1. CREATING THE FUTURE Challenges and Opportunities for ICT in Education and Development Patti Swarts, GeSCI Africa Regional Programme Manager TPD Workshop, 20 -22 October 2009, Dar es Salaam

2. This presentation will provide: Background about GeSCI General trends in ICT4E Overview of Challenges and Opportunities in ICT4E

3. Why GeSCI? Funds, access to technologies, efficient business processes, deployment and training for ICTs provided Provision of knowledge support, building of sustainable capacities and expertise for successful exploitation of ICTs inadequate Need for neutral organisation with no vested interests to work with education sector

4. GeSCI’s vision Knowledge Society for All In a Knowledge Society, communities are able to gain a competitive edge by applying new knowledge, technology and innovations to solve their problems and challenges

5. GeSCI’s Mission To advise and support Ministries of Education (MoEs) in the developing world to make informed strategic choices and decisions about ICTs in Education.

6. ICTs in Education: what’s it about?

7. ICTs in Education ICTs have the potential to address the current challenges in Africa related to: - access to education educational resources - quality of learning, equity, equity in quality, relevance, and - management efficiency Contribute to equipping tomorrow’s citizens with the increasingly important skills related to science and technology More critically, ICTs have the potential to transform education; a potential that many developed countries are doing their best to harness

8. GeSCI’s Foundation Developing countries following the rest of the world by placing ICTs and ICTs in Education at the centre of their development strategies. However, developing countries are less equipped in terms of capacity and resources- human and financial- to successfully and effectively harness the potential of ICTs. With this in mind, GeSCI was founded by the UN ICT Taskforce in 2003, and began operations in 2005 working initially with Namibia, Ghana, India, Bolivia and later Rwanda. WSIS UN ICT TaskForce GeSCI as a Global Programme

9. GeSCI activities 2009 -2011 Country programmes involving direct advisory engagement with developing country MoEs on a system-wide basis to provide high quality strategic advice and support to the countries’ own plans, policies and efforts to deploy and integrate ICTs in education. Regional programmes involving knowledge sharing between GeSCI and the partner countries and between the partner countries, at the regional level in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Knowledge products and services through the identification of major knowledge gaps or common challenges related to ICTs in education. Promoting partnerships and facilitating global dialogue by leveraging ICTs to promote communication and collaboration with a diverse number of partners, globally, regionally and locally.

10. Working with countries- typical outputs GeSCI does NOT tell countries what they should do; rather GeSCI assists countries to develop the capacity to identify problems, craft suitable and sustainable solutions and prioritize actions. ICT in Education policies and strategic plans; Implementation or action plans; Organizational structures and staffing plans; Budgets and resourcing plans; Convening and aligning partnerships.  Successful deployment of ICTs.

11. GeSCI’s approach: successful deployment

12. GeSCI’s approach to capacity development 2. Capacities to integrate ICTs go beyond enhancing skills and knowledge through training and the provision of technical advice MicroMeso Macro Individual/ Project team Personnel skills as exhibited by the staff, team work, information building and sharing. Organization Organizational structure, definition of roles and responsibilities, leadership, attitudes and incentives, appraisal procedures, budgetary allocations, facilities, access to information, infrastructure, and communication within the organization. National institutions Political will, stakeholders dealing directly or indirectly with the said organization, policies, networks and partnerships and budgets from the parent institutions or ministries.

13. Global trends: opportunities and challenges OPPORTUNITIES Increased flow: knowledge, capital, goods, services, people Pervasiveness of ICTs Changes in ways people live, work, are educated, entertained New knowledge, products, jobs, services

14. Global trends CHALLENGES Tremendous stress on education systems to prepare for knowledge society and economy Economic downturn: resource constraints Shortage of qualified personnel

15. Implications of ICT integration: are we ready for it? New knowledge and understandings: educative process, learning New sources of knowledge and knowledge creation New roles requiring new skills and attitudes: life long learning Flexible delivery: new/different responses to challenges 21 st century learning: focus on higher order learning

16. 21 st century learning

17. Factors influencing technology use Insufficient time: acquisition of skills, practice, gaining experience, exploration, share Access and cost Vision for the use of technology Teacher preparation and development: use and proficiency vs integration Technical and pedagogical support Beliefs: traditional, hierachical

18. Stages in technology acquisition Entry: struggle with basic use Adoption: some success with use at basic level Adaptation: progress to appreciation and exploration Appropriation: integration and exploitation Innovation: create new learning environments

19. ICT integration Apply & development of ICT capability ICT the subject ICT in subject ICT – a tool for teaching/learning ICT capability

20. Where to with ICT4E? The Knowledge Ladder From technology literacy to knowledge creation and innovation Technology Literacy