Hi everyone, I've been working with Divina Frau-Meigs and Jane Johnson from the education caucus to craft language to be presented in tomorrow morning's plenary. As we wrote down our ideas, we realized that much of what we had to say was similar to some of the ideas we have discussed on the telecentres list.
So I would like to propose that we consider issuing a joint statement with the education caucus on areas of agreement regarding the role of schools, universities and telecentres in meeting the MDGs. Please give me feedback on the following ideas as soon as possible, because our telecentres meeting tomorrow afternoon will be too late in the process to impact the discussion on financing mechanisms. thanks! -ac ICTs are a key tool in achieving universal education, while wired schools and non-formal learning institutions such telecenters can play a major role in promoting development. 1. When considering financing mechanisms, do not neglect the role that schools, universities and informal educational institutions such as telecentres an play as a community hub for building knowledge and integrating marginalized communities into the information society. Schools, libraries and other institutions are existing infrastructures that focus on the future -- the potential of our children and young people. Young people should be a priority for accessing these educational ICTs as they cannot afford to wait for policymakers; their longterm prosperity is at stake. 2. It's not enough to finance infrastructure - professional development for educators and curriculum development must also be addressed - curriculum that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, including open courseware. 3. Multi-purpose access points: schools should be able to serve as telecentres, while telecentres can serve as educational institutions in themselves 4. Encouraging local/community vested interest in the success of these institutions. Community members must have a true stake in their technological and educational development. 5. Promote the development of regional open courseware initiatives as a primary means for cultural and linguistic diversity, for pluralism of educational formats. These initiatives should be networked for worldwide capacity building. ------------------------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/ ------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
