“Crowdsourcing – linking up to reach Education for All”

UNESCO is teaming up with Nokia and the Pearson Foundation on 10 October to launch the Education for All (EFA) Crowdsourcing Challenge, an eight-month initiative - with prizes - to elicit suggestions on how mobile communication can help achieve EFA goals.

Crowdsourcing uses group collaboration to achieve a specific goal. Participants post ideas and other participants can vote for or against them, along with feedback and solutions. A unique element of crowdsourcing is the ability to connect people with needs or ideas with software developers who can address those needs or realize those visions. 

The EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge is designed to enable people with similar interests to connect and collaborate on ideas to achieve EFA. It plans to develop suggestions emerging from the dynamic interaction between education experts, teachers, parents, students and software developers.

Each month will feature a separate EFA goal. The first month is devoted to finding solutions on how mobile communication can help achieve literacy.   

Prizes will be awarded monthly to the best ideas, chosen by a panel of judges. Promising projects will be developed and implemented by Nokia or other participants after the challenge ends, on 31 May 2012.

Related Links

EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge

ICT in Education

The six EFA Goals

The UNESCO-HP Brain Gain Initiative

The migration of highly-skilled people is having a significant impact on higher education and research in developing nations, as universities and research centers have to retain highly-skilled and increasingly mobile professionals in increasingly competitive labour markets.

UNESCO and HP joined forces in 2003 to develop several projects, using innovative technology to create a “brain gain” for regions that are particularly impacted by the exodus of academics and scientists.

In 2009 UNESCO and HP agreed to scale up the initiative to help create a sustainable university e-infrastructure for science, bringing together higher education institutions and research centres in Africa and the Arab States region and allowing them to pursue innovative education projects.

By the end of 2011, this infrastructure could span some 100 higher education institutions in 20 countries provided like-minded corporations and organizations join UNESCO and HP in this initiative.

Click here to learn more!

High Level Seminar on ICT in Education

13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference on Education

and World Bank-KERIS High Level Seminar on ICT in Education

ICT Transforming Education

15-17 November 2009

Hangzhou, People's Republic of China

Co-organized by

UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO
The World Bank
Korea Educational Research and Information Service (KERIS)
Hosted by Hangzhou Department of Education and Xiacheng People’s Government, Hangzhou

Presentations and papers presented at the 13^th UNESCO-APEID International Conference are now available for download.

Irina Bokova and Rod Beckstromm Head of ICANN Sign Accord

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, talks to Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN. The video was made in Paris on 10 December 2009, when their two organizations signed an accord to cooperate to protect endangered languages on the Internet

Jordan Education Initiative wins UNESCO King Hamad Prize

The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) has won the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education. The prize was awarded on the recommendation of an international arbitration committee. It was judged best of 39 projects presented by 29 countries.

The JEI was created as part of the Global Education Initiative at the World Economic Forum, and is a large scale public-private partnership to bring information technology to the public school system of Jordan. USAID has provided JEI with $7 million to help expand its program.

Read more about the prize.

Media Literacy 101: Of Toilets, UNESCO and Demand-Side News

The Eiffel Tower out the window of UNESCO's 13th floor ladies' room.

Susan Moeller has an article in The Huffington Post based on her participation in a UNESCO meeting of those interested in including curriculum in K through 12 education to help kids evaluate what they see in the media. (Moeller suggests that people treated to the views of Paris from UNESCO's headquarters, such as the one above, may tend to feel that they are especially favored.) She sees the long term effort to improve "media literacy" of the public as complementary to the Obama administration efforts to help media news, analysis and opinion sources survive the social transformations being driven by the Internet Revolution. I recommend the article.

IFAP Project E Government Model for World Heritage Cities Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, Quito, Ecuador and Cusco, Perú

Microsoft Commits $50 Million in Higher Education Resources, Training and Certifications

Gates & Matsuura at 2004 signing

In an effort to help higher education institutions support economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies, Microsoft Corp. has committed up to $50 million through the Microsoft Education Alliance Program agreement. As part of the agreement, the company will provide resources and tools for short-term work-force training and higher education enhancements.

The announcement was made at the Education Leaders Forum, a one-day forum jointly organized by UNESCO and Microsoft, where more than 150 ministers of education, senior education officials and policy advisors discussed how governments and universities can take full advantage of e-technology's potential to address the current knowledge and skills challenges facing higher education.

Earlier this week, Microsoft and UNESCO announced a joint task force to help higher education institutions worldwide meet the growing challenge of supporting economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies. The UNESCO-Microsoft Task Force on Higher Education and ICT will develop a strategic plan of action to identify how ICT can be used by governments as a catalyst for change. Microsoft's $50 million commitment is supporting the mission of the new task force and enabling the implementation of critical UNESCO and Microsoft educational resources.

Read more!

ICT Transforming Education

13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference on Education
and World Bank-KERIS High Level Seminar on ICT in Education

ICT Transforming Education
15-17 November 2009

Hangzhou, People's Republic of China

The 13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference, in conjunction with the World Bank-KERIS High Level Seminar on ICT in Education, emphasizes 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.

New Board Member Publication

I published a short piece on the online magazine, Foreign Policy Digest, titled "How Technology Can Support Education in Africa". It describes some UNESCO efforts as well as other examples of use of information and communications technology applicable to education in Africa.

Educational Technology Debate

Exploring ICT and learning in developing countries

This new (May 2009) website hosts debates on the applications of information and communications technology to enhance learning in developing nations. Its purpose is to stimulate conversation around low-cost information and communication technology (ICT) device initiatives for educational systems in developing countries and how they are relevant to the very groups they purport to serve – the students, teachers, and their surrounding communities.

It is a project of UNESCO and infoDev. InfoDev is a project hosted by the World Bank, located in Washington D.C., and supported by a consortium of donors.

The website has begun its discussions with three topics:

1. Are ICTs the Best Educational Investment?
2. Not Quite the Best Investment, but Pretty Good
3. If & When Schools Invest in ICT, Teachers First

Editors note: For some years I served as Acting Work Program Director for infoDev.


Interactive radio makes learning an active activity. Students at F.G. Girls Primary School, NHC learn ‘Face Parts’ through an acting game. Photo/ESRA

GigaPan Dialogues

The GigaPan Dialogues seek to promote empathy and understanding between cultures and create a greater sense of community through an exchange of explorable, high-resolution digital imagery. The GigaPan technology is state of the art but also simple enough to be used by students.

UNESCO's International Bureau for Education (IBE) and Carnegie Mellon University are collaborating on this innovative project. Last year the mayor of Pittsburgh proclaimed October 23rd as GigaPan UNESCO IBE Day.

UNESCO OER Discussion: Open Access

Next week offers a wonderful opportunity to begin exploring and contributing to the voices and educational resources of the global community. Beginning on February 9, UNESCO's Open Educational Resources (OER) community is launching a three-week discussion on the subject of access issues to its web-based materials that are used for teaching, research, and learning. The discussion is open to all and ends February 27.

The first week will focus on identifying and classifying the primary concerns in accessing OER materials. Then, the second and third weeks will be devoted to sharing solutions to the problems encountered when accessing them. The discussion will be facilitated by Bjoern Hassler, a senior research associate at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies.

New and established voices are extremely welcome; if you desire to participate, please contact Catriona Savage. Please note you need to indicate you would like to become a member of the community to be given the ability to participate in present discussion. The discussions will take place in English, although there are translation tools available, and will take place through a community mailing list.

The OER Community itself began in 2005 and has over 700 members from 102 countries that includes 72 developing countries. Slightly over half its members come from Western Europe or North America; around half of its members are also affiliated with or work for a university. For more information on its vast resources:

Click here

Reaching the unreached through nomadic schools

With a resurgence in indigenous cultures in Siberia, UNESCO's Moscow office has stepped up to meet the challenge of providing schools for these nomadic communities. Originally popular in the '20s and '30s, with the help of UNESCO, nomadic schools are being modernized.

Nomadic schools come in a variety of forms, but most all include a small group of pupils, a single teacher covering multiple topics, and texts in the mother tongue. Often the teacher is a member of the local community. UNESCO is helping to implement information and communication technologies (ICTs) and distance education, as well as increased quality in teacher training.   

According to Sargyiana Zhirkova nomadic schools provide "education while adapting traditional culture to the 21st century." She believes, however, that more trained and qualified teachers are needed to make the program successful. 

To see a photo gallery, click here.

A Positive Step for Iraqi Education and Communication

Installation of a transmission unit
© UNESCO

The Iraqi education and communication network received a large boost yesterday as UNESCO and the Education Minister of Iraq launched the Iraqi Educational TV Channel (IRAQ EDU). This channel will run 24 hours a day on NILESAT at 10775 Hz; it will broadcast programs based on Iraqi school curriculum. Its focus is primary and secondary students within and outside of Iraqi.

This project, funded by the European Union for US$6.5 million, aims to act as a way to counter the high security risks many students feel in attending school. These risks have led to high rates of absenteeism and the subsequent closing of schools. They have also contributed to low initial enrollments rates. In fact, data from UNICEF-Iraq show initial enrollment rates were around 46% in 2006, and the Ministry of Education reported only 28% of 17-year-olds sat for their final exams that same year.

However, there is much optimism about this new measure. It is particularly interesting to note that IRAQ EDU will emphasize peace and tolerance in its programs. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, indicated this and the other contributions IRAQ EDCU will make could certainly"inspire initiatives in other countries and regions that are in conflict or post-conflict situations."

And it seems that there is certainly work to be done to restore the Iraqi educational system to its former regional eminence. In the early 1980s, the Iraqi educational system was seen as one of if not the best in the region. UNESCO reported Gross Enrollment Rates around 100% and illiteracy rates for ages 15 to 45 less than 10%; yet there has been constant instability ever since.

Yet the war with Iran in the mid-1980s, the Gulf War, and the instability beginning in 2003 have left the educational system tattered to say the least. Class size can average in size of 100 students, teachers face constant threats of violence, and the scheduled curriculum may be rarely finished or addressed. Although many positive programs have been enacted, much more clearly needs to be done. It is initiatives such as IRAQ EDU that may provide another way to access this deserving population: the children of Iraq.

HP-UNESCO Partnership

Scientists at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar (Senegal) are now better placed to cooperate with researchers overseas thanks to the installation of the first computing grid at the university, the fruit of a joint effort by the UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard project “Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa” and the Grid Computing Institute of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

The project aims to provide universities in five African countries with grid computing technology so as to reduce migration of African university graduates by giving them the tools they need for their research.

The joint project “Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa” follows the successful implementation of a similar UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard initiative for Southeast Europe, launched in 2003.

Read more!

UNESCO's Abdul Waheed Khan: ICT to shape the future of education and learning

Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, shares his insights on education and the role of ICT for socio-economic development in the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) Through The Looking Glass Series. More!

ICTs in Education Prize: call for nominations

“Digital Opportunities for All: Preparing Students for 21st-Century Skills” is the theme of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education. Funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the US$50,000 prize is divided between two winners. The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2008.

Read more!

Mobilizing Science Knowledge for Sustainable Development

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between UNESCO and Tokyo's Keio University at the end of June, for “Mobilizing Science Knowledge for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific through Information and Communication Technologies”. Under the agreement UNESCO and Keio are to work together to help strengthen national and regional higher education in Asia and to help develop human resources, particularly in Science, Technology and Engineering through the use of information and communications technology (ICT) networks.

UNESCO`s Jakarta and New Delhi offices have been working with the School on Internet Asia (SOI) Network on a distance education program since 2007. SOI currently connects 27 universities and research institutions from 13 countries in Asia via satellite and Internet networks. The MoU was developed to further expand this collaboration.

In 2007, UNESCO and SOI implemented an e-learning program on Renewable Energy. UNESCO is currently planning to broadcast several energy conferences and develop new courses in 2008 on S&T policy formulation, coastal resources management, HIV/AIDS prevention and university-industry partnership for technology transfer.

Microsoft Education Leadership Forum

How can e-technology help higher education better prepare students for the future? This key question will be explored by education ministers, senior officials and other policy leaders from all over the world at the Education Leaders Forum (ELF) organized by Microsoft at UNESCO Headquarters on 7 and 8 July.

Read more!