Celebrating Innovative ICT in Education Practices: From Idea to Impact

Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, 24-26 June 2008

Not every attempt to achieve quality education for all will succeed, but there are countless ideas and innovations that have contributed to this noble goal, including the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education.

Technological advances during the last century have had major impact on the way we think, socialize and communicate. They have provided many visionary educators the means to explore, design, develop, implement and monitor innovative approaches in delivering educational outcomes.

Like them, UNESCO believes that:
• integrating ICT into education can help to bring quality education to everyone, everywhere;

• using ICT in education effectively can provide 21st century skills to all learners, helping them be active members of knowledge societies; and

• recognizing innovative practices in ICT use can encourage and enhance even more educational innovation.

Enhancing UNESCO’s efforts to achieve the Education for All and lifelong learning goals, the Innovative Practices in ICT in Education project was launched in 2007 to identify, document, share and multiply ICT in education innovations with the support of Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT). One component of the project is the UNESCO ICT in Education Innovation Awards
designed to recognize outstanding work by (i) teacher and teacher educators, (ii) educational planners and administrators, and (iii) non-formal educators.

The project design also includes training workshops to share and scale-up selected innovations. Likewise, other organizations, foundations and corporations have contributed substantially to promote and reward innovative ICT in education initiatives and projects. This collective
commitment and efforts among the ICT in education community should be acknowledged and commended. Therefore, UNESCO is convening a special event on 24-26 June 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, to mark this spirit of innovativeness.

This event, Celebrating Innovative ICT in Education Practices: From Idea to Impact, involves a variety of activities to meet several objectives, including:

• An award ceremony to recognize the winners of the UNESCO ICT in Education Innovation Awards;

• A market place/exhibition to showcase and share:
- winning projects of awards and competitions sponsored by other organizations, foundations and corporations;
- nation-wide, innovative ICT in education initiatives of governments;
- innovative teaching, learning and management practices of formal and non-formal educational institutions;
- innovative ICT in education products, services and programmes from the private sector;

• Key players’ meeting
- to share information on existing initiatives and explore potential for future
collaboration;
- to discuss the establishment of the ICT in Education Alliance Certificate of Excellence (ACE) to recognize and award quality ICT-enabled educational institutions;

• Training workshops to train teacher educators and teachers from formal and non-formal educational institutions on two ICT in education modules; and
• Networking opportunities to strengthen the ICT in Education Community of Practice.

Tentative programme

Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Award Ceremony
Keynote Speeches
Show and Tell presentations from the Award Winners
Market Place/Exhibition and Networking

Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Training Workshop 1
Key Players’ Meeting
Market Place/Exhibition and Networking

Thursday, 26 June 2008
Training Workshop 2
Market Place/Exhibition and Networking

Training modules
• Fractured Story Tale
• Peer Teaching

Expected participants
• Winners of awards conferred by UNESCO
• Winners of awards conferred by other agencies, foundations and corporations
• Ministers, government officials and their representatives
• Policy makers, administrators, principals, teacher educators and teachers
• Representatives from public and private sectors, donor agencies, intergovernmental
organizations, non-governmental organizations
• General public

UNESCO invites you to come and celebrate this occasion with us. Participation at the Key Players’ Meeting is by invitation only.

To register for the event, please fill in and send the registration form to [email protected] by 16 May 2008. The registration form can be downloaded from the website. Availability will be on a first come first served basis.

For more information, contact:
Ms. Lay-Cheng Tan
UNESCO
920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong
Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Tel: (+66) 2 3910577 ext 211
Fax: (+66) 2 391 0866
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/innovative_practices/