[Telecentres] requesting immediate feedback: telecentres/education statement

[Andy Carvin]

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.



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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
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