An e-publication of the International Literacy Institute (www.literacy.org)
-- established by UNESCO and University of Pennsylvania in 1994 --
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This is issue number two of LITERACY INNOVATIONS, an e-newsletter that is a continuation of ILI's print newsletter first published in 1996. The electronic version continues to link colleagues around the world with changes and innovations in literacy work.
As always, we hope to spark discussion and constructive debate on a variety of approaches to literacy work. Please feel free to record your comments or discussion points on our Literacy Innovations Summer 2002 Comments page. And then check back in a few days to see any responses. Thanks for helping make this a lively discussion area!
The University and Technology-for-Literacy/Basic Education Partnership in Developing Countries (UTLP) was created by the ILI to assist disadvantaged people in LDCs gain access to information and communication technologies (ICT). The UTLP is designed as a collaborative university partnership program aimed at minimizing the 'digital divide' between the haves and have-nots of the developing world. Initial funding was provided by the Ford Foundation.
We are pleased to announce that the Ford Foundation has provided initial funding for a year-long pilot project in South Africa. The University of South Africa in Pretoria (UNISA), in partnership with ILI, will be the first institution to follow-up on the UTLP roundtable meeting (Paris, September 2000). Efforts will focus on creating a group of universities in South Africa (and possibly several adjacent countries in Southern Africa) with an interest in improving the education of the disadvantaged through ICTs. These institutions will develop a national seminar to discuss these issues and will conduct pilot project activities that support education of the poor.
Learn more here.
To learn more about our partner, UNISA:
http://www.unisa.ac.za/To learn more on IT in developing countries:
"IT and Education for the Poorest of the Poor" by Daniel WagnerTo learn more about the Ford Foundation:
http://www.fordfound.org/
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Although many countries have been actively striving to meet the basic learning needs of education for all, current national and international capacities remain inadequate for assessing and monitoring the acquisition of literacy and basic skills for youth and adults. Furthermore, increasing attention to the functional aspects of literacy during the 1990s has reinforced the necessity of assessing individual performance across a continuum of literacy abilities not tied directly to school curricula, from the basic "3 R's" to the increasingly important area now termed "basic life skills" or "survival skills".
There remains a critical need for a practical and cost-effective methodology which can bridge the gap between methodologies for assessment at the national survey level and at the program level which can be used effectively by developing countries with limited funds but major literacy problems.
The first International Experts' Meeting of the Literacy Assessment Practices (LAP) project took place in June 2001 at UNESCO in Paris. Participants reiterated the importance of literacy assessment in fulfilling the demands of the Dakar EFA 2000 follow-up and agreed on the considerable need for user-friendly, cost-effective assessment tools to measure functional literacy, learning achievement, and learning outcomes.
The present, second phase of the LAP project, culminating in the Second Experts' Meeting in March of 2002) has produced an Analytic Review of existing types of assessment and evaluation studies of literacy and non-formal basic education programs, based on case studies from four significantly different developing countries (India, China, Nigeria, and Mexico), all members of the E-9 group. The objectives of these country case studies were: to identify conceptual and methodological frameworks which are currently in practice, including the aspect of functionality of literacy; to describe the assessment procedures, methodologies, and tools currently utilized for literacy assessment. In a separate working document, the LAP project has produced a set of principles and options which will eventually lead to a set of Guidelines for the operational and easy use of the literacy assessment methods and tools (ILI, 2002).
Read the LAP papers.
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Delivering the Vision was a meeting held on April 7th-11th by UKDFID and IMFUNDO at the University of London. The objective of the meeting was to develop a set of mutually agreed upon statements on the ways in which ICT can best deliver the Millennium Development Goals of gender equality and universal primary education in Africa. Dan Wagner, Ph.D., of ILI, gave the keynote address.
To learn more:
http://www.imfundo.org/papers/newsletter13/Newsletter%2013.htmEntrepreneur Provides Computers to Poor Western Regions of China
It was reported on May 7, 2002 that a Taiwanese entrepreneur is providing hundreds of computers to thousands of schools in the poor western regions of China. The regions are not industrialized, but the entrepreneur thinks the computers and the Internet, will allow the region to skip the industrial revolution and go straight to the information age.
To learn more and hear this radio broadcast:
http://search1.npr.org/opt/collections/torched/me/data_me/seg_142943.htm
On April 10, 2002, the Italian government signed an agreement to become a founding member, with the World Bank and others, of the Development Gateway Foundation, a newly established independent non-profit organization to promote the use of ICT for poverty reduction and sustainable development, and help address the "digital divide".
To learn more:
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf/
673fa6c5a2d50a67852565e200692a79/3fc73e6708aa4c6a85256b97005701b1?OpenDocument
Thousands of people in more than 90 countries took part in this year's global Education-for-All Week which was held from 22 to 26 April 2002, to celebrate the second anniversary of the World Education Forum (Dakar, April 2000).
To learn more:
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/index_new.shtml
Checkout http://www.oneworld.net for headlines from One World Network, a global portal and network of over 1000 human rights and sustainable development organizations worldwide.
To learn more:
http://www.learningchannel.org
The Digital Divide Network website examines the digital divide from many perspectives. The website offers a range of information, tools, and resources that help practitioners stay on top of digital divide developments. It also serves as a forum where practitioners can share their experiences with colleagues around the world. In many cases, the stories featured on DDN come directly from the people working on the divide at the local level. These stories all provide unique perspectives and insights on what it takes to bridge the digital divide
To learn more:
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.orgComments by UNESCO Director-General K. Matsuura on the Digital Divide:
"We must look beyond technical and gadget appeal of ICTs and the Internet. We must ensure that these powerful tools and networks are used effectively to combat poverty and foster development, to create opportunities for education for all, to ensure cultural and linguistic diversity and to empower civil society."
First meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Program Paris, April, 2002
To learn more:
http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2002/02-25e.shtml
At a National Press Club Morning Newsmaker event, nonprofit organization Relief Interactive (REACT), joined by several leading relief organizations, announced that it will use innovative technology to allow online newsreaders improved access to the world's leading relief organizations, which should provide more aid to man-made and natural disaster victims faster.
To learn more:
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/news/index.cfm?key=622
The 2002 Learning Conference in Beijing will be a participants' conference, with well known educators presenting, research papers and work place descriptions of practice, as well as informal 'conversation' sessions with the keynote speakers.
To learn more:
http://www.learningconference.com/2002/index.html
On November 14-16, 2002, the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) and the Consortium of Peruvian Universities will hold a conference in Lima, Peru, focusing on the social impacts of new technologies in distance education in Latin America and the Caribbean.
To learn more:
http://www.icde.org/
The Summit will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September. The meeting will focus on the interdependent relationship between people and the environment. Specific areas of concern include addressing the needs of people who presently lack access to clean water, sanitation and modern energy services.
To learn more:
http://www.johannesburgsummit.org
Since 1990 in Jomtien (Thailand) and 2000 in Dakar (Senegal) -- and even going back to 1966 in Iran, there has been continual 'rediscovery' of literacy as a major social problem in nearly ALL countries of the world, and especially in those countries where basic formal education has been severely lacking. One may reasonably ask why this atmosphere of 'crisis' reappears on such a regular basis, and especially why, after decades of serious attention, and vast human and fiscal resources applied therein -- more progress has not been made. I have written about this in several other places, but I would nonetheless like to point out some of the challenges and pitfalls that lie ahead as we embark on the new UN Decade for Literacy, beginning later this year.
The rationale for such a Decade is certainly apparent. Now, more than ever, countries rich and poor have rediscovered that their formal school systems have limited capability of 'guaranteeing' literacy achievement, assuming that children get into good and well functioning schools in the first place (far less guaranteed in the least developed countries of course).
Yet the challenges of literacy have not gone away. Typically there is a fairly large 'disconnect' between the policy makers who desire more literacy and those fieldworkers that are to implement literacy directives. Worse yet, from an implementation standpoint, are the relatively few new tools that would enable inefficient methods of yesteryear to be improved. It must be admitted that the available research carried out on literacy for youth and adults (i.e., in the non-formal sector) has demonstrated that even the best-funded literacy programs have only limited success, especially when viewed in terms of literacy achievement and time retained in classes. This is not, we should hasten to add, a reason to cut back on literacy programs, but rather the contrary. Every field needs innovation, research and training in order to improve. Literacy, with few exceptions (and ILI is glad to be part of these), has had relatively little over past decades.
What seems to worry many friends and colleagues is that this newest UN Literacy Decade will become more diplomatic pomp and circumstance -- more proclamations of the importance of lists, more graphs which are designed (or misdesigned) to indicate progress by one or more groups or nations -- only a decade from now to be re-declared as an international emergency. To get out of this conundrum will take more than one or more UN specialized agencies declaring themselves committed or re-committed to literacy work. It will take a concerted effort of those who do literacy work to take more leadership, to try new methods, to demand more resources that are not simply channeled to reinforce the present status quo. This will not be easy. Broader alliances will need to be struck, to break out of sterile old relationships, to tie up new private sector initiatives, to bring in university researchers as more than an once-in-awhile consultancies, to build and try new models, to employ the latest of new technologies.
In other words, a new UN Literacy Decade is clearly needed, but another failed set of promises will put us back yet again into the complacency of just feeling good, while the poor suffer. Let us try to break new ground, and truly make a difference this time around.
Dan Wagner
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We encourage and welcome your submissions to the e-version of LITERACY INNOVATIONS (see publication guidelines). Please read the short descriptions of the section headings below so that you know which category might be best suited for your contribution.
We hope to spark discussion and constructive debate on a variety of approaches to literacy work. Please feel free to record your comments or discussion points on our Literacy Innovations Summer 2002 Comments page. And then check back in a few days to see any responses. Thanks for helping make this a lively discussion area!
Copyright © 2006 Literacy Research Centers: National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) and International Literacy Institute (ILI),
at University of Pennsylvania/Graduate School of Education, LITERACY.org. All rights reserved. www.literacy.org
(Questions about this site? Please contact boyle@literacy.upenn.edu.)
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