how to use ICT to reduce disparities in both educational access and quality and, ultimately, bridge the digital divide. UNESCO envisions that the ICT programme will result in an educational environment involving enriched curricula, resource sharing, quality multimedia material, and a cadre of teachers who are competent in facilitating better learning with ICT.
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The Open and Distance Learning (ODL) for Higher Education Knowledge Base, maintained by UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, is part of the global programme aimed at creating an information management and processing tool for decision-makers in developing countries and those in transition to address policy issues in higher education open and distance education provision.
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