2012

Second Caribbean Regional Learning Event on Improving Teaching and Learning Outcomes with ICT
Study visit to the Maine Learning Technology Initiative

Global Symposium on ICT Use in Education: Building national ICT/education agencies
Seoul, South Korea

Uruguay's Plan Ceibal: What Happens When *all* Students and Teachers Have Their Own Laptops
Alicia Casas de Barran, National Archivist of Uruguay
Washington, DC

Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI): Increasing Access to Quality Early Childhood Development Programs in Developing Countries
Washington, DC

The EduRadicals event with Roger Shank
Washington, DC

Roger Schank is one of the world's leading visionaries in artificial intelligence, learning theory, cognitive science, and the building of virtual learning environments. He is CEO of Socratic Arts, a company whose goal is to design and implement learning-by-doing, story-centered curricula in schools, universities, and corporations. He was formerly a professor of computer science and psychology at Yale University and director of the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project.

The Learning and Technology World Forum is an internationally recognized leadership forum for sharing best and debating future practice in education and skills. It is one of the largest gatherings of education and skills ministers in the world. It is also the only forum that brings together national leaders to share their ideas and experiences on strategy and policy; considering ways that technology can be used to support and improve the accessibility and quality of education and skills globally.

For more information, please see the event web site at http://www.latwf.org.

The innovative Talking Book Project develops new and affordable digital audio technology to provide vital information and literacy training to people with limited access to either, in the form of locally recorded, spoken content on an interactive audio device. The technology is being used for two major purposes: training of reading skills and communication of information. A pilot was completed in Northern Ghana in 2009.

ICT Transforming Education: 13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference on Education and World Bank-KERIS High Level Seminar on ICT in Education
Hangzhou, China

The 13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference, in conjunction with the World Bank-KERIS High Level Seminar on ICT in Education, will emphasize the powerful role ICT can play in changing the way we teach and learn. The conference will provide a forum to explore, identify and synergize innovative approaches for harnessing the potential of ICT to increase the reach and quality of education. Distinguished speakers and paper presenters will share their rich experiences in linking theory to practice. Policymakers, educators, teachers, academicians and researchers will discuss, exchange information and learn from each other on how we use ICT in teaching and learning to improve overall quality of education.

More information is available on the event website maintained by UNESCO-Bangkok.

Global Symposium on ICT and Education
Seoul, South Korea
in partnership with the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and the Korea Education Research & Information Service (KERIS)

High-level policymakers, experts and practitioners will gather to discuss emerging trends and practices related to the effective and appropriate of ICTs in the education sector, with a specific focus on monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment.

This event extends the collaboration between the World Bank, the Korean Ministry of Education and KERIS on ICT/education capacity building events, following on similar activities in 2008 and 2007.

More information to follow.

Using Teachers & Technology for Early Grade Student Assessment - One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Innovations in Uruguay
Washington, DC

Uruguay has been leading Latin America in the use of student assessments for improving teaching and learning. Also, Uruguay is the first to implement the One Laptop per Child nationwide. This year, Uruguay innovated yet again, by taking advantage of the availability of laptops in all elementary school classrooms to introduce student assessments in language, mathematics and science, for second grade students. The effort involved not only the assessment experts, who developed the instruments but also school inspectors, who helped recruit teachers to participate (voluntarily), and inservice teacher training professionals, who worked on developing online materials for teachers to address the learning challenges that the assessments identified. In this session, Andres Peri will describe the program and demonstrate "live" the online tools his team developed and administered for the first time in recent months.

Mobile Innovations in Education
Washington, DC

Event page and live webcast available on the World Bank's eDevelopment site at http://go.worldbank.org/7ZD6MGXWF0

Key questions:

• What do we know about how mobile phones are currently being used in schools?
• Are there good practices and case studies from developing countries from which we can learn?

The World Bank's one-day workshop on "Mobile Innovations for Social and Economic Transformation" will feature a special session devoted to mobile innovations in education.

ICTs for Education
Paris, France

The joint workshop on "Policy Coherence in Information and Communication Technologies for Development " organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Information for Development Program (infoDev) / World Bank will feature a session on ICT use in education. The programme will be a mix of academic research, policy development and practitioner’s tales, drawing also upon work carried out by infoDev/World Bank and by OECD in this field.

Greater use of ICTs in schools can help achieve to development goals related to universal primary education and the elimination of gender inequality in education. However, doubts remain as to the priority ICTs should be afforded relative to other educational needs. This session will explore issues related to elaborating coherent educational strategies, including the desirability of the one-to-one model (e.g. one laptop per child initiative), the costs of ownership of computers in schools, the impact of computers in schools in terms of educational attainment, and looking to the future, the relevance over time of core curriculum ICT skills.

Professional Development of School Managers and Teachers in Effective Use of ICT in Education: A Guide for Policy Implementers
Port Louis, Mauritius

Jointly sponsored by the World Bank Institute, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft.

Objectives:

• Share international and continental experience on the progress of ICT in Education initiatives with African education policy implementers;
• Allow participants to reflect on their own country-level experiences and share projects which have been developed and completed or are in progress;
• Formulate an action plan for taking ICT in education pilots to the next level in each country, taking into account the realities and constraints that most participating countries face with regard to larger scale expansion;
• Create a community of policymakers and implementers who face similar challenges in the developing context;
• Test the framework of a new course for mid-level policy implementers.

Consultative workshop on ICT and education indicators
From 7-9 July 2009, the World Bank and the Korea Education Research & Information Service (KERIS) hosted a meeting in Busan, South Korea to explore multi-donor cooperation around the development of (1) sets of core and supplemental indicators related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education and (2) shared conceptual frameworks to aid in the monitoring and evaluation of ICT and education initiatives.

• Is low cost computing a feasible solution to some of the information needs in Southern Africa?
• How can (expensive) digital content from textbook providers in OECD countries be made available to various low income groups in Southern Africa, working with universities, and what are the related issues?
• What is the on-the-ground reality about various high-profile low-cost laptop and eBook products being marketed to developing countries, based on testing and pilots in Southern Africa?

Conference on ICT Support for Universalisation of Secondary Education
The conference aims to address the technology needs of rolling out RMSA, the need to build ICT capacities of secondary level teachers and provide higher quality e-content, relevant case studies from India and abroad, an innovations in the domain of technology-based education in India. This aligns with the efforts of the Department of School Education and Literacy to assist States to build up the ICT infrastructure in secondary schools through the scheme "ICT in Schools".

ICT for Education Policymakers: From Vision to Action
Seoul, South Korea
Jointly organized by the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) and the World Bank Institute.

The main focus of this course course is to provide policymakers with a broad yet detailed overview of what to expect in the area of ICT in terms of challenges, opportunities, costs, and benefits based on the experiences of different countries. The course aims to build overall awareness of the impact of ICT in education; introduce key issues, including those of leadership, institutions, public-private partnerships, monitoring and evaluation, the integration of ICT at different educational levels; strategy formulation and implementation through studies and field visits; and to provide an opportunity for knowledge sharing and networking across regions.

How Much Does It Really Cost to Introduce and Sustain Computers in Schools?
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): A Study of Models of Affordable Computing for Schools in Developing Countries

"Total cost of ownership" (TCO) is often underestimated, sometimes grossly, when calculating costs of ICT in education initiatives in developing countries. Estimates of initial costs to purchase equipment to overall costs over time vary widely; typically they lie between 10-25% of total cost. That said, there is a dearth of reliable data, and useful tools, to help guide education decision makers in their assessments of the true costs of educational technology initiatives.

Low-Cost ICT Devices in Education: Hope, Hype and Heuristics
The so-called ‘$100 laptop’ has generated both great enthusiasm and categorical derision since it was announced in 2004. Now beginning to roll out at scale in a few countries, it is but the most prominent initiative of this sort; over 50 low cost laptops models were introduced in the month of June alone – staggering, for a market that didn’t even exist a few years ago! – many explicitly targeting the education sector. Yet the ICT device of choice throughout most of the developing world is the mobile phone, and many argue that a focus on PCs is diverting attention from solutions and services most appropriate to users in the developing world, especially the poor, with the greatest potential for developmental impact.

Despite the explosion of interest in and discussion about this topic, there is little informed public debate about the real opportunities and risks offered by these new technologies. And, some will ask, haven’t we heard all of this before -- what’s different this time? This session will feature informed, talkshow-style debate with thought leaders and practitioners to separate the hope from the hype, providing perspective on emerging practical opportunities for change and developmental impact.

The $70, Low-Power Computer for Education -- Lessons from Macedonia, Andhra Pradesh and beyond
While the so-called "$100 laptop" garners much media attention, other low-cost, low-power ICT solutions are finding success in developing countries. This BBL is meant to explore a different model of computing -- "desktop virtualization" -- of potential relevance to schools in developing countries.

Planning Workshop on Capacity-Building for ICT in Education in Africa at at e-Learning Africa 2008 (Accra, Ghana)
This brainstorming workshop knowledge and capacity building needs in a number of African countries in the area of ICT in education. Concrete ways of addressing those needs, especially in relation to capacity building, were shared and developed, especially related to : (1) Engaging African policymakers in an active dialogue on the ICT in education “landscape” in the region; (2) Prioritizing needs and follow-up actions in the area of building Africa capacity in ICT in education, particularly for WBI and KERIS (focus on learning events) and the Africa Region of the World Bank; (3) Link education experts and policymakers in Africa to an annual global core course on ICT in education offered by WBI and the Korean government, and identify people who can play a role in facilitating learning activities.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Education Leaders: From Vision to Reality
The course reviews ICT in relation to education policy, relevant strategies, and best practice. The exchange of first-hand experience of ICT use in education policy and its implementation will help policymakers grasp a systematic view in strengthening the competitiveness of their education systems by applying ICT more effectively.

e-Learning: Re-Thinking Education
The event took place at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. on November 8th featured Robert Schank, Founder of the Institute of e-Learning and Professor at Northwestern University. Harry Patrinos, Lead Education Economist at the World Bank introduced the speaker and chaired the event.

Session: Libraries and Electronic Collections: Acquisitions in a Changing Environment
Event Title:Publishing for Impact 2007: Reaching Readers Across Boundaries is conference held June 4–6, 2007, in Washington, DC, was entitled “Publishing for Impact 2007: Reaching Readers across Boundaries” and it tackled myriad new issues facing publishers in the digital era. Participants ranged from the institutional to nonprofit and for-profit publishers.

The New $100 Computer
The concept of creating useful, inexpensive, and sturdy computers for school children in the developing world was initially introduced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab in late 2005. Since then, its application in the developing world has seen support, skepticism, and a fast evolution of the aims of the computers and the project “One Laptop per Child.” In this presentation by Nicholas Negroponte on May 31, 2007, to an audience at the World Bank’s Washington offices, he explained the most current work being done by One Laptop Per Child.

Session: The Role of Education in Building Knowledge Societies: The Experience of Jordan and Mexico 
Event Title: Restoring Global Balance Together
Recognizing the importance of building up a sound human capital base, Jordan has embarked on an innovative Education Reform for Knowledge Economy Project. The main aim of this project is to support the Government’s efforts to transform its education system at the early childhood, basic, and secondary levels in order to produce graduates with the requisite skills needed to participate in the knowledge economy. The case of Mexico was also presented to highlight innovative partnerships to promote ICTs in the field of education.

Microsoft’s Approach to Digital Inclusion in Schools
In this presentation, Greg Butler, who leads the Education Programs team in Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector, described how he draws on past experience and current issues in education to develop and implement strategies and program solutions that target Microsoft’s mission of helping educators and students use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve teaching and learning and realize their potential.