[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSIS-Hammamet: Education family and working group report

[Meigs]

EDUCATION FAMILY REPORT

 
The education family met as a working group twice in Hammamet  (Prepcom 1),
on the 25 and 26 of June 2004. To give more visibility to education
activities, several points/needs were  raised on the agenda :
1)    The need to create an education family working group
The second phase of the Summit is different from the first one, where most
of our members were involved in drafting activities. This phase is about
implementation, taking the Action Plan as a guideline. This working group
could be organized around a steering committee with clearly defined missions
and responsibilities around education and research  issues.
            
2)     The need to identify state of the art practices in the field of
education, training and research. Education is not a late-comer in the field
of information society. Many experiences adapted to local needs exist around
the world. Various people in Hammamet presented their projects to the
working group and a lot of activities are going on. What is needed is to
identify them more clearly and to see how they can be transferable. Beyond
that  be to compile a list of projects and organizations  that are working
in this specific field, to make the data available worldwide and to showcase
some original programs in a WSIS-related event. I will issue a questionnaire
in September to help locate organizations and activities.

 

3)    The need to prioritize issues and determine what can be done in the
short term (until Tunis 2005) and in the longer term (beyond Tunis). In
relation to the Action plan, about half the points made relate in one way or
another to education. Among the most urgent priorities identified by the
group is a major focus on the development of long distance training
materials. it would seem a useful time to get a few people together working
in this area to see where syngergies and collaboration might be beneficial.
Several partners have already joined this process with enthusiasm : APC,
MENTOR, IAMCR, ICDE, present at Hammamet. This list is not closed and
everybody is invited to join.
The idea would be to capitalize on initiatives such as the ITRAINOnline
initiative, the UNESCO   funded MultiMedia Training kit project and the FAO
funded IMARC initiative. They present the advantage of working with the open
source community  which has developed methodologies and standards that could
be carried further.
 
4) The need to identify other entities, families and sectors to work with
us, in synergy and in partnerships. It is apparent  that a variety of actors
can enter the process : there is room  both  for well established NGOs in
the field and emerging forces,  directly and recently brought about by the
web and the information revolution. Among someof the actors that were
invited to attend the working group session, there was UNESCO, in the person
of Axel Plathe. UNESCO has expressed the wish to work with NGOs on the
education issues and it has already discussed this with the liaison
committee of its affiliated network of NGOs. It would like to develop
thematic meetings for exchanges of good practices and has developed a fund
available for such projects and partnerships.
The other like-minded community is the researchers community. Francis Muguet
chair of scientific information working group and  Pr. Hoffman from CERN,
also invited to the working group, agreed to the need for more education on
ICT issues, support for open source and reflexion on research  issues, as
they are related to another sector of education, high education.   The idea
here would be to have a conference  or a thematic event uniting researchers
in the humanities (especially social uses of media and ICTs) and in the hard
sciences (including engineers), to discuss issues of research and
development, and to improve the teaching of the humanities and sciences in
schools. This would also be the occasion to promote a « researchers charter
for knwoledge societies » currently being elaborated by IAMCR (I will
circulate the document in September). Other related entities interested in
this project could be IFLA and ICA. UNESCO has also expressed its interest
in this initiative.
 
5) proposed events ahead, until the Tunis Summit (to be confirmed):
-a conference  to be held during Summit 2, in partnership with Unesco,
focusing  on the  development of long distance training materials and
showcasing some good practices. Other workshops could also be organized,
according to identified needs.
-a thematic event, around research  communities. The Tunisian Association
for Communications 
Research  might be able to host this event in Tunis, next year.
-other events where we could insert ourselves in workshops or roundtables
have to be identified by the members of the group at large. Any suggestions
are welcome.
 
Please note : a specific website will be activated in early september
<wsis-edu.org > keep your eyes peeled for postings
 
Divina Frau-Meigs, IAMCR (International Association for Media and
Communications Research)
Focal point, education and academia family and working group
meigs at wanadoo.fr