Towards a Coalition for Action on Digital Public Resources for Education
UNICEF, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Government of Singapore, EdTech Hub, UNESCO, AT4 Members
The meeting was a deep dive into the recommendation of the Digital Learning TES background paper on the need for free, high quality digital learning resources. The main objective of the meeting was to determine the way forward for a ‘Coalition for Action’ on Digital Public Resources for Education: moving from policy and plans to implementation, and addressing key bottlenecks that have hindered progress thus far.
Digital technologies in education can contribute to wider systemic efforts to improve learning for all and help address the learning crisis, which has been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. Digital public resources for education in particular can decrease the cost of education, and catalyse more equitable, collaborative and effective approaches to teaching and learning. However, while much progress has been made over the past 20 years towards advancing this agenda, huge gaps remain - for example, the dearth of freely accessible, public educational resources such as reading books or videos in most of the world’s languages, and tools which promote more active and collaborative teaching, learning and problem-solving.
Objectives
- Establish a Coalition for Action on Digital Public Resources for Education, to move from policy to action and implementation, and address the key bottlenecks that have hindered progress. This Coalition will include Champion Countries, as well as international organisations and experts working in this area.
- Reflect on progress to date, and discuss how the key bottlenecks can be addressed. This would build upon previous work including the international standard-setting instruments adopted by UN agencies and Member States.
- Identify a set of realistic goals for Digital Public Resources. How can we collaborate to address the gap in availability of openly licensed, high quality literacy, numeracy and science resources across different languages, as well as collaborative learning and teaching tools?
Speakers: Dr Leonardo Garnier, SG Special Adviser, Transforming Education Summit; Mr Siew Hoong Wong, Advisor, Ministry of Education, Singapore; HE Dr Tariq Al Gurg, CEO, Dubai Cares; Robert Jenkins, UNICEF Director of Education and Adolescent Development; Dr Sobhi Tawil, Director Future of Learning and Innovation, UNESCO; Ms Precious Agaecheta, Youth Ambassador, ONE Campaign; African Union; GenU; Mr Taha Bawa, Co-founder and CEO of Goodwall, Forbes 30 Under 30, World Economic Forum Global Shaper; Ms Urmila Sarkar, Global Head of Programmes, Generation Unlimited; Dr Cable Green, Director of Open Knowledge, Creative Commons; Ms Purvi Shah, Sr. Director, StoryWeaver & Strategy at Pratham Books; Ms Rebecca McDonald, Founder and CEO, Library For All; Mr Christer Gunderson, CTO, Global Digital Library; Ms Verna Lalbeharie, Executive Director, EdTech Hub; Dr Frank van Cappelle - Global Lead, Digital Learning, UNICEF.