Launch of the Education for the Most Marginalised Report

Opening

Molly Jamieson Eberhardt (Program Director R4D, and Director EdTech Hub)

Welcome

Michael Trucano (Global Lead for Innovation in Education and Senior Education and Technology Policy Specialist, World Bank) (video here)

“Our focus needs to be clear on whom we are helping and how. So this is not an easy question; it’s not a simple question to answer. In the end it’s not about technology it’s about people, it’s about political will, it’s about what we prioritise.”

John Nasasira (Head of Expert National Task Force on Fourth Industrial Revolution, former Government Chief Whip 2011-2013, and Minister of Information and Communication Technology 2013-2016, Uganda) (by video)

Srinivas Reddy (Branch Chief, Skills and Employability, ILO) (video here)

“This is one of the most outstanding pieces! When I saw the First Draft I thought ‘Wow this is different – this is action oriented – we can use this'”.

Janet Longmore (Founder and CEO, Digital Opportunity Trust) (video here)

“When we are looking at breaking down education and engaging young people so they feel empowered in the design of their education, let’s think differently about how we can engage coaches, mentors, facilitators and teachers so that young people have that opportunity to relate.”

Alex Wong (Senior Strategy Advisor, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU) (video here)

“I love the guidance notes because they really take a particular issue, something very readable and it’s a great opportunity to use that as dialogue with a country as we progress our work.”

Alexandre Barbosa (Gerente do Cetic.br) – Speech (in .pdf) (video here)

“The content of the report provides concrete recommendations to governments in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the role of digital technologies as strategic components in delivering better quality and more resilient education.”

Caroline Wright (Director General, British Education Suppliers Association) (video here)

“Technology and Education for the Most Marginalised Post-COVID-19 provides pragmatic, practical and insightful strategies, solutions and supportive practices to help and support Governments and educationalists working to empower learners in the most challenging of circumstances“.

Waleed Al Ali (General Co-ordinator Digital School Initiative, Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives, UAE) (by video)

Ensuring resilient connectivity: Christopher Yoo (John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the founding director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition) (video here). Guidance note was prepared with the support of Leon Gwaka and Müge Haseki.

“What does connectivity mean? For places that do not have internet connectivity we have to look at other means  of communication that may already be established … Many people are looking for a single magic technology to unlock all the problems – and the reality is there isn’t one.“

Keeping Safe and Local Context: Azra Naseem (Director, Blended and Digital Learning, Aga Khan University, Pakistan) (video here)

“There is no such thing as one size fits all, and the years of de-contextualised development and uses of digital technologies in education have really created a big gap and lots of problems during this lockdown period.”

Small Island States and the importance of sustainable electricity: Javier Rua (former Director of Public Policy for Sunrun; former Chairman, Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board) (see also slide deck) (video here)

“One thing that is clear is that connectivity and telecoms in islands of the Caribbean failed [during the hurricane] not because transmitters fell down (some of them did), but it had to do in many ways with lack of power. If you have no power in your house you cannot power your device- like a tablet with 4G connection or a radio.”

The importance of OER and Creative Commons: Paul West (Senior Education Adviser, West and Associates; and South Africa Chapter Lead, Creative Commons) (video here)

“Everything we have heard here today depends on free educational materials for everybody. We should be able to share it, modify it, do what we need to do to it without worrying about copyright issues.”