Bridges to the Future Initiative
About the Project: Operating Model
Three overlapping target phases of the BFI activities are envisioned: (1) near-term development of tools to improve basic education and literacy through teacher training in selected countries; (2) medium-term development of community technology centers for lifelong learning and income-generation; and (3) longer-term innovative ICT applications for human development and sustainability. Throughout these phases, the BFI will utilize ICTs as "enablers" both to deliver resources and also to monitor progress and effectiveness of the results.The BFI is a public-private collaboration of corporate, national, and international agencies, non-profit institutions, and foundations whose main focus is to remove the joint barriers of literacy and technological literacy, thereby assisting the world's poorest peoples to gain a stronger foothold in determining their own social and economic future.Principles of the BFI
To ensure success, the BFI will adhere to a number of basic principles that will guide its activities by:
- Maintaining focus on the digital divide and opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged
- Achieving direct and sustainable benefits to recipients
- Leveraging diverse resources (fiscal, human, infrastructure)
- Providing improved motivation for learners, and incentives to communities that succeed through a consumer-oriented and context-sensitive approach
- Taking appropriate advantage of private sector ICT advances
- Monitoring of progress and impact through applied research and evaluation
Operational Description: Five-year plan
The BFI is conceived as having three overlapping target phases: (1) near-term development of tools to improve basic education and literacy through teacher training in selected countries; (2) medium-term development of community technology centers for lifelong learning and income-generation; and (3) longer-term innovative ICT applications for human development and sustainability. Each of these phases, and the specific plans of operation, will be tailored to the goals, priorities, and commitments of participating countries and to achieve efficient leverage of the resources and expertise contributed by sponsoring agencies.
- Phase 1 (near-term): Multimedia Tools for Teacher Training. A key BFI objective is to create tools for teachers of literacy and basic education that combine the Internet with educational and multimedia components that enable the development and exchange of educational materials. A number of ministries of education in developing countries have formally expressed their interest in such a project (e.g., India). The BFI would utilize various existing resources developed by the ILI, as well as those by some sponsoring agencies. For example, by building on the ILI's previously developed multimedia distance education tools, available via the CD-ROM and the Internet, the BFI will create context-appropriate teacher training tools for different countries or regions of countries. Multimedia teacher education tools would be produced in one or more languages (depending on the country in question), with specific content (including video material) drawn from exemplary education programs across the region. The BFI also would provide tools to allow teachers to both create and exchange teaching materials and collaborate within web-based communities.
The primary goal of Phase 1 is to produce culturally appropriate sets of tools that would take advantage of some of the software design and conceptual clarity of prior work by the ILI, but also build upon local cultural content. As part of this effort, the BFI would develop, implement, and evaluate ICT-based teacher training programs in each participating country, including, where appropriate, the online certification of teachers. The approach would include pilot tests of each system, with formative and summative data collected for assessing the effectiveness of the prototype tools. This would include integrating evaluation and data collection features, where possible, into the ICT tools developed. A secondary goal will be to help transfer ICT knowledge, access, and use among teachers, so that some of them will be able to serve as intermediaries and tutors in the Community Learning and Technology Centers (CLTCs), which will form the basis of Phase 2 of the BFI (see below). Overall, the improvement of teacher training is seen as a vital step to improving the chances of poor youth and young adults to have a second chance at education, as well as for older adults to gain enough basic skills so that they can improve their lives and the lives of their children.
- Phase 2 (medium-term): Community learning and technology centers for lifelong learning and income-generation. Phase 2 of the BFI will focus on the support of community learning and technology centers (CLTCs), each of which will contain ICT-enabled distance learning (use of Internet and web-based tools for providing information, knowledge and resources) to foster continuing and 'second chance' education as well as knowledge-based income generation activities. The CLTCs, located in selected locations (often schools and community centers) in participating countries, will be available to youth and adult learners in locations where Internet connectivity can be provided. Instruction in basic skills, technological literacy, and other ICT-based learning will be available on PCs, with Internet capability (where possible). One key part of this plan would be the establishment of at least one well-staffed center of excellence in each participating country that would serve as a regional technology education training laboratory (RTEL) for a group of dispersed CLTCs. Each RTEL, probably based in the teacher's college or institute of a major national university and housed within an already existing infrastructure (e.g., IGNOU in India), would be linked closely with the international training laboratory at the ILI. In terms of the instructional content of lifelong learning, CLTCs might provide, for example, individual farmers with new knowledge to increase agricultural productivity, or with web-based tools to create a small, complementary business enterprise, or health information on current illnesses and local remedies. A key component of the evaluation process of this phase will be to use ICT to monitor both individual learning and community impact, directing additional resources to reward effective utilization and progress. Where there are other agencies that are already providing some of these services, BFI will seek to partner with them in order to reduce cost and increase efficiency.
- Phase 3 (future directions): Innovative ICT applications for human development and sustainability. The future directions of BFI (Phase 3), beginning by the middle of Phase 2, will utilize the latest developments in ICT to connect the 'last mile' for participants (those most difficult to reach) to information resources. Dramatic changes in connectivity are already beginning to appear, with the rapid availability cellular and satellite connections and handheld devices that can bypass the obsolete hardwire communication systems. One can also anticipate the use of intelligent systems (including voice activation and cultural/linguistic pre-configuration) and emerging "thin client" technologies. Based on developments currently taking place, one might further anticipate the very practical use, in India for example, of personalized newsletters and information services that will filter relevant information from documents and web pages and sort them automatically for different types of community and linguistic needs, greatly simplifying and focusing information retrieval. The most important element of this phase will be the capacity of the BFI to take advantage of emerging ICTs — through private sector partnerships — and put them to advantage much earlier than the current "trickle down" or "second hand" approaches. The BFI approach is to not only help to make the latest technologies available to poor people, but also to move information access out of the education sphere, and more in the direction of human development needs. While begun in Phase 2, the future directions of BFI will likely focus on a much more broad-based approach to such issues as health and disease prevention, agricultural extension, population planning, and childcare. In these areas, time-sensitive, accurate, and context-rich information can make a significant difference in family decision making and planning. Finally, Phase 3 will incorporate the transition for the BFI to change from a "project" to a locally sustainable program, in terms of funding and local leadership.
Measuring Success
Applied research, formative and summative evaluation will play an integral part in the BFI. In the past, it was too often the case that ICT hardware and software was provided on a donation basis to "programs in need," with little quality control or impact analysis. The BFI will engage experienced researchers and evaluators – both local and international – to assess, from the beginning, the progress and impact of the initiative. Further, the BFI aims to exploit the potential of ICT for tracking usage and monitoring progress. The principal aim here is to assure the efficient direction of limited resources as well as to adjust program development as a function of this knowledge gained. The ILI, based at a major international research university, has a network of related institutions worldwide that would be available for participation in the BFI. |
